Forum - View topicTokyoPop creators.. where are they now? What happened?
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The Xenos
 Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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Well, full disclosure first, I'm outspoken as not a big fan of TokyoPop as a company. Meanwhile, I am a fan of a number of their books and creators who published under them. Notably most of these creators have jumped ship for better publishing companies. You know, especially since a good chunk of TokyoPop has very little interest in actually publishing books anymore.
First of all is TokyoPop's best American (or Russian born Canadian) seller, Svetlana Chmakova. She's publisher new work Night School in the comics anthology Yen Plus for Yen Press. Becky Cloonan is surely doing alright for herself. Though her East Coast Rising book didn't make a splash at TokyoPop. I ordered it months ago and it's still listed as TBA when it actually will be released. One of many books to get the shaft during TokyoPop's shell game. Not that Cloonan needs them. She's working on a sequel to her Eisner nominated comic Demo. She also has a number of smaller titles, like work in the anthology Pixu which was a buzz at San Diego Comic Con. Of course, not all is peachy outside of TokyoPop. Her wonderful series with Steve T. Seagle American Virgin got canceled at Veritgo. A favorite of mine many sadly seemed not to notice was George Alexopoulos. I really enjoyed his one shot Go with Grace. He seems a bit put out with publishing and I can't blame him. He seems to have been quite screwed over in this deal. It's pretty sad when he has to publicize on this site's FAQ, "Why is Go With Grace nearly impossible find in bookstores? There weren't many copies printed, apparently. " He seems to be looking for new opportunities to get published, even if he has to study business and self publish the damn comics himself. I wish the guy luck and look forward to his stuff. Another creator that comes to mind is Ross Cambell. He did the Abandoned at TokyoPop and was one of the more outspoken creators to comment how crummy their set up was. Meanwhile, I see he's coming out with a new volume of Wet Moon from decent publisher Oni Press. Of course there is Felipe Smith who did TokyoPop's way undersold MBQ series. A fellow blogger over at Comics2Film was raving about the book and upset it doesn't sell well. He's working for Kodansha now in Japan publishing his manga Peepo Choo in the magazine Morning 2. So, he's actually in Japan making comics / manga. I'm sure I'm neglecting a number of other creators. Maybe some are still stuck in the quagmire of the reshuffling. Have I come across painting a negative view of TokyoPop? Fine. I think they've been a rotten publisher and treated their creators horribly. They all in all just another brick in the wall for TokyoPop honchos to stand on. The company and its leaders seemed more interested in Hollywood and multi-media deals. Funny how all these creators are kicked to the curb, but CEO Stu Levy's pet project Princess Ai has become a franchise and is now coming out with a crappy DVD of music videos since the movie might have fallen through. Yes, I know I seem to pick on the guy a lot, yet just look at the shady business practices he's pulled over the years and tell me how I'm wrong. His pet projects are one of a number of major things wrong with the company. Anyway, like I said, I'm sure I missed a number of creators and where they went. Feel free to chime in on your favorites. Plus if you're a fan of any of the previously mentioned books and creators. Oh and for more in depth coverage of where the creators are and their views on the TokyoPop split, Newsarama had this recent series of articles. http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080624-Tokyopop1.html |
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LostPhrack
Posts: 40 Location: Mass. |
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He also did something for DC's Minx imprint earlier this year. Water Baby I think it's called. Becky's talked about the delay with East Coast Rising a bit on her blog. I'm having trouble finding the entry at the moment, but I'm pretty sure I remember her mentioning that volume two will be the final one in the series. Ooo, here's an entry where she mentions it. |
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1325 Location: San Diego |
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Forced into indentured servitude by Stu Levy.
That's what happens when you're too young and excited to read your contracts and end up giving away your characters for free! |
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The Xenos
Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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Oh yeah. Totally forgot about his Water Baby book for DC's Minx. Funny, Publisher Weekly blog The Beat just linked to a audio blog / podcast with Campbell.
http://www.audioshocker.com/2008/09/02/podcast-episode-045 Meanwhile, that Princess Ai Encounters is disgusting in its hypocrisy. TokyoPop talks all about being like manga. Yet when they pull crap like this, it just shows that TokyoPop is more on par with Marvel and DC than actual manga. They own your characters lock, stock, and barrel. If they want your creation to cross over with their Superman, Princess Ai, then you're going to be making them a crossover issue. For all their talk about revolution and manga, TokyoPop is operating like the big American comics companies from way back last century, not how a Japanese manga company works. |
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rinmackie
 Posts: 1040 Location: in a van! down by the river! |
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Maybe now they won't make that crappy live action adaptation of Lament of the Lamb. It sounded awful! What was wrong with sticking to the original story?
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The Xenos
Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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Yeah. Tell me about it. Sadly, I think their horrible adapation of Lament of the Lamb is still in the works. That's firmly in their new movie and media division. Hell, I wonder if that was their whole goal all along anyway, to make movies, not manga. Certainly after the comic book movie filled summer, they had a press release talking about their books. Funny enough, they said they were comic books as well as manga. Funny how their tune changed after Iron Man was a big hit.
