Publishers Weeklyreports that Viz Media, a leading manga publisher, has laid off as many as 60 employees - about 40% of its workforce. PW says manga sales plunged 20% in 2009.
CBRreports that Viz Media also had a small round of layoffs in February, 2009.
TopTenReviews Acquires Space.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com
TopTenReviews has acquired the Consumer Media Division of Imaginova Inc., a privately held company based in New York City. Included in the acquisition are Space.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com. TopTenReviews has established the TechMediaNetwork to incorporate these properties. Combined, 12.2 million people visit TechMediaNetwork sites each month.
"This acquisition expands TopTenReviews' coverage as a trusted technology adviser and strengthens the company as a source of technology news," said TopTenReviews founder and CEO Jerry Ropelato. "We see strong potential for growth in traffic and revenue as a result of the synergy between the sites."
PaidContent says TopTenReviews raised $6 million in 2008.
Publishers Weeklyreports that DC Comics is folding Minx. Minx was a line of graphic novels targeted at teen girls. The New York Timessays Minx was unable to find a large enough audience.
Minx, a line of graphic novels published by DC Comics for young adult female readers, will cease publication in January, according to a statement released by the company. The creation of the Minx imprint was announced in late 2006; with assistance from Alloy Marketing & Media, which produces the "Gossip Girl" novels, DC had planned to promote the imprint to an audience averse to traditional comic-book shops. But the books did not find enough of an audience.
An article on IGN has the following statement from DC Comics about the closure of Minx.
"Minx will cease publication beginning January '09. Minx was an experimental imprint for DC Comics and we are extremely proud of the books we published and the stories we told during the past two years. We thank all of the writers and artists who lent their talents to our endeavor and especially thank readers who came along for the ride. DC Comics remains committed to publishing diverse material for diverse audiences as we continue to welcome new readers."
The Minx website can be found here while it lasts. It looks like about a dozen books had been published in the imprint.
23/6 is hosting an animated version of Get Your War On, a popular comic by David Rees that satrizes the War on Terror and the Iraq War. You can see the first is the series of animated clips here. 23/6 is a fake news type of website owned by IAC and The Huffington Post. Rees also has a book coming out in October called Get Your War On: The Definitive Account of the War on Terror, 2001-2008. (via Underwire)
King Features Syndicate will begin distribution of the daily and Sunday Shoe comic strip starting September 1, 2008 for the dailies and September 7, 2008 for the Sundays. The comic has been syndicated internationally since 1977 and now appears in more than 500 newspapers. Most recently, it has been distributed by Tribune Media Services.
Shoe was created by the late editorial cartoonist, Jeff MacNelly, who won three Pulitzer Prizes for editorial cartooning and twice received the Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society. The current creative team was handpicked by MacNelly and has continued to produce the famous comic strip for the past 16 years. Editorial cartoonist Chris Cassatt, who was MacNelly's long-time assistant, was one of the country's first digital cartoonists. Editorial cartoonist Gary Brookins trained under MacNelly at the Richmond News-Leader. And MacNelly paid his wife, Susie MacNelly, the ultimate compliment by acknowledging that she was Roz, one of the funniest of his main characters in the strip.
"We are delighted to be syndicating the creation of one of the country's all-time top cartooning talents," said Brendan Burford, King Features comics editor. "Jeff MacNelly was universally loved by his peers in our industry and his comic strip continues to be universally loved by his loyal fans. The creative team behind the strip today has done a magnificent job of keeping the strip fresh, funny and topical, and certainly true to its creator's vision"
Shoe chronicles the daily doings of a group of newspaper employees and their friends, foes and families, all of whom are portrayed as all-too-human birds in the fictional town of Treetops, East Virginia. The strip often pokes fun at various social and political issues of the day. The strip's characters include P. Martin Shoemaker, a cigar-chomping editor nicknamed "Shoe"; Cosmo Fishhawk, an overeducated but underachieving reporter and columnist who writes for The Treetops Tattler-Tribune; Cosmo's nephew, Skyler, who he is raising; and Roz, the wise-cracking waitress at Roz’s Roost, the local diner.
After years of being posted in cubicles and distributed from coworker-to-coworker by email, Scott Adams' Dilbert is adding a daily animated version.
