The Chaos Comics inventory, including comics, books, and promotional items, is being sold at auction in Phoenix this Wednesday. This follows in the wake of the company's August bankruptcy filing (see 'Order Wins -- Chaos Ends'). The more interesting question, what will happen to the intellectual property assets, is still open to some degree--those assets are not included in the auction lots.
Matt Brady of Newsarama broke the story a couple of weeks ago--CrossGen's Mark Alessi had purchased the character of Lady Death and accompanying rights from Chaos Comics for $12,500 just two weeks before Chaos went into Chapter 7 bankruptcy. In the wake of the revelation, CrossGen released a statement on the subject (see 'CrossGen on Lady Death') indicating that it made the deal in an effort to help Chaos survive with a last minute infusion of cash, that it believed the price paid was fair, that it had hired some creators that had formerly worked for Chaos, and that it intended to use revenues generated by existing licensing deals to pay Lady Death creators that had not been paid by Chaos.
Last week, Chaos founder Brian Pulido told Comicon's Pulse site that he would be writing a Lady Death comic to be published by CrossGen. But given the proximity to the bankruptcy filing, the possibility remains that the bankruptcy trustee could reverse the transfer of Lady Death rights to CrossGen if it's determined that the price paid wasn't what a free market sale would produce. The CrossGen statement spoke of an independent valuation of the property done for Chaos and the amount that Todd McFarlane paid for Eclipse's intellectual property assets when it went bankrupt as support for its price. But with the ADV anime-style movie still on track (see 'Lady Death Film on Course'), Lady Death would appear to have considerably more potential than the Eclipse properties. The parties with the most to gain from a higher price would be those creditors at the top of the priority list--any employees owed paychecks (not freelancers), and the IRS, if it's owed payroll withholding moneys (as it was when a six figure tax lien was filed against Chaos a couple of years ago). Ultimately, this may come down to whether creditors or any company other than CrossGen seeking control of the intellectual property care enough about it to press the issue. 
