By Jeremy Kahn

As some may remember, last year I posted an article about Marza. It’s a new animation division started up by SEGA for the main purpose of creating feature length animated films. One of their first works was the special “Sonic: Night of the Werehog.” Recently they’ve worked on a film alongside Toei Animation based on “Space Pirate Captain Harlock” (due sometime in 2013). Marza has shown interest in creating family driven films.

Last year they held a worldwide contest where anyone could submit story ideas in the hopes that you’d win and Marza would turn your idea into an full length feature. 400 entries were received, two of which were chosen and are now in development.

An email detailing the second contest was sent out to last year’s contestants. It contained a general list of requirements, including:

1. A synopsis of a complete story for a Marza animated feature film. The synopsis should be no more than 1,000 Words. Incomplete stories will not be considered.

2. A cover page that includes a logline (brief synopsis) of the film in less than 100 words and a writer’s statement about the hook and the universal theme of the film (less than 200 words each).

3. Writers must agree to the terms on the release form on the website.

The deadline for this year’s contest is Nov. 15th. It’s coming up soon, so if you want a chance to turn your screenplay into a feature length film, and a chance to win a cool one million Japanese Yen, visit the official English language site.

Good luck and have fun writing.

By Jeremy Kahn

It was a sad day for manga enthusiasts when Tokyopop shut its doors. They left the manga industry when they closed their North American headquarters, leaving only their Germany post open for licensing media and merchandise. Blame was placed on Boarders, who apparently owed Tokyopop money at the time. But Borders was going through financial problems of their own, recently closing their doors. Not only were they unable to pay back what they owed, but Tokyopop lost a major brick and motor store in which to sell their product.

Tokyopop has been closed for nearly a year but there have been traces of their publications floating around. The majority of their titles have reverted back to their respective license holders. Kodansha, a major manga publisher, just started reclaiming their titles and redistributing them with new translations themselves. An interesting thing to note about this closing is that SCAD students were welcomed to intern there. Up until last year when the closing happened, and a while after, Tokyopop was listed as one of companies that SCAD was affiliated with in regard to internships.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. According to the TokyopopManga Twitter account, Tokyopop is “hoping that [it will] be able to release new manga very soon.” They are “laying the groundwork for publishing new manga again.”

But there’s a catch. Since, as mentioned above, their titles have reverted back to their original publishers they will “have to work to get them back.” They were sure to reaffirm though that their “ultimate goal is to start publishing manga again.” To add to the excitement, and anticipation they hinted that the first title they would start with would be an old one.

Also on the horizon are plans to start publishing their future titles in physical and digital format. A thing to note here though is that, a couple of their titles are already available in a digital format through a variety of digital comic services. The possibility exists, however, that they might create their own app to sell their titles through.

Stu Levy released this letter which was posted on GeekChicDaily on Tuesday addressing this news, “I know that you’re all eager to have the same access to your favorite manga titles that we could previously provide and I promise that I am continuing to explore any and all opportunities to relaunch the manga publishing operations of TOKYOPOP’s business.”

It’s sad whenever we lose a major publishing company, especially in today’s world where everything is moving towards a digital future. So it’s great to see things turn out for the best this time around. Here’s hoping that more companies like this can get a second chance.

By Carlos Serrano

Life can be rough for artists sometimes. There’s a constant need for marketing yourself that other professions may not always have. It’s also easy for those starting out to be confused about where and how to go about bringing attention to their work.  For many artists, conventions become central to their career.

The idea behind it is fairly simple. Most conventions feature an Artist Alley, a specific area of the convention where artists can set up a table to display and sell artwork. Getting a table costs money, of course, but most conventions will throw in convention passes as part of the deal. That way artists are not stuck at their tables even after they’ve sold everything.

If you’re thinking about getting into the convention circuit, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, most Artist Alley tables and facilities do not come with electrical outlets. If your artwork will require any kind of electricity, you’ll need to reserve your space extra early and pay more for power.

The most important thing to remember to avoid any unnecessary problems is what many conventions call the 80/20 rule. The idea is that many conventions deal with a certain subject of popular culture (comics, anime, etc.). It’s tempting for artists to load up on fanart to sell. To avoid messy copyright issues, most conventions require an artist’s inventory to contain 80 percent completely original artwork. The other 20 percent can be fanart. There are a few exceptions, mainly when it comes to on-site commissions, but the general rule stands.

Of course, an important thing to know if you’re starting out is where exactly conventions are. Most of the larger conventions with larger Artist Alleys take place in the big cities of certain states. Some conventions to look into are:

WonderCon (Anaheim, CA)

San Diego Comic Con (San Diego, CA)

MegaCon (Orlando, FL)

SuperCon (Miami, FL)

Anime Weekend Atlanta (Atlanta, GA)

Anime Boston (Boston, MA)

Dallas All-Con (Dallas, TX)

Oni-Con (Houston, TX)

Unfortunately, convention season is pretty much over. However, if you want to keep track of future conventions or look up ones not listed in this article, a good resource is GeekCal, a calendar for events like conventions and book signings.

Finally, remember to always keep your mind open about where to go. You never know where you might get your big break.