– Suit up!

– Bill Watterson is writing the forward to the first Cul de Sac book.

– Marc Bell has a blog now.

– Neil Gaiman sings the praises of Jules Feiffer. Speaking of which I interviewed Feiffer about the new collection of his Village Voice strips, Explainers, here.

– Here’s an interview with Jennifer Holm, author of the Babymouse books.

– Tom Spurgeon talks with Bob Greenberger, author of the new Batman Encyclopedia.

– Don’t hate the superhero, hate the game.

– Brandon Graham is waiting to hear from Tokyopop on what’s going to happen with the second King City volume.

– The L.A. Times reviews Blake Bell’s Ditko book.

– James Jean creates posters for AIDES, a European HIV/AIDS charity, which win an award. (NSFW)

–The New Yorker presents Antiheroes, the opposite of Heroes. Via.

– Hip hop, medicine and comics collide in Tha’ Hip Hop Doc and the Legion of Health.

– Funnybook Babylon on the legacy of Bill Jemas.

– Craig Thompson breaks down a page of his upcoming graphic novel Habibi.

– Larry Young talks about making the cover to the Black Diamond trade.

Compiled by JK and Chris.

Hotel Africa Vol. 1 by Hee Jung Park, Tokyopop, $12.99.

Fever Vol. 1 by Hee Jung Park, Tokyopop, $9.99.

Several months ago, back before Tokyopop entered the “going under for the first time” phase of their corporate career, much ado was made of the company signing a multi-book publishing deal with Korean author Hee Jung Park, dubbed by ICv2 to be one of the country’s “top female creators.” Here’s what TOKYOPOP Editor-in-Chief Rob Tokar had to say in the initial press release:

“Hee Jung Park is a phenomenal talent as well as a manga superstar. Along with her bestselling sequential art, her work has been collected in art books and gallery shows around the world. “Inventive”, “unusual” and “sophisticated” are words that often arise in discussions about Ms. Park’s manga classics and we are both excited and proud to publish them.”

A quote like that is just setting itself up for a fall, isn’t it?

Here’s the thing: I haven’t had too much luck with manhwa. While I understand there are some highly regarded titles out there, most of the Korean comics I’ve read have been noticeably sub-par — mediocre at best, sloppy and excruciating to read at worst.

So I was curious, would Park’s work prove to be the exception? Would it be the work that finally woke me to the splendor that is manhwa? (more…)

Cartoonist Dan Hipp announced this morning that the third volume of his Tokyopop series Gyakushu! is among those titles to be released initially online as part of the publisher’s restructuring.

On Friday, Steady Beat creator Rivkah revealed that nearly all of Tokyopop’s non-licensed books — the bulk of its OEL line — will go directly to the web. However, RE:Play creator Christy Lijewski since has said that the third volume of her series still will be released in print as planned.

Tokyopop hasn’t made an announcement about the online move.

The second volume of Hipp’s bloody revenge tale was released in February. Hipp, who’s probably best known for his work on The Amazing Joy Buzzards, is about half-finished with the third volume of Gyakushu!

He writes on his blog:

No, it’s not a good thing, but not really worth crying over. There have been some other things going on with the book, so it’s very possible that we’ll see it at some point, in a better format. Save your tears, I have no use for them (unless you had none, in which case, you are heartless, sir/madam!).

My heart goes out to all the other creators affected by the changes at Tokyopop. I’m still grateful for the opportunities I’ve had and the connections I’ve made through this book (which isn’t over anyway, so seriously, stop crying!). I’ve been to the other side of the world because of this book, and seen it printed in Italian and Russian (so far). The Thief is not dead.

Update: Brigid Alverson has word that the sixth volume of Shutterbox is still heading for print, while the fate of Psy-Comm is unclear. Heidi MacDonald, meanwhile, reports the third volume of My Cat Loki didn’t make the cut.

Steady Beat creator Rivkah reports on her LiveJournal that her editor told her Tokyopop’s non-licensed material won’t be published, but will now go straight to the web:

Just got off the phone with my editor, and it looks like not-so-good news for Steady Beat. In fact, it looks like not-so-good news for anybody who’s working with TP right now. I’m not sure how much I should say for fear of causing an outright panic with other creators, but essentially, nearly all of Tokyopop’s future books will be going straight to web. This wasn’t a case-by-case scenario. Neither I nor any other single creators were singled out. It looks like the whole line of non-licensed material will cease printing and be promoted online only.

