Mark - [CrossGen] waited three years [to bring you this information today] . While we were publishing comics we were building other things in the background.
Who am I? I'm the fan boy who started his own comic book company. Why? First thing - an exercise in fun for myself. [I needed something to do] in retirement. It turned into 70-hour weeks in an industry that does not understand itself very well.
Every single year since 1996 there are fewer people buying comics and fewer outlets. [There is a] smaller audience and increasing expenses. [It has been said that] there are two remaining [uniquely] American art forms. Jazz and comics.
[To reverse the trend three things have to happen.]
1) There must be many outlets for comics, not a few.
2) There must be many different kinds of choices
3) We have to change the paradigm from a few people paying a lot for comics to a lot of people paying a little.
[First for comic book outlets] CrossGen started the CrossGen Premier Retailer program. The names of the Comic Book retailers are printed in the back of each book [and are on the web with a link to a map and driving directions to the store.]
Part two is the Compendium. [It will carry ten comics initially] for $9.95 for 224 pages [in a softbound book available at Borders, Book-a-Million, and other large book dealers. It will go up to] 274 pages for $12.95 [Also] every six issues of every book will come out as a trade for $15.95.
[Part of the third solution is Comics on the web. I am not at liberty to say which web portal the comics will appear on, but we should have this worked out within a week.]
Editor's Note - At this point in the discussion Mark started taking questions from the audience.
Audience question about movies based on CrossGen comics.
Mark - [We are not overly interested in doing movies based n the characters right now. When the deal is completed] the studio does not pay you very much [compared to how much they make.]
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