While Rich Johnston's new rumour/gossip column for CBR isn't due to start until Monday, we thought we'd give you a little taste of the kind of thing he has in store for us all. Remember, the following is rumour and gossip intended to entertain, but there might just be something in it. The traffic light tells you how confident it is that the story is true. CROSSGEN SIGNS "RED STAR," STARTS TWO NEW IMPRINTS?

[Green Light]

Word reaches me that the publisher-that-could, CrossGen are to start two new imprints.

The first, I'm told, is called CGE, standing for Cross Gen Entertainment. This will consist of a mixture of licensed projects and existing creator-owned properties. A source tells me that when CrossGen were pitching comic properties to studios to turn into films, some now in development, they found they were getting pitches back from the studios, to develop films into comics.

But the first high-profile CGE project is not a film-based comic - not yet anyway. It's the Soviet sci-fi blockbuster "The Red Star," by the creative team known as Team Red Star, Christian Gossett, Brad Kayl and Snakebite. Previously published through Image, this project stood out on publication as a result of its computer generated colouring and effects, to the envy of the industry. Team Red Star left Image recently in a blaze of glory announcing they were going to publish themselves, as Archangel Studios. Well, scratch that. And indeed, this is just the first - I understand that CrossGen intend to hoover up a number of prominent creator-owned indie titles in this manner.

The second imprint, I hear, is called Code Six. One internet search later, I discover that this is the Florida Law Enforcement code for escaped prisoners. Ha ha, very amusing guys. Code Six will offer a creator-participant deal for creative teams. Which usually means that the publisher, in this case CrossGen, will take a majority stake in each title, but give creators co-ownership and a combination of page rates and back end payments. This kind of deal is usually made sweeter by making available the licensing and merchandising opportunities that might normally not be available to a creator-owned deal.

For more on these imprints - and the impact they will give CrossGen on the marketplace, make sure you start reading Lying In The Gutters, every Monday from Comic Book Resources.

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