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Crossed: Dead or Alive #1

Crossed: Dead or Alive Vol. 1

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Legendary comics creator, Garth Ennis returns to the grueling survival world of the Crossed to tell a special tale of survival at any cost. Ennis brings readers into the viceral world of misery he created and invites you to experience true uncencored horror. These stories are not watered down for age ratings or edited with any other purpose other than to tell stories of a world overrun by maniacs. There is no help. There is no hope. There is only the Crossed. Crossed DOA collects the original webcomics by Garth Ennis and Daniel Gete.

26 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 26, 2015

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About the author

Garth Ennis

2,630 books3,183 followers
Ennis began his comic-writing career in 1989 with the series Troubled Souls. Appearing in the short-lived but critically-acclaimed British anthology Crisis and illustrated by McCrea, it told the story of a young, apolitical Protestant man caught up by fate in the violence of the Irish 'Troubles'. It spawned a sequel, For a Few Troubles More, a broad Belfast-based comedy featuring two supporting characters from Troubled Souls, Dougie and Ivor, who would later get their own American comics series, Dicks, from Caliber in 1997, and several follow-ups from Avatar.

Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years.

Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run.

Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation.

While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.

Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.

After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint.

In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd.

Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.

In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.

In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).

Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis

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5 stars
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29 (33%)
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23 (26%)
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Profile Image for Mitchell Stern.
1,128 reviews18 followers
July 14, 2022
One of the stronger Crossed stories, mainly because of how secondary the titular monsters are compared to the sociopathic protagonist. It was also nice to see an ending that wasn’t miserable grimdark but a reasonable deconstruction of the protagonist’s ethos of ‘survive at any cost even the lives of others’
Profile Image for Jedhua.
688 reviews56 followers
June 3, 2020
ABSOLUTE RATING: {3.5/5 stars} (Rounded Up)

STANDARDIZED RATING: <4/5 stars>
Profile Image for Rizzie.
562 reviews7 followers
January 3, 2022
I highly recommend you read all Crossed stories by Ennis, and the one arc by Alan Moore. Avoid everything else like the plague.
Profile Image for Mike.
45 reviews2 followers
November 22, 2024
Ennis managed to pack a surprising amount of character development and emotion into a very short story.
Profile Image for Chanel Hardy.
Author 22 books19 followers
June 26, 2025
This was my favorite so far. The protagonist got what he deserved. Sort of. I understood his need to survive at any cost. But sometimes karma comes back at you, even during the apocalypse.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews

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