ELFSAR BLOG

Black Friday is almost among us.  It is the time of year that the x-mas shopping begins to help keep our economy running.  For those of you on a budget, you may want to this out:

We have a lot to be thankful for, even the shirts on our backs! So in celebration we have some new reduced prices on some awesome T-shirts at elfsar.com!  Just select Clothing in the category menu and click the search tab to see all the shirts on sale!  Prices range from $12.95 to $5.95! Locals pickups are available to those who live in the greater Vancouver area at our head office in North Vancouver.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the American’s out there!

DC has released a promotional video featuring Jim Lee, Dan DiDio, Bob Harras, Eddie Berganza, and Grant Morrison promoting “The New 52,” the relaunch of its entire line this September.

The picture above certainly fills me with memories.  Last year was our last Free Comic Book Day event at our Yaletown location and although it was a tremendous amount of work to put together, it was also the most rewarding.

Okay, stop reading this and get your butt down to a participating retailer for Free Comic Book Day! For a list of locations near you: http://www.freecomicbookday.com/fcbd_locator.asp

Sadly Elfsar is unable to participate, but we did drop off a couple long boxes of kid friendly comics at the Ronald McDonald House this morning.  So I still feel good about the day.  I found out, that RX Comics is running a Food Fundraiser this year.  So make sure to support those making the effort to go above and beyond the expectations for FCBD.

-Big Elf

In your best old English speak; tell us why you are most deserving of a double-guest pass to the advance 3D screening for THOR and you could win tickets to the show (Wednesday, May 4th, 7:00pm
At the Scotiabank Theatre – 900 Burrard Street)
Opening in theatres May 6th

Example: “Thy love for Thor, Odinson, God of Thunder, hath endured lo, these many months. It hath overcome every obstacle I shall deny it no longer! Thy must hath thou tickets to the rainbow bridge!”

Winners will be picked at random:  Send submissions via Facebook Group, Facebook Page, Twitter, Youtube or email your submission to: admin@elfsar.com

Visit the official website:  http://thor.marvel.com

Media Release — For nearly 15 years, TOKYOPOP, led by Stu Levy, its founder, CEO and Chief Creative Officer, has pioneered the English-language manga movement and touched the hearts, minds and souls of enthusiasts worldwide.

Today, we are sad to inform our loyal community of manga fans, our passionate creators of manga content, our business and retail partners, and other stakeholders who have supported us through the years that as of May 31, 2011, TOKYOPOP is closing its Los Angeles-based North American publishing operations.

TOKYOPOP film and television projects and European operations, including the German publishing program, will not be affected by the Los Angeles office closure.  In addition, TOKYOPOP will continue its global rights sales via its office in Hamburg, Germany.

A personal message from Stu Levy

Dear TOKYOPOP Community:

Media Release — Way back in 1997, we set out to bring a little-known form of Japanese entertainment to American shores.  I originally named our little company “Mixx”, meaning a mix of entertainment, mix of media, and mix of cultures.   My dream was to build a bridge between Japan and America, through the incredible stories I discovered as a student in Tokyo.

Starting with just four titles — Parasyte, Ice Blade, Magic Knight Rayearth, and, of course, Sailor Moon — we launched MixxZine, aspiring to introduce comics to girls.  These four series laid down the cornerstone for what would eventually become TOKYOPOP and the Manga Revolution.

Over the years, I’ve explored many variations of manga culture – “OEL” manga, “Cine-Manga”, children’s books we called “Manga Chapters”, the Gothic-Lolita Bible, Korean manwha (which we still called “manga” at the time), video game soundtracks, live-action films and documentaries, anime, and various merchandise.  Some of it worked, some of it didn’t – but the most enjoyable part of this journey has been the opportunity to work with some of the most talented and creative people I’ve ever met.

Many of you also allowed me the indulgence to not only produce works but also to take a swing at creating some of my own.  I’ve learned that it’s much easier to criticize others than it is to create from scratch – but in doing so, I’ve also in the process learned how to better communicate with creators.

Fourteen years later, I’m laying down my guns. Together, our community has fought the good fight, and, as a result, the Manga Revolution has been won –manga has become a ubiquitous part of global pop culture.  I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished – and the incredible group of passionate fans we’ve served along the way (my fellow revolutionaries!).

For many years Japan has been my second home, and I have devoted much of my career to bringing my love for Japan to the world – and hopefully in my own way, I can give back to the culture that has given me so much joy.

In closing, I simply want to thank all of you – our incredibly talented creators from all over the world, our patient and supportive business partners and customers, our amazingly dedicated TOKYOPOP team – full-timers, part-timers, freelancers and interns, and of course the greatest fans in the entire world. Together, we’ve succeeded in bringing manga to North America and beyond.

