CROSSGEN RESCHEDULES RAVEN HOUSE, MANCO REPLACED AS ARTIST

[MattBrady]

According to CrossGen, Raven House has been pulled from the schedule for June, and will now ship in August with a new artist attached. Raven House was to have been the next series in a line of diverse genres that also included the pirate series, El Cazador, the tongue-in-cheek spy thriller, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and the recently cancelled-before-launching American Power.

Announced at MegaCon, Newsarama previously spoke with writer Chuck Dixon about Raven House.

In a similar vein as Wuthering Heights and The Others just to name two, Raven House tells the story of a beautiful young woman summoned to a shadowy mansion to serve as a tutor for the owner’s son. Upon her arrival, she finds a village living in fear of her employer, Lord Dalamar, hallway after hallway of locked doors, and more secrets than she can shake a proper English stick at.

For Dixon, a move to the gothic horror of Raven House isn’t something as far afield as some may think. Yeah – everyone knew Dixon is a fan of pirates (hence El Cazador, and Westerns, but horror is a genre near and dear to the writer as well.

“I did quite a bit of horror stuff back in my early career,” Dixon told Newsarama. “Piles of EC-type horror stories for Eclipse's Tales of Terror. And I did an interesting horror graphic novel for Epic with Jorge Zaffino called Seven Block that will be reprinted by IDW in the near future.

“For me, Raven House goes back to those great period horror flicks made by Roger Corman in the '60s. The ones with Vincent Price that were shot in shadowy seaside mansions where everyone was in on the Big Secret except for the female lead. Creepy stuff that I ate up at Saturday matinees.

“I've always wanted to tackle a gothic horror story. DC actually had some success in this genre in the early '70s. Alex Toth and Tony DeZuniga illustrated some terrific 64-page specials with titles like The Sinister House of Forbidden Love. I thought there'd be an audience for this kind of comic. I also resist typecasting and like to flex my muscles in different genres.”

Originally, Leonardo Manco was attached to the project as the artist, but has since departed the miniseries. According to CrossGen, current Kiss Kiss Bang Bang artist Mike Perkins will now be the artist for Raven House. Questions about the future of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, (which was conceived of by Perkins) about the future of that series to CrossGen by Newsarama went unanswered.

[Strike]

I'd like to read this.

Not that I will though. If this comic ever sees the light of day, I will be stunned.

[ParisCub]

Do you think they plan on using Perkins until his work visa runs out?

More seriously, I was looking forward to that series... I like Perkins, so I'll check it out when/if it's released.

I only hope it doesn't mean the end of Kiss Kiss, which is so good...

But then again, is Bedard still working for CrossGen?

[Frans Blix]

Geez, this is bad news in a roundabout way, regarding the unknown fate of KKBB.

Isn't Greg Land still looking for another CG book to do?

This is also the first I've heard that Raven House is a mini-series, though it's possible I didn't read previous stories closely enough.

[blankpoint]

Well.. Johnston said a few weeks ago that Manco would be the new ongoing artist of Hellblazer -- which I hope is not true, since I think Marcelo Frusin has done an amazing, character-defining job on the title. Frusin was recently signed to a 2-year exclusive at DC, but maybe they're shifting him into the DCU... it's no secret that DiDio wants to strengthen the the DCU at the expense of Vertigo and Wildstorm.

In any case, I doubt Crossgen will be around long enough to publish Raven House... maybe we'll get to see Chuck take back Detective or Nightwing in the near future. The new fellows on Detective and Gotham Knights are horrible, and I doubt that Winick's Batman run will be very interesting.

[Big Bag of Hate]

Originally posted by ParisCub
But then again, is Bedard still working for CrossGen?

Well, given that he's writing Exiles for Marvel, his exclusivity at least is over.

[Captain Jim]

NONE of the CrossGen staff is exclusive anymore.

[MicroZone]

Originally posted by blankpoint
it's no secret that DiDio wants to strengthen the the DCU at the expense of Vertigo and Wildstorm.

We need a tin hat "smiley" on this forum for posts like this.

[CylverSaber]

I love CrossGen's output. But I have to wonder how much longer they can survive with low sales, their few remaining titles constantly being delayed or cancelled, creators being shuffled around or departing for better deals, and their inability to pay debts. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

[Evil Pikachu]

Originally posted by blankpoint


In any case, I doubt Crossgen will be around long enough to publish Raven House... maybe we'll get to see Chuck take back Detective or Nightwing in the near future. The new fellows on Detective and Gotham Knights are horrible, and I doubt that Winick's Batman run will be very interesting.

I sincerely doubt Chuck has any type of future at DC after he made his right wing political views public with American Power. Remember, DC fired inker Mike Miller after he revealed on message boards that he was homophobic.

[Perfect Strangler]

Originally posted by blankpoint
Frusin was recently signed to a 2-year exclusive at DC, but maybe they're shifting him into the DCU... it's no secret that DiDio wants to strengthen the the DCU at the expense of Vertigo and Wildstorm.

Frusin is slated to do a Vertigo maxi-series with Azzarello:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/ne...em.cgi?id=3506
At the end of article Azzarello says "Marcelo Frusin and I are working on a new series together. It'll be a western. It'll be a long mini-series, like a maxi-series. It'll last for three or four years. I'm looking right now at about 48 issues."