RingTales - the producers of The New Yorker Animated Cartoons and the creative team behind Dreamworks' Over the Hedge - have signed an exclusive deal with United Media, Dilbert's licensing and syndication company, to produce and distribute daily animated versions of the Dilbert comic strip. The deal includes yet-to-be produced strips and over 7,000 comics in the Dilbert library.
The daily Dilbert animated cartoons have their own YouTube channel. They can also be found on iTunes as a free, subscription podcast and they will soon be available via RSS feeds, widgets, mobile and numerous other websites.
"We are excited about the opportunity to bring Dilbert to fans in a whole new form," said RingTales CEO Jim Cox. "By delivering an animated Dilbert five times per week, RingTales and United Media are blazing a new media trail to the future of comics online." RingTales President, Michael Fry, adds "With the addition of Dilbert to our already popular New Yorker animations, we're poised to begin to replicate the habit-forming print comic experience in animation, anywhere people can watch or read comics in digital form."
Scott Adams is pleased with the animated. "The animations are terrific," remarked Scott Adams. "RingTales got everything right on these."
The Writers' Strike is underway with writers now picketing outside major studios in Los Angeles and New York City. WGA reps and studio heads failed to cut a deal during last minute negotiations late last night. Writers are seeking higher payouts for DVDs. They also want to be paid for films and shows distributed online and by cell phone.
The New York Timessays the strike will initially have a much bigger impact on sitcoms, talk shows and soaps than on films.
Ten hours of bargaining presided over by a federal mediator failed to close a deal before a strike deadline set last Friday by the Writers Guild of America, which has sought a greater share of DVD and Internet revenues for its members.
The initial impact of a strike for most of the public will be felt on television. Popular late-night talk shows such as NBC's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman," which are produced on a day-to-day basis and depend on a steady supply of topical jokes and sketches, were expected to go into immediate reruns.
Prime-time comedies such as the CBS hit "Two and a Half Men" and Kelsey Grammer's new Fox sitcom "Back to You" also are expected to be knocked out of production because they depend on a substantial amount of last-minute script rewrites.
The effect on movies will be less obvious since the major studios' screenplay pipeline is well-stocked through 2008.
As of last Monday, Newsarama officially became part of the Imaginova Network (you may already know some of Imaginova's sites like LiveScience and Space.com). In the coming days, you'll learn more about Imaginova and its mission to provide news and content for the intellectually curious - a great fit for us. Newsarama will serve as Imaginova's eyes and ears in the world of genre entertainment. We will continue to provide and improve upon our market-leading coverage of the comic book industry. Everything you've come to know and expect from Newsarama is going to get better.
And that's really the story of this day ...what you have come to expect from Newsarama -won't be changing. We will continue to guide and grow the site editorially as we have since Day 1 and the writers you have come to know and trust will come along with us for this exciting ride.
Starting now, however, we'll be armed with the resources to begin phasing in additional content and introducing new media to improve site design, functionality, and dependability, and ultimately to expand our brand of coverage to other entertainment genres you're all already interested in.
The press release says that Newsarama Senior Editors Michael Doran and Matt Brady will join the staff of Imaginova's editorial team and will continue to oversee the day-to-day operations of the site. They co-wrote the note we excerpted from above. The press release is available at the same page as the announcement.
BusinessWeek reports that former Disney CEO Michael Eisner's investment firm, The Tornante Company, and Madison Dearborn Partners plan to acquire Topps, the makers of baseball cards and Bazooka bubble gum.
Selling baseball cards isn't the same fun for Topps that it used to be, as modern kids get distracted by video games and the Internet. But Topps also makes money on products like Bazooka bubble gum and Ring Pops. In an effort to improve its business, Topps hired Lehman Brothers in 2005 to figure out whether and how it should sell (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/12/05, "What's in the Cards for Topps?"). The company's agreement with Torrance et al. remains subject to approvals and is expected to close sometime between early July and late September.
"Over the past two years, with the assistance of Lehman Brothers, we’ve tried to examine all our opportunities and no other superior proposal has emerged in this time frame," said a spokeswoman from Topps. "In our opinion, the idea suggested by the dissidents [shareholder activists] would not result in greater value for stockholders."
Topps CEO Arthur T. Shorin is under pressure from shareholders who have agitated for change. In the summer, the hedge funds Crescendo Partners and Pembridge Capital got their respective people -- Arnaud Ajdler, Timothy Brog, and John J. Jones -- onto Topps' board, at the same time the company agreed to expand the number of board seats from nine to ten.