Arigatougozaimasu!!

Diamond, iVerse Teaming Up to Offer Digital Content Via Comic Shops

Imagine a future where readers and fans can visit their local comic shop to buy not just physical copies of new comics, but also digital editions that aren’t available anywhere else, and can be viewed in multiple platforms including iPhone, iPad, web, and others.

That future is coming soon as Diamond Comic Distributors (DCD) – the world’s largest distributor of English-language comic books, graphic novels and related pop-culture merchandise – joins forces with iVerse Media – the pioneer of digital comics and creators of the popular ComicsPLUS reader – to empower 2,700+ brick and mortar comic shops to sell digital content.

Plans call for day-and-date digital editions to sell exclusively at comic shops for 30 days for about $1.99, with “Digital Plus” editions – digital copies available with the purchase of a hard copy – expected to sell for $.99.

Thanks to a simple but technologically robust code redemption system, retailers will need only an internet connection and a printer to participate. They will have no inventory risk or carrying costs and will retain a significant portion of each sale, with billing occurring on their regular DCD invoices. Retailers with websites will also be able to profitably sell a wide range of digital back issue comics and graphic novels.

Diamond Executive VP and COO Chuck Parker had this to say: “Digital comics are creating opportunities for publishers to grow the comic market. Our task, as we see it, has been to structure a program that empowers comic retailers to play a role in this growth and, at the same time, make money selling digital content. We think we’ve accomplished that with this initiative, and we look forward to feedback from retailers and publishers alike to help us succeed in this endeavor.”

iVerse CEO Michael Murphey added: “We are proud to be helping Diamond develop systems which will immediately enable comic shop retailers at any level of technical ability to easily sell digital comics. We are also very excited about the potential of this new venture to create many creative print-to-digital and digital-to-print promotional possibilities.”

Publishers already on-board with the program include: Ape Entertainment, Archie Comics, Aspen Comics, Bluewater Productions, Broadsword Comics, Hermes Press, IDW Publishing, Moonstone Comics, NBM Publishing, Papercutz, Red 5 Comics, Studio Foglio, Titan Books, TOKYOPOP, Top Cow Productions and Top Shelf Productions. Talks with other publishers are continuing, and the first comic shop digital editions are slated to debut in July, 2011.

“Direct Market retailers have always been IDW’s most important market and we’re very pleased to be working with Diamond and iVerse to include them in the digital distribution of our books,” said Ted Adams, CEO/Publisher IDW Publishing.

Dave Bowen, Director of DCD’s new Diamond Digital division, said: “We invite all publishers to join our effort, whether with all of their books or a portion of their line.  All we ask is that they give comic shops a 30-day head-start on selling whatever digital content they chose to make available through the program.”

Bowen added that interested publishers are welcome to contact him (bdave@diamondcomics.com) or Michael Murphey (michael@iversemedia.com) for more information.

Further details with be forthcoming at the ComicsPRO Annual Meeting, being held February 10-12 in Dallas, and at Diamond’s Retailer Summit, to be held March 17-18 in Chicago, in conjunction with the C²E² show.

MY THOUGHTS? I say ‘Hurray!’  and ‘Oh shit!’  I have some reservations about this.  On the one hand it is great to see something happening as I have always stated that there needs to be a universal reader for this system to work.  However, I am not exactly thrilled at the idea of Apple running it all.  I realize this is a necessary evil in order for the code redemption system to work.  Retailers need to be the front runners and positive salesmen to introduce this to the comic shop patrons in order for this to catch on.  The hook for retailers is they get to make a little bit of extra money from exclusive content and no longer worry about overstock issues (which is the bane of most retailers) and of course they get to continue to sell printed content.  So they will be in a bake a cake and eat it too situation and I imagine it will be met with little to no resistance.

All I was hoping for a system that could be universal for all platforms. Problem solved right?  Not really.  In my opinion, the exclusive stuff is the gateway drug for collectors to accept this content as the norm and is a very smart play.  However, my instincts tell me this comes with a manipulative hidden agenda.  I am even willing to bet Apple came up with the idea.  By Apple now acting as a 3rd party partner the dynamics of the relationship between publisher, distributor, retailer and finally consumer inevitably changes.

This situation is all fine and dandy for the retailer as long as they are allowed to share in the pie (a pie which Apple will control the baking of).  But for how long?  What happens in 5 or 10 years?  What happens if digital books start outselling printed books 10 to 1?  What reason in the long term will publishers feel they need to support the middleman anymore when going directly to the customer will be as easy as sending an email or app update?  I certainly don’t have the answers, but I feel for my fellow comic retailer and hope that they tread cautiously when chasing the exclusive carrot.  Absolute control is never a good thing but then again, retailers have been dealing with Diamond for all these years.

