Via PR:

The Japanese manga and animation powerhouses Shogakukan Inc., Shueisha Inc. and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions Co., Ltd. (Shogakukan & Shueisha Group) announced today their joint acquisition of Kaze S.A.S. (Kaze) and Anime Virtual S.A. (Anime Virtual), two of Europe’s leading distributors and licensees of Japanese animation.  With this acquisition, the group positions itself as a major multi-media force throughout Europe for manga-based Japanese animation and entertainment. Paris-based subsidiary VIZ Media Europe (VME, President, John P. Easum) will helm the group’s Europe activities, with Kaze and Anime Virtual now part of its stable. 

Prior to acquiring Kaze and Anime Virtual, Shogakukan & Shueisha Group managed VME’s European operations through its U.S. based subsidiary VIZ Media, LLC (VMC, President, Hidemi Fukuhara).  

Since the launch of VIZ Media Europe in 2007, Shogakukan & Shueisha Group, in cooperation with VMC and VME has continued to study the European market for opportunities to grow the fan base and to offer a greater range of Japan’s highest quality manga and anime content. Kaze and Anime Virtual were chosen to be the key drivers of this pan-European strategy and the timing is perfect as a rising demand for manga-based animation meets the growth of multi-platform distribution channels.
 
Kaze (President, Cedric Littardi) mainly operates in French speaking territories and Anime Virtual (President, Nicolas Weber-Krebs) operates primarily in German speaking territories.  Their combined core businesses include TV sales, DVD and music distribution, film distribution, consumer products, and new digital distribution and broadcast platforms, as well as manga publishing in French speaking territories.  
This acquisition provides Shogakukan & Shueisha Group with several critical tools:
• Direct DVD publishing and distribution in France and Germany.
• TV broadcast and distribution through various new platforms and technologies.
• Development and licensing of consumer products.
• Direct manga publishing and distribution ability throughout French speaking Europe.
• Innovative brand building across a full spectrum of media, including manga publishing, animation licensing, animation broadcasting, consumer product licensing and new digital platforms. 
 
The new company, which will be wholly owned by Shogakukan & Shueisha Group, will integrate VME, Kaze, Anime Virtual and their subsidiary companies under a unified infrastructure and administration. John P. Easum, has been named President/Gérant of the new company and will head up the group’s European operations. The head office will remain in Paris. Cedric Littardi and Nicolas Weber-Krebs have been appointed managing directors. 

Explains Mr. Easum, “This is a very exciting development for all parties involved in this venture. Kaze and Anime Virtual are proven pioneers and leaders in the distribution of Japanese content. This acquisition benefits Shogakukan & Shueisha Group with Kaze and Anime Virtual’s proven local market expertise, marketing innovation and experienced management.  We will now be in a much better position to support our many partners, while proactively developing the market by bringing a greater variety of content to our fans in a much more effective and timely manner.” 

Mr. Masahiro Oga, President of Shogakukan Inc. adds: “Through this venture, the new company will be able to dedicate itself to serving a growing market for Japanese manga and animation.  By building a closer bridge between Japan and our partners and markets in Europe, we are confident the new company will succeed in delivering more excitement for our fans while growing new markets for Japanese content.” 

There were a couple more iPhone comics announcement in our inbox this morning, bringing the approximate number of iPhone related comics announcements this week to 5,684 or so. Rather than run them all we’ll refer you to ICv2’s brief overview of the field which notes that the number of companies offering comics on iPhones has more than doubled in the past two months. And

It’s been 60 days since we updated our directory of mobile comics content (primarily for the iPhone, see “Mobile Comics Directory—Update #4”), and the number of titles available (most of which include multiple issues) has gone from 105 to 207 in that time. 

Manga writer/editor/NYTimes best selling author Jake Forbes looks at the rush but takes a more critical eye with Four Challenges for Digital Comics to Overcome:

Digital comics, in their present state, are require too much compromise. The market is fragmented, with some being device specific (iPhone and a few Kindle titles) or locked to the publisher’s site (like all of VIZ or Marvel’s offerings). Offerings are still slim, with poor representation of the classics (Sandman, Maus, Bone, Blankets, anything Tezuka, and too many others to list). And as for offering an alternative to buying print comics, digital isn’t even close. At this point, it’s hard to even fathom today’s digital offerings making up a proper “collection.”

