So Long Tokyo Pop

It's actually a bit old news but, as of May 31 Tokyo Pop manga is no more. They've closed shop after 14 years, in which they nearly defined the market for manga in the United States. Tokyo Pop began in 1997 as Mixx Publication, they launched in a bold fashion with Mixx Zine an attempt to make an Japanese style manga anthology for america, down to the paper stock (they upgraded to glossy on issue 2) and colored pages. The big coup was that Mixx had procured the rights to Sailor Moon, then the biggest thing in Anime and Manga. Though manga had been published in the America since at least the 1980's Tokyo Pop changed the model of sale from the standard monthly comic book, to the now standard first run trade paperback model. This is the model of comic sales that it still changing the face of comics to this day.

The official line, is that Tokyo Pop suffered from two major things. One was the bankruptcy of Borders, the other was the loss of their licenses with the publisher Kodansha the owner of many of their titles. Borders bookstore has been in a lot of trouble for years, and apparently they where Tokyo Pop's biggest merchant. The falling of Borders led to mass layoffs including many key people. Last year I had heard that Tokyo Pop had lost all of it's Kodansha titles. I thought then "whoa that sucks we'll never see the end of (X) series" but little did I know of Kodansha's motives. You see Tokyo Pop made manga Mainstream. In fact they did so well at this that Kodansha the largest publisher in Japan decided, "if manga is mainstream in america, why do we need a middle man". Thus Kodansha is launching it's own line of manga in the States later this year. Starting with ironically enough, Sailor Moon.

But I have a few reasons that I think came to play in Tokyo pop being the first to fall from the first manga boom. First as mentioned above they are a victim of their success. When Mixx became Tokyo Pop and discontinued their magazines and comics in favor of first run trade paper backs. They took comics out of the comic book shops and the direct market, and put them into the mainstream book store. This led manga to higher exposure and it also led to the Graphic Novel sections in bookstores to increase. And the publishers noticed. Starting with Del Rey, mainstream publishers with all of their power and knowledge of the book store system started publishing comics as well. Leading up to Kodansha's decision to publish in america for themselves.

Next, Tokyo Pop wasn't actually that good at what they where doing. They may have been one of the biggest publishers of manga in the United States but, they where largely held up by the massive fad that manga had become in the first decade of the 21st century. As much as you like manga you have to admit it was a major fad, and as it has gone back down to just another form of entertainment Tokyo Pop has just not delivered as good a product as their competitors. The print quality is okay at best, the translations are known to be a bit off (more on that later), and Viz's Shonnen Jump line has been doing far better in terms of schedule. Also from the very beginning, one never felt that Manga was what they where interested in promoting, in fact they called it "motionless picture entertainment", not manga for most of their early days. Not that long into the first year of Mixx Zine, they where already branching out into dating sim video games with "Graduation 2", as far as I can remember it bombed, correct me if I'm wrong. Then MIxx Zine started to evolve into a Japanese and asian pop culture magazine with manga. Then the magazine took the name Tokyo Pop and the manga was demoted to a second feature, presented in landscape two comic pages to a page. This is where I ended my subscription, I hated seeing the manga anthology being changed into a low rent teen magazine, but I could not forgive having to turn my the magazine on it's side to read miniaturized versions of the comics I was getting the magazine for. Some leading light in manga publishing. However it was around this time that they began their publishing of first run trades we forgave them a lot because hell we didn't have to wait for serialization to finish to get the next book. But just as they where getting good at this they branched into Anime, fair enough, but they where no where as good at this as at manga so the video label faded relatively quickly. But what happened is that they stopped looking back as well as forward when choosing titles to license, a problem in all of american manga, and instead of publishing the classics that fans where after as well as the hip and new, they chose to make a market out of the burgeoning Original English Manga (OEL). I have no problem with OEL in fact many of my favorite comics have been OEL. But it distracted from their supposed agenda of bringing us the best manga. Tokyo Pop then got into Television with "Worlds Greatest Otaku" basically Tokyo Pop Became a Lifestyle company and manga got left behind.

