Well worth reading. Bring some kleenex:
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Two sellers on Amazon Marketplace wind up their toys and let them go. We end up with a 23-million dollar book about flies:
http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358
I don’t think Watson would approve.
For those of us who read comics–of whatever type–Tokyopop has been a major force in the industry for about 15 years. They took a slowly maturing market, and showed how it could be turned into a major runaway success.
They’ve been in trouble for the past few years, and laid off all but about 5 people around the beginning of the year. And this week the business closed its doors.
This is just the latest in a series of closures in the American Manga/Anime business. As a fan, I’ve been unhappy to see the various companies go, even though I could see the downcycle after the boom coming from years away.
I cannot be unhappy that Tokyopop is gone.
This blog post best articulates why, though he goes into things I had only vaguely suspected:
http://matt-thorn.com/wordpress/?p=495
This is a somewhat better overview of just went wrong at Tokyopop:
http://www.rocketbomber.com/2011/04/18/i-hate-stu-levy
And a rant about the ‘OEL Manga’ line:
http://khyungbird.livejournal.com/82308.html
The real problem was the man at the top. Did Stu Levy start Tokyopop because of a passion for comics/manga? No. He started it because he could, and to be on top of something ‘cool’. Tokyopop marketed manga pretty much purely as the new ‘in and cool thing’. Now, this is a great way to get word out to the audience that most manga is aimed at in the first place, but it’s not a long-term strategy.
The ‘coolness’ of anything has a time limit. For the mainstream in the mid-90s, anime and manga were still brand new, and the ‘never seen before’ factor is what allowed it to be cool. It has now been seen before. The mainstream has been aware of manga and anime for as long as many high-schoolers have been alive now. (Ow. That was painful to write.)
Once that was over, the Tokyopop’s ability to do things on the cheap and cash in was limited. Also, just in case you didn’t catch it from the above links, Tokyopop’s contracts with their stable of original artists were crap. Thankfully, companies that invite creator-originated content, and then treat the creators like crap have trouble lasting (I’m looking at you Sirius).
Okay, this has turned from a quick note to point up the first link to a full rant. *sigh*
I’m going to have to rate this con two out of three… days.
Smudge and I attended the 25th Wondercon this weekend (which is really scary when you realize that it started just a couple years before we started attending Comic Con). We cruised through most of the main floor on Friday, and managed to look at it all in some detail on Saturday.
Friday was the main panel day, with about 5 panels we wanted to attend. Naturally, the most important one was the last one of the day, and was hit by an unannounced room change.
The main dealer’s hall was something of a step back in time. None of the manga or anime companies were present, and while there were booths that had translated manga graphic novels, it was not a focus at any booth, and anime was next to non-existent. However, I’d say booths selling just Japanese figures outnumbered booths selling just American figures (action and non) by a fair amount, though there were a fair number with both with an emphasis on the American side.
Most telling by its absence was webcomics. Looking for Group was there, and so was Shortpacked/Dumbing of Age, and Lackadaisy. That was pretty much it.
The only sign of any gaming industry was the large Nintendo booth.
Smudge and I certainly managed a fair amount of loot. I went straight for volume 3(A) of Age of Bronze, which gets me caught up to the graphic novels. I hope that Betrayal Part 2 (3B) comes out soon…. Thanks to the ubiquitous 50% off boxes, I also finally got a copy of Marvels; pretty good, but it just stops instead of really ending. My main ‘surprise’ purchase was Star Trek: Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor, since I liked the high concept of following McCoy around during the period immediately before the first movie, I gave it a try. Not great, but certainly not bad.
Smudge got a Winry (Fullmetal Alchemist) figure that she’s been meaning to get for years, and a very nicely done Mikuru (Haruhi) figure as well as a few of the small random-pack figures that have gotten popular (I also ended up with a small Yoko from Guren Lagan). Book-wise she got a graphic novel adaptation of The Last Unicorn (and got it signed by Peter Beagle), very pretty, but rushes through the story quite a bit; Bilile the Unicorn, a sweet children’s book, that has a supporting unicorn character named “Smudge” (instant sell!), and a nicely produced art-book for Serial Experiment Lain (1/4 price).
Sadly, while we were walking to the con on Sunday, Smudge tripped in a pothole, and banged herself up pretty good. Thankfully, we were still only a block away from the train station at the time, so it wasn’t too hard to go home, and then check into a hospital. A couple of lightly banged up knees, hands… a badly sprained ankle, and a broken bone in her right elbow. We got back to Sunnyvale around 2, but between the Emergency Room, and getting shuffled elsewhere, they weren’t done with her until around 1 in the morning.
*sigh*
Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.
The Coalition turn left Kzinti space in a real mess. There were plenty of lightly-defended targets, but at the same time, the Hegemony Navy was not in the best of shape itself. I resolved to limit myself to a few important goals and concentrate on them.
Sadly, I didn’t take proper stock of the situation on the Hydran border. I ended up wasting any opportunities by spreading the fleet out too much, and not concentrating enough to actually achieve anything. Complicating matters was the fact that the reserves were almost universally in range of the Hydran border.
One error that thankfully only had minor consequences: Belirahc has been towing around some unassembled Mobile Bases for the past couple turns. He asked me about the timing of setting them up late in his turn. It was pretty obvious he wanted to set something up, but then nothing happened, but I forgot to double-check with him until a decent chunk of my movement was done. It turned out the Klingons were setting up a MB in 1304.
My goals on the Kzinti Front were clear: Keep the MB from setting up, kick the Coalition off of as many planets as possible, evacuate my cripples off the map, and hunker down to defend the remaining SB and the homeworlds. The Hydran front never got a clear goal, other than trying to raid a few BATS, and good maneuvering kept me from getting any freebies.
Activity on the Kzinti front.
Activity on the Hydran front.
All this led to a few fights where I’d had to pin him away from the real action, but neither of us really wanted to take casualties.
Combats:
1503: Klingon unopposed withdrawal to 1504
1203: Klingon unopposed withdrawal to 1303
1304: Klingon: crip D5, F5, 5xE4; dest D6D, MB abandoned
1004: Lyran unopposed withdrawal to 0905
1202: Kzinti: capture planet; Klingon: dest E4
1001: Kzinti: capture planet; Lyran: dest 2xCW
0413: Hydran: dest 2xCU; Lyran: crip 2xCA, FF
1112: Hydran: retreat to 1012
1013: Hydran: dest LM; Klingon: crip D6M, D6
1214: Klingon: crip D7
1014: Hydran: crip HN, Klingon: crip D5, F5
Things went well on the Kzinti front. After a couple rounds, he was forced to abandon the MB, though I was unable to generate enough damage to actually Direct Damage kill the tug responsible. I also forced him off of 1001 and 1202, pushing the Coalition further away from the capital.
The Hydran front did not go as well. Again, I was too spread out, keeping the Hydrans from getting good lines up, and not allowing any fighter reserves. Worse, I got forgetful, and forgot to put the command ship in formation in 1013, allowing the Klingons to kill a Lord Marshal command cruiser.
Everything retrograded back to defensive positions after combat. I used field repair on a couple of Kzinti escorts that had been damaged during the Coalition half of the turn and stranded away from repair facilities. This was part of the plan, but the Kzinti budget is stretched really thin right now. I’m likely to be canceling builds as it is, and this will make it harder. But I wanted the extra operational carrier group. Meanwhile, the Hydrans are setting up a MB in the capital, and have hauled one FRD to safety in the off-map area.