Among Forbes’ other observations — webcomics and manga are thus far very underserved on the iPhone.

Rich Johnston reports the rumor that has been swirling around for the last few weeks from multiple sources: a new boss for DC, namely Diane Nelson currently president of Warners’ direct-to-DVD branch Warner Premiere. DC honcho Paul Levitz had been reporting to Time-Warner president and COO Alan Horn, after a period several years ago where he reported to Nelson’s boss, Kevin Tsujihara, currently president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group but then at a different, lower level position.

Nelson was responsible for handling relations between J.K. Rowling and Warners during the Harry Potter production process, a tricky task which won her many plaudits. Last year she was behind the WATCHMEN motion comics move, talking it up in this interview at Newsarama, so she’s clearly interested in the characters.

Time Warner typically has a very complicated corporate structure, and like does not necessarily go with like, as DC Comics’ distance from the publishing arm (Time, which Time-Warner is desperately trying to unload) and absorption into the movie studio arm shows. DC has usually come under minimal corporate supervision (Alan Horn seems to have bigger fish to fry) but an exception was Tsujihara, who implemented a number of key hires and initiatives at DC. Speculation is that Nelson, who was hired by Tsujihara, would be much more hands on as well.

The success of DC’s movie characters has put them back on the corporate map, but the studio surely is concerned about bringing those characters into greater play, especially with the tremendous success Marvel has had leveraging their characters, becoming the darlings of Wall Street in the process. Marvel’s revenue of $719 million is less than two percent of Time-Warner’s nearly $46 billion annual sales. Yet Wall Street values Marvel at approximately $3 billion and Time-Warner at $34 billion or nearly nine percent of the home of Batman. With the value of Time-Warner stock lagging for several years, it stands to reason that corporate would be anxious to unlock the value of DC Comics as effectively as the House of Ideas has their own IP.

Developing, as they say.

ICv2 sits down for its yearly or so confab with DC Publisher and PresidentPaul Levitz and it took all I could muster not to title this post “a wobble feel”, but I resisted. The interview runs in three parts and Levitz seems relaxed and more wide ranging than in some previous editions; and why not? DC has had a good few years with Batman and WATCHMEN driving GN/backlist sales. A few quotes:

Do you feel like the American graphic novels are up then?
They were massively up.  I don’t have the numbers we pulled in front of me, but I think the American graphic novel business was up, certainly more than the book store business.  On a title-by-title basis, we’re seeing individual titles that are the logical after-effects of Watchmen op anywhere from about 25 to 200%.  Two hundred per cent would be for V for Vendetta, which is an obvious sort of next purchase after Watchmen.

Part Two:

You’re transitioning away from, for lack of a better term, the homespun period of the business. When you had a very small section of graphic novels in the comic shop it was very easy for the proprietor to bet on anything that happened to be in the catalog. It doesn’t matter whether I know anything about the writer, or the artist, you got a good little blurb. When you go to a world in which the large publishers are sending you out a galley version of the graphic novel six months in advance, and are announcing on the back cover the five-step marketing program that they’re doing for it, it’s a lot harder for the little guy who’s launching it from home to do it.

and Part Three:

I think there are a couple of important threshold questions you’re looking at. One which doesn’t get nearly enough exploration in these situations where people are considering transmedia, is that different properties have different levels of intrinsic comfort with collaboration. I’m not sure why that is, but if you look at the properties that have succeeded in transmedia, a very high proportion of them are properties that have had a lot of different creative people executing the property early on.

A couple of other interesting bullet points: DC is taking a wait and see attitude on digital distribution: “But it’s not a game changer, or certainly wouldn’t be a game changer for us.  Will that be different any minute now?  Maybe.” We can see a few people shaking their heads over that one.

And the assertion that in the new BookScan environment, creators who don’t come through will stop getting infinite chances.