Then again, how long have they been trying to get Princess Ai up and running? So far they got some crappy music videos coming out on DVD attached with some new spin-off book. Funny. They're still cranking out Princess Ai while their other American books get kicked to the curb. Hell, are they still publishing that hardcover collection of all of DramaCon? I was looking forward to that. |
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The Xenos
Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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Oh yeah, interesting note. Kat and Mouse author Alex Di Campi is a music video director in the UK. Check out her videos here.
http://www.vimeo.com/1661234 She also did an amazing mini-series / graphic novel for IDW called Smoke with Igor Kordey. It got nominated for an Eisner award. I believe she has a new comic series coming out, but it's being released in France. Plus I don't know if that horror comic with Canadian web comic artist Dan Kim went anywhere. |
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Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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I'd suggest reading up on the editorial practices of major Japanese publishers before you put the manga industry on a pedestal. More often than not when it comes to the major magazines and popular properties Japanese creators are at the mercy of their editor (see Dragonball Z for the most infamous example). The bottom line is that the major publishers (on both sides of the pacific) are about making money, not creator rights, and more often than not they're going to conduct themselves accordingly. It's a little shocking that this Princess Ai nonsense is still going on. I'm guessing that it's one of their bigger OEL sellers, but Levy needs to get his head out of his ass and realize that its isn't going to become the multimedia brand-name that he clearly wants. |
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midnighteve
Posts: 114 Location: Chula Vista |
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Gosh, that reminds me of something of Jen Lee Quick's book Off*Beat. The third and final book on the series had been put on hiatus for quite a while now and just recently (after talking with my local comic book shop owner) I find that the last book has wound up on a "cancelled manga" list along with Beck and a few other good ones. (Though to be perfectly honest, most of those books are perfectly understandable as to how/why they'd be on that list...I barely recognize some of them!) I even heard they tried canceling Loveless but backed off due to fan outrage... Anyway, I digress. My original point was that right now, Jen Lee Quick is having problems with the concept of releasing that final volume independently---as in, she wants to, but is bound to a contract. According to her deviantart art journal, (which she still refers to her comic as on "hiatus" as of August 1st) she's hoping that perhaps with a cancellation, she may be able to work something out...or ideally, just convince Tokyopop to release that last volume so that her fans can have some sort of closure. |
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor
Posts: 1325 Location: San Diego |
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She could do what Brandon Graham ("King City") did -- he gave TP the middle finger and just started posting the pages of the next volume on his Livejournal. |
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midnighteve
Posts: 114 Location: Chula Vista |
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That's an awesome idea, and is totally something that's what I would do, but I think she's still trying to go the pacifistic route via negotiating. *sighs* Why do I have the feeling that it won't get her anywhere? >_> Honestly, I just don't get what's up with Tokyopop these days. I suppose the Viz-monster has been eating up all the good acquisitions, (and Tokyopop is licensing far too many (crappy) titles. Their translation quality had gone down as well as their print quality in many books. I also can't believe that a series like Beck gets canceled and one like Dragon Knights is seen full through. I guess I should just count my blessings that Welcome to the NHK is still coming out with its last volume, but I think with that (and Loveless) I'm pretty much done with the company---they don't have any other title of interest to me. |
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stuckinfresno
 Posts: 223 Location: Fresno, CA |
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So far all signs point to yes - on 10/14/08. I've been awaiting this release myself. http://www.amazon.com/Dramacon-Ultimate-Svetlana-Chmakova/dp/142781340X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221492738&sr=1-4 (This is Amazon's page [duh], but Borders, BN, and other major distributors show the same info. Interestingly, Rightstuf shows a release date of 10/7/08 but they are the only ones.) Also, I'm glad to know that Go with Grace was read by another human being other than myself. |
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juno_senei
 Posts: 64 Location: U.S.A - West Side |
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True, true. I find myself collecting more of Viz titles than Tokyopop these days. Hmm, let's see.. Viz = 26 titles TP = 20 titles Other = 8 titles
they canceled Beck?? bummer. i was totally planning on collecting that series once i finished the anime =_= grr. i hate it when companies do that. it's like...betrayal - LOL!!! but at least they aren't as bad as ADV -- which disgusts me with their past doings =_= For the most part, I don't mind Tokyopop. Their website, though, is another story =_= It's awful, especially if you're trying to find information on new releases, plus the design of it...eww. but the one thing that I will NOT forgive Tokyopop was how they handled Rave Master. i can accept the manga, but the anime was horribly, horribly, horribly killed -- much like what 4Kids did to One Piece. |
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The Xenos
Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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And let's not forget the mess they made of Initial D. There's a reason why their anime division sunk like a brick. they lucked out and their manga division became a hit, but they originally were trying to go multimedia. I even have some soundtracks by a music division. THey put out a Trigun soundtrack. I was shocked looking at it years later to see it was by TokyoPop.
Meanwhile, it should be sadly noted that DC's young girl / shojo equivalent line Minx got canned. Though I'd chalk that up to expecting too much from a new line, poor categorization for book shelf placement, and sinking too much money into poor marketing than the quality of the line itself. There's been a bunch of articles on it over at The Beat. I know Ross Campbell who did one volume for TokyoPop was over there. Forget if anyone else crossed over. Though it's certainly an interesting note of a line that didn't make it sadly. |
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The Xenos
Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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I was reading an article recently and though of this thread I started a while ago. There is a former TokyoPop artist who's got an amazing gig. Amy Reeder Hadley who did Fool's Gold for TokyoPop has a hit on her hand as the artist on Vertigo book Madam Xanadu along with wrtier Matt Wagner.
And I gotta say myself it's a fantastic book. The first collection is only like 13 bucks, but I'm somehow not regrettting getting it right off the bat. I went in rather blind knowing nothing about the character, but being a Wagner fan liking the preview art. It was one of the best surprises in a book I've had in some time. Here's a good review that made me think of this. http://www.newsarama.com/comics/070930-ChangeofPace2-xanadu.html |
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