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Tokyopop Founder Stu Levy on Reddit's "Ask Me Anything"

Tokyopop founder and filmmaker Stu Levy recently participated in a Reddit AMA ("Ask Me Anything"), where he answered questions about the history of the company, his thoughts on digital manga, and the trajectory that the company has taken over the years.

Here are some highlights:

From Ban4nn4 who asked "Why was manga publishing in the US ceased?":

stulevy:
In early 2011, our #1 company Borders went bankrupted and liquidated. They owed us close to $1 MM and didn't pay a dime. Further, with Borders gone, we overnight lost 1/3 of our sales on all titles (since they were 1/3 of our market). Our company operated with very tight profit margins, so we were unable to sustain the impact of that double-whammy and needed to close down our LA publishing office, in order to pay our creditors.

Overall, I believe the disruption of book publishing is similar to what already happened in music and what is happening in film. Barnes & Noble will most likely not last for too many years either, and almost all books will either be purchased at boutique shops that are managed via the passion of the owner, or Amazon. It's certainly not the direction I wanted for the American market, but it's a societal trend that is unstoppable - technology disrupts all industries and takes no prisoners.

From user ItsScubaSteve, who asked "Any crazy stories involving Tokyopop you can share?"

stulevy:
There are many but here's a crazy one:

Back around 2005 or so, we brought Fujisawa-sensei (GTO creator) to San Diego Comicon.

It was Saturday night, so I wanted to take him down to Tijuana for some partying. We brought his editor, an international person from Kodansha, and himself, along with a few of us TP crew. Well, we had an awesome time, drinking, partying, generally having fun and getting crazy. At the end of the night, around 3 AM, we headed to the border and Fujisawa-san realized he didn't have his duffel bag. He left it at a bar! We went back looking for it, but of course it was gone. And the worst part? His passport was inside!

So, we spent the next 5 hours on the streets of Mexico, waiting for the US border crossing admin offices to open. Then it finally did and we had to wait in line for hours. When we got there, they said he had to fly to Mexico City to get a waiver from the Japan embassy. Well, he was scheduled to do signings that day! Luckily, we talked them out of it, and they granted temporary permission to cross. Whew, we barely made it to the signings.

I'll never forget that night!!

For the full thread, check out the AMA here.