While we were having vacations and internet problems last week, there were several stories that we had queued up that never got off the launching pad. Just to keep the narrative straight:

• Sony announced that the new PSP would include a digital comics reader and that Marvel and IDW comics would be available through the system at iTunes-like pricing. Obviously, another piece of track in the railroad that is going to join comics and profitable digital distribution has just been laid down. Plus…think of the transmedia possibilities!

• Diamond announced a skip shipping week between Christmas and New Years , due to the UPS deadlines shifting (although is was probably also a cost saving measure.) Although Xmas and New Year’s have fallen on a Friday in the past, this is the first skip week in a long time. Retailer reaction was a little mixed — some had thought this was a dead period anyway; others bemoaned readers with gift cards roaming the streets and no new product to sell them. (Frankly we spend our Xmas money from Granny on things we’ve long dreamed of owning, not a new issue of DARK REIGN: MISTER NEGATIVE but YMMV.) We sent some questions off to Diamond regarding the move but haven’t heard back yet.

• Tom Spurgeon and Hervé St-Louis had a dustup over the Superman copyright story. While we side with Tom in that anyone who thinks the Siegel family does not deserve what is legally theirs and that the original Superman publishers did not act so unscrupulously in defrauding two naive youngsters of the fruits of the labors that US copyright law was partially changed to reflect it—is a tool. However, as St-Louis’s final offering showed, that isn’t quite what he was saying — he’s more of a “copylefter” who believe that stringent copyright protection is lame (short version.) St-Louis is definitely one of the more “opinionated” columnists out there, and perhaps we should just leave it at that.

Jim Milliot at PW summarizes Marvel’s latest financials, and they back up the idea of a softer 2nd quarter for comics publishing in general:

Publishing revenue at Marvel Entertainment was flat in the second quarter, slipping from $31.8 million to $31.7 million. Operating income fell more noticeably, dropping 6.8%, to $10.9 million. Lower level of high margin advertising and custom publishing sales were cited as the reason for the decline in earnings. For the first six months of 2009, sales in the publishing segment fell 1.4%, to $57.5 million, and operating income declined 17.1%, to $17.9 million. The company said it expects the publishing segment to finish 2009 with revenue between $115 million and $120 million; in 2008 sales were $125.4 million.

Frank Santoro has posted an important essay on the end of the direct market as a conduit between comics for art and comics for commerce :

The bridge is over. From 1975 to 2005, the Direct Market was the bridge from the old world “Comics-as-ephemera”, returnable periodicals model to the new world “Comics-as-Literature” bookstore model. The bridge changed comics, saved it from sure death on the newsstand and put comics in a place of permanence. Everyone in Comics has noted the consolidation of the DM and the rise of the chain bookstores & the internet as venues for new work. Now, this year, more than ever, I seem to be repeatedly noting to myself the real split between the mainstream and the alternative sides of comics.

The comment section is an all-star think tank and other comments are springing up. We were so busy finishing up our debut novel “Comic-Con report” that we haven’t had time to fully digest it, but we’ll join in as soon as we’ve had our tea.

Just before CCI San Diego kicked off, we reported on a possible security breach at Travel Planners, the company that handles hotel bookings for Comic-Con. Although TP denied the problem, there is quite a bit of anecdotal evidence that suggests that credit cards that were used to book rooms in 2008 may have been hacked, as several people have reported foreign travel being booked on the credit cards they used to book their hotels for the ‘08 con.

Since then, we’ve received another email from a reputable source pointing out two stories about how hosting company Network Solutions servers had been hacked.

Is this in any way related to the Travel Planners mystery? A whois search reveals that TP is listed under Network Solutions.

However, a TP spokesperson contacted by our correspondent said that TP is not hosted by Network Solutions but by IBM.

Please note, we didn’t contact TP ourselves, so you can make of this what you will. Apparently, the matter is still being investigated. Now that Comic-con is over, perhaps someone can figure out just what is going on here.

Never a dull moment, as Publishers Weekly has gone up for sale:

Reed Business Information is putting Publishers Weekly and its affiliated publications, Library Journal and School Library Journal, up for sale. The sale of the group is part of RBI’s strategy to divest most of its trade magazines in the U.S. Last year, Reed Elsevier, parent company of RBI, tried to sell all of RBI but dropped the sale when it couldn’t get the price it wanted in a depressed market for media properties. In a related announcement, Tad Smith, CEO of RBI US, has resigned. John Poulin has been named acting CEO and he will head the sales process.

