Hello, and welcome to August! Somehow. Somehow, it is…August.
Hey, remember TokyoPOP? That manga company that had half of the entire American manga market before imploding in the late 2000s due to horrific exploitation of their OELM creators? Well, after rising from the grave in 2015, they’re doing their best to continue embodying a shambling, undead horror. In addition to a booth presence at the 2022 SDCC, this past week they announced the return of their Rising Stars of Manga Contest. If you’re not familiar with that particular contest, it’s essentially the basis for how they’ve managed to exploit creators since 2002. The way it works is, they convince aspiring manga creators to submit short manga works to them as part of this contest, which only pays money to a few contestants—every other contestant gets nothing for the work they’ve produced, despite entry in the contest meaning that that work is then signed over to TokyoPOP.
That’s right! If you’re not one of the ten people they give money to here, they take your work for free! Their contract involves (still, somehow) the surrendering of “Moral Rights” to the company, which means that you give up any say in how your work is adapted or used. Once again, unless you win this competition, you get no money for this. They can then publish the work you’ve submitted, use it (and your name) for promotional materials, and so on:
TokyoPOP makes a big deal in that second point about the retention of copyright, but that’s not really the win they’re making it out to be: You already get the copyright to works you’ve made, unless you specifically sign those over. However, the license to display or adapt here is the key: TokyoPOP gets to publish your work if they so choose, they get to sell published volumes of that work, to make money off of it, and they will give you nothing for it. It is, in short, a horrifically exploitative contract, in keeping with TokyoPOP’s contracts of days past. Aspiring creators: avoid this company.
Speaking of companies imploding, webcomic platform Tapas has just laid off about 30% of its staff, according to a report published at the Comics Beat. It appears to be yet another case of an outside company scooping up comics platforms and pumping funds into them in the short term, expecting them to somehow become magic profit machines, and then slashing funding when that proves, inevitably, to not be the case.
If that sounds familiar, then, of course, you remember the recent news about Oni! After imploding just before SDCC (and cancelling all their panels/appearances there), Oni has been sort of limping along with a skeleton crew of two people. Now even that has changed, as one of those individuals, Michelle Nguyen, has left the company. Michelle gave some choice quotes to Popverse regarding her exit, so be sure to check that piece out.
Whew! Hell of a few weeks, in comics news. Best of luck to everyone who’s going through it right now. May you find safe harbor elsewhere in the industry, and may you avoid the snakes and sharks looking to feast on your hard work at the expense of your health and success.
