Hi everyone!
If you’re attending Anime Expo this year, I’ll be on the TOKYOPOP: Past, Present and Future panel Saturday night, 7 P.M., in LP 4 (that’s LACC 411.) I’ll be helping Stu Levy explain what happened to TOKYOPOP in 2011, what we’re doing now and what the future holds. It will be my first time on an official industry panel, so I’m a bit nervous!
We’ll have news, trivia, giveaways and a few surprises! It will be a great panel, especially for Hetalia and Bizenghast fans, so I’ll hope you’ll join us, even if you weren’t originally planning to. Hope to see you there!
In other news: Yes, I’m working for TOKYOPOP again! It’s been great fun so far. If you’re following the @TOKYOPOPManga page on Twitter, that’s me!
In blog news: I really have to apologize again for the long, post-less periods. My life has been topsy-turvy with a move, two sudden deaths and other stressful situations eating away my energy. I hope to return to a more normal blogging schedule in late July after San Diego Comic-Con.
-Daniella
Pingback: MangaBlog — Tokyopop goes to AX; Digital Kickstarts Tezuka’s Unico
The “mundane” side of me is happy you’ve got a job working for Tokyopop… again (or, at least what’s left of it).
The “insane” side of me is looking forward to hearing the chorus of boos the moment Stu Levy is introduced. (I’m also interested in seeing how he’s able to maneuver his way around a mass of unhappy ex-fans.)
Good luck at AX, Daniella. Just remember- they’re not saying “Boooo”; they’re saying “Gruuuuber”.
Does that mean you’ll be there?
It’s not very fair of fans to treat Stu the way they do. A lot of TOKYOPOP’s revival is due to him. I know there are still a lot of people who aren’t satisfied with what we’ve done so far, but we’re trying.
Anyway, it’s not about him, it’s about the manga.
Surprise! Most of the people, aside from one troll, were totally in Stu’s corner. And since Room 411 was packed to Standing Room Only that’s a considerable group of people.
Srsly: I have NO CLUE why there is this small but highly vocal group of trolls on the Internet who seem to have no life other than to hate on Stu. Even back when he was on top of the world with TOKYOPOP he was a lot better with creators than the rest of the comic book publishing community. Sure, when he put an artist under contract, TOKYOPOP got a piece of his/her work. (Suddenly a picture of Stu as Kyubey pops into my head. Bizarre. “Contract?”)
However, this is a better deal than traditional work-for-hire which, unless you are an absolute elite-level comic book artist or manga-ka, is the only kind of contract the big boys are offering new talent. The glory days of the early 1990s and creator-driven comics are OVER, peeps. Unless you want to be 100% indie (and indie is good, indie means the artist has complete control, but indie also means you are going to have to hustle to be your own distributor and your own negotiator which is insane) you either have to sell out, or give up on your dream. And the best efforts of Jack Kirby’s family couldn’t strike down work-for-hire and get them a piece of Kirby’s legacy. It stands, it’s standard practice, and it is likely what DC and Marvel and whatnot will offer you as a first, best, and only offer.
In a whole year of working on Pray For Japan, and going into my second year, I have never felt anything but 100% respected by Stu. He has gone out of his way to be transparent and fair and good to everyone who climbed aboard this charity project. Now he’s bringing me onto some TP stuff. My being a loyal hatamoto is now paying off. Which reminds me, I’d better get back to editing this video…^_^;;;
I’ve been reading Tokyopop since they were cllead MIXX, and I’m still shocked they’re closing down after all these years. I appreciated them even though they made some weird choices and the publishing/translation quality could vary wildly even within a single series. My favorite series were Dragon Knights and Pet Shop of Horrors. I’ll be sure to check out Faeries’ Landing sometime.Thank you for the perspective.
Uh, you know that TOKYOPOP is back in business, right? That was the point of having a panel at Anime Expo. 🙂
If you have any questions about the company, feel free to ask me!