According to information released by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida, CrossGen Entertainment Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  Unlike the finality of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing, Chapter 11 could allow CrossGen founder Mark Alessi to restructure, refinance and relaunch his company.  Although a Chapter 11 filing does hold out some hope of a bailout for CrossGen -- after all Marvel filed Chapter 11and came out of it a stronger company--Alessi's task will be daunting-- the bankruptcy filing lists over $3 million in debts to unsecured creditors.

CrossGen's financial difficulties became apparent last summer, when some freelancers began complaining publicly that they had not been paid for work that had been completed.  So began a slow sad decline as both creators and company officers left CrossGen in increasing numbers as the months wore on, until with the recent departures of Bill Rosemann, Ian Feller, and Chris Oarr, Alessi was left with little more than a skeleton crew.