by Matt Brady

Looking to expand its success in comic books to its native country, Disney today confirmed its purchase of the assets of CrossGen Comics as well as expanded on its most immediate plans for those properties, Abadazad by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Ploog.

“Disney, worldwide, accounts for 50% of all comics published, which is an enormous number, but our presence in the US isn’t as visible, mostly because our comic books go through other distributors,” Brenda Bowen, VP and Editor in Chief of Hyperion Books for Children told Newsarama. We’ve been starting to think that since we’re the biggest comic book company in the world, maybe we should be looking at more domestic comics, and see what we can get from them, and see how we can use them in our different formats here.”

The hunt, which led to the acquisition of the CrossGen properties at the end of October, began after Comic Con International: San Diego this July, where Disney Publishing appeared with a substantial presence. Disney spotters had seen not only Abadazad, but other CrossGen titles, including the Victorian-era detective story, Ruse and Meridian, which skews toward teen girls.

“We thought it might be a good thing to go after CrossGen for content – from books to movies,” Bowen said. “When we started to call CrossGen to make inquiries, we found that they were bankrupt. That got us looking at acquiring all the assets of this company, as they were going into Chapter 11 – it would get them out of bankruptcy, and allow us to have some intellectual property that we would otherwise never have.”

The number of parties bidding for the properties was limited, and, as Newsarama reported in October, Disney (acting through its subsidiary Cal Publishing Inc.) won the auction for the properties, paying $1 million for all of CrossGen’s assets.

“CrossGen’s titles are a little less dark than some of the other titles available from other publishers – Abadazad especially is very friendly for kids from 8-13, and we thought that was a great mix with what we’re doing – we own the children’s market, but we would like to see what we can do with tweens and teens and just keep expanding from there.”

Historically speaking, the deal with the CrossGen properties is fundamentally different from Disney’s most recent foray into expanding its stateside comic book presence outside of its traditional characters, Touchmark, of the early ‘90s. Under Touchmark, former DC editor Art Young was tasked with finding creators and concepts for a proposed adult, or at least older teen line of comics. The line never happened, and several of the Touchmark properties (as well as Young himself) resurfaced at DC’s Vertigo imprint, including Sebastian O (by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell), Enigma (by Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo), The Extremist (by Peter Milligan and Ted McKeever), and, ironically enough, Mercy by DeMatteis and Paul Johnson.

With the CrossGen acquisition, Disney has purchased full developed properties which it intends to adapt to a variety of media, with publishing leading the way – more specifically, with Abadazad leading the way.

For creator DeMatteis, the deal with Disney came literally out of the blue, as he had begun taking legal steps to recover the rights to Abadazad from CrossGen in September fighting to keep it from legal limbo, or worse, from becoming the property of a new owner who would put new creators on it, or just let it sit in limbo for years. “We were ready and willing to continue with our legal action; but Disney, we learned, was very eager to get involved with us,” DeMatteis told Newsarama. “Abadazad was, in fact, the engine that drove the entire CrossGen deal.  Once Disney won the bidding...and we understood just how passionate they were about acquiring Abadazad...we had to take their presence very seriously.”

The story of Abadazad, as DeMatteis explained to Newsarama in an interview in September of 2003, has a couple of familiar threads in its weave – a hidden kingdom, a missing loved one, and of course, a plan of action that involves a rescue. It all revolves around Kate and her brother, Matt. “Kate's brother simply vanished one day at a street fair-but she believes that Matt is dead,” DeMatteis said. “When she finally discovers that he's alive, that he is, in actuality, a prisoner in Abadazad, a place she's always assumed was purely fictional, it's a complete shock to her. It would be like finding out that someone you love and thought was dead is in Oz, a prisoner of the Wicked Witch of the West.”

