Hell done froze over: TokyoPop is returning to publishing five years after abruptly calling it quits and leaving all their licenses in the lurch. The “Message from TokyoPop” contains the usual Stu Levy bloviating. Looks like new books are in June.
Public Service Announcement to Young Artists:
TokyoPop is scum. Avoid working for them at all costs. TokyoPop is the worst of the worst of the worst. They will take advantage of you. Don’t believe their lies.
TokyoPop is notorious for the worst contracts in the industry. They pay little more than exposure. They have you sign away your trademarks, copyrights, moral rights*, and right to litigation. They will not make you famous. They are not more legitimate nor are they more effective than doing your own webcomic for free or selling photocopied zines directly to comic shops.
TokyoPop is so bad that SCAD banned TokyoPop editors from coming to their school to recruit. TokyoPop is so bad I can post on Tumblr publicly slamming them without worrying about damaging my career in the comics industry in any way.
Don’t just blindly believe me. Google “TokyoPop contracts” and see for yourself.
*moral rights essentially mean they have to give you credit for your work. How much is exposure worth if you give up that?
This snippit from a Tokyopop-affiliate’s Terms and Conditions is making its way around on twitter:
We may modify these Terms of Service, at our sole
discretion, without your consent, effective immediately upon posting of the
revised Terms of Service, and you agree to and accept this condition. Material
changes to these Terms of Service will be announced by posting them on or
within the Platform, or in the Apple App Store, Google Play and other mobile
application download platforms where the Platform is available. You are
responsible for checking these Terms of Service each time before using the
Platform. Continued use of the Platform following the posting of changes will
mean that you accept and agree to the updated Terms of Service.
- Our liability to you relating to the Platform is limited.
You agree that any disputes will be subject to binding, individual arbitration,
to be held in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and you waive your
right to participate in a class action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration.- POP Comics is a Hong Kong company and these Terms of Service
and any disputes between us will be governed by Hong Kong law.I will never stop posting about Tokyopop because I do not want unsuspecting artists to get into this shit.
Any artists new to the community who maybe don’t know about TP yet –They are horrible, please do not work with them! They go around looking for talented young people who don’t have a lot of experience in the industry and exploit them with terrible contracts. They will pay you absolute beans for your hard work and at the end of the day, they will keep the thing that you’ve made. People in the same art circles as me have had several years of work essentially stolen from them because of their TP contracts. Even if you dream of working with a publisher, stay FAR FAR away from TokyoPop. <3