And last was Scanlation. Scanlation is where fans scan, translate and post Manga on the internet. And this argument is not about the right and wrong of downloading, it's about the fans and Tokyo Pop's relation to them, and the way the world is changing. Tokyo Pop has been plagued since the beginning by "loose" translations. At the very least they Americanize the shit out of everything they publish. Usually in the form of colloquialisms. In the case of Sailor Moon they chose to keep the much maligned American names of the characters, and with Initial D a much anticipated series at the time actually got into censorship. These things combined, and fans no longer "trusted" the integrity of Tokyo Pop's translations. To the point where it was assumed that Tokyo Pop would "ruin" any series that they would bring out. So these fans turned to Scanlators for these series' out of a belief that their translations where better or at least truer to the original. Now a cynic would say that they just did this because the scanlations are free, but I personally know many people that would read them for this exact reason and would still buy many dollars worth of books from other publishers. Now this was not a problem for Tokyo Pop when Manga was a fad, but once the fad had died down and the fans where the backbone of their market. It had to have hurt.

Another effect scanlations had and still have is that, they dull the cutting edge of many a manga. You see, since manga is a translated and repurposed product, many of the series already have a following when they arrive in an "official" capacity in the US. As scanlators don't have to worry about publishing rights or print houses, as soon as they've bought scanned and translated it, it's up on the inter-web for all to see causing "new" series' to be old hat buy the time they "oficially" come out.This has recently been exemplified by the series Hetalia. Hetalia, has been the darling of fan sub Scanlation series' for the last couple of years, it's been huge. But now as the trend surrounding the series has been winding down, Tokyo Pop has finally gotten the series out "officially". Because the speed of the internet, Tokyo Pop has released one of the biggest new books, after it's audience has moved on! Maybe it would get big again after a mainstream audience reads it, but that's all academic now. It's cancelled now that Tokyo Pop has closed shop. Of course scanlation is going to be a big problem for anyone planning to make money off of manga for the above reason, but it should not be the end for any of them as long as they pick good series' that have "legs" and can be bigger than a trend. Scanlations and what they mean for comics will have to be and deserves to be a subject for another day.

But all that said. The late great Tokyo Pop manga deserves our gratitude. because it was they that redefined how manga was perceived and sold in our country. And as a direct fallout, the position of comics in bookstores was greatly improved, helping to lead us to the current age of the comic business.

Hobo With A Shotgun

Last Saturday I saw a movie, it was probably the most wonderful and intense movie I've seen in a loooong time. It is called Hobo With a Shotgun. Based on a fake trailer, that was a promotion for the movie Grindhouse. It is a story of a Hobo, played by Rutger Hauer, who wanders into a lawless town. And when he's had enough of pain and suffering of the people "stops begging and demands change". The movie has a great 1970's look especially, in the lighting, and has many a great violent action scene involving and not involving the eponymous weapon. It's not playing everywhere but if you like horror or exploitation flix I do recommend tracking down a theater that has it playing.
Check out it's official website: http://www.magnetreleasing.com/hobowithashotgun/

Godspeed Endevour

After many setbacks, The Space Shuttle Endevour has been launched on it's final flight. It is taking supplies and such to the International Space Station. After it's flight it is to be retired and put on display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles CA. Which of course has me (Living one hour from L.A.) excited. To the crew of STS 134 I'd like to wish good luck with your mission and have a safe return.

Do you wanna make a comic? Part 1 Idea and Character

I started "Neuropsychosis" about ten years ago, and in the time since I have, I've been amazed at how democratized comic making has become. Never in the history of comics has it been easier to get supplies, materials, resources on learning craft and most importantly a way to publish than today. This is of course due to computers and the internet. But more on that later, how do you start, or "get in" as we used to say. Well the good news is all you need to get in these days is paper, pens, a scanner, and an internet connection. but getting started that's another story.

Now I'm gonna say up front, before I can be viewed as an egomaniac. I'm not the best Artist or writer out there, nor am I very successful. but in the 250 odd page run of my comic "Neuropsychosis" I've done learned a thing or two about making funny books. Also this is not the only way, or necessarily the right way, for you, let's just call it the David's Wonder Blog way.

