Kibbles ‘n’ Bits — 3/26/10

Wow, these really piled up.

§ Icv2 sits down with Toykopop's Stuart Levy to talk about the state of the company, the manga market and so on. Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

Much of it is plain talk:

There’s not as much depth overall in the category as there was a few years ago. That’s because of a lot of factors that everybody’s familiar with: there’s a lot more product in the marketplace, there’s less space overall in the retailers, there are fewer customers in the stores and there’s certainly a lot of accessibility to content online. So if somebody isn’t convinced and won’t actually purchase a graphic novel or a series, they have other ways they can consume it