However, this does not mean “Steady Beat” will never see print. Borders on the verge of bankruptcy hurt a lot of people, but it doesn’t mean the end of the world. There are other publishers, other outlets, other venues. Tokyopop could in the future still print the third volume of Steady Beat.

In spite of this potential, however, I am going to try to negotiate print rights back from Tokyopop until such a future time as they choose to bring my books back in print. In the meantime, should Tokyopop fail to follow through with their promise of at least web print, I will put full “previews” of all the books online myself.

Via The Beat

Lots more folks weighing in, including:

Heidi MacDonald:

Chris Butcher:

A reorganization is considerably better than bankruptcy protection, and I know a few people who thought that was what was coming down the pipe. Which isn’t to say that it won’t, but it hasn’t, and there’s a big difference.

Matt Blind:

As Tokyopop isn’t a publicly traded company (and doesn’t have to play these investor games if they don’t want to), I have to wonder why bother with a reorganisation at all, unless of course one expects a part of the business to tank, tank hard, and tank soon.

Johanna Draper Carlson:

But it remains to be seen how many of those books will be put out in future. Part of the announcement was that Tokyopop was cutting 39 positions from their publishing arm (out of how many? dunno) and radically reducing their release schedule, going from over 500 books a year to as few as 200. Says Stuart Levy, CEO, “Few releases will allow for less cannibalization at retail.” Which seems to imply that they think people aren’t buying TP book 1 because they’re buying TP book 2. I don’t think that’s right, based on my own experience: instead of buying TP book 1, I buy a Viz or a Del Rey or an Aurora (when it comes to josei) title.

Rivkah:

Honestly, I’m happy this happened. I was expecting bankruptcy by November 2007. Instead, for perhaps the first time ever, Tokyopop has made the right move by cutting back on how much spagetti they throw at the wall to see what sticks. I don’t doubt the turmoil will take several months to settle down and many of us creators will be cut, but from a business perspective, this means that in the long run, they could potentially be better off. They cut back also by deciding not to exhibit at San Diego or Anime Expo which means less time spent going to conventions and more time focusing on actual creative material; it’s the little things that count, and when employees run up a thousand dollar tab just on drinks, that hurts not just the company but the creators as well.

Tom Spurgeon:

It’s harder to do that in book publishing, although with Borders shedding personnel and a future of digital rights publishing looking like it will come without the comforting and profitable-to-many infrastructure that’s developed around print, it’s hard not to be slightly disturbed by strong moves like this one. In fact, you could look at Tokyopop as another specialty publisher having to make changes or risk dying off altogether, and not much of a unique news story at all.

Brigid Alverson has more links, of course.

With the flurry of news last week over the Manga Pilot contracts, many wondered exactly how well Tokyopop was faring. Now, IcV2 reports that the company will spin off its “comics-to-film” and digital units to a new company, to be named Tokyopop Media LLC:

Publishing production will be reduced by roughly 50% through the rest of the year, reducing output to roughly 200-225 titles per year from a planned total of over 500 titles. Tokyopop CEO and Chief Creative Officer of the Tokyopop Group, Stuart Levy, explained the reasons for the reduction in output. “The time is now for us to focus our publishing business to overcome current market challenges. Few releases will allow for less cannibalization at retail.”

The company is reducing its workforce by 39 positions in connection with the changes. “We must adjust our overhead to properly execute this new business plan,” Levy said. “We are doing it with a heavy heart,” he continued. “It involves saying goodbye to 39 of the most talented, creative and compassionate people I’ve ever known.”

In addition, several executive positions will be restructured. It’s too early for me to say what this means for the company or what titles will exactly be cut, but feel free to speculate in the comments below.

