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Tony Panaccio Talks CrossGen, Mark Alessi and Rumours

Tony Panaccio was VP of Product Development at CrossGen and ran their digital comics line. He writes,

CrossGen was not a utopia, and it was subject as much to our human failings as it was to the strength of will that comes only from a group of dedicated individuals committed to a common purpose. Whatever Mark Alessi's legacy is, it will be a mixed bag of victories and defeats, a few of which wound up changing comics forever. But I'll let the creative experts tell that tale.

One element, however, that will never be a part of his legacy is fear. Mark Alessi never once made a decision out of fear. If anything, he had more than his allotment of hubris, which was a necessary evil considering his goal was to pierce the ceiling of market share that had never been achieved by any independent comics company that came before.

But it wasn't always that way. I was one of Mark's earliest hires in 2000, back before the launch of the first four monthly titles. In those days, there was a tacit recognition among the staffers that, while Alessi had high hopes, the company was more of a vanity project helmed by a wealthy comics fan. In that sense, Mark was one of us doing what almost any of us would do had we the means to do it, so we were content to ride that ride until it ended — and make a decent living while we did.

And then things began to change. Little by little, our "one fan at a time" strategy started working. Massive amounts of money were spent shuttling 30, 40, 50 people and more to cons around the country. Our message boards (yes, those were the cornerstone of Internet communities 20 years ago) topped 10,000 members. Fans began to attend cons in CrossGen cosplay. Sales started moving upwards. Retailers began supporting us, and Hollywood figures like Bob Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump), Larry Kasanoff (Terminator 2) and Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption, and later, The Walking Dead) started talking to us and optioning our properties.

But then something happened. In September of 2000, Mark's wife Jill passed away suddenly of a heart attack, making Mark's recent passing from a heart attack a chilling bookend to that tragedy. At that point in time, Mark's daily presence at the office — making plans, talking tough, rallying the troops — came to an abrupt end. We all came to work, but we felt that the ride would soon be over. We were not yet at the tipping point that would have lead us to believe we were close to achieving all to which we aspired, and the man's wife had just died, leaving him a single parent to raise a 14-year-old daughter. We all attended the funeral with a sense that we were not only saying goodbye to Jill, but to all the friends and coworkers we had come to know.

And about two weeks later, Mark came into the office, and called a meeting of all the senior managers. We all believed this would be the "We gave it a shot, but it's time for me to go home, and thanks for your service" meeting.

But we forgot something. We were talking about Mark Alessi, here. He walked in, solemn and sad, but undeterred. He made it clear that this was not the end, and, if anything, he was more committed than ever to finishing what he started. He recognized the efforts of the team that had made the comics world raise an eyebrow to that scrappy little Florida insurgency, and he promised to honor that work by doubling down. At that meeting, he announced a plan to expand the number of monthly titles and to go after even bigger name talent, maybe even stealing one or two of the big guns from Marvel and DC. There was no fear in his voice, no surrender in his demeanor, and there was more fight in his tone than ever before. Though now a single dad, he thought the best lesson to teach his daughter was to never give up on a dream. We left that meeting energized, and though the end came sooner than we wanted, perhaps a by-product of that same hubris, we knew then that Marl Alessi was a man who was completely out of f-cks to give. He was going to fight every inch for the win, and if he went down, he would do so swinging.

So, when I hear idiotic and hurtful rumors about Mark Alessi committing suicide, I dismiss it the same way I do with flat-earthers, as the ramblings of the ignorant about that which they do not know. Mark Alessi never showed any signs to indicate he had the psychological symptoms that would ever lead to him taking his own life. Giving up was as foreign to him as the idea of missing a ship date, or reneging on a promise. Mark Alessi may have been many things, but suicidal was never one of them.

So, eulogize him as you will, remember him as a villain, a hero or somewhere in between. Tell your stories, as flattering or us unflattering as they may be, but don't think for a second that Mark Alessi was taken from this world in any way, shape or form other than kicking and fighting all the way. And I will honor his memory by being a little more like him, and choosing not to give an earthly damn about what anyone else thinks.

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