The sale is part of Reed-Elsevier’s attempt to divest itself of most of its trade magazines, according to Folio:

Among the magazines for sale are Broadcasting & Cable, Mutichannel News, Professional Builder, Publishers Weekly and Tradeshow Week.

Reed said it will retain its Reed Construction Data, RSMeans, Variety, MarketCast, LA411 and BuyerZone properties. The company put RBI on the block in February 2008.

Just in time for Comic-Con!

Today at Comic-Con International, Iconology Inc. announced the launch of its Comics by comiXology App on the App Store. The Comics by comiXology App is a digital comic store, library and reader for iPhone and iPod touch that is launching with over 100 titles available from twenty popular comic publishers and many independent comic writers.“The stunning display and innovative multi-touch user interface of iPhone and iPod touch have finally made comics appealing in a digital format,” said David Steinberger, CEO of Iconology, Inc. “By combining great comics with iPhone OS 3.0’s In-App Purchasing and location awareness features we are creating a revolution in the way comics are sold and read which could only happen with iPhone and iPod touch.”

(more…)

We received a note from Susie Lee who reports that some of the credit cards on record at Travel Planners may have been compromised — she and no less than THREE of her friends have found fraudulent charges on their cards that were used to book hotel rooms with Travel Planners, including airline ticket purchases.

At the very least, checking your credit card statement right now isn’t a bad idea.

UPDATE: We originally posted this so as to alert as many people as possible, but please be advised that Travel Planners has investigated and found there was no breach. Their statement reads:

Obviously we were very alarmed at the implication that security at Travel Planners had been compromised. As you can imagine, we take credit card security and the confidence people place in our services very seriously. After a review of security we’ve determined that there has been no breech on any of the systems maintained by Travel Planners. This includes not only systems which deal with Comic-Con but on all systems throughout.

Guests of Comic-Con who may have questions regarding this matter please contact Groups@tphousing.com and write Comic-Con in the subject line.

We would urge anyone who thinks they have been victims of fraud to contact Travel Planners directly.

A shake up in KC, as comics strip giant Andrews McMeel has consolidated its syndications and online divisions, merging syndicate Universal Press Syndicate with digital entertainment company Uclick .

The resulting company, called Universal Uclick, will encompass print and digital syndication and licensing services.

Universal Press Syndicate President Lee Salem will take over as interim CEO of Universal Uclick. Douglas Edwards, who had been CEO of Uclick, resigned effective Tuesday.

Universal Uclick Marketing Director Paul Richardson said that Edwards left the company to seek other opportunities but described the split as amicable.

The article goes on to say that the reconfiguration will combine processes for a more efficient company.

Universal is the syndicate behind such comic strip giants as Doonesbury and Garfield, and Andrews McMeel has long published collections of these strips. In recent months Uclick had gotten into digital distribution of the same; merging the two arms is yet another tacit acknowledgment that digital distribution is now as important as print.

Lost in all the excitement over Gilbert Hernandez’s new superhero Dreamstar last week, is the fact that Dark Horse Presents has left MySpace. Given the social networking site’s unfriending of hundred of employees — including those that ran the comics site — this is pretty low on the surprise meter. ICv2 caught up with editor Sierra Hahn for more info:

The new issue of Dark Horse Presents isn’t up on the Dark Horse My Space pages, which don’t seem to have changed in quite a while. Why did you elect to put it up on the Dark Horse site?

The issue currently on MySpace Dark Horse Presents is issue #23 and went live on June 3rd. Issue #24 was supposed to go live on MySpace on July 1st, but due to the unforeseen layoffs at MySpace, and the changes made with the department that we’ve worked closely with for the last two years, it was clear that we weren’t going to be able to post issue #24 on time. The artists on these projects have worked hard these last months to generate great content for the newest issue, and I didn’t want readers to miss their Dark Horse Presents fix. So when we realized that it was too soon to sort out the changes with MySpace, we decided to host the newest issue on our site.