Now when the board voted on the offer from Eisner, only Topps' three new members opposed. Crescendo's director Arnaud Ajdler promised to campaign against the deal in a Mar. 6 letter to Topps board, criticizing them for not shopping the company around and for agreeing to sell at less than fair value.
If the deal is completed the new owners plan to take the company private. Topps is currently a publicly traded company as Seeking Alpha explains.
This press release from Topps suggests that the Tornante acquisition may not occur. It says Topps has received an unsolicited indication of interest from The Upper Deck Company, a competing card publisher. It also states that the "Topps Board has not withdrawn, qualified, modified, changed or amended its recommendation with respect to The Tornante Company LLC and Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC merger agreement."
TechWeb reports that a company called SmashPhone will soon be rolling out ad-supported syndicated comic strips for cellphones.
SmashPhone will soon roll out Girls & Sports and The Meaning of Lila, with help from Creators Syndicate, a provider of comic strips to newspapers. A new comic strip called Mostly Heads will debut, too. The free service will run on an advertising model, where the ads appear before the comic strip.
The Meaning of Lila was created and written by John Forgetta, editorial director at American Greetings. Girls & Sports was created by Justin Borus and Andrew Feinstein, a former Warner Bros. animator. Mostly Heads is a new comic strip created by Darren Jones, a former E! Entertainment Network producer, and SmashPhone co-founder.
SmashPhone will charge advertisers 5 cents per frame, said co-founder Robin Rowe. "We're aiming for the top 100 companies to advertise," he said. "The usual ones like General Motors and Procter & Gamble."
SmashPhone's site says it requires a mobile phone that has a color screen and supports Java. They also provide information for would-be mobile comic strip publishers.
SLG Publishing recently announced a partnership with Disney Publishing Worldwide to publish four new Disney-inspired comic book series: Haunted Mansion, TRON, Wonderland and Gargoyles. The first issue of The Haunted Mansion, a comic book anthology based on the classic Disney E Ticket attraction debuted in October, 2005. The Haunted Mansion features stories by SLG Publishing's Roman Dirge (Lenore) and Serena Valentino (Gloomcookie, Nightmares & Fairy Tales). The picture on the right shows concept art that has already been created for TRON. The creators working on TRON include Landry Walker, Eric Jones and Louie De Martinis.
SLG's Haunted Mansion comic book draws from the strong visual elements of the ride for it's stories and will not be based on the feature film. "The ride's elements really lend itself to an anthology comic book" said SLG
Publishing president and series editor Dan Vado "there are 999 ghosts
living in the mansion, that means there is potential for 999 different
stories."
Teshkeel Media Group has announced an agreement with Marvel Entertainment, Inc. to bring Arabic-language Marvel comics, trade paperbacks and magazines to the Middle East region. The agreement was announced by Naif Al-Mutawa, CEO of Teshkeel, and Bruno Maglione, President of Marvel International. Under terms of the agreement, Teshkeel will engage in a publishing program which for the first time will bring Marvel comic books to the Middle East in local language. The Marvel comics will be distributed throughout the region, from the Arabian Gulf to North Africa. Some of the comic books will feature Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk and the Avengers. Teshkeel will begin Arabic publication of several of Marvel's most well-known and successful titles early next year. The company may also release additional titles to tie in with the release of next year's X-Men 3 and Ghost Rider motion pictures.
Vibe Magazine and Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment have announce an exclusive partnership to create an urban superhero. The urban character will be marketed as an action hero and will grace the pages of Vibe, as well as having its own graphic novel. Creators will take the animated character to DVD, television, and to feature film.
"I'm as excited as a kid with a new toy to be able to create a unique, exciting, urban superhero for a magazine that I respect as much as Vibe," said Stan Lee. "No one understands or talks to the urban market better than Vibe, and this is a golden opportunity for me to introduce a new, colorful superhero that the urban community can embrace as its own without resorting to typical ghetto cliches or stereotyping. Following the formula I know best, our first stop will be the pages of Vibe magazine, while our ultimate destination will be movies, TV, and DVDs. I can't wait to get started."
Platinum Studios, an entertainment company that controls an independent library of comic book characters, and The Shop Productions, a film production company specializing in
computer-animation, have chosen Alan McElroy to write the screenplay for the $18 million budgeted CG theatrical horror feature, Bonesaw, based on
the Platinum Studios graphic novel by Rob Moran.