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t want to come across as bitter.  In fact I am rather excited for digital comics to gain steam.  I just know that in any industry lack of choice is never a good thing.  I found out first hand after 7 years of being a comic book retailer that I really never had any power when it came to Diamond Comics Distribution.  The most I could ever do is speak with my wallet but that was throwing a small pebble in a large pond.  At least now, maybe the comic book consumer will have the power of choice between going digital, printed or both.

Well, not really.

So if you had to guess how many copies of the new Godzilla comic from IDW your local comic shop ordered, what would you say?  Maybe five?  How about Ten?  Or even possibly Twenty?  Well, you would probably laugh your but off if I said five hundred.

500 is  a lot to ask a store to order (especially in this day and age).   But what if the cover depicted your very own local comic shop being crushed underfoot by the almighty Godzilla?

It’s a pretty clever marketing idea that IDW came up with.  I know that Elfsar would have definitely jumped on this if we had not already shut down our retail location.  It is good to see a number of stores have taken IDW up on the special promotion so far including two Canadian stores.  Vancouver Islands Curious Comics and  our friends in Edmonton, Happy Harbor.   It’s not the greatest image for the comic book industry but it may be the most accurate.  The great thing about comics is it never takes itself too seriously.  But I can’t shake the feeling that Godzilla’s foot pretty much represents the heavy burden the economy has on comic book specialty stores.

Here is what some of them will look like (I like how each store looks different, rather than just a logo that was stamped where a generic sign might be note: the snow in Edmonton):

Many of you may or may not know that a lot of the great people that were under the employ at Elfsar are active writers.  A lot of them have published work to their credit and have worked for Comics, Video Games and various other mediums.  So I thought I would give you a quick update to what they are up to now.

James moved with his girlfriend to Toronto (what I call the Canadian New York) to seek out more writing opportunities that did not currently exist in Vancouver (what I call the Canadian San Fransisco)- You can follow his very entertaining blog here).

Brock is also home in Toronto with his lovely wife and I have heard that he is working on some short stories and poetry in his spare time.

Omar has moved back to Peru with the motivation to help build Peru’s film industry and among working on some commercials is working on what I understand to be a personal film project.

Sean, just got recently married and has published several crime stories to his credit.  He is working on his new novel here in Vancouver.

Craig, is not so much into the writing game but you can see him on Wednesday mornings (in North Vancouver) at Big Petes Collectibles as he is now helping out in the Comics department.

And finally, Thomas (who is still in Vancouver) for the past few months has been working on the screenplay for a feature length version of short film (directed by a talented CG director who’s worked on films like District 9, King Kong, I Robot, etc).  He just sent me an update and I am happy to report that the script and short film are opening tons of doors for him and may lead to some incredibly big things very soon.  Check it out:

…well, not really or at the very least, not yet.

Wow how time flies.  It has been roughly 1 year since the purchase of Marvel by Disney.  What has changed?  Marvel cartoons have been given several time slots on the Disney Channel, comic prices have slightly reduced, comics are now sold at Disneyland, a slew of new #1′s have been produced and that true believers about sums it up.

Not as many changes as you might think from a big powerhouse like Disney.  My theory is that Disney is playing a bit of a waiting game for certain contracts to expire before any big plans in terms of theme park attractions occur.  So far there is no telling if Pixar will be getting any Marvel properties to work on so there is not much to report.

But let’s not forget about last month, when news spread that Disney (owner of ABC) and Marvel would be bringing some Marvel properties to the small screen, and one of them would be an Incredible Hulk show.  (See david-eick-guillermo-del-toro-on-new-hulk-tv-show)  There was, however, no official announcement from ABC television regarding Marvel’s statements.   But, now I’ve got it from an even higher source, Robert Iger, the CEO of the Walt Disney Company.

“We’re developing three live-action series for ABC and ABC Family.”

There’s no confirmation yet on which Marvel properties will be chosen for the TV treatment.

First of all, the Hulk is definitely one of them since it is already in the early stages of development.  For the other two, they will probably come from the following list, which were all pitched by Marvel to Disney as possible television adaptations:

• Heroes for Hire (a.k.a., a Luke Cage show)
• The Eternals
• Agents of Atlas
• Alter Ego (a series about Jessica Jones)
• Moon Knight
• Hood
• Ka-Zar
• Daughters of the Dragon
• The Punisher (as a cable series)

Check out my friends at the ComicBookSyndicate a Canadian review of 1 year later after Disney bought Marvel. (oh and with a special guest the Honky Tonk Man).