It’s a busy day for Tokyopop. First the company announced a online manga initiative with GoComics, and now Tokyopop has followed up with two other deals.
The first of the new announcements should be good news for World of Warcraft and StarCraft fans; Blizzard Entertainment and Tokyopop have entered into an agreement where the comic publisher will release 22 all new WoW and StarCraft titles between now and 2010.
According to TOKYOPOP Editor-in-Chief Rob Tokar, “After several fantastic years of working with Blizzard Entertainment on Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy, it is both a pleasure and an honor to extend our relationship in such a grand fashion. The entire TOKYOPOP team is incredibly excited to help expand the Warcraft and StarCraft universes through manga. Blizzard has been a terrific partner and, by incorporating original characters from Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy into their incredible massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft®, they have again shown that their game universe is a vast, rich, immersive phenomenon that transcends any one medium.”
If you have read teh Tokyopop WoW title, you know it is loosely based on the events in the game, but at least it is better than the other World of Warcraft title by that “other” company.
Some of the world’s best manga creators join together to bring the world of Warcraft to life as never before! Warcraft vets Richard A. Knaak and Jae-Hwan Kim (Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy) team up again for “Fallen,” which is the first of a three-part tale. Other global talent for Warcraft: Legends includes Dan Jolley (Warriors; JSA Liberty Files), Carlos Oliveros and Mi-Young No (Threads of Time).
This fall will see the first volume of the StarCraft manga series.
StarCraft: Frontline includes “Thundergod,” by renowned writer Richard A. Knaak (Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy) and Naohiro Washio, and focuses on the new Thor heavy combat walker unit that will be appearing in Blizzard Entertainment’s upcoming sequel, StarCraft II. Other artists and writers featured in this collection include Simon Furman (Transformers), Paul Benjamin (Pantheon High), Joshua Elder (Mail Order Ninja), and Ramanda Kamarga (Psy-Comm).
The second major announcement that has the company joining with Spacedog Entertainment to develop its manga properties for multi-media distribution. The first property to get the treatment is eV created by james Farr, and Alfa Robbi.
Earth’s preeminent nanotechnology scientist must create physical and mental enhancements for whomever is chosen to represent Earth in the alien parliament. But when his daughter is mortally injured in a car crash, he uses the one dose of enhancement serum on her–which means she has to go to the alien parliament! Humor and action ensue as she makes several unusual alien friends and helps thwart a plot to free a hugely powerful alien death god trapped inside a black hole.
According to Spacedog Entertainment President and CEO, Roger Mincheff, “Over the course of decades, walls have been built that govern how the traditional comic business runs. TOKYOPOP and manga are tearing down those walls and redefining what this art form means, who is consuming this content and when and how they see it. Spacedog likes to think of itself as an innovator… TOKYOPOP was the logical home for us.â€
