Heidi MacDonald at The Beat brings us up to date on the Tokyopop situation. After the company laid off VP of Sales and Distribution Steve Kleckner, senior editor Aaron Suhr, and five or six other employees, Heidi started hearing rumblings that Tokyopop was telling OEL (original English language) manga creators to stop work on their projects, adding, “but it’s all chatter at this point.”
The chatter proved unfounded, at least for now: Tokyopop editorial director Jeremy Ross told Heidi,
We have not told any OEL creators to stop working on their projects as a result of Aaron’s departure. The projects that Aaron was supervising are being reassigned immediately to other TOKYOPOP editors who will provide continuity.
Still, Kleckner’s comment to Publisher’s Weekly that he left over “differences about where the manga market is going” gives food for thought. It makes sense for Tokyopop to develop some homegrown talent, as Viz has tied up a lot of the Japanese licences. Furthermore, from what I’ve read on message boards, Tokyopop’s contracts with OEL creators give them part ownership of the characters, whereas the Japanese manga are merely licensed—it’s the difference between renting and owning. So OEL could pay off big, IF the market appears.
But so far, the OEL are selling steadily but not spectacularly. My theory, based on my very unscientific observations of my kids and their classmates, is that Tokyopop is missing the real sweet spot, the 8-to-12 age group. Most of their OEL manga is pitched to an older age group—there is a gap between Fruits Basket and Steady Beat, and it may be that the teenagers who could relate better to the OEL books are too old to start reading comics. Already my older girl, who turned 13 yesterday (gasp!) has started leaving manga behind for more traditional books. That’s an image problem that comics have suffered for a while.
For two or three years now, my daughters have been hard-core manga buyers. My 11-year-old still entices me into the bookstore whenever possible (not that that’s very difficult) and seldom leaves empty-handed. If I were going to start some homegrown manga, I’d aim it at her, not her older sister.
I’m just sayin’.
And I hate to say it, because I really like the OEL manga—it’s definitely a more sophisticated read than One Piece. But if you’re going to extend your brand, extend it to your biggest buyers first.
I hope the rumors, unfounded as they may be, provide some food for thought for the OEL creators too. Creative people hate to think about boring stuff like copyright, but it would be a terrible thing to lose control of a character because the publisher owns the rights and ends the series. Every creator should have a good intellectual-property lawyer looking out for their rights.