Production is set to begin in early 2006, and be completed Fall 2007. McElroy
will be splitting his time between his Ohio home and the Vancouver production
offices of Bonesaw. McElroy is no stranger to adapting comics to film, as he worked closely with comic book star Todd McFarlane, writing both the Spawn feature film and the Emmy-winning first season of the animated series. Bonesaw is about a horror-fantasy writer who discovers that her hit novels are about to release the villain Bonesaw and the other hellish creatures she's been writing about into our world.
Marvel Enterprises, Inc. and Paramount Pictures, a part of the entertainment operations of Viacom, Inc. announced that they have entered into an agreement under which Paramount will distribute a slate of feature films to be produced by Marvel. Marvel also announced it has obtained a financing commitment from Merrill Lynch Commercial Finance Corp. to permit Marvel to fund the production of its film slate. Paramount will receive a distribution fee for each film it distributes and will retain worldwide distribution rights in sequels to the films covered under the agreement. The distribution agreement between Paramount and Marvel specifies that Marvel may deliver up to ten films to Paramount over an eight-year period, with the first titles including "Captain America" and "Nick Fury." Marvel's budgets for each film may range from $45 million to $180 million. The first picture is expected to be released in 2007 or 2008. Paramount will not contribute to production costs, although it will provide advance funding of promotion and advertising for the films.
Thomas Haden Church Case as New Spider-Man Archenemy
Thomas Haden Church, who was most recently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Sideways, has been cast as Spider-Man's new archenemy in the next chapter of the Spider-Man adventure, it was announced by director Sam Raimi and producers Laura Ziskin and Marvel Studios' Avi Arad.
Spider-Man 3 is scheduled for release on May 4, 2007. The franchise has grossed more than $1.5 billion in worldwide ticket sales. The new film will again reteam director Raimi, producers Ziskin and Arad, and actors Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Kirsten Dunst as M.J.
Production on Spider-Man 3 is scheduled to begin early next year.
The identity of the new villain is being kept secret and while speculation is rampant about which character is being called into action, the studio will not comment on the casting beyond confirming Church.
Nicktoons, Nickelodeon's digital channel for kids, will partner with Paris-based studio, Xilam Animation, for Shuriken School, a quirky playground comedy with a martial arts twist about a boy's adventures at Ninja school, it was announced by Keith Dawkins, Vice President and General Manager, Nicktoons. Produced by Xilam and based on an original idea by Zinkia Entertainment, the series is made up of 26 half-hour shows and will air on Nicktoons in 2006. Targeted to 6-11 year-olds, the series tells the story of 10 year- old Eizan Kaburagi's rite of passage in his first year at Ninja school, Shuriken.
Twisted Pictures and Lions Gate Films announced that Catacombs will be the first picture in their new nine-picture financing and distribution deal together. Starring Shannyn Sossamon and Alecia Moore aka Pink, the film is co-written and co-directed by David Elliot and Tomm Coker and will begin principal photography in Bucharest, Romania on March 7th. Twisted Pictures' Mark Burg, Oren Koules, and Gregg Hoffman are producing. Peter Block, President of Acquisitions, Television and Co-Productions and Jason Constantine, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions, will oversee the production for Lions Gate Films, which is handling worldwide distribution on the film. Twisted Pictures' first film under the new label, SAW, also distributed by Lions Gate, was one of the most profitable films of 2004. Produced for $1.2 million, the film has grossed over $50 million domestically and nearly $100 million worldwide. Under their nine picture deal with Lions Gate, Twisted Pictures will finance and produce films exclusively in the horror / action genre. Catacombs is the story of a young woman on her first visit out of the country. While in Paris, she is taken to an underground party in the Catacombs, a labyrinth of over 200 miles of 14th Century limestone tunnels under the Left Bank of the city, lined with the remains of 7 million people. When she is separated from her friends and becomes convinced that someone or something is chasing her, her vacation becomes a terrifying nightmare. Making his feature film directorial and writing debut with Catacombs, Tomm Coker previously wrote and directed the festival award-winning short A Day Between. In addition, Coker is a prolific illustrator in the comic book and graphic novel world, having drawn such characters as Wolverine from the X-Men series and Batman. He also co-created the comic-book series Blood and Water.
