TOKYOPOP STATE OF THE UNION II: JEREMY ROSS

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

We talked to TOKYOPOP Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Mike Kiley in part one of our two-part special.

In the second and concluding part of our Q&A, we sat down with Editorial Director Jeremy Ross to talk about Original English Language (OEL) manga, Star Trek manga, and more.

Now, this is where things start to heat up…

Newsarama: Just how do you define your strengths as manga ambassadors and as manga story-tellers? What yardstick, if any, against which these successes are measured?

Jeremy Ross: TOKYOPOP has been one of the most successful and influential leaders of the manga revolution as ambassadors for Asian pop culture. We built on the specialty market comprised of fans that had been learning Japanese and translating manga themselves. Our editorial choices, quality localizations and breakthrough distribution has moved manga from a tiny niche to a solid player in the American marketplace. Through retail venues such as chain bookstores, comic stores, mall stores, libraries, book fairs, online magazines, convention presence and our Web sites we have made manga a format and a state of mind that is accessible to everyone in the US. We gain more and more new readers every year.

Our biggest challenge, after successfully popularizing Japanese manga in the west, was establishing respect for manga created by global artists and authors who were not from Japan.

We began by being the first company to successfully sell Korean manga (the two Chinese characters are, in fact, pronounced “manhwa” in Hangul, but “manga” is the term TOKYOPOP uses for all its graphic novels).

Then we created the largest program outside of Asia for publishing original English language manga. The fact that manga fans have largely stopped using the term “Ameri-manga” (which has negative connotations) and are referring to it as “OEL” is but one indicator of the growing respect that we have been able to achieve for our manga creators. Other signs are the positive comments on fan forums, long signing lines for OEL creators at cons, more and more creators from all walks of life pitching us to publish their new manga projects and possibly most important – sales of our OEL manga are on average as good or better than most of our Japanese and Korean titles. Manga, to us, is a format and a state of mind. It is something that can be created by anyone. It’s no longer just “comics from Japan.”

TOKYOPOP is a company dedicated to storytelling. Combining modes of visual storytelling from all over the globe is leading to a new form of “world manga” that appeals to audiences on multiple continents.

NRAMA: We’ll get into OEL in a moment. Before that, let’s touch on TOKYOPOP’s Sunday strips.

Starting on the first Sunday of January, Van Von Hunter by Ron Kaulfersch and Mike Schwark, and Peach Fuzz by Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges will be added to the Sunday Comics sections of several North American newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, Denver Post, Vancouver Sun, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and The Detroit News.

Sure, manga is hot now but in your opinion, would these OEL manga strips be considered “classics” in the eyes of the readers the way we label Peanuts, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes as timeless classics?

NRAMA: What are your thoughts on manga strips in newspapers as outreach?

JR: Our hope for the TOKYOPOP manga section in newspapers is that it will spread awareness of manga as an extremely broad format and draw new readers while pleasing existing manga fans.

The TOKYOPOP Sunday section was designed to have rotating content. So we hope that “manga” as a format becomes established in people’s minds, not simply one or two manga properties. It’s an author-driven medium that depends on diversity rather than one or two category-killing stories.

For those who don’t know about manga, we expect that it will serve as an introduction. Perhaps next they will go to a bookstore and pick up other manga. This had been our experience with our Warcraft manga — fans of the game that rarely read comics of any kind have remarked to us that they picked up our Warcraft manga because of the game name, but now they’re reading other TOKYOPOP graphic novels… and loving it!

Furthermore, manga in newspapers promises to help revitalize interest in the Sunday comics section. Newspapers have been slowly losing circulation over the years and we believe it will provide something that appeals to a younger audience who had heard of manga, helping the goal of newspapers everywhere to keep finding new young readers.

A side note is that the Hartford Courant ran a cute color comic – I believe it was by a Korean editorial cartoonist -- with two young girls reading manga in papers. You should see it! So manga in the newspapers is now news itself suitable for the comickers commentary, and we hope newspaper manga will become a classic institution. It’s all about the format of manga itself and TOKYOPOP as the company that brings it to you — not just a specific story by name.

NRAMA: Do the younger generation buy and read the papers nowadays? Do these people buy papers for the manga strips like sports fans and the corporate citizens read the papers for sports and business news, respectively?

JR: Here’s a verbatim quote from John Glynn at Andrews McMeel Universal about this:

Editors recognize that they need to start the habit with young readers or they won’t develop it. Young people do not “buy” the paper per se, but they’re exposed to it because their parents subscribe to home delivery. They haven’t bought newspapers for manga in the past because this is the first time its been offered in North America.

