The discussion over Tokyopop’s contracts for OEL creators is barreling along. It’s still going at The Engine, where it all started, with some speculation on the potential consequences of partial creator ownership that would keep me awake at night if I were a creator. As a follow-up of sorts, Warren Ellis starts a thread on the Creator’s Bill of Rights. In it, Neil Kleid brings up an interesting possibility:
“Some folks at SPX were talking about illustrating this as a minicomic (apparently they’ve already done the Comics Code).”
I’d love to see this, at least partly because I’m fascinated with the idea of educational and public-service manga (comics about the economy, public health, and other issues that have been published in Japan). I’m not really holding my breath for translated versions to show up, though.
At Comics.212.net, Christopher Butcher reports that Dirk Deppey is turning the considerable journalistic intelligence of The Comics Journal on the issue.
In his latest column for Komikwerks, Jog takes an allegorical approach to the whole issue. It’s kind of like if Planetes were about creators’ rights instead of orbital garbage collectors, and it’s incredible.
Tony Salvaggio looks at one of the creative outcomes of OEL in his latest installment of Calling Manga Island, interviewing Ben Roman, illustrator for I Luv Halloween (working with writer Keith Giffen), then reviewing the book.
The result of all this is to leave me wondering what the hell I’m going to write about for next week. “I feel like I should say something about… oh, wait… Jog just did it better than I ever could. Well, I’ve been meaning to review… damnit, Salvaggio!” At the moment, I’m seriously considering a “Who’d win?” throwdown between Tohru Honda and Hatsumi Narita.
Be afraid.
No, come to think of it, don’t. Hoke would never let me get away with it.