The idea.
Okay now you've decided I love funnybooks so much I'm gonna make one. So it's time to take the first step, and it's not related to writing or drawing. It's the idea. You most likely have already come to this, but the what the comic is about should be the starting point. The idea can be as great as people saving the world, or as minimal as the day to day life of a working drone. This part doesn't even have to be original as there actually not that many original story idea's out there. Take Star Wars, the Matrix and Terminator for instance. All of these where heralded as groundbreaking, but none of them actually had an original idea in them, they where just put together in a new and exciting way. Think about an idea as ingredients and the writer as a chef. The writer's goal is to put together all of the ideas into a form that is new and exciting.

Characters.
I come from the Characters first school of writing. The other school is plot first. I find I enjoy character driven narrative more than plot driven, and if I'm to believe what this here interweb says, (a dangerous thought) you do too. Most everything I've written has been of this school, so here goes. Now that you have your idea, which may of course come before you thought "I wanna make a comic". It's time to decide, what people you want to carry it out, the characters. My screen writing teacher once told me, "characters make plot, plot doesn't happen to characters." While this is not necessarily true it does help in developing characters. But you most likely need a main and supporting cast. think of the people you need to make your idea happen. For example when making "Neuropsychosis", my idea was "a rock band that gets into crazy stuff" so therefore, I knew I had to have at least three people. A drummer, guitarist, and bassist. I would most likely need a singer too as power trios aren't too big these days, and I wasn't going to make a period piece. Or in My forth coming "the Adventures of Captain Kenji" I needed a ships crew. See how this goes. I always like to take an approach of complementing personalities. Kind of a variation of what TV tropes calls the "five man band". Basically I give each character a central trait, sadness, anger, silliness, so that the whole group makes kind of a full personality. Now this is only a starting point, the character will get more rounded as you allow them to grow through writing. I personally like to make work sheets where I list a characters likes and dislikes. plus the central trait lets me work out who the character is. And eventually through writing they'll become "real" you'll know what he or she would "think" or "do" in any circumstance.

Assemble the Cast.
Here's where drawing comes in. Now that you have your character. Decide, what they look like. I tend to think of character design as casting actors, and so I cast a wide net. draw lots of ideas hair, eyes, shape, skin etc. you'll know When the character is right. I often do this at the same time I'm creating characters. Because after you've decided the appearance of the character, that plays into the way the character carries him or herself, and thus makes you re think the character a bit making them that much more "real". good examples from my work, is Jessy from Neuropsychosis, making her tall steered the way I imagined her self image, also she started off as a blond girl, but in drawing her one day she came out looking black, I liked it, and her identity as a black latina was eventually born. Another good example is Stef, when I decided to make her extremely buxom it not only changed the way the character viewed herself, but the way the other characters viewed her. You see where I'm going.

But of Course.
There is also the other way of doing it. Where plot is king. You can come up with the story first and then populate it with characters. Or you can design a character first and come up with the personality later. In fact i did this with my new project "Super Cliche Hero Chick" I originally drew her as a gag drawing for my Deviant Art page. davidarroyo.deviantart.com. And I was amused by the drawings' attitudes so I put word bubbles into them and that's when she became a character. No one way is right, but when I have a strong cast of characters I find writing is less of a chore and comes out richer.

Next on Do you Wanna Make a Comic Writing.

A Moment.

This is a picture from the end of April that I found on nasa.gov. The heavens did not want the shuttle to fly that day.

Bones is Epic Fail.

Everyone in my life seems to like the Fox T.V. show Bones. I can't see why. Bones is one of those shows that just gets under my skin, and like many shows that get under my skin it's not because it's terrible, but because it should be good but it fails. Overall it's got a good concept, a group of museum anthropologists that help the FBI solve grizzly murders in which the victims can no longer be IDed. And the relationship between the investigator Seeley Booth played by geek god David Boreanaz and head of the museum's anthropologists Temperance Brennan played by the robotic Emliy Deschanel. It uses a science new to most people for it's "gimmick" to make it different from the glut of police procedurals on T.V. today. (seriously T.V. you know there are more genres than Procedurals and "reality" right?) So with out further ado the things that piss me off about Bones.

1. It's another damned police procedural! The police procedural is done to death, and the gimmick as good as it is, and the character work is not really good enough to elevate it from being just another one. Maybe if they got more into the actual science or further into the characters it would rise above it, but the writers seem to settle for good enough too often. Now admitted from experience not every episodic story can be great. But the writers always seem to almost get there but then run away. A good example is Brennan and Booth, have very different Philosophies on life (more on that later) but just as the scene will get anywhere with this concept a bus blows up or a new body is found and it goes nowhere.