The latest issue contains the almost greatest yaoi moment ever, in a Buffy story by Joss Whedon and Jo Chen, new Matt Kindt and Mike Lawrence, as well.

• The weekly comic strip “Tom the Dancing Bug” by Ruben Bolling won the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ 2009 award for Best Cartoon in a ceremony that took place in Tucson on June 26. The list of winners can be seen here.

“Tom the Dancing Bug” is distributed by Universal Press Syndicate to about 50 newspapers and also appears in Salon.com. One of the characters from the comic strip, “Harvey Richards, Lawyer for Children,” is in development at New Line Cinema, where a live action comedy is planned.

• There seems to be a lot of legal issues surrounding Frank Frazetta’s artwork. Now, there are also a lot of press releases concerning the legal issues over Frank Frazetta’s artwork.

• Sandy Bilus unearths Marvel’s 1993 Annual Report — prepared at the zenith of the Ron Perelman era, it was presented in a comic book format, and the graphics provide a picture of a very, very different company 16 years ago (click for larger image).

Sweet Christmas! Can you believe it? A mere six percent of Marvel’s revenue was from licensing, while nearly half — 48.2 percent — was from trading cards! (Marvel owned Fleer at the time, and it was the height of trading card madness.) Wow, that sure didn’t last. Did anyone think it would?

Today Marvel is mostly a licensing company, with net sales in 2008 at $676 million. Much more in the link.

At Comic Book Bin, Hervé St-Louis asks Is There a Steve Jobs in the Comic Book Industry?

In order for a similar persona to exist in the comic book industry, such a person would have to share Jobs’ equal business acumen, draw a legion of supporters and evangelists, be continually spearhead breakthroughs in the comic book industry, have a magnetic and inspiring personality, be a creative individual with the willingness to change and contest the rules. That person must be someone whose products are constantly copied by competitors. People must want to associate with the products from that individual in order to improve their own standing. That person must have a track sheet of successful endeavours and projects that establish its credibility. This author has looked at many individuals in the comic book industry and here is what I came up.

It’s a great question, although the list and analysis aren’t what WE’D write — and there is at least one person on the list that no one we’ve ever talked to has wanted to be like — but it’s a start. Who are the visionaries of the comics industry? Who are the FUTURE visionaries of the comics industry?

Via PR, we may be seeing a more “rock ‘n’ roll” Archie soon.

Jon Goldwater CEO of Archie Comics: The Archie Comics line of comic books is one of the most successful, longest running lines in the history of the comic industry. As the son of Archie Comics founder John L. Goldwater he looks forward to expanding the role of his family’s company, Archie Comics Publications, in prominence in the comic book medium as well as other media. Jon Goldwater began his career 20 years ago as the partner to the Japanese concert promoter, Zak Concerts. On Zak Concerts’ behalf, Jon Goldwater negotiated concert major tours of Japan include the “Super Rock Festival” and many others. He is the former President and CEO of AFA Music Group, Ltd., the Executive Producer of the film, “Return of Superfly”, He has served as President and CEO of Crash Management Inc.

Using his vast experience in the entertainment industry he plans on focusing his attention on a variety of family entertainment projects from his family business, suitable for your family. Jon Goldwater plans on bringing the kids from Riverdale to a larger multi-media audience. He is also looking ahead to developing new projects focusing on not just Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jugehead and Reggie, but other long standing Archie Properties such as Katy Keene, Lil Jinx, the Red Circle Heroes, Sabrina, Josie & the Pussycats, Cosmo The Merry Martian, Pat The Brat, Wilbur Wilkins, Bingo Wilkins, Suzie and Ginger Snapp. just to name a few.

Jon Goldwater purchased an ownership interest in the company with the intent of making Archie Comic entertainment powerhouse. In his first few days as CEO he has already started negotiations on projects that will be announced shortly, including a big budget Archie feature film, a new Archie animated project, a Katy Keene television program and a major music deal for the Archies. Every effort will me made to bring all the Archie Comics properties to the forefront of the entertainment industry.

