Category: General

Deb Aoki of Manga.About.Com recently conducted an interview with some manga fan who wants to start a manga magazine to fill in the gap left by the end of Shojo Beat. His name is Garret and his idea is called Shojo Berry. The interview should never have been granted to Deb, because it’s pretty clear that a) they’re really early in the development of the idea and don’t have answers for some pretty basic questions, and b) dude has no idea what he’s talking about.

“I am unsure if you mean the cost to ShojoBerry or the issue cost. We are hoping to keep the cover price of the magazine between $5 and $7 per issue.
“The base cost of the magazine itself will most likely be ~$3 for printing…” – Garret Boast, Shojo Berry

Your raw materials cost is going to be half of your cover price? Really?

Listen, I’ve ripped on more than enough people for embracing the fallacy of digital print-to-order for as a business endeavour, and if a fan or vanity publisher has decided that this is the best way to get their work to the public, whatever, go for it.

But as a business venture? As someone who, when asked if this was a professional magazine or a fanzine answered “Discerning whether ShojoBerry is a fanzine or a magazine really comes down to the primary intentions as well as the business model.”? Well I hate to tell ya man, but what you’ve got there isn’t just a fanzine, but an incredibly ill-conceived one as well. There are kids in Artist Alleys at anime cons across North America, selling colour photo-copies of traced INU YASHA drawings for 10 bucks a pop, and THEY have a better business model than you.

Man. Reading this article, he’s talking about running off the copies on his “home equipment” which I assume is just a decent laser-printer and a hot-glue gun? I’m all about the mini-comics production model and the idea of creating something that’s a labour of love, but most folks doing mini-comics or print-to-order aren’t ALSO paying to print their content, licensing it from other artists or companies. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of problems with the very basic ideas as laid out. The contradictory points of view on digital delivery (“There’s no point of doing this digitally, unless it fails, then we’ll look into it,” to paraphrase.) are brutal and myopic, but the complete lack of knowledge of the business of comics or manga on display?

This actually hurts my head.

But like I said, the interview should never have been granted, Garret shoulda just held his tongue and said “We’ll be happy to talk to manga.About.com when we’re closer to our launch date!” and then got his ass to some sort of publishing class to learn all of the many things he’s doing wrong.

Listen, I realize I’m coming down way harder on this dude’s bad idea than is warranted, but considering WHERE HE WAS INTERVIEWED and the transparent hubris wafting off of that interview, I’m willing to give this a go. Honestly, I was an optimistic youth, I wanted to run my own manga anthology. Who didn’t? Ask Will Allison, he’ll totally rat me out. It woulda been a great time. But even when I was a 21 year old who’d never printed anything that didn’t come out of a photocopier, I wouldn’t have been so naive as to treat this as a ‘business venture’. At least I like to think I wouldn’t have been… I do remember that at the least my plan involved using someone else’s money to print the thing.

I am honestly and truly a fan of the sort of can-do, let’s put on a show kind of spirit that starts all sorts of projects. I do that stuff all the time. But this dude sounds like he’s… what… in his early-mid 30s at least? I’d be terrified as an advertiser, as a licensor, as someone investing my time in this effort, given the tremendous absence of knowledge about his chosen field that he’s displayed in this interview, or in choosing to GIVE an interview. I see bad business ideas all the time, people approaching us through the store with half a clue and a few hundred bucks looking to start a publishing empire. I can say that, with my many years of experience in bad ideas, Shojoberry is truly special.

– Chris
P.S.: I know that even mentioning any of this is practically daring Garret Boast to show up at my blog and argue or clarify or swear at me, whatever. But if anyone involved with this effort is considering do this, I beg you, don’t. If what you’ve got to offer is what was on display in the manga.about.com interview, just keep your mouth shut and come back to me in 3 months when you’ve figured some shit out. And take solace in the fact that if you do make it and are successful with this endeavour, then I look like a huge asshole, and isn’t that worth something?

Just got a note from Dreamhost that my sites were disabled for not running the newest WordPress, and they checked to see if they were running the newest version of WordPress because there was A PROBLEM. I went and investigated and sure enough, someone had back-doored into an backup of an old WP blog and was using it for nefarious bullshit. Fixed now, I think/hope, but yeah. That’s some crazy shit.

Today’s lesson? Keep your WordPress installation as up to date as possible. I actually thought I _was_ keeping it up to date, but somehow I got several iterations behind. Now running at 2.8.5 and back online. Will continue to monitor the situation.

– Christopher

©2009 Evan Dorkin. From Dork #5 & Dork Volume 1: Who’s Laughing Now?. 50.