Warner Bros. Consumer Products kicked off the world's largest toy trade show, the 2005 American International Toy Fair with a new line-up of licensed toys and products inspired by Batman. The produce include a new toy and electronics line inspired by this summer's upcoming theatrical release, Batman Begins; Warner Bros. Animation's new television series, The Batman; as well as toys based on the classic Batman, from the pages of DC Comics. The line up from key partners includes Mattel, Thinkway, Techno Source, Art Asylum, Rubies Costumes, Corgi USA and Craig/Kid Station Electronics.
Midway Games Inc., an interactive entertainment publisher, announced that it has signed three publishing agreements with Cartoon Network, licensed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, for video games based on three of the network's top-rated kids programs: Ed, Edd n Eddy, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Dexter's Laboratory. Under the terms of the agreements, Midway secures multi-territory rights to develop and publish games for the console, handheld and PC platforms.
Today Schwab Learning, a nonprofit program of the Charles and Helen Schwab
Foundation dedicated to helping families of children with learning and attention problems, has announced a partnership with cartoonist Jim Davis, creator of comic icon Garfield. Through the partnership with Davis' organization, Paws, Inc., a specially selected Garfield comic strip as well as original Garfield activities and content will appear daily at Schwab Learning's SparkTop.org, a website designed exclusively for 8-12 year olds with learning difficulties.
Schwab and Davis found common ground in the issue of learning difficulties. Schwab himself suffers from dyslexia and often used comic books in school to study classic works of literature. Davis, who has spent over 25 years entertaining children and adults with the stories of Garfield and his friends, hears regularly from kids, parents, and teachers around the world who credit Garfield comic strips with strengthening their enthusiasm for learning. The comic strips and activities featured on SparkTop.org are designed to encourage self-esteem among kids who struggle with learning difficulties.
FunMail and Classic Media are heating up wireless phones' screens nationwide with a launch of Hot Stuff, a comic magazine character. Classic Media, the New York-based family entertainment company that is home to Underdog and The Lone Ranger, has licensed the rights to FunMail, a wireless entertainment company, to provide a collection of wireless wallpaper images of the character. Through the deal, FunMail will enable mobile phone users to personalize their handsets with Hot Stuff imagery. The Hot Stuff wireless wallpaper images produced by FunMail preserve the playful look of the character, a mischievous little devil that has the bubbly spirit of a little boy. Some of the sayings on the images include "I Love Hot Stuff," "Irresistible," "That's Hot!" "Catch Me," "Hot4U," "Red Hot Mama," "I Love You," "Hottie!" and more.
ShoPro Entertainment Inc. and Viz, LLC, two companies specializing in Japanese manga and animation content, are merging this spring to create a new entertainment company. ShoPro Entertainment, an affiliate of ShoPro Japan, a subsidiary of Shogakukan Inc., one of Japan's largest publishing companies, is a global licensor specializing in animation, entertainment production and consumer products for such properties as Inuyasha and MegaMan NT Warrior. Viz, a subsidiary of Shogakukan Inc. and Shueisha Inc., is a publisher of manga for English speaking audiences, including the bestselling graphic novel titles Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dragon Ball, Alice 19TH, Ranma 1/2, and Shonen Jump magazine. Viz is also a top producer of Japanese animation home video/DVD titles such as Pokeman, Inuyasha and Boys Over Flowers.
Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment has forged a joint venture partnership with Ringo Starr to create and launch an original entertainment franchise. Financed, produced and distributed by IDT Entertainment, the new animation will transform Ringo Starr into an evil-battling, earth-saving (though reluctant) superhero with a great sense of rhythm. Stan Lee and his new company Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment
will develop the superhero project with Ringo and his entertainment company Rocca Bella for television, home entertainment/DVD, publishing and all categories of licensing and
merchandising. Production on the animated series will begin in 2005 with a planned DVD
roll-out first quarter of 2006. Executive Producers for POW! Entertainment are Stan Lee and COO, Gill Champion. Executive Producer for Rocca Bella is Marjorie Bach. IDT
Entertainment COO, John Hyde will supervise production. Stan Lee, the creator of many comic book characters as Spiderman, Fantastic Four, the X-Men and The Hulk, will base the superhero on Ringo's famed persona. Ringo will lend his voice to his animated superhero character.
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