The Sunday comics page has long been a family tradition. It’s not uncommon for a family to each enjoy specific (Sports, News, Business, Entertainment) sections of the newspaper individually and then they all read the comics section... Each one looking for something different. For example, Dad for Doonesbury, Mom for For Better of For Worse, young children for Garfield and now preteens, teens and beyond for TOKYOPOP Presents.

NRAMA: Why start with two OELs instead of popular manga from Japan and Korea? Wouldn't Fruits Basket, Lupin III, Planetes or other critically-acclaimed and fan-favorite licensed Asian manga have a wider appeal?

JR: Our primary goal with manga in the newspapers is to find new readers. We believe that the domestically authored stories in Peach Fuzz and Van Von Hunter, combined with a manga sensibility, will be more accessible than the likes of Lupin to readers beyond our existing core audience. Also, Peach Fuzz was heavily modified (it was lettered larger and retoned with a lower linescreen) for successful, moire-free reproduction and readability at the three or more sizes required. And Van Von Hunter will be a new story, custom designed for the weekly format and size. The requirement to make these changes or create fresh material for US papers on a tight deadline also informed our decision to work with TOKYOPOP creators.

NRAMA: In an earlier interview, Publisher & Editor in Chief Mike Kiley stated that the three most successful events last year for TOKYOPOP have been a licensed Asian manga in the form of Fruits Basket, a brand-licensed manga based on the successful Warcraft games and OEL manga in general. Success stories that are, in your own words, "leading to a new form of "world manga" that appeals to audiences on multiple continents." How is "world manga" shaping up at the beginning of the new year? After all, TOKYOPOP manga stories are now in CosmoGIRL! in the form of The Adventures of CG! by Dramacon's Svetlana Chmakova, and Peach Fuzz and Van Von Hunter strips in newspapers across the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, Thailand and other countries...

JR: The acceptance of world manga from TOKYOPOP continues to rise. The books are, on average, selling as well in the US as our average Asian licensed titles. Magazine and newspaper exposure is potentially useful to build awareness and find new readers. It’s too soon to tell just how significant these channels will be, but early signs are positive.

Our Hamburg TOKYOPOP company is publishing many of them in German, and we distribute English editions in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

We took our new slate of OEL titles to the Frankfurt Book Fair and found interest from many foreign publishers. We’re licensing them into European countries where manga is well-established, such as France and Italy. We’re also licensing to far-flung territories such as Brazil, Thailand, Eastern Europe, Israel, China and Russia. We’re just at the beginning of this international effort and we’re optimistic that every part of the world will find something that appeals to their market in our catalog.

NRAMA: Okay, moving on… Perhaps some of the most anticipated upcoming projects include original manga titles based on three of the Jim Henson Company’s fantasy properties, The Dark Crystal manga, which will be a prequel to the original film; the Labyrinth manga which will serve as a sequel to the 1986 film; and the Neil Gaiman-plotted MirrorMask manga that will be set prior to the feature film from Gaiman and Dave McKean. Thus far, it has been revealed that The Dark Crystal manga is being written by Barbara Kesel with illustrations by Max Kim, and the Labyrinth manga is written by former TOKYOPOP editor Jake Forbes. Could you provide the latest info on these projects?

JR: There’s not much that we can say yet, since these projects are still in the earliest of stages. Our editor Rob Valois is hard at work on Labyrinth, spending many hours in dimly-lit rooms wit Jake Forbes hammering out the story. Our editor Tim Beedle is likewise actively working out the approach to Dark Crystal with Barbara and Max.

One announcement we can make is that Chris Lie has signed on to do the artwork on Labyrinth. I met Chris at SCAD last year and he showed me some awesome personal work, a far cry from his G.I. Joe manga for Devil’s Due or his work to magnify Josie and the Pussycats with Tania Del Rio and Archie Comics. Rob and I wanted to work with him from the start and now that we’ve signed the deal, we can tell you that it’s gonna be great. Just wait till you see what Chris Lie is capable of as he visualizes the world of Labyrinth.

NRAMA: The Rising Stars of Manga competition is now an annual affair. Why is that so? With manga being hotter than ever before, there should be limitless untapped potentials in North America...

JR: We feel that between our recruiting efforts, submissions process, portfolio reviews and RSOM that the one-year cycle for this competition is ideal for finding talent and publishing their best work. It’s a big effort to complete a 25-page RSOM story. Several of our creators were so dedicated that they kept submitting, entering four or five of the semi-annual competitions until they won. Each submission showed a lot of improvement. A year between competitions allows more time for people to hone their skills and hopefully they will improve to the point that we can contract with them for a series in fewer attempts this way. Remember, we do work with people who haven’t won in addition to the 18 former winners whom we’ve already signed up!