2. There is close to no chemistry between cast members. There are some good actors in Bones and some bad ones but it seems to me that they are all acting separate from each other. A good example is the characters of Angela played by Micheala Conlin and Hodgins, played by T.J. Thyne. They are characters with an on again off again relationship but the actors have no chemistry with each other. In fact the actors in Sin City, who weren't even on set with each other had better chemistry. But most glaring is the leads, and it is do mostly to the fact that...

3. The lead actress is dull, and can't act. Emily Deschanel, spends the entire show flatly reciting lines in her whiney monotone voice, using three expressions. Straight, mean eyed, and smugly grinning. I know she's supposed to be psychologically damaged, but she's not playing psychologically damaged, she's reciting lines.

4. Now forensic science is often stretched in every show since CSI, but the stretching of the science, or the made upness of it really bugs me in this show, because it's based on a series of books by the author Kathy Reichs, who is also one of the producers. Why would this bug me you ask? Because Kathy Reichs is an ACTUAL FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGIST. Why does she let a series where a central tenant is her life's work out without much or any actual science in it! I know America is in a hate the scientists swing right now in it's entertainment, but that's even more reason for a scientist writer to write about good guy scientists saving the day.

5. Speaking of scientists, we all know there all just godless atheists right? Ugh. The most painful part of this show recently for me is that Temperance Brennan, is a straw man atheist. She is depicted as that atheist that we all "know" is out there the one who thinks all things should be dictated by logic, and all social norms are not scientific. these people DO NOT EXIST. And it pisses me off that every Athiest on T.V. seems to be depicted as this person. Just for the record I am not an athiest, so it's not personal but, it bothers me that a show who's cnetral character study is of two people of two ideologies working together (Booth is a Catholic) There is never any attempt on the writer's behalf to even try to have the character's understand each other's point of view. And when there is a moral to the story, it's always Brennan finding out Booth's right. Never the other way around. Because atheists have no morals you know *face-palm*

6. And speaking of awkward scientists, there is Zack. Zack was a socially awkward kinda creepy nerd character. And the charm about him was that he was Socially inept and kinda creepy, but he had a heart of gold as was a good kid, until they decided to make him the creepy sidekick to a cannibalistic mass murderer. So basically the Kinda creepy good kid that looked like he ate people but was really a good kid and a wonderful break of type, really was just a creepy kid who ate people.

Screw you show.

This development came out of nowhere when it was revealed that Zack was working for the bad guy they did a hasty connect the dots with the previous season, but it did not add up as there was absolutely no foreshadowing, just a bunch of pas events ret conned. To be the "evidence of his downfall". this was of course done because the actor wanted off the show. But come on you don't just re write an entire character the write them off, just send him off to another department, or kill him. Don't destroy the character and the story-line. just for a big "sweeps week.

Now I said earlier that the reason that I loathe this show is because it has good potential. So in fairness, I'll now go into what's good about Bones.

1. David Boreanaz. He holds up the entire show. His character is the most entertaining police procedural lead character on T.V. and only behind Abby and Ducky from NCIS as the most likable police procedural, character period. Too bad no one else in the main cast is. Every one else is a one note character except Hodgins he has two. conspiracies and crazy experiments.

2. The whole clashing ideologies thing. Really two friends and colleagues, one atheist one Catholic. trying to find common ground should be the interesting character idea. unfortunately Brennan is made a straw man atheist, and thus the concept is never allowed to bloom past a few tantalizing glimpses.

3. Gordon Gordon played by the amazing Steven Fry. He was a ball of energy on this show, playing a psychologist. unfortunately Fry's writing obligations prevented him from continuing in the role as a regular cast member. But the whole Idea of Psychology and the "fixing" of Brennan was continued with Gordon's successor Sweets. Providing the closest thing the show has had to character development.

4. Billy F. Gibbons as Angela's dad. Not a major thing, but the guy from ZZ Top doing his thing cannot ever be bad.

Well there you have it Bones a show that could be truly great, but unfortunately, bogged down by settling for "good enough", It should be one of the best but instead it's Epic Fail.