In their continuing strategy of signing up young wannabes before they have much experience in determining what a good deal looks like, Tokyopop has launched Manga Pilots (link no longer available). … promising manga creators are selected and hired by our editorial team to create a 24-to-36-page “pilot”–a short-form manga that will be used to determine whether or not a full-length manga will be created. The Manga Pilot will be published online for TOKYOPOP community members to review, rate, and […]

I’m running out of headlines to express my surprise whenever another issue of Tokyopop’s Manga magazine shows up. What’s not surprising, though, is that it’s even slimmer than the previous issue, with only 48 pages this time. It’s cover-dated Spring 2008 and has only three paid ad pages. One of which is for the New York Comic Con, which starts in three days, so this release date is cutting it a little close, hmm? But I expect that they’re going […]

I keep forgetting the Tokyopop Manga magazine even exists until a new issue arrives. I got one yesterday. It’s cover-dated Summer 2007, so either my mailman is REALLY slow or plans got derailed, just like with the previous issue (promised February, delivered May). It continues to shrink, with 64 stapled pages. (Previous installments were squarebound.) This issue also has ads sold to outside companies (which might explain why it came out this late instead of being canceled — paid ads […]

We were promised in February that Tokyopop’s next issue of their Manga magazine was on the way. I got mine this week. Here’s a rundown. The cover unsurprisingly features Princess Ai. (I’m never surprised to see Tokyopop push this property since their CEO, Stu Levy, co-created and co-writes it under a pseudonym.) The first feature defines generic: it’s horoscopes decorated with manga property clip art, mostly from OEL titles. It starts out “Is your New Year calling for a change […]

Tokyopop Revising Rating System: With “more than 40 content indicators divided among five age ranges”, perhaps a better verb is “complicating”. It’s due to debut this fall. [A] general set of content indicators in addition to the ratings icon will be printed on the cover of each new series. The new system will provide prospective buyers with far more information about a book’s content than the previous system (that Tokyopop pioneered), which simply provided the age rating alone. That’s a […]