Harris Comics — home of Vampirella — discusses the character’s return and new price point — FELL format — in an editorial by Bon Alimagno.

So we set a goal: break back into the Top 100 for the first time in years. But we knew what we were up against. Even armed with a stellar, game changing story by Phil Hester and art by future star Daniel Sampere, we faced an army of torch-bearing doubters and critics. We needed to do something radical, something that would break through the pollution of hype and nonsense that fills your daily intake of comics news and assorted mumbo-jumbo. So we put our money where our mouth is: we’re pricing every issue, yes, EVERY ISSUE, of this miniseries $1.99.

We’re still collating comments and results from the unprecedented Monday-shipping CAPTAIN AMERICA #600, but while you’re all waiting, Marvel is proclaiming success in the usual way…with a second printing!

This week, there’s no bigger super hero than Captain America and mainstream media frenzy caused Captain America #600 to sell out immediately (though copies may be available at the retail level). To meet this overwhelming demand, Marvel is going back to press with Captain America #600 Second Printing Variant, from Eisner Award-winning scribe Ed Brubaker and a cavalcade of artistic superstars! How does the Marvel Universe react to the one year anniversary of Captain America’s death? What happens when Rikki Barnes meets Patriot? And just what does Sharon Carter know that leads into the hotly anticipated Captain America Reborn #1? Find out here! Captain America #600 Second Printing Variant features the stunning interior art of Butch Guice on a new cover!

Following an unprecedented Monday on-sale of Captain America #600 and mainstream media coverage of Captain America, retailers nationwide report that Captain America is all the rage!

(more…)

As reported widely yesterday, MySpace, the once ascendant social networking site, laid off over 400 people yesterday — a third of its workforce — in the same month that it announced that rival Facebook had surpassed the Fox-owned site in number of users.

According to Comics Alliance, the layoffs included the people running MySpace Comics, a once lively site that had presented regular original content, including Cup O’ Joe (now moved to CBR) and MySpace Dark Horse Presents, an online anthology series by top name creators. That feature’s fate has long been the topic of much speculation given MySpace’s stagnating fortunes, and the departure in an earlier round of layoffs of Sam Humphries, who spearheaded the comics effort. Dark Horse is still deciding what to do with the feature,

According to a Dark Horse spokesman, “We are currently gathering information on the future and direction of the site to determine whether or not this kind of program will continue to make sense there. However, even before yesterday’s news, we had already begun discussions on the future of Dark Horse Presents, and are working on ideas on what will now be the appropriate venue to continue what has been a very successful program for Dark Horse and all of the creators who have participated thus far.”

MySpace DHP gave rise to several well-received print collections and an Eisner win for Best Digital Comic for Sugarshock by Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon, so continuing the anthology somewhere would seem to make a lot of sense.

Meanwhile, The LA Times had a lengthy analysis of MySpace’s business stumblings. The perceived missteps are numerous. Some observers say it clung too long to a “portal strategy,” in which it sought to amass an audience around entertainment content.

By contrast, Facebook maintained its focus on features that enhance the social-networking experience, such as the “News Feed” that matches the immediacy of Twitter’s staccato updates. “The speed with which a company like Facebook is able to innovate and keep things fresh is the key to survival in this space,” said Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group, a research firm specializing in social networking. “There are new things like Twitter that come along. What does Facebook do? It does Twitter . . . and it does it better.”

With Myspace ditching the “portal” concept, it sounds like Myspace Comicbooks was already on the way out. See also this Crain’s piece. It’s hard to believe Fox head Rupert Murdoch was once seen as a visionary for buying MySpace, isn’t it now?

Meanwhile, new social web darling, Twitter, has yet to show a way of earning any money, and YouTube’s losses are a party game:

Technology consultants RampRate Inc. projects YouTube’s operating losses this year at $174.2 million — far below the $470.6 million estimated by Credit Suisse analysts Spencer Wang and Kenneth Sena in an April research report that became a hot topic on Wall Street and the Internet.

The dueling forecasts are the latest twist in a guessing game that has intrigued investors since Google bought YouTube for $1.76 billion in late 2006.

