TAMPA, FL., June 4, 2001 - CrossGen Comics has formalized its publishing schedule for the remainder of 2001 and first quarter 2002. As it stands, CrossGen will release Ruse #1 in October, followed by Negation #1 in November, and The Path #1 in February 2002.

Ruse is CrossGen’s first foray into another time-tested but comics-absent genre of fiction: the detective story. It is written by Mark Waid, penciled by Jackson “Butch” Guice, inked by Mike Perkins, and colored by Laura DePuy.

“Ruse, set on a world reminiscent of -- but subtly different from -- Victorian England, chronicles the adventures of the era’s greatest and most brilliant criminal analyst (a man with the mind of a genius and the emotion of a coffee table) and his fiery aide-de-camp (whose job it is never to let her boss lose sight of the human element when it comes to the art of investigation),” explained Waid. “Over the years, our detective has found true and worthy challenges harder and harder to come by…until a new criminal mastermind arises from parts unknown, spreading tendrils of darkness and chaos. His victims are the innocents of this world. His target is the detective. And his birthplace...is Negation space. Why is a Negation agent after the detective? What possible threat could a single mortal man pose to an entire dimension of alien warmongers? If the detective -- and his worldwide network of operatives -- don’t find out soon, the balance of the entire CrossGen Universe will be forever altered.”

Initially to be written by Mark Waid before being turned over to a new writer that will be announced shortly, Negation will be penciled by Paul Pelletier.

“For months, the Negation aliens have secretly been collecting a sampling of humans, Sigil-Bearers, Atlanteans, and First, imprisoning them on a harsh world deep inside Negation Space,” said Waid. “By now, the Negation leaders believe they have a fair assessment of their capabilities and their limits…but they have underestimated their courage. At a cost almost too horrible to contemplate, a small band of captives has escaped this hellish prison -- only to find itself still trapped within Negation Space itself. Now these former “prisoners of war” roam from world to world inside this mad dimension, slowly carving themselves into a band of freedom fighters against the Negation Empire as they search long and hard for the only thing that truly matters to them: a way back home.”

The Path will be written by Ron Marz and drawn by a creative team that is in place but will not be announced at this time. As was the original plan, The Path will be simultaneously released in Japan and the United States. The world on which The Path is set has already been previewed in The First #1 and #2.

“At face value it’s a samurai epic with a setting very much like medieval Japan,” said Marz. “But underneath that it will get at the heart of some questions that are very integral to what’s going on in Japanese society right now, and to some extent, even in American society. The underlying conflict in The Path will be that of tradition vs. individualism, but at the same time it will be an action-oriented epic, and the first American comic that’s dealt with this milieu in any sort of long-term fashion.”

“We are starting to hit on all cylinders now,” said Mark Alessi, CrossGen CEO. “These three titles each play a significant role in the overlying back-story of the CrossGen Universe. As much as we thought we could wait to release these titles, the available talent and the want to establish our base framework made releasing these now a necessity.”