NRAMA: On the subject of RSoM, there's now a UK version of the talent contest. Are there plans to extend this to other parts of the globe, say, Germany since there's an office there, South East Asia or even Africa?

JR: I love the implications of your question… TOKYOPOP manga competitions around the globe! For now, TOKYOPOP has no official plans to announce an initiative such as this. It’s logical to assume that we would want to extend the competition to territories where we have a business presence, such as Germany, Australia and New Zealand. Each competition is a huge editorial and production effort so we have to use our resources wisely. Our submissions process welcomes creators from any country, unlike RSOM which is deployed on a country-by-country basis.

NRAMA: 2006 is Star Trek's 40th Anniversary and TOKYOPOP is going where no publishers have gone before with original Star Trek manga later this year as well. So far, writers like Jim Alexander, Chris Dows, Mike W. Barr and former TOKYOPOP editor Jake Forbes have been mentioned to be involved with The Next Generation manga projects while Joshua Ortega is scribing a tale set during The Original Series. Could you provide us with a definite list of who's doing what and when?

JR: Stay tuned for details. We have an almost-final list with just a couple to fill in.

NRAMA: On the OEL front, we've covered most of the titles with various creator interviews in the last six months. From Rising Stars of Manga winners such as Felipe Smith on MBQ, Lindsay Cibos on Peach Fuzz, the Pseudome guys on Van Von Hunter, M. Alice LeGrow on Bizenghast, Jess Stoncius on Work Bites, Christy Lijewski on RE: Play, Amy Kim Ganter on Sorcerers & Secretaries, Wes Abbott on Dogby Walks Alone, Irene Flores on Mark of the Succubus, Bettina Kurkoski on My Cat Loki, Amy Reeder Hadley on Fool's Gold to established and fan favorite comics creators and pros like Keith Giffen on I Luv Halloween, Jason Henderson on Psy-Comm, Stuart Moore on Earthlight, Becky Cloonan on East Coast Rising, Chuck Austen on Boys of Summer, Alex de Campi on Kat & Mouse, Ross Campbell on The Abandoned, Pop Mhan on BLANK. We've also covered international creators and other homegrown manga-ka like Queenie Chan on The Dreaming, Rosearik Rikki Simons and Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons on Shutterbox, Hans “Hanzo” Steinbach on A Midnight Opera, Rivkah Greulich on Steady Beat, Justin Boring and Greg Hildebrandt Jr. on War on Flesh, Joanna Estep on Roadsong, Stormcrow Hayes and Rob Steen on Afterlife and more.

In the coming months, we'll be featuring interviews with David Hine on Poison Candy, Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti on Zeroes, Sho Murase on ME2, Paul Benjamin and Steven Cummings on Pantheon High.

Other than the ones already announced, who else have you got and what projects are they working on?

JR: Newsarama and Warren Ellis (on The Engine) have done a pretty good job of cataloging every one that we are ready to announce as of Christmas 05, and even a few that are still in the works.

You can plan to run interviews of the following later this year: Steve Bucellatto on Battle of the Bands, Tricia Hale on Grand Theft Galaxy, Ahmed Hoke of @Large fame on Heaven’s Shield, Morgat Luthi on Snow, Shannon Denton and Keith Giffen with Armand Villavert on Zapt!, George Alexopoulos on Go With Grace, T Campbell and Amy Mebberson on Divalicious, Dan Hipp on Gyakushu, Brandon Graham on King City, several more that are not fully signed and a couple of brand-licensed computer-game-based projects that we can announce in a few weeks when the ink is dry.

NRAMA: Michael Vega has left the Dark Moon Diary project and Nathan Maurer's Atomic King Daidogan had been on hold for a while. World of Hartz creator Terrence Walker said that though he's been "asked to do another [volume], I am not currently working on a World of Hartz book, as my schedule does not yet permit it." How much of a dent do these setbacks affect your mission to "create careers in manga and nurture aspiring manga artists everywhere"? You also said that "Both TOKYOPOP and the creators are suitably motivated by the terms of our OEL deals to make and sell (globally and in many languages) great books as well as ancillary products that maximize the potential of a property in other media." Well, obviously, some aspiring OEL creators are not as motivated as TOKYOPOP is...