Although YouTube has become an even more popular diversion since the Google deal, it still hasn’t proven it can make money.

Mountain View-based Google has acknowledged YouTube isn’t profitable, but has refused to provide any specifics, leaving it to outsiders to figure out

§ Eroto-manga-ka SABE has passed away at age 41. Warning, the link is VERY, VERY NSFW…in fact it may even be something that you could go to jail for.

§ In Wizard news, long-time art director Arlene So and Darren Sanchez, VP of Production and Circulation, are new layoffs. So was an institution and former Wizard employees — honestly, you can’t swing a cat without hitting one in NYC — were shocked to hear of her dismissal. Is anyone reminded of the way you throw some people off as a balloon is leaking gas, just to keep from landing in the crocodile tank? Wizard is also having big problems at Amazon, where they have a 64% negative feedback rating.

§ANN reports on the liquidation of manga pioneer CPM’s licenses:

The New York company MYC & Associates is liquidating the licenses of the bankrupt anime distributor Central Park Media (CPM). David Kittay, the trustee that the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York assigned to handle CPM’s assets, appointed MYC & Associates to handle the liquidation. MYC & Associates has provided a list of CPM’s former assets, including the partial listing of copyrights below. However, CPM did not retain permanent ownership of most of these titles, so many of these copyrights cover only the materials that CPM itself produced, such as subtitles, dubbing, and packaging. Darkside Blues, Grave of the Fireflies, M.D. Geist., and Now and Then, Here and There have already been acquired by A.D. Vision for DVD reissues.

Whew, there were more emails about new books for MOCCA than ever before — more both in number and in the detail of the submissions. This is attributable to the fact that people really need PR now, and they are getting hepper to the ways to do it. It took a looong time to put it all together, part of which was due to my computer slowing up because I was foolishly running a CPU hog Apple Script at the same time. But also because, while most folks did things right, there were a few who didn’t. To make my life and all press’s life easier here are a few teeny pointers:

1) Include your website address! Prominently! In the first few lines. A surprising number of people didn’t, and I was nice and looked them up (most of the time) but maybe I won’t be able to next time. A link to your website is the best way to get people to see the WHOLE story of your book.

2) Include an image! People aren’t really interested in a big block of type. It’s why I bold names. Almost everyone sent an image or a link to an image (even better) to where to find one, but for those who didn’t, I can’t look it up for you.

3) Make sure it is a properly formatted image! DO NOT SEND PDFS!!! Really now. Reformatting a pdf file just to get a cover image is a hassle that wastes time. Also, some people nicely sent along links to pdfs of their entire giant books…I may read these later, but for promo, it’s not as effective. Again, I don’t want to have to download a giant pdf file to get one little cover imge. Also, don’t forget to make sure your files are RGB! Often I won’t notice a CMYK file has been posted until it’s posted and you send me an email and tell me your image looks wonky. Waste of time for everyone. I will almost certainly shrink down the image but you can send it big — as long as it’s at a low resolution. If it’s a great looking cover, I prefer to run it at a size where it has some impact. To recap:

Cover jpg
72 dpi
RGB

4) A sentence or two — and just that! — of why your book is notable isn’t a bad idea. In a listing like this, the image is going to be the thing that people notice first, but an idea of the contents will help drive people interested in that kind of thing to your table.

Once again, for those who didn’t do it exactly as I suggest above, I’m still gonna list your book, but make it easy for me and everyone else and we’ll think of you kindly.

Above all…thanks to everyone who took the time to send me their listings and announcements and schedules. It is always fun for me to see what people have cooking up and there are definitely some people I never heard of before that I will be checking out at the show.

Technorati Tags: Mocca 09

The Baltimore City Paper has news of another debt against Diamond owner Steve Geppi,, this time a $600K loan from Camden National Bank in Maine, used for a controversial land purchase in Maine. This debt is related to a previously reported $16 million debt to PNC bank, which, according to a story in the Bangor Daily News, is the unpaid mortgage on the Maine property purchased by Geppi and partner Walter Skayhan. Property use included converting a closed mill into luxury condos (above):

The action is a response to an emergency motion filed March 19 by an attorney for PNC Bank of Pittsburgh, Pa. That bank holds a large mortgage — including $14.7 million in unpaid principal — on the properties. According to the bank, Maine Investment Properties and the limited liability companies are in default of the mortgage.