And yes, Frusin is one of my favorite artists now, along with Dean Ormston and maybe Alex Maleev on a good day.

Originally posted by blankpoint
I doubt that Winick's Batman run will be very interesting.

Well, Winick wrote Josie Mac (10-part Detective Comics backup), one of the best mainstream comic I read in the last 2-3 years, if not THE best. Although it wasn't exactly Bat-comic, it's a familiar teritory, so I hope his Batman run will be equally good.

[AlexLothos]

Originally posted by Strike
I'd like to read this.

Not that I will though. If this comic ever sees the light of day, I will be stunned.

This is pretty much the post I was going to type. Good job!

[punkmonkey]

Originally posted by Evil Pikachu
I sincerely doubt Chuck has any type of future at DC after he made his right wing political views public with American Power. Remember, DC fired inker Mike Miller after he revealed on message boards that he was homophobic.

He didn't reveal he was homophobic. He made his disagreement with the homosexual lifestyle known. Big difference.

[BriGuy]

Originally posted by Evil Pikachu
I sincerely doubt Chuck has any type of future at DC after he made his right wing political views public with American Power. Remember, DC fired inker Mike Miller after he revealed on message boards that he was homophobic.

Well Chuck's DC title, Richard Dragon, is still a-go. So he has some type of future at DC.

[wishlish]

I guess Manco wanted to get paid or something.

This has been your obligatory CrossGen joke of the day.

[spyflip]

man Leonardo Manco would have been a killer artist for this series. Am not to sure of this new guy I don't see his style working to well in horror. Why Crossgen why, you held so much promises.

[G Dog]

I was actually considering picking this up. I like horror and love Manco's art. With Manco gone and Perkins on art, no thanks. I have nothing against Perkins, but Manco was a HUGE reason behind my interest.

I think I read somewhere that Manco is going to be the regular artist on Hellblazer, which is severely cool.

[G Dog]

Originally posted by blankpoint
Well.. Johnston said a few weeks ago that Manco would be the new ongoing artist of Hellblazer -- which I hope is not true, since I think Marcelo Frusin has done an amazing, character-defining job on the title. Frusin was recently signed to a 2-year exclusive at DC, but maybe they're shifting him into the DCU...

I think in an interview about his Superman book Brian Azzarello mentioned that he and Frusin are going to be doing a book together, for Vertigo, I think.

[Janin]

"recently cancelled-before-launching"

Okay ... I'm a big-time CG fan ... but that description is just frickin' hilarious!

On to the subject at hand, the loss of Manco on that series has dampened my interest quite a bit. I'll check it out, but I'm not so sure I'll be buying now.

And, they better not cancel KKBB ... one of the most interesting titles for a comic in long time!

[mrhelm]

Ugh... Perkins is so-so at best. Even if this series does come out, I'll probably be buying Hellblazer instead. It was Manco's art that would have made this series.

[EMeadow]

Originally posted by Evil Pikachu
I sincerely doubt Chuck has any type of future at DC after he made his right wing political views public with American Power. Remember, DC fired inker Mike Miller after he revealed on message boards that he was homophobic.

I don't recall Chuck saying much of anything bout his political views in any of the little promotion they did for the book. The problem was everyone blasted the cover, they had no idea what the inside of the book was about cause they never talked about that, and CG pulled the plug fast.

Wizard gave more info bout the book in their last issue telling exactly what it was about and that's what really got my interest.

I'm sure he's more then welcome at DC again. But right now he's not needed at the moment to go back on any of the Bat books (though I still need to see just where Willingham continues to go with the Robin arc) so he's fine with just Dragon.

But I also hope Perkins being on Raven House doesn't bode ill will for KKBB.

[Janin]

Originally posted by punkmonkey
He didn't reveal he was homophobic. He made his disagreement with the homosexual lifestyle known. Big difference.

I totally agree with you. Personally, I have no problem with homosexuality. Who you choose to have sex with is your choice alone.

However, I have a problem with silencing the opinions of others, even if it is one that is moronic in nature. Everybody has a right to their own opinions.

Political correctness has a bad habit of embracing censorship while hiding behind the liberal banner.

[thingone]

Originally posted by mrhelm
Ugh... Perkins is so-so at best. Even if this series does come out, I'll probably be buying Hellblazer instead. It was Manco's art that would have made this series.

I don't know. ... I'll have to throw my hat into the pro-Perkins camp. I enjoy the lively look of KKBB, he inked a bunch of Ruse, which was gorgeous, and his cover for El Cazador Blackjack Tom leads me to believe he can handle things in the horror genres. Even if I never saw any of the guy's work before, I wouldn't let the mere *idea* of of an artist's work on a book scare me away before I saw at least the first issue.

And regardless of the artist, the Raven House concept remains intriguing and appears to be like very little else out there today. I think many of us thirst for concepts that are afield from the norm, which is probably one of the main reasons El Cazador, for instance, has enjoyed whatever measure of success it has. I hope Dixon can pull it off.

[ParisCub]

Originally posted by Evil Pikachu
I sincerely doubt Chuck has any type of future at DC after he made his right wing political views public with American Power. Remember, DC fired inker Mike Miller after he revealed on message boards that he was homophobic.

Isn't Chuck Dixon starting the Richard Dragon series for DC?

[manou]

Originally posted by wishlish
I guess Manco wanted to get paid or something.

This has been your obligatory CrossGen joke of the day.