Steven Grant has a must-read column looking at the status of publishers who’ve recently suffered public problems. He makes excellent points, based on his long experience in the business, but I’m most interested in talking about what he says about Tokyopop. He starts by noting: Borders has pulled Tokyopop titles from their shelves due to slipping sales. It would seem something else went on behind the scenes there, as usually booksellers only pull titles that don’t sell, not a publisher’s […]

Tokyopop is splitting into two companies: one for the traditional publishing, and a new company, “Tokyopop Media”, for film and digital production. Tokyopop’s been interested in the latter for a while now, talking about trying to get comics on cellphones and creating online media to promote titles. The general impression is that they have to be more creative — most of the prominent Japanese manga titles are now tied up by competitors Viz and Del Rey. That also explains their […]