JR: We have had a couple of creators voluntarily leave their projects. A couple more are under evaluation as to when the next volume will come out. The vast majority of our creators keep on working. Out of over 100 deals for books published or in progress, that’s not a setback for TOKYOPOP. In fact, it’s better than we projected when we started this whole endeavor. It’s to be expected that some people will not be able to finish their projects or continue their series. We’re happy the number is so low. We wish those creators well and we always try to work with them to return to the project if a manga career is really what they want. In fact, we have had some successes in this area. For example, Nathan has made a big effort (Go, Nathan!) and is back in the saddle turning in work on the hilarious Atomic King Daidogan, which should see the printed page later this year.

NRAMA: Lastly, the subject of creators’ rights with TOKYOPOP's OEL line has been discussed at length online and at conventions. In general, creators' rights in comics have been up for much debate since the earliest days of comics in America. While TOKYOPOP has stated in the past that there is no "one set deal" with these relationships, can you tell us in broad strokes just what TOKYOPOP's goal is with the OEL manga versus the continuation of licensing Asian titles?

JR: TOKYOPOP deals -- as well as creator’s rights – have indeed been discussed at length online and at cons.

My official position, which Heidi MacDonald quoted in PW and I published in full on Manga Online, is stated below.

We have a mission to create careers in manga and nurture aspiring manga artists everywhere. We also have a mission to exploit the rights we share with the creators. Both TOKYOPOP and the creators are suitably motivated by the terms of our OEL deals to make and sell (globally and in many languages) great books as well as ancillary products that maximize the potential of a property in other media. We want them to succeed as books first, though, just like our Asian manga has. We also intend to continue providing a fantastic selection of licensed Asian manga, even if only license book rights for the English language. Our catalog will continue to have a balanced amount of both kinds of manga.

Here’s my editor’s letter about OEL deals: http://www.tokyopop.com/mangaonline/...chives=11_2005

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR - NOVEMBER 2005:

In past months I have used this space to tell you about new features on Manga Online and to acknowledge our manga creators for their participation in one of the largest graphic novel product line launches in years. This month, I would like to talk seriously about the issue of the deals our creators sign when they work with us. Although the specific terms are confidential, there has been enough public information and misinformation about them that I want to explain our overall philosophy for those who have not yet signed a TOKYOPOP deal.

The recent discussion of TOKYOPOP contracts on some fan boards reminds me of the game of "telephone." As information is passed along from one person to the next, mistakes creep in and misconceptions build on each other until, in the end, the message changes dramatically.

TOKYOPOP is a creator-friendly company. We love manga and the people who make it. We have made an unprecedented commitment to support a new generation of manga artists, to encourage them to write and draw what they love, to hone their skills and to work together with them to build an audience. We have invested heavily in this mission. We support the greatest possible diversity and freedom of expression—just look at the variety of creators, themes and genres in the manga we've already published and the series we've yet to release.

Let me set the record straight regarding one important fallacy that has come up online. Given TOKYOPOP's mission it's absurd to think we would or even could make the artist contractually responsible for the failure of his or her book. TOKYOPOP contracts contain no language giving us the right to sue creators for sales "underperformance" of their manga. The concept simply does not exist, nor is it something that we've ever contemplated. No TOKYOPOP contract has ever included the term "underperformance" or any similar term.

Like movies and many other forms of entertainment, beauty and craftsmanship can't assure the commercial success of a manga. The audience decides. The financial risk for sales performance of a book rests with TOKYOPOP, as it should.

In the last few years, we have signed dozens of creators. Some are pros and others have never signed a book deal in their lives, but we give them all equal courtesy and consideration in contract negotiations. Most important, we want to make sure that everyone fully understands and has the opportunity to discuss everything they're signing. We're willing to spend the time it takes go over everything in detail.

We pay the creator and in exchange they give us their time and talent to deliver cool, creative stories and sequential art that we can publish and together promote. In turn, we offer strong editorial development, PR, sales, distribution and marketing. Our creators recognize this value. Furthermore, we've published a few manga that, quite bluntly, have failed commercially—but we continue to publish additional volumes because we believe in the creator's message, expression, and talent.

TOKYOPOP has made a commitment to support our creators and give them the best chance to succeed. We want to expand the audience for graphic novels and motivate people to become lifelong readers. It may take time for each of our diverse titles to find its own particular audience. We intend to stand behind our books for as long as it takes—we're in this for the long haul.