This installment of Evan Dorkin’s FUN strips marks the momentous occasion of the beginning of the fifth fantastic issue of DORK! I think that the last few strips this week really showed Evan Dorkin hitting his stride on the ideas and series, from the long, long ago time of 1996. Dork #5 features strips from 94-97, and includes most of my favourites including the truly awesome/awful “Failed San Rio Characters”. It’s also worth noting that Dork #5 featured 12(!) pages of FUN strips, 7 to a page, marking a huge and manic output of ideas from Evan… more strips than issues 1-4 combined. 🙂

Oh, and! Though there are little links there underneath every strip, I just wanted to take a moment to remind all y’all that while these FUN strips are great, they’re only a small percentage of the great comics you can find in all 11 issues and two trade paperbacks of DORK, including The Devil Puppet, The Eltingville Club, and even totally harrowing and disturbing autobiography. You can find the issues and trade paperbacks at better comics retailer across the world, and online from the fine folks at SLG Publishing.

The best is yet to come folks!

Thanks,

– Chris

I couldn’t really say anything before (they make you sign an NDA when you leave the country) but this is what Japan is really like. People are freaking out for Pocky, all the live-long day. Dancing, singing, losing their mind. It’s like an anime convention.

It’s alright for the first few weeks but by the end it’s like that Porky Pig cartoon where by the end he’d kill and eat his own mother just to get out of those dancing shoes. Like “I just need to go to the Lawson to get fried chicken and beer, I don’t have time for an elaborate dance number right now.”

Still, Japan’s pretty great.

– Chris (via)

The Daily Beast has an article by Torontonian John Ortved about his new book, The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History, and the massive amounts of trouble that Fox and show producer James L. Brooks threw in the author’s way as he tried to write it. It’s pretty brutal:

“Something I gleaned early from this experience is that Hollywood publicists are so used to journalists kowtowing to their every request that they no longer understand what journalism actually is. We’re talking about cartoon characters here, not Watergate, but the light subject matter doesn’t exclude the possibility of doing real research and telling interesting stories. They actually thought that we were all on the same team, trying to get their client the maximum exposure, using our words and outlets only to extend their message. Vanity Fair and other magazines are complicit in the lionization of celebrities that has led to this imbalance of power, but the editors at Vanity Fair understand that at the end of the day they’re very much a journalistic entity, and pursue stories accordingly.” – John Ortved, The Daily Beast

The full article is outstanding, and I recommend you check it out: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-10-13/when-homer-wont-take-your-call/full/. And hey, the book is out and in stores now.

How about that, entertainment reporting doesn’t have to be vapid and toothless pr-fanning after all!

– Chris

Shigeru Mizuki is the creator of the classic manga GeGeGe No Kitaro, about a very strange little boy who was part of both the human and Yokai world. Yokai are traditional Japanese forest spirits, kinda like morally ambivalent demons and spirits, and Mizuki-san did tons to catalogue and perhaps even invent them in his manga. Now according to Japananator, Mizuki has created a new field guide for these demons called Yokai Daizukai.

I don’t think I saw this in Japan, else I would’ve bought it. But wow, it’s AWESOME. Hopefully it’s a candidate for a North American release. Lots more pictures at: http://www.japanator.com/ever-wanted-to-dissect-a-japanese-folk-monster–11736.phtml

– Chris

Anyone headed to Japan wanna pick this up for me? Medicom is producing these “Dr. Romanelli X Hello Kitty” Anatomy dolls in two different colourways, contemporary and classic. Niiiice. I imagine they’ll show up on this side of the world eventually.

http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2009/10/hello-kittys-internal-organs-revealed.html

http://www.highsnobiety.com/news/2009/10/13/dr-romanelli-x-hello-kitty-anatomy-release/

– Chris

Check it out, it’s the trailer for Jim Rugg and Brian Marruca’s AFRODISIAC, coming as a complete collection from Adhouse Books this December. Spinning out of the awesome STREET ANGEL (now back in print from SLG!), it collects every previous Afrodisiac appearance and a ton of new stuff, full colour, totally awesome. 96 pages, hardcover, 15 bucks, ITEM CODE OCT09 0658 in the current Previews! PREORDER A COPY WITH YOUR LOCAL RETAILER TODAY!!!

– Chris

Though it’s had a hell of a spotty publishing history here in North America, with multiple editions and formats all abortively released to market, I know there’s still a die-hard fanbase for the post-apocalyptic, ultra-violent, masochistic fight manga FIST OF THE NORTH STAR (known in Japan as Hokuto No Ken). Well in 2010, PS3 and X-Box 360 owners (in Japan only… so far…) will be able to get in on the carnage and take up the role of Kenshiro and punch badguys so hard they explode.

Check out more screenshots and some game-play video at http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/10/14/hokuto-musou-bloody-guro-fest/.

Awwwwesome.

– Christopher