CrossGen titles are something that I have been covering a great deal of late, and with each title I cover, I realize more and more that they indeed are putting out some quality work. Unfortunately, their sales numbers are not reflecting that.

I recently had a conversation with my local comic shop owner about CrossGen, and what he had to say surprised me. It is often difficult for me to find back-issues of CrossGen titles, and in his case, the problem there is that he only orders enough to sell out. Aside from a personal annoyance at the discrepancy between the return policies CrossGen maintains for comic shops and bookstores, simple demand has reduced his need for extra CrossGen issues. While this shop in particular once boasted several subscribers who bought every title CrossGen released monthly, he is now down to just one regular with that order. If this trend is holds true at other stores, these two issues could well be the cause behind CrossGen’s stagnant sales.

But why? Vocal comic fans generally either love CrossGen, or are totally unfamiliar with their titles. While a retailer’s reluctance to purchase extra issues may make it difficult for a new reader to check out a new title by CrossGen, it certainly would not affect regular subscribers, who have been buying these titles since day one. Every title I have covered for CrossGen I loved. The only possible exception to this is Meridian, a title I covered several months ago. I did not enjoy Meridian as much as other books from CrossGen that I had covered, but at the time, I attributed that to the simple fact that I did not fall in the obvious target audience for that title.

It occurred to me while reading Sojourn that the issue at hand may be the longevity of CrossGen books. I enjoyed Sojourn, and it is a title that I would recommend to all of you. While it is not one of CrossGen’s debut titles; its very premise seems to lend itself better to a sort of “maxi-series,” rather than an ongoing.

Sojourn features a Sigil-bearer by the name of Mordath. Centuries ago he lead a troll army to conquer all of the Five Lands. At the moment of his triumph, an allied army of the Five Lands lead by an enigmatic figure by the name of Ayden captured Mordath’s stronghold and killed him. Ayden refused to become sovereign over the Five Lands, instead, he took the arrow that killed Mordath, broke it into five pieces, and scattered them across the Five Lands. He vowed that if ever those pieces were re-united, he would return to the aid of the Five Lands against whatever threat was severe enough to unite them.

Three hundred years later, Mordath was granted a sigil, and was resurrected. However, his evil nature corrupted the power-mark, perverting its power to a true force of destruction. He rallied the troll armies to his banner, and quickly reclaimed the whole of the Five Lands.

Cast of Characters

Arwyn- Her husband and child were killed during the troll invasion of her city of Gerrindor. Hot headed and full of rage, she attempted to storm Mordath’s stronghold to avenge her family’s murder alone. As would be expected, she failed miserably.

A mysterious, but powerful woman aided her, her dog Kreeg, and a man named Gareth in their eventual escape who went by the name of Neven. She was one of the two enigmatic figures that granted the Sigil to Mordath, and resurrected him, but she expressed misgivings about granting it to such an evil man from the start. She gave Ayden’s bow to Arwyn, and told her that if she did indeed want to see the end of Mordath, she would have to find and re-unite the five arrow pieces. She accepted that quest, reluctantly at first, and set out to locate the pieces and avenge her family.

Gareth is something of a notorious figure on the world of Quin (the world of Sojourn). He is something of a typical anti-hero, a renowned master archer and general scoundrel. He fell in with Arwyn at the very beginning, and has followed her ever since. Why such a typically self-serving man has given himself to such a noble quest is unclear, but it may have something to do with the fact that he is quite obviously in love with Arwyn.

Cassidy- Arwyn and Gareth met up with Gareth’s old flame Cassidy while searching for the third arrow fragment. She led them into Oudubai, where the third fragment was rumored to be. She betrayed the pair to Bohr and his trolls, but later returned to rescue Gareth, who in turn recovered the three arrow fragments.

Bohr- The troll commander who Mordath has trusted to capture Arwyn has been built as something of an honorable villain. He follows Mordath without question, as he sees Mordath as the one who finally made the world respect the troll people. In contrast to his loyalty to an obviously evil man, he is portrayed as a loyal family man, willing to risk his career and even his life to serve his family contrary to his master’s orders. He recently displayed this honor once again when his party, with Arwyn prisoner, was attacked by a swarm of Razormouths which killed everyone but Arwyn and Bohr. As she saved his life, he allowed her to go free, after which he returned to his master and reported her as likely dead.

Thoughts

This title is a great fantasy, without a doubt. In fact, the only thing I really did not like about this book was Gareth. He provided most of the narration throughout the first several issues. That, and even his dialogue beyond that, seemed to be nothing but endless pining over Arwyn. Though they have come close, I can think of few things that would hurt this title, and Arwyn’s character, than sticking her in a relationship with Gareth.

Though Ron Martz penned the title from the beginning and did a tremendous job, Ian Edginton took over Sojourn at issue #25, and in my opinion, elevated the quality of this book a great deal (not to mention the fact that Gareth has been a virtual non-factor to this point). The art has lived up to CrossGen’s reputation of quality detailed art that fits the story perfectly. The heroes are bright and stunning, while the villains are dark and menacing, just as they should be in a fantasy of this sort.

I mentioned longevity before, and I would hate to admit it, but I fear this may be an issue for this book sometime in the next couple of years. Arcs up to this point have dealt with the stages of Arwyn’s quest to recover the arrow fragments, but at some point, this has to reach a climax. Eventually Arwyn has to recover the fragments (two to go), and then the final confrontation with Mordath will take place. Win or lose, in order for Sojourn to survive past that point, there will have to be a major refocusing of this book, else it is certain to drift into mediocrity. . Edginton or future writers may chose to delay the acquisition of the arrow fragments, but unless the story is amazing, that could also be disastrous for the title. This is not something we need to worry about now, however, since there is, at this point, plenty of steam left in Sojourn.

Bottom Line

Sojourn is a breathtaking fantasy that I recommend to you all. Even if back issues are hard to come-by in your local store, as always, CrossGen’s Comics on the Web is an excellent, and cheap way to get caught up on back issues. At this point, there are four trade paperbacks for this title collecting the preview through issue #24 (volume 4 is due out next month), and two travellers available. Issue #25, Ian Edginton’s debut issue, should be readily available at a cover price of $1.00. Issue #27 is due out in stores on September 17th. Issue #25 is not really a stand-alone issue, but it is independently coherent enough for anyone unfamiliar with the title to sample, especially at that discounted price.

In a few weeks, in an effort to see just how some of CrossGen’s debut titles have weathered over the years, I will be taking a look at Mystic. Be sure to look for that, and as always, thanks for reading!

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