After building a multimillion-dollar tech company, Mark Alessi decided to build an entire universe, one that includes noble heroes and dastardly villains. His hope is that his company, CrossGen Comics, will make kids love reading again.
Alessi read his first book, a Hardy Boys mystery, at the age of 3 and discovered comic books in his early teens. "For a lot of kids in the '60s and '70s," Alessi says, "values, right and wrong, came out of comic-book heroes."
After attending the University of Connecticut, where he majored in Elizabethan English and ancient history, Alessi took a job as a salesman for IBM in 1976. He spent the next 30 years in the tech industry.
"I ended up running technology consulting firms, eventually my own," Alessi says. He started Technical Resource Connection (TRC) in 1990, and six years later it was ranked No. 36 on the Inc. 500, a listing based on the net sales growth of private companies.
Although Alessi was happy with the lucrative technology industry, he also found himself exhausted, and wanted to do something more meaningful with his life.
"One of the things I really wanted to do was to get kids to read," he explains. In 1996, Alessi sold TRC to Ross Perot, and then retired to renovate a home and rebuild his comic-book collection. "What I learned (during this time) was that comic books were no longer positive vehicles for communicating to younger kids."
Alessi was disturbed by the overt sexuality and violence in modern comics.
"It was no longer about might for right, it was no longer about justice. It was about doing whatever you can to sell a comic book, and it wasn't reaching kids." Alessi discussed his concerns with friends. "They said, 'OK, big mouth. If you don't like it, change it,' " he remembers.
Alessi, now 50, launched the CrossGen publishing company in his hometown of Tampa, Fla., in 1998. From the beginning, CrossGen did things differently.
Alessi decided to steer his company away from costumed superheroes. He felt they had ceased to be champions of law and order and turned into brooding, cynical anti-heroes.
Additional Information
Follow Your Dream
How to take a Radical Sabbatical
Personal Coach
The CrossGen universe features about a dozen comic titles that appeal to kids sans sex and violence. "Meridian," for example follows the adventures of Sephie, a young woman growing up in a fairytale world where wooden ships fly through the air. In "Ruse," cerebral detective Simon Archard solves crimes in a world reminiscent of Victorian London.
CrossGen's corporate structure also differs from other comic companies. Rather than deal with a staff spread out across the country, Alessi gathered everyone together under one roof in Tampa, where artists, writers and marketing people can share ideas. Instead of hiring freelance writers and artists, as is the industry standard, Alessi offers full-time staff jobs complete with benefit packages and profit-sharing programs. Many of the industry's most talented creators have been lured to Tampa, where, according to Alessi, they're doing their best work. "Everyone who comes here," he claims, "has gotten much better."
To reach a younger audience, CrossGen looked beyond specialty-market comic shops. To lure tech-savvy kids, Alessi created a cutting-edge Web site offering digital comics, and will soon be offering comics on DVD. CrossGen titles, in the form of graphic novel anthologies, are also sold in major bookstores. "If you want to bring the next generation in, you have to go to where they are," Alessi explains.
To promote CrossGen characters and accomplish his goal of helping kids learn to read, Alessi worked with five experienced schoolteachers to create the Bridges Program, a low-cost middle- and high-school reading comprehension package incorporating CDs, graphic novels and Web sites.
CrossGen characters will also soon make the leap to the silver screen. First up will be an adaptation of the martial-arts title, "Way of the Rat," likely to be in production at DreamWorks by the end of 2003. "We probably have 10 other Hollywood deals in progress," says Alessi.
Alessi is pleased with his accomplishments at CrossGen. "We've gone from 1.4 percent of the market in 2002 to over 5 percent in 2003, and we're growing rapidly."
"I think we're on the cutting edge of delivering a new generation of (comic-book) readers," he adds. "I hope to grow this enthusiasm into the 21st century."
To visit the CrossGen universe, go to www.crossgen.com.
)