~Jeremy Ross,
Editorial Director

To find out more about the various OEL manga projects that we’ve already covered, check out the following links:

AMY HADLEY ON FOOL’S GOLD

CHUCK AUSTEN & THE BOYS OF SUMMER

STUART MOORE ON EARTHLIGHT

BETTINA M. KURKOSKI ON MY CAT LOKI

PLAYING KAT & MOUSE WITH ALEX de CAMPI

ROSS CAMPBELL TALKS THE ABANDONED

JOANNA ESTEP: QUEEN OF THE ROADSONG

THE DREAMING BY QUEENIE CHAN

SVETLANA CHMAKOVA TALKS DRAMACON

HANZO'S A MIDNIGHT OPERA

BECKY CLOONAN ON EAST COAST RISING

TRICK OR THREAT: GIFFEN & ROMAN ON I LUV HALLOWEEN

RIVKAH TALKS STEADY BEAT

JEN QUICK ON TOKYOPOP'S OFF*BEAT

BORING & HILDEBRANDT ON TOKYOPOP'S WAR ON FLESH

TOKYOPOP'S OEL MANGA PIONEERS: RIKKI & TAVISHA SIMONS

ON FIVE SETS OF RISING STARS: JEREMY ROSS ON TOKYOPOP'S RISING STARS OF MANGA

TOKYOPOP'S RISING STARS X: WES ABBOTT ON DOGBY WALKS ALONE

TOKYOPOP'S RISING STARS IX: SHANE GRANGER (WITH JASON HENDERSON & TONY SALVAGGIO) ON PSY-COMM

TOKYOPOP'S RISING STARS VIII: RON KAULFERSCH & MIKE SCHWARK ON VAN VON HUNTER

TOKYOPOP'S RISING STARS VII: IRENE FLORES ON MARK OF THE SUCCUBUS

TOKYOPOP'S RISING STARS VI: CHRISTY LIJEWSKI ON RE:PLAY

TOKYOPOP'S RISING STARS V: LINDSAY CIBOS ON PEACH FUZZ

TOKYOPOP'S RISING STARS IV: AMY KIM GANTER ON SORCERERS & SECRETARIES

TOKYOPOP'S RISING STARS III: M. ALICE LeGROW ON BIZEGHAST

TOKYOPOP'S RISING STARS II: FELIPE SMITH ON MBQ

TOKYOPOP'S RISING STARS I: JESS STONCIUS ON WORK BITES

[c_andrew_s]

Excellent article!

Thanks

[Ayo]

I hate to sound like a broken record but Tokyopop has been impressing me every day, lately.

Props, kudos and congrats to all.

[Abstrakt]

i read that letter and im curious in who owns the rights to the characters and stories created?

are the creators paid the way image does it, in that it depends on how much it sells or do they get paid for doing the work, like a fixed amount for each page?

[creatorman]

Very good article. It answerd most of my questions. Sounds like Tokyopop knows how to step up to the plate and back a creator, something that's not done very often in today's marketplace. I'm sure there's more to it then that in the contracts, but what I read so far looks good. I wish them the best of success.

[Egg]

I've had the chance to see some advance art ([HERE] and [HERE]) on Paul Benjamin and Steven Cummings' Pantheon High and I have to say, it's excellent! This is the TokyoPop, along with Ross Campbells' The Abandoned, that I am most looking forward to!

[Oidon Otoko]

Originally posted by Abstrakt
i read that letter and im curious in who owns the rights to the characters and stories created?

are the creators paid the way image does it, in that it depends on how much it sells or do they get paid for doing the work, like a fixed amount for each page?

Abstrakt,
I can tell you from experience(I'm working on a book called Pantheon High for TP with Texan supermodel Paul Benjamin)
that creaters jointly own the rights with TP. That means all the rights. I think the contract might have had the limiting language of the "entire universe and all creation" when it got to the part about territory of sales, but no matter where anything related to the book is sold and in whatever form, the rights are shared.
As to the pay, Creators are paid an advance on royalties in the form of a page rate. As my wife and I are doing all the art, we just get one check for the penciling, inking(my wife Megumi's job), and the tones. Paul does the writing and walks the cat walk and gets his check as well. After that, you recieve a royalty from the sales once you have paid back your advance(page rate). I hope that helps. By the way, thanks to Egg for posting the links to the forum I post to where samples of my book can be found! http://www.paperfilms.invisionzone.c...showtopic=1225 and
http://www.paperfilms.invisionzone.c...showtopic=1599

[Sambo253]

Man how did Tokyopop get in this position? They're like the ESPN of Manga. Their scope is INSANE.

DC/Marvel really need to step it up

[Oidon Otoko]

Originally posted by Sambo253
Man how did Tokyopop get in this position? They're like the ESPN of Manga. Their scope is INSANE.

DC/Marvel really need to step it up

They've been at it for years, slowly building up their market share. Since they don't have anything flashy, no one really noticed their growth until they were as huge as they are.

And you are right, Marvel and DC should do something like this. They have a lot of content that would do well in this format.