There Are Four Lights

The cover art for the upcoming chapter of my manga series, Legend of the Ztarr, is now available for download as desktop and iPad wallpaper and for purchase as posters in various sizes. Legend of the Ztarr Chapter 1 is available online and through most ebook retailers like iBooks and Kindle. The second chapter is due to be released this May.

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| AnimePaper.net |

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It comes to no real surprise to anyone in the industry that Tokyopop has closed its Los Angeles office and North American publishing division. The company has been on shaky ground since Borders declared bankruptcy and companies cut ties with them—-Blizzard and HarperCollins. Last February, the company laid off several staff members, including its Senior Editors, the few people left in the company actually interested in publishing manga.

And that seems to have been what really lead to the shutdown; a manga publisher not focusing on publishing manga anymore. Granted, the fact that Borders owed them money when they went bankrupt was a big blow, but under the management of company founder Stu Levy Tokyopop began to invest more in his side projects like America’s Greatest Otaku—-a reality series filmed cross country. Levy has state flat-out that he has lost interest in books:

Wow #GDC2011 [Game Developers Conference] is blowing my mind. Why have I been stuck in such an old-school, out-of-touch industry for so long?! (yes I mean books!)

via twitter

Over at The Manga Critic, Katherine Dacey points out, “Levy’s interest in new media is well-documented, but coming on the heels of the editorial layoffs, his comments suggested a lack of awareness about how consumers viewed TOKYOPOP: as a manga publisher.”

I met Stu while I was a guest at Otakuthon in Montreal; a group of us hung out in old Montreal and he struck me as a very talented and quite nice guy. But if you’re not interested in publishing manga, then don’t run a manga publisher. It’s fine to want to do the Hollywood thing and film documentaries and reality series, but obviously its not going to help business if you’re a manga publisher.

Manga fans want to read manga. They don’t quite care about reality show road trips about otaku across America, they aren’t interested in behind-the-scenes documentaries at conventions (ask Jeff Nimoy, who canned the “Adventures in Anime” web series before it ever really even got started).

Tokyopop’s contributions to the North American manga industry are significant. They released unflipped manga, and took the plunged into publishing original content with their “OEL” line (a label I’ve never liked). But that endeavour shouldn’t take any of the blame whatsoever for the company’s downfall. Their OEL titles and creators never really got the  support and attention they deserved. The company’s American-style business model for contracts with these creators gave Tokyopop ownership of the titles, leaving creators with little options when the company ceased publishing of them, even before the closure.

That’s one of my biggest gripes with the company—-their American publishing model. In the Japanese manga industry, ownership of a series lies with the creator, the mangaka. Publishing companies simply have the rights to publish the series. This is not the case in the American comic book industry, where a series like Spider-man is owned by the company, Marvel. This difference has an effect on storytelling—-namely, mangaka have more freedom and control over the creative process. At one time, Viz looked as if they were interested in producing original content using the manga model, but as far as I can tell, never developed anything.

Who knows what will happen to the titles of the OEL creators under contract with Tokyopop, now that the LA office will close. I imagine they are at the mercy of Levy’s ADD whims. The right thing for him to do with be to step out of the way and let what’s good for manga happen—-getting good manga titles into the hands of manga readers.

“If you’re going to worship a fictional character who lives in the sky, it might as well be Captain James T. Kirk.”

Happy Trekmas!

Download: standard | widescreen | iPad

Deviantart

Thanks for supporting the artist with your donation:

Prints and holiday cards available upon special request; email saramayhew at ztarr dot net.

Tomorrow, November 6th, is Carl Sagan Day! Whether or not you participate in the organized events or the above activities, you can share in the celebration with this special piece I sketched up just in time for the 2nd annual all-day celebration of the famous astronomy, skeptic, and science educator. Send it to your friends!

And now that you know the artist’s beverage of choice you can help her celebrate and buy her a drink:

Downloads:

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Update: Nov.6th is when the 2nd Annual Carl Sagan Day event takes place. Nov. 9th is Carl Sagan’s birthday. There are several events taking place throughout the month, but “Carl Sagan Day” is taking place, this year on Saturday the 6th.

My Amazon universal wishlist is growing to be somewhat eclectic. I especially love this dress.

My attempt at creating a skeptical hero with a mythological feel: Available as a wallpaper in widescreen, standard, iPad, and iPhone resolutions.

Our hero carries her skeptic shield, defending herself from credulity, and her sword that easily slices through bad ideas with the strength of Occam’s Razor.

Choose from two different versions for the iPad.

Your feedback is always welcome in the comments below. If you enjoy the wallpaper, please donate, so that this nerd can create more skeptical artwork! There is also a print version available from Cafepress.

Update: Prints are now also available through deviantART.