Taking Disney seriously was relatively easy for DeMatteis and Ploog, as Bowen contacted the creators before the bidding had begun. “Her understanding of, and enthusiasm for, Abadazad - along with the opportunities that publishing through Hyperion Books for Children presented, intrigued me immediately.  Once Cal Publishing won the bidding and their offer became a reality, Mike and I had to decide if we would be best served continuing with the lawsuit or signing on with Disney.  It took some time, some soul-searching and some serious negotiating - my manager, Kevin Cleary of Content House, and our lawyer, Mike Brundage, did us proud, but we're confident that we made the right decision:  We're delighted...delighted may actually be too small a word!...to be working with Brenda and everyone at Hyperion/Disney.”

In Bowen’s eyes Abadazad fit both with Disney’s recent comic book properties and with her own goals at Hyperion Books for Children, in that it was a story that could move between media with relative ease – specifically, in books, movies, and consumer products. “Abadazad’s not the only thing though – there’re other properties as well,” Bowen added. “Again, Ruse was very attractive to us, and other parts of the company are interested in Meridian and The Way of the Rat. Honestly, we don’t even have all the issues of all the comics that CrossGen published, so we’re trying to catch up and go through everything to see what treasures lay in store for us.”

While the idea of Disney movies based on CrossGen properties may thrill, many, if not all of CrossGen’s properties have been optioned to developers and producers, and, despite the bankruptcy, the bulk of those deals still stand. 

That said, Bowen does have immediate plans for Abadazad – four prose books based on the property, written by DeMatteis, with art by Ploog. As DeMatteis mentioned, the book deal was offered concurrently with the bid for CrossGen’s assets.

“Because I’m a book person and not a comic book person, I looked at Abadazad and thought I would love to publish those in book form – not just graphic novel bind-ups, but do something different as a hybrid, as the comics themselves are somewhat hybrid – they have straight text mixed with single images and sequential storytelling,” Bowen said. “I wanted to blend what Marc and Mike had already done, as well as take it into a different market and different literary genre.

“I met with Marc a couple of days ago, and he’s off and running, putting a manuscript together, and Mike is ready as soon as we need him for producing some more art for these specific books. We’re hoping to publish in spring of ’06.”

“I'd call it a happy ending...but, really, it's a happy beginning,” DeMatteis said. “We're developing a format that will combine prose, illustration and sequential art.  Something that will bring together the best of all worlds...and create a book series that will be, we think, utterly unique in its approach to storytelling. The plan is to start Abadazad over at the very beginning...expanding and developing the story as we go.  There's a good chance the first book will cover material from the first two issues of the comic book...but it will be in a wholly new way.  That said, this is all just starting—we're a work-in-progress—so I fully expect things to change, and probably change dramatically, as we move forward.” 

And as for what Ploog will be doing? “What he's always done,” DeMatteis continued. “Designing astounding characters, drawing extraordinary pictures.  Some of that work will be full color plates, some will be black and white line art, and some will be sequential art.  Some will be like nothing he's ever done before.  All of it will be pure Ploog.”

In terms of format, Bowen said that Abadazad wouldn’t be like the company’s W.I.T.C.H. young adult novels (mixing prose with a comic inset), but would be more in line with The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony Diterlizzi. “I see them as a small package – a $9.99 hardcover – a jewel-like little book.”

As for the amount of the total Abadazad story that the four books in the original deal represent, said DeMatteis: “The comic book just scratched the surface of a very big story.  In fact, every time I sat down to write I'd find myself lagging way behind my outline:  There was just so much to say, so much to explore; so many new characters and incidents and ideas popping up.  Our original plan to do thirteen issues quickly became twenty-four.  Now that we've got the potential for an ongoing book series, I don't want to limit my imagination or the scope of the story.  Our hope is that the first four books will be successful and the Abadazad series will continue from there.”

Bowen classified the deal as a ‘let’s see how this goes,’ rather than giving the creators four books to tell their whole story for a reason – in the EIC’s eyes, Abadazad is her chance to give Hyperion another successful young readers series. “I would like Abadazad to be the next Lemony Snicket,” Bowen said. “It’s a different tone, it’s a different story, but in terms of success, that’s where my eyes are.”

