Updated Website - Current Works - Anime Expo

First off, I updated my website. I finally added information for Gagaku Berceuse/Ghost Ensemble on the Creative Works page, plus made some corrections to my Introduction page. I'm happy to have gotten this done. The process of updating my page is so tedious and takes so much time I usually end up putting it off and putting it off and putting it off... Well, you get the idea.

Also, I recently heard from Sanny Folkesson, the illustrator for "Soft Metal," a story based on his characters that I wrote that's being serialized in the anthropomorphic anthology "Furrlough" published by Radio Comix. Sanny is working on more pages for episode 3 of that story and sent me some samples from his home in Sweden. I'm glad to hear this, and what he showed me looks pretty good. Hopefully it'll be ready to submit to the publisher soon.

Things are still happening due to the changes at TokyoPop. At their request I'm turning in an information sheet to them, giving them the status on the project of turning Gagaku Berceuse/Ghost Ensemble into an online pilot. With the loss of so many people all at once, it sounds like they are still trying to get a handle on all the different outstanding projects they've got going.

Finally, I've got my registration email to go to Anime Expo as an "Industry Professional." Whoo-Hoo! I've always wanted to go the AX, but it has usually been took close to Comic-Con on the calendar, and a bit too far away to get their easily. This year it's at the L.A. Convention Center, which is a two stop train/subway ride from my home. I won't go the full time (just Friday, 7/4 and Saturday, 7/5), but I am looking forward to it. If they keep it at the L.A. Convention Center it can become a more regular thing.

TokyoPop Restructures

As some of the visitors to my blog may already know, TokyoPop, the company that named Gagaku Berceuse as the Best Horror Story in their 2007 Rising Stars of Manga competition, has gone through a restructuring process. You can find details about the restructuring at the Publisher's Weekly website by clicking on the title of this post.

The most direct impact on our efforts to turn Ghost Ensemble, the name of the pilot we are creating based on Gagaku Berceuse, is having Hope Donovan, the editor we were working with, be one of the thirty-nine editors laid off in the restructuring. Hope was very enthusiastic about the project, and gave us a lot of very constructive criticism during its development process last summer when we began pitching it to TokyoPop. Her enthusiasm and her feedback were one of the factors in us getting as far as we have so far. I sincerely hope I can work with her again in the future, wherever she may end up, and wish her the best in getting there as soon as possible.

Ghost Ensemble, along with the rest of the Shinning Stars Pilot program, has been transferred to TokyoPop Media, which is being referred to as a 'Comics to film unit.' Jeremy Ross, whom William and I are have met before and are well acquainted with, will be running the program. I've already been in contact with him, getting him up to speed on where Ghost Ensemble is at this time. As of this week, we are completely caught up with our contractual obligations as to the material we need to have produced and are working on the final version of the pilot.

With half of their editorial staff gone, it's reasonable to assume that everything is up in the air over there. William and I can only keep doing the best we can and deal with whatever changes come our way.

Erick.

Gagaku Update

Work is proceeding on the "Shining Stars" pilot of Gagaku Berceuse for TokyoPop. We've turned in our project outline and a thumbnail script for review and are now making revisions to the thumbnail script. The response from the editor to the project outline was very positive. She said, "we managed to cover all the bases" in our pilot. Very encouraging.

Also, when it is published on TokyoPop's website, the story will be going by a different name. The feedback from the editor was that "Gagaku Berceuse" was a bit too difficult to say, and that 'Berceuse' was a word most people would understand without going to a dictionary (it's French for lullaby, by the way). When the new name is finalized I'll post it here.

With the script in hands of my partner, William Ruzicka, I've had some time to work on fiction. I'm working on a story with the working title "Trash Miners." It is set in a future universe I'm creating where I plan to set all my stories from now on. I've been applying the lessons I've learned from writing comic book scripts to the process of writing prose and I'm pleased with the results. The need to make revisions to the Gagaku thumbnail script pushed my schedule back, but I should be able to submit 'Trash Miners' shortly.

That's all for now.

Erick