Just about everyone is offering their opinion on Tokyopop’s contract for their Manga Pilot program. Very little of it is nice:

Johanna Draper Carlson (who’s been covering the hell out of this story by the way) already has a statement back from the company. Note this little piece:

Making the contracts available to all is just the first positive step for TOKYOPOP that the Pilot Program represents. Of course we want our Pilots to be successful, and we want to work with Pilot creators to develop their Pilots into other media. And if we do so, an entirely new contract is drafted for that particular project—whether it be a full-length book deal, a film/TV deal, etc. However, TOKYOPOP realizes that some Pilots will not develop beyond their initial stage. And that’s why the Pilot Program is also progressive in returning rights to creators. For any Pilot that doesn’t pan out, the rights to the project are returned to the creator after the one-year Exclusive Period ends. After that, the creator is free to take that exact chapter created for us as well as the property anywhere they like—whether that’s self-publishing, publishing with another company or putting it on the back burner. At this point, for example, if the creator were to land a film/TV deal based on their Pilot property, TOKYOPOP would have no stake in that venture.

Meanwhile, here’s John Jakala:

I really don’t want to be promoting a company that engages in (let’s phrase this charitably) extremely questionable business practices at the expense of creators. In fact, I’ll take it a step further and suggest it’s time for a general boycott of Tokyopop until they get this contract mess straightened out so it’s more equitable for creators:

Chris Butcher:

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TOKYOPOP?! I WANT TO LIKE YOU BUT YOU’RE MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE. I may no longer want to like you. (more…)

 

Sunday at the New York Comic Con, expectedly, was a little bit slower on the news front than Friday or Saturday, which gave the comic sites a little bit of time to catch up and post a lot of stuff from yesterday’s panels. The big news today, it seems, is the show itself; Lance Fensterman reports on the NYCC blog that they surpassed last year’s attendance numbers:

So what do we know?

At least 64,000 people attended New York Comic Con this weekend. We have more details to pour through from retailers and on site tickets sales, but as of tonight we know that at least 64,000 attendees were in the building over the weekend. That’s an intense jump from 49,000 last year and it seems to say this crazy little party we call New York Comic Con continues to grow as fast as a speeding bullet.

Stay tuned for final numbers in the next few days.

Some other folks found time to blog today as things were winding down. Peter David gave an update on his wife, who was in a car crash while he was at the con on Friday:

Kathleen was in one piece: As anyone who’s read her blog knows, Kath was in an auto accident. Fortunately she’s fine, albeit a bit achy and bruised. Upon learning of the accident Friday, I immediately headed home, rendering me unavailable for the Marvel autograph session and also the Mondo Marvel panel. I left word at the Marvel booth, but somehow they didn’t get the message to panel moderator Jim McCann. On stage he noticed my absence and wondered aloud where I was. When one of the panels whispered in his ear what had happened, a startled Jim said “Oh my God!”…right into the open microphone, causing some degree of confusion and alarm for the audience which he quickly had to undo.

And Mark Evanier talked about the Steve Gerber tribute panel … which Gerber was able to attend:

Friday, I did two panels — one about the work of the late/great Will Eisner; the other, about the state of the animation business. Saturday morn, we had a nice public memorial panel about our pal, the late/also great Steve Gerber. Many of Steve’s fans and friends were there, along with members of his family. And Steve himself was present as you can see from this photo…

I guess you can’t read the label so I’ll tell you what the top line of it says: “This Package Contains the Cremated Remains of Stephen R. GERBER.” That’s right. We had his ashes there. Morbid, I know…but Steve wouldn’t have wanted to miss a whole panel about himself. It was announced that immediately following the panel, we’d be taking the ashes down and flinging them in the faces of certain editors.

More coverage of New York Comic Con:

(more…)

Tokyopop will launch a full-color line of graphic novels in February 2009 showcasing creators from around the world.

For the Tokyopop Graphic Novels imprint, Tokyopop will license works from French publishers Delcourt and Soleil, and Chinese publisher Xiao Pan.

The line will lead off in February with Orange, by Chinese creator Benjamin, and Pixie, by French creators Mathieu Mariolle and Aurore. Those will be followed in March by Luuna, by French creators Didier Crisse and Nicolas Keramidas.

Publishers Weekly has more information from Tokyopop publisher Mike Kiley.

The press release, with title details, can be found after the break:

(more…)

On his LiveJournal, Brandon Graham posts art from the second King City — specifically a really cool board game spread complete with cut-out pieces (shown above). If you haven’t read the first one, it’s totally worth seeking out.

