Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: crossed, Operation Raise The Colours

Avatar Press' New Promotion For Crossed Is Really Getting Out Of Hand

Avatar Press' new promotion for their Crossed comic books and movie, Operation Raise The Colours, has gotten a bit out of hand

Avatar Press, publishers of Bleeding Cool, are also the publishers of the Crossed series of comic books, created by Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows, and now heading for a movie from Six Studios with a screenplay written by Ennis, to be directed by Rob Jabbaz, and starring Devin Druid, Ash Santos, Chido Nwokocha, Bob Morley, Ana Mulvoy-Ten and more. A new take on the zombie mythos, owing more to the amoral sadism of George Romero's Crazies and Joss Whedon's Reavers, it famously includes some of the cruellest forms of sadistic torture in comic books enacted by these infected Crossed, but every act of cruelty is taken from actual acts recorded by Amnesty International, with no infection needed.

It also marks the infected with a scarring, a scabbing, a red cross over the front of their face, intentionally reminiscent of the Union Flag symbol, a red cross on white, that is England's flag of St George, and often painted on by England fans during football, cricket and rugby matches, as well as the skirmishes that would often occur afterwards.

Well, in recent weeks, there has been a movement in Britain dubbed Operation Raise The Colours. Its stated aim is to promote patriotism by flying the Union Flag, painting it onto street furniture, tying flags to lampposts, and painting St. George's cross onto mini-roundabouts. There have been accusations that the campaign has been organised by far-right movements in opposition to immigration, though there has been an attempt to reclaim that by other groups, and some see it as a backlash to other activist groups and government bodies flying Palestinian flags in solidarity.

Local groups have seen the Weoley Warriors claim responsibility for raising flags in Weoley Castle, Northfield, Bartley Green and other areas. Flag Force UK has done similar in York and the Wythall Flaggers are doing the same in Worcestershire. Lewis Nielsen of the research group Hope Not Hate, has said the operation "was never about flags, it's about giving confidence to racists and fascists to target refugees and migrants".

Some local councils have taken down the flags, citing safety concerns and a lack of permission to fly these on council property. Others have chosen to support the flags and ordered staff not to take them down.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer's press representative said that Starmer was a "patriot" who believed people should "absolutely" fly flags. Kemi Badenoch's Conservative Party and Nigel Farage's Reform UK have also expressed support.

One bright spark discovered that such red crosses, when drawn onto white roundabout street signs, can be easily amended to resemble the logo for Extinction Rebellion, a group rather opposed to far-right thinking.

And it is into this fevered war of spray cans, that we are getting a Crossed movie. They couldn't have planned it better. So maybe that's exactly what they did.

Crossed was an extreme horror comic book published by Avatar that saw the original ten-issue comic book series spin-off into several series, webcomics, and graphic novels after its initial publication in 2008, with hundreds of Crossed stories published over the next ten years. Other comics creators who worked on the franchise included Alan Moore, Jamie Delao, Si Spurrier, David Lapham, Kieron Gillen, Mike Wolfer, Max Bemis, Fernando Melek, German Erramouspe, Gabriel Andrade, Emiliano Urdinola, Fernando Heinz, Fernando Melek, Javier Barreno, Leandro Rizzo, David Hine, Raulo Caceres, Miguel Garrido, Christos Gage, Miguel Ruiz, Francisco Manna, Rafael Ortiz, Daniel Way, Emiliano Urdinola, Christian Zanier, Justin Jordan and Georges Duarte.

Ennis once said about the genesis of his now-infamous original Crossed series, "I had a dream that I thought was going to be about zombies attacking a house full of victims, but it turned out they weren't zombies at all. They were simply people, grinning with psychotic glee at the thought of what they were going to do to the occupants of the house — which wasn't going to be anything nice. Then I woke up."  The infected Crossed retain their intellect and personality but are driven to carry out the very worst human actions imaginable. With Ennis seeking inspiration from Amnesty International reports over just what acts humans can enact on one another, even when not infected with some amoral impulses. Those infected see a red vertical cross break out across their face, reminiscent of the St George's flag painted on football hooligans' faces, as well as representing the Crusades, adding a satirical level. Since its publication, its nature has been repeatedly criticised and has been repeatedly restricted.

In 2010, Crossed was initially optioned for an independently funded film, reportedly to be financed by Trigger Street Productions and produced by Michael De Luca, Jason Netter, and Kevin Spacey. In 2012, Ennis announced that he and Avatar Press had recovered the rights to launch a series of webisodes in an attempt to generate interest for a feature film.

Between then and now, however, Garth Ennis has seen two successful TV shows spin out from his comics work, Preacher and The Boys, which now have their own spin-offs. And Garth Ennis' name likely has a greater cache now than it did then. That said, in addition to TV series based on those two titles, comics written by Ennis have helped inspire the 2005 film Constantine (Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits), 2008's Punisher: War Zone (Punisher MAX), and Netflix's Daredevil Season 2 (Punisher MAX #7-12).

In August last year, it was announced that Six Studios was making the movie based on the original Crossed series by Ennis and Burrows, with Ennis' screenplay. "It has been a real delight working with Garth Ennis and Six Studios developing Crossed for the big screen," said Jabbaz in an arranged news release with The Hollywood Reporter. "From day one, our primary goal has been to deliver a faithful adaptation of the original series, along with a few new surprises. I certainly hope audiences are ready for this." While Garth Ennis wished everyone a "Happy New Year. It's 2025, and the world is catching up with the world of Crossed in all the wrong ways. So what better time to bring out the movie you've all been waiting for?"

Well, it looks like the world is still catching up!

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