In 2005, Maine Investment Properties purchased from credit card lender MBNA several properties in Rockland, Camden, Belfast and Northport that were assessed at $50 million.

Company partners Walter Skayhan and Steve Geppi converted part of the sprawling former textile mill in Camden into 30 luxury condos. The company also donated one property, the Camden Area Christian Food Pantry on Mount Battie Street, to that charitable organization in 2007.

Two and a half years ago, firm vice president Brett Cohen called the Knox Mill complex “a true success story” in an interview with the Bangor Daily News.

As our previous story reported, Geppi has several other outstanding personal debts which are unrelated to Diamond, and other local investments, including his Entertainment Museum and the Baltimore Orioles, continue to struggle in the ongoing tough economy.

First link via Kevin Melrose.

The news which we reported on Monday, that Marvel would allow a much later than normal final order cutoff for REBORN #1 to be able to take advantage of hoped-for media coverage, drew a follow-up post from Brian Hibbs analyzing what could drive readers into stores, but for his store, Marvel’s actions still come up wanting:

What’s horrifically fucked up about the CAPTAIN AMERICA #600 portion of this game is that that, effectively, most retailers had about a 3 hour window (on a Wednesday, fercryinoutloud — when most retailers are frantically trying to help customers and don’t have time to be obsessively checking email every 3 minutes) to make the decision whether to bring in those Monday CAPs or not. If you waited until Thursday it was too late to place order increases. Too bad, so sad.

Whatever these books end up being, however they end up selling, Marvel in my opinion handled this very poorly — not giving retailers enough information OR time to make a properly formed decision. It was all “trust us”.

We definitely need to talk to more retailers, and Marvel about all of this, but it does seem to point up a huge Catch 22; when previous stories — the death of Cap — hit, retailers said “Why didn’t you tell us! We could have taken advantage of this!” This time Marvel appears to have gone out of its way to allow retailers to order and sell books on a more flexible basis, but the way the whole system is set up, it still doesn’t work. Plus, we’re with Brian…will the return of Steve Rogers really drive people into stores?

…Or IS it the return of Steve Rogers? On his blog, Kyle Baker adds to the speculation, with this image, tagged “Isaiah Bradley”:

PLUS, shouldn’t the REAL press stampede be over the fact that White House dog BO will appear in MARVEL PET AVENGERS?

Really, people, what’s more attractive to the population at large? A big sweaty guy in a skin-tight suit or a cute puppy?

The New York Times finds Jeet Heer’s analysis of Little Orphan Annie’s anti-FDR tone during the Great Depression a “Big Idea” for today, and a mirror of current monetary anxieties. What cartoon character is currently carrying the standard for the Chicago School? And who’s for Keynes?

We used to love going to the Licensing Show to see what all the studios were flogging, but this year they moved it to Vegas, so we’ll have to play along at home. PERSONAL TO J AND J: Please write and let us know how it’s going!

While we couldn’t be there, AICN was and they got some pictures of new Marvel movie logos and…the very first SCOTT PILGRIM movie poster! We’re told that the SCOTT PILGRIM key art will all be in the style of the comics, so score another one for our team. We snatched the above pic from AICN, but Slash Film has an angle corrected one.

Reuters has an overall look at this year’s show, and the terms “smaller attendance” and “tough market” are used as much as you’d expect. (We’d heard Viacom pulled out of exhibiting, despite what the story below says.)

Fewer companies will vie for attention at this year’s annual licensing show, but those in attendance will have a renewed focus as key deals are seen vital for gaining revenue in a recession that is sapping merchandise sales.

Major companies and brand names — from Disney and Viacom’s Nickelodeon to toymakers Mattel Inc and Hasbro Inc — will be at the 2009 Licensing International Expo in Las Vegas on Tuesday through Thursday.

This year, movie brands such as Transformers, G.I. Joe and Wolverine are expected to stay popular, bolstered by new movie releases.

More news at the official news site.