I found this great read on Spoonblog, “Manga & Reality“, by Paul Duffield, which mentions my interview for Skepticality. It talks about the troubles with defining what “manga” is. In my interview, I gave my standard definition—-a form of comic book which originated in Japan—-because in this context, as is usually the case in interviews, what I’m really being asked is to familiarise the average listener with what the manga industry is and generally what kind of products it produces. This is the practical definition of manga from a business perspective; what kind of product are you creating and what market is it geared towards?

His article makes a really nice analogy between the term manga and the term race, in reference to another Skepticality interview (which I just recently listened to after having read Paul’s post), episode #126 “Race and Reality”. There is no biological basis for the term race, as the interview with Guy P. Harrison discusses. Rather, it is a cultural term, which involves a great deal of subjectivity and a spectrum of characteristics. It’s fair to say the same for the term ‘manga’; it’s purpose is rooted more in culture than in the technical and artistic specifications of any individual publication.

I use the term manga to describe my work because I want to be clear about my intentions. In North America, there is a distinction between the comic book industry and the manga industry. The business of selling manga graphic novels is different than the business of selling comic books. This doesn’t mean that the two don’t ever mix, but I feel that the label is necessary when working to publish and market a series. I have referred to myself as a mangaka, manga artist, manga creator, etc., because I feel it communicates clearly what my intentions are in my work. However, I would also consider myself a comic book creator (who specialises in manga), but there is the reality that when I use that label alone, it doesn’t paint a clear picture of my work.

I do believe the label of manga is a reality of the business in North America. I also feel that I’m being honest and upfront about not only my business intentions, but my creative intentions as well. The reality is that there is a market of readers who have expectations from a series labelled as manga. I think these expectations are rooted in the aesthetics and storytelling of a series and not in the nationality of its creator. My intent is to create works that can fulfil these expectations, even though there is, admittedly, a spectrum of expected characteristics.

I want to hold my own work up to standard because I’ve seen some dishonesty or at least murkiness from North American creators who delve into manga–marketing a series as manga, to manga audiences, but then backing away into the “technically anything can be manga” argument when faced with criticism. My hope is that I never fall into this trap. I want to be honest in what I’m selling; be upfront with what it is…it’s manga, it’s manga inspired, it’s a hybrid, or it honestly has no intended label…but I don’t want to tell people my work is manga and then back-track. After all, I’m selling  a product.

All of these reasons are why I’ve had a problem with labels like “OEL manga” (Original English Language) or “Global manga”. These labels serve no useful purpose. They draw needless attention to the nationality of a series’ creator. I think it’s reasonable to say that there is a section of manga readers who only want to read manga that was created in Japan, by Japanese creators. In their case, the term “OEL” or “Global” serves as a warning to stay away. But I find it highly unlikely that there is a market of manga readers who only want to read manga from “OEL” or “Global” creators. If that were the case, these labels would make sense. Instead, I think they only serve to give the impression that manga created by Americans, Canadians, and Europeans are second class–and that they are second class because of the nationality of their creators.

Nokia Responsiveness video: As mentioned in the previous post, my Responsiveness Campaign video for Nokia has been posted: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YewnVH_JQEQ.

Skepchick, one of the top skeptic blogs, noticed and posted about it the video here.

Dr. Phil Plait, aka Bad Astronomer, posted about me as well on his blog over at Discover, Bad Astronomy.

Anime News Network picked up the press release from Skepticality about their interview with me on episode 127: mp3 download, itunes. You can also find info about it in Skeptic Mag’s eSkeptic for April 21st, 2010.

My first post as new contributor to the Canadian blog, Skeptic North, was posted: The (unofficial) Manga Guide to Woo Arguments.

Live Science and Newsarama also posted an article about me, written by Jeremy Hsu.

Last July, I spent a day filming for Nokia‘s Responsiveness campaign. I spoke about my work and latest series, Legend of the Ztarr, and how I’m hoping to relate it to skepticism and critical thinking (since I think those are important when evaluating how to response to the world around us). Please share!

Last Wednesday, I spoke at the Center for Inquiry‘s monthly science cafe, Cafe Inquiry. The talk and Q&A afterwards has been uploaded to YouTube in six parts:

Part 1 is my introduction and my explanation of skepticism and why I think it’s important. I also touch on why new age magical thinking and spirituality can be so appealing and easier to promote. My goal is to use storytelling to show skeptical values as virtues.

Part 2 is an overview of manga and why I’ve chosen it as a medium to tell stories that promote skepticism. I also speak about some series that have inspired me in my approach to doing this—-which is also an excuse to talk about Masters of the Universe.

Part 3 is about my series I’m producing, Legend of the Ztarr, and how I hope it will convey messages about critical thinking and humanism.

The Q&A discussion that took place afterwards is also available:

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3