Via

It’s a sad week for Sugar Sugar Rune fans. Manga-ka Moyoco Anno has announced she will be halting her manga work due to poor health. Anime News Network has the story:

[Anno's current manga work] includes her recent Ochibisan manga in the Asahi Shimbun paper and Hataraki Man (pictured at right) in Kodansha’s Morning magazine. Anno apologized to her readers and said she thinks the current break will be a long one. She also said that she still wants to draw manga eventually and hopes her readers will follow her work if she returns.

In addition to Rune, Anno’s Flowers and Bees and Happy Mania have been published in the U.S.

Tokyopop has opened the voting for the eighth annual Rising Stars of Manga competition’s People’s Choice Award.

Registered users on Tokyopop.com may vote for one of 21 entries selected from among the RSoM submissions. The People’s Choice winner will be published in the forthcoming anthology, and receive a $500 cash prize.

Voting continues through 6 p.m. PST March 21.

At Dan Hipp’s blog, “Gyakushu! Week!!” continues unfettered as he rolls out even more behind-the-scenes material. Marvel at his cover-creation process! Learn how to make your own bloody sword epic in five easy steps! (”To illustrate the seriousness of my claim, I WILL PROCEED IN ALL CAPS!!! CAN YOU SEE THAT I AM SERIOUS?!!”) Discover the appeal of using exclamation points!

Gyakushu! Vol. 2 is out this week from Tokyopop.

New York magazine’s Vulture blog runs Jo Chen’s complete 24-page short story “99 Roses,” which is included in The Other Side of the Mirror, Vol. 1, out now from Tokyopop.

Marvel may have a new Captain America, but Publisher’s Week Comics Week knows what the big news of last week was judging by their interview with Brian K. Vaughn:

PW Comics Week: You’ve talked about how Y is the story of the last boy becoming the last man. What do you know now that you wish you’d known six years ago, when you started writing it?

Brian K. Vaughan: I like to think I’ve grown a lot as a writer and as a human being, but… have you ever read “Twilight,” that Alan Moore proposal that he wrote for DC? There’s a very clever bit in there about young John Constantine [the magician from the Hellblazer series] battling with old John Constantine, and young Constantine is taunting his future self. That’s kind of what this series has been like—the ending is largely what I came up with when I was a dopey kid who first pitched the idea to Vertigo. I’ve always wondered: “Shouldn’t I come up with a better ending? Why do I have such allegiance to this younger kid?” But he was the one who was smart enough to get this story off the ground. So if I could go back in time and tell myself something, I think I’d just say, “go, fuck up, and it’ll turn out when I pick up the pieces down the line.”

Also in this week’s newsletter: A look at Japan’s (and by extension America’s) lolita subculture; Amy Reeder Hadley talks about her Fool’s Gold series for Tokyopop (not to be confused with the Kate Hudson movie opening Friday); a new book uncovers comics trailblazer Jackie Ormes; Archaia debuts the “Mayan cyberpunk” book The Long Count; and the best-seller list for February (Naruto, Naruto, Naruto and Diary of A Wimpy Kid).

On his blog, Dan Hipp walks through his process for writing and drawing Gyakushu, from plotting and thumbnails to inks and grayscaling.

He also provides an update on The Amazing Joy Buzzards: May will see an omnibus edition collecting the first two volumes of the series, followed by a new volume in July, named Monster Love.

Gyakushu, Vol. 2, hits shelves this week.

In a move that shouldn’t surprise too many people, Verizon and Tokyopop have teamed up to offer downloadable manga, anime and other items of interest.

Featuring TOKYOPOP manga entertainment, the availability of the TOKYOPOP V CAST Video channel from Verizon Wireless marks the first time manga movies, anime clips and Asian entertainment have been available in one package to mobile customers.

TOKYOPOP on V CAST offers 15 to 20 four- to six-minute videos each week from TOKYOPOP’s popular manga entertainment, including manga videos known as imanga, anime clips, and other popular Asian-influenced entertainment.

Available titles include Bizenghast, Rave Master and PiNMeN. I’ll refrain from being a jerk and asking if Bizenghast’s creator M. Alice LeGrow’s contract with Tokyopop allows her to see any of this cell phone money.
You can read the full press release after the jump. (more…)