Tokyopop

Most anime is adapted from manga, often produced by the manga publisher to raise awareness and selling it overseas. But what about the anime shows or film that go the other way, adapted from the screen to the page? How do those works hold up, and what changes or stays the same? That’s what Screen & Page aims to explore. This week, we're exploring the unlikely but absolutely incredible fusion of hip-hop and samurai storytelling known as Samurai Champloo!

Despite its important market share, huge visibility and ever-rising, record-breaking sales numbers, manga is still largely ignored or scorned by the Western comics community — a term that here means retailers, readers, publishers and some creators — while the critical press and general public thinks of manga as something separate from comics. But why?

Tokyopop is back. The manga publisher, known for its rapid rise and subsequent implosion in the early 2000s, announced a new push toward active business at Anime Expo on July 2. Tokyopop founder Stu Levy (also known as DJ Milky) led a panel that unveiled an ad-supported comics app called Pop Comics and unspecified plans to return to manga publishing in 2016. The response from creators who have been published by Tokyopop was… let’s call it “less than enthusiastic”:

The hit film Star Trek Into Darkness is now available (as a digital download; the disc gets released in a couple of weeks), and you can stream the entirety of The Original Series, The Next Generation and more on Netflix and through other services. But what if you want more; what if you want the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk, Mister Spock, Doctor Leonard McCoy and that one redshirt who’s prob

One of the largest and occasionally most controversial publishers of recent years is apparently making a comeback, with the news that Tokyopop has relaunched its website and is promising a new evolution in the way it brings the world "Asian pop culture" in the coming months...

Toys: USA Today has a first look at Diamond Select Toys' upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man movie action figure. Fundraising: The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is hosting a manga raffle at NYCC, with prizes that include a number of cool titles...

Movies: Kevin Donofrio spots a Metropolis police car from Chicago's current Man of Steel shoots. Manga: Though Tokyopop is no more, Hetalia may live on with the help of a third party. Creators: Steve Bissette breaks down why a writer asking a professional artist to draw their graphic novel (or storyboard their screenplay) for free isn't cool...

Entertainment: Marvel's got a bevy of animated series headed to Netflix Instant starting today and extending over the course of the coming months. If you're reading this Marvel, please add Japanese Spider-Man ASAP. You'll have my eternal gratitude...

TOKYOPOP is over. Or, they've announced they are shutting down U.S. operations next month, which means they are already over in the collective consciousness of the comic book industry. Loss of licenses, failure to replace top-selling franchises, lack of a big media hit, and rounds of brutal layoffs have been telegraphing the end since at least 2008...

TOKYOPOP announced Friday via press release that it will be shutting down its U.S.-based operations as of May 31, 2011. Founded by Stu Levy, the publisher was instrumental in introducing Japanese comics to the American marketplace in the form of Sailor Moon, among other titles, consequently contributing to and benefitting from the manga explosion in bookstores seen in the last decade...