DeMatteis, upon hearing Bowen’s plans for the series, admitted that, while flattered, it didn’t add that much pressure. “The only pressure I feel is the pressure to tell the best tale I possibly can,” the creator said. “To stay true to the characters and their world.  Abadazad is a story that has grown and grown with a life of its own. It often feels as if I'm not writing it but channeling it.  Like the people of Abadazad are sending me messages across the ether...and it's my job to transcribe those messages as accurately as possible. Here's hoping that—with a little help from Brenda, Disney and the Floating Warlock—we can continue transcribing those messages in book form - and other media as well - for a very long time.

“But, really, we don't want to be the next Lemony Snicket or the next Harry Potter or the next anybody.  We want to be the first Abadazad!”

Touching on the remaining CrossGen properties, Bowen said that, at this point, nothing is being ruled out in regards to re-presentations, continuing ongoing series, or restarting existing properties.

“Right now, as I mentioned, we’re getting a hold of what we have as inventory to see what we can do with it - we could collect fives issues of the titles and issue them as graphic novels. We could keep going with the comic book publishing – we have an enormous and very successful comic book company run out of our office in Milan, Italy, and our senior vice president of comic publishing, Alessandro Belloni – he and his staff was actively involved in this acquisition. He’s looking at the titles and making plans for what he can do with them – either on a monthly basis, bind-ups, limited editions, or what ever works. We’re really still just getting our hands around it right now, but everyone’s involved, from publishing to Buena Vista Games and the Studio, and consumer products in general. We’re trying to approach this as a company-wide acquisition, but it’s really being driven out of the publishing division.”

In regards to the comic book market, Disney's plans to slowly but surely utilize the library of properties it acquired from CrossGen's bankruptcy is one that bears watching. As Bowen said, Disney's comic book strength lies mostly outside the US, and while the former CrossGen properties already have an overseas audience built in, due to the former publisher's overseas publishing and marketing, a Disney push into the American comic market would be notable, in that Disney is not a company known for doing things in a small way. That is, the American comics market's "big two," Marvel and DC, may soon find that the "big two" has turned into the "big three," with Disney aimed squarely at (with all due marketing muscle applied as well) the tween and young teen market, demographics inn which both Marvel and DC have tried to gain market share, but have found only limited success. As any visitor to the Disney Comics booth at this year's Comic Con International could tell you, making inroads into the American comic book market is a move Disney appears hungry for. Arguably, if Disney does look to enter the US comics market and go after the young teen demographic, its only real competiion will be manga publishers such as Tokyopop and Viz.

As with W.I.T.C.H., Kylion, and other comic book properties coming from Disney, Bowen confirmed that CrossGen properties that undergo development at Disney will be on the ‘multiple-parallel’ development track, that is, as a property is developed as a comic, model sheets, character bibles, and vast amounts of materials are developed for use by any division of the company, from games to film to series animation. It’s a method of operation that continues to represent a fundamental change in how Disney approaches comic books.

“Traditionally, we had only used Disney characters in our comics, but now we’ve been given full reign to develop our own characters, which is how Alessandro’s group developed the W.I.T.C.H. characters, which is now the #1 selling magazine in Europe – it’s above Cosmo,” Bowen said. “So, the European audience has really clicked with what we’re doing with the new properties we’ve created.

“In terms of the other properties in the CrossGen library, we haven’t been in touch with the writers or illustrators of those stories yet, but as we go forward, we’ll see whether or not we’d like to re-engage the creators or do something else with the properties, but we need to get a hold of what it is what we have here, and how each of the different divisions might go forward with any given property,” Bowen continued. “The idea in purchasing the assets of CrossGen was not to buy the stuff to get it off the market and out of the hands of anyone else. The idea was to buy these wonderful intellectual properties and take them into the Walt Disney Company, which isn’t your mother’s Walt Disney Company – it’s a much more diverse place than it used to be – and see what we can do with them. We want to bring them in, and let them keep their own identities as properties – if they’re older level than traditional Disney properties that’s great - we want to expand our reach, and we see these as a key to doing just that.”