CINESCAPE, CrossGen in distro deal

By: Mike Whybark
Date: Thursday, January 30, 2003
Source: CrossGen press release

CrossGen just announced the start of an innovative distribution deal with, um, us! CINESCAPE will carry a CrossGen title bound into every issue beginning with the May 2003 issue. The title first featured will be a special edition WAY OF THE RAT #1.

Here's the official press release:

Tampa, FL, January 30, 2003 - CrossGen Entertainment announced today that it has signed a content deal with CINESCAPE MAGAZINE, a leading genre entertainment magazine published by Mania Entertainment, that will supply Mania with a CrossGen comic to be stitched into the center of each issue of CINESCAPE MAGAZINE, beginning with the May 2003 cover date issue, which will feature a special edition of CrossGen's hit title WAY OF THE RAT #1.

In addition to CrossGen's comics, the deal will also create opportunities for Mania to co-create with CrossGen original comics for CINESCAPE's exclusive use in its pages, and a partnership to deliver those original comics to the marketplace as graphic novels.

"We introduced our comics coverage to CINESCAPE MAGAZINE a little over a year ago and over the past year it has proven to be one of our most popular sections, both in print and online at www.cinescape.com," said Chip Meyers, CEO of Mania Entertainment. "Comics are having a rebirth with the mainstream public and we wanted to show our support of this rebirth by being the first magazine to include an actual comic book in each of its issues.


"The genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror in film have drawn much inspiration from the medium of comics over the years, and in trying to bring the audiences which enjoy both the mediums of comics and films together, we could not think of any place in comics that does this better than CrossGen," he continues. "In addition to CrossGen's many comics that are currently in active development for films, we intend to introduce through the CINESCAPE MAGAZINE pages the next franchisable original comics from up and coming artists, as well as stories from legendary genre creators, of whom some are already part of Mania's advisory board. We look forward to offering our readers these already established exceptional stories from CrossGen, and original and fresh stories through Mania's internal development, which will hopefully spawn a new generation of comic book fans in both print and at the movies."

"As CrossGen moves into other mediums and explores the world of licensing and media deals, one element will always be at the center of what CrossGen is about -- the comics," said Tony Panaccio, Vice President of Product Development for CrossGen Entertainment. "We will always be about the comics, and that's what this deal crystallizes. We will endeavor to make good movies and television shows from our intellectual properties, but the highest value that these projects have for us is to bring people into the comics that spawned those projects. CINESCAPE recognizes that comics, like films, are simply another medium for the presentation of genre-based stories, and that concept is at the fulcrum of this arrangement. At the end of the day, this is a win-win for Mania, for CrossGen and for comics in general."

The comics that appear will be stitched into the center of each monthly edition of CINESCAPE starting with the May 2003 edition, and they will appear in the Traveler trim size, and not in the traditional larger comic format. They will be printed in a 32-page signature, with at least 22 page stories. The first CrossGen comic to be featured, WAY OF THE RAT #1, will include never before seen artwork and some film development sketches commissioned for the movie by WAY OF THE RAT film director Chuck Russell (THE MASK, ERASER, THE SCORPION KING). The film version of WAY OF THE RAT is being produced by Frank Darabont (THE GREEN MILE, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION), Castle Rock Entertainment and DreamWorks Pictures.

"We know that more of CINESCAPE's readers are [more] familiar with Anime and Manga than they are traditional comics, so we felt that introducing them to our comics in a format that is much closer to the Manga trim size would be a common frame of reference for readers who may not have read a Western comic book in recent years," Panaccio said. "This format also helps the comic stand out from the rest of the magazine, and hopefully encourage people to open it up and give it a gander."

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