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NEWS: Tokyopop's Employee Ranks Shrink This Week


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Jaymie



Joined: 18 Jun 2009
Posts: 915
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:54 pm Reply with quote
http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/03/02/tokyopop-follow-up-is-stuart-levy-the-charlie-sheen-of-comics/

Allegedly there are only 7 people left at Tokyopop, and they are now relying 100% on Freelancers.

Game Over?
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Paploo



Joined: 21 Nov 2006
Posts: 1875
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 10:01 pm Reply with quote
Sunday Silence wrote:
Paploo wrote:
wall of text.

*didn't like the answer*


You asked if they sold. And said "If people didn't buy them, then the whole concept was a failure." You didn't say "for Tokypop and only Tokyopop". Sorry if I misunderstood that.

The concept's doing well for other publishers [Seven Seas has been publishing domestic manga steadily all along, and has had some fairly long series], and even TP's still in it with Bizenghast [vol.8's scheduled for July 2011- it's been a big hit for them in general], the World of Warcraft line, and reprints of some of their better selling ones from their boom years.

Many of the artists involved have had successful careers in comics/manga [Sho Murase's done dozens of Nancy Drew graphic novels for NBM/Papercutz for example], and some have even worked in Japan. It's generally been a successful thing [as far as original graphic novel publishing goes], and isn't going away any time soon. Sorry if that displeases you.

btw to everyonelse reading this-
I don't really think it was the quality of the books/creators that did the larger line of OEL's in, it was probably the general lack of focus at the time that also hurt their manga and manwha lines. TP was in a wierd era where they were expanding into Social Media [w/horrid website], and then encountered the big scale back of manga pubs from around 2007/8 that saw several publishers close shop, and kept going with the current decline in growth for the larger market we've seen every year since.

Another issue was that after initial successes they greenlit way too many series, not expecting the manga market to crash like it did. Many a comic publisher has made this mistake though, so even that's not an unusual thing.

Anyhoo, at least Dark Horse and Vertical had great growth in the past few years. And hey, DH's been publishing OEL manga for decades before anyone even used the term OEL. Adam Warren's currently on the 6th or so volume of Empowered, which is a big hit for them, and they've done similar manga-styled titles throughout their history. TP's problems seem to be moreso the company in general than domestic-manga-styled-comic stuff, which are doing fine elsewhere.

Anyhoo, guess I just dont' like the "Article about TPop, let's bash some artists because their not japanese!" type posts I've seen in reaction to the news. That has nothing to do with what's going on, and just sort of spiteful and lame in the end.

Some really nice people lost their jobs, Stu Levy's looking really shady as a result, and that's pretty much the story. Show some sympathy for those laid off, and focus on what was actually done wrong http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/03/tokyopop-lays-off-senior-editors/ like Brigid did here.
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Sunday Silence



Joined: 22 Jun 2010
Posts: 2047
PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 12:59 am Reply with quote
Paploo wrote:
Anyhoo, guess I just don't' like the "Article about TPop, let's bash some artists because their not japanese!" type posts I've seen in reaction to the news. That has nothing to do with what's going on, and just sort of spiteful and lame in the end.

Some really nice people lost their jobs, Stu Levy's looking really shady as a result, and that's pretty much the story. Show some sympathy for those laid off, and focus on what was actually done wrong http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/03/tokyopop-lays-off-senior-editors/ like Brigid did here.


Okay, now I are confus. You complain about how "some of us" are bashing "pig disgusting gaijin" with their "pig disgusting 'manga'" over TOKYOPOP's woes, and then you post an article that.....blames OEL as a contributing factor to the possible downfall of TOKYOPOP.

So, which is it? OEL is a contributing factor in the problem or not?
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adam_omega



Joined: 29 Aug 2005
Posts: 256
Location: Seven Seas
PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 1:46 am Reply with quote
Sunday Silence wrote:
Paploo wrote:
Anyhoo, guess I just don't' like the "Article about TPop, let's bash some artists because their not japanese!" type posts I've seen in reaction to the news. That has nothing to do with what's going on, and just sort of spiteful and lame in the end.

Some really nice people lost their jobs, Stu Levy's looking really shady as a result, and that's pretty much the story. Show some sympathy for those laid off, and focus on what was actually done wrong http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/03/tokyopop-lays-off-senior-editors/ like Brigid did here.


Okay, now I are confus. You complain about how "some of us" are bashing "pig disgusting gaijin" with their "pig disgusting 'manga'" over TOKYOPOP's woes, and then you post an article that.....blames OEL as a contributing factor to the possible downfall of TOKYOPOP.

So, which is it? OEL is a contributing factor in the problem or not?


Tokyopop over extended themselves with their OEL initiative, a bunch of lackluster Japanese/Korean licenses, and a failed novel line. That was several years ago. They restructured and they came back from it. OEL has nothing to do with Tokyopop's current problems.

Their current issues, I'm guessing, are too much overhead, crazy spending on weird side projects, not getting paid for their Holiday sales from Borders, and large print runs of books that they can't ship out, to name a few... it could be any or all of those.
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Deviant_scarlet



Joined: 08 Nov 2010
Posts: 21
PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:56 am Reply with quote
An interesting excerpt from yours truly, Stu Levy, whining on his personal blog, "America's Greatest Otaku."

Quote:
Haters

* Posted by Stu Levy on March 1, 2011 at 4:06pm

Hey everyone!

I don't know about you guys, but I noticed there are some very negative haters posting comments on Hulu or Twitter, etc.

I'm sure all of you have also experienced negativity from haters, either at school or elsewhere. It's emotionally draining - and depressing - but the best thing to do is stay positive. Be yourself. Believe in who you are, your passion and what makes you happy - that will give you strength.

For me, I love Japan. I love the fact that I brought manga to America. I love seeing so many "genki" and positive otaku here in America. And if there are haters and negative people out there, that's part of life. It won't get me down - I enjoyed creating, directing and hosting the show, working with an awesome team, meeting all of you who I got to meet (both in person and online), and being inspired by all of your passion.

So, together we can overcome it all.

Ganbarou!!


Apprently, he has a lot of time in his hands. Maybe he can answer some of your questions. You can give him a shout out here:

http://americasgreatestotaku.com/profiles/blogs/haters-1
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Tamaria



Joined: 21 Oct 2007
Posts: 1512
Location: De Achterhoek
PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:22 am Reply with quote
How old was that guy again? His attitude towards critique is very similar to that of 14-year-old girls on DeviantArt.
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Paploo



Joined: 21 Nov 2006
Posts: 1875
PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 6:01 am Reply with quote
Sunday Silence wrote:
Okay, now I are confus. You complain about how "some of us" are bashing "pig disgusting gaijin" with their "pig disgusting 'manga'" over TOKYOPOP's woes, and then you post an article that.....blames OEL as a contributing factor to the possible downfall of TOKYOPOP.
So, which is it? OEL is a contributing factor in the problem or not?


If you'd read through Brigid's article, she doesn't blame OEL. She blames how TPop handled things- not supporting promotion properly, some titles not getting the editorial direction they needed [I think it's notable that many of the hits they had were ones under Lillian's direction], dropping many OEL titles [including ones with finished books like Gyakushu, Steady Beat, Shutterbox and the later-collected-by-Image King City] leaving previous volumes unsellable, then pushing forward with the uncollected content digitally and promptly ignoring it like many a new idea in Stu's head- as Brigid points out, often a good idea that gets off to a good start then gets forgotten when the next shiny comes back.

So it's not OEL to blame, it's not OEL creators or editors, it's nothing like you've been trying to suss out. It's the same thing that's been hurting many of TPop's iniativies- poor direction, quickly moving onto the next shiny thing, and not sticking with things. Like Adam said, TP overextended themselves- too much of everything at for too short of a time. They were launching big lines of manga, manwha, lite novels, ebooks, and then instead of sticking to these lines and givign them proper support and keeping them at manageable sizes, Stu did all kinds of crazy side projects [Otaku reality show wasn't the first]. And as Adam pointed out, TP's current problems are a good deal distances from their OEL iniative----- with the concept and the creators having moved onto better pastures.

Adam sums it up better, and deserves lot of credit for keeping Seven Sea's OEL/Original manga line successful, doing great omnibuses of their many series, and keeping several of them going for many years. Seven Seas, Dark Horse, Oni Press, Udon, Marvel (courting the manga market resulted in Runaways, their biggest new franchise in years), and other publishers have had success with their respective manga-inspired iniatives.
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RAmmsoldat



Joined: 19 Oct 2005
Posts: 1261
Location: North wales coast
PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 7:28 am Reply with quote
I think OEL was a good idea, it gave talented people a crack at putting out comics they otherwise may not have had. Andy helms was a guy whos online comics i liked for both their artistic style and their utterly crude humor and he got a slot in one of the rising stars books if i recall correctly.

Nothing quite like making a mess of a good thing to get people lookin at you like a tool, in steps stu.

(didn't even know who stu was till recently, been out of buying manga for babout a yer and a half and just kept my head down and purchaded before then)
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HyugaHinata



Joined: 25 Jun 2005
Posts: 3505
PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:52 am Reply with quote
Deacon Blues wrote:
I don't think it's really a loss for the company considering most of the "editors" didn't really properly edit their releases anyways... then again most of the freelance translators who worked for the company that I talked to were shafted by the editing staffs "changes" to their work.

Oh well. When TokyoPop goes under I'll raise a drink to them and say "sorry to see you lasted this long".


Sorry Lys, but I'd have to agree. I don't think any English teacher (of any grade) worth their salt would assign TokyoPop's Furuba manga to their students. They'd learn what not to do, but only if they already know about tautologies etc.

SnaphappyFMA wrote:
Lillian Diaz-Pryzbyl was an excellent editor and a class act at Tokyopop. Hope another publisher picks her up soon. This long slow death of the manga industry in America is getting very hard to watch... Sad


ANN lists Lillian as a "copy editor" for Fruits Basket. I don't know exactly what that entails, but whatever it was, it was very sub-par.
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asimpson2006



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 3151
Location: USA
PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 10:09 am Reply with quote
HyugaHinata wrote:
Deacon Blues wrote:
I don't think it's really a loss for the company considering most of the "editors" didn't really properly edit their releases anyways... then again most of the freelance translators who worked for the company that I talked to were shafted by the editing staffs "changes" to their work.

Oh well. When TokyoPop goes under I'll raise a drink to them and say "sorry to see you lasted this long".


Sorry Lys, but I'd have to agree. I don't think any English teacher (of any grade) worth their salt would assign TokyoPop's Furuba manga to their students. They'd learn what not to do, but only if they already know about tautologies etc.

SnaphappyFMA wrote:
Lillian Diaz-Pryzbyl was an excellent editor and a class act at Tokyopop. Hope another publisher picks her up soon. This long slow death of the manga industry in America is getting very hard to watch... Sad


ANN lists Lillian as a "copy editor" for Fruits Basket. I don't know exactly what that entails, but whatever it was, it was very sub-par.


Here is a link to Wikipedia about what a copy editor does

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_editing
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adam_omega



Joined: 29 Aug 2005
Posts: 256
Location: Seven Seas
PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 10:14 am Reply with quote
HyugaHinata wrote:
ANN lists Lillian as a "copy editor" for Fruits Basket. I don't know exactly what that entails, but whatever it was, it was very sub-par.


Fruits Basket went though a number of editors over the course of its entire run, which is the case with a large number of Tokyopop books.
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HyugaHinata



Joined: 25 Jun 2005
Posts: 3505
PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 10:20 am Reply with quote
adam_omega wrote:
HyugaHinata wrote:
ANN lists Lillian as a "copy editor" for Fruits Basket. I don't know exactly what that entails, but whatever it was, it was very sub-par.


Fruits Basket went though a number of editors over the course of its entire run, which is the case with a large number of Tokyopop books.


That may be part of the issue.

Editors who haven't read/edited the series from page 1 will often edit things differently from those who have.
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ZeetherKID77



Joined: 17 Jun 2007
Posts: 980
PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 11:18 am Reply with quote
Stu Levy wrote:
I brought manga to America.

This statement makes me laugh, because he didn't just bring manga to the US, he butchered it beyond all belief. Way to go, Stu.
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Teriyaki Terrier



Joined: 26 Mar 2008
Posts: 5689
PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 1:01 pm Reply with quote
Jaymie wrote:
http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/03/02/tokyopop-follow-up-is-stuart-levy-the-charlie-sheen-of-comics/

Allegedly there are only 7 people left at Tokyopop, and they are now relying 100% on Freelancers.

Game Over?


2013, that is the year Tokyo Pop is likely to go out of business either because of literally no money left, having massive debts that have yet to be paid or because Stuart Levy sells off Tokyo Pop in a feeble, desperate attempt to make some money he could live off until he finds new work or something like that.

Back in the day, Tokyo Pop actually was a fairly decent and awesome company (like Sony.) But like Sony, Tokyo Pop changed and that change has lead us to what is going on now and days with Tokyo Pop.

Essentially, what happened to Broccoli Books will happen to Tokyo Pop, in the sense Tokyo Pop will eventually close down, either.

I really feel bad for the employees who lost their job though. Hopefully they can find new work sooner than later.
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Stan1



Joined: 19 Mar 2008
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:06 pm Reply with quote
ZeetherKID77 wrote:
Stu Levy wrote:
I brought manga to America.

This statement makes me laugh, because he didn't just bring manga to the US, he butchered it beyond all belief. Way to go, Stu.


Do not forget about Studio Ironcat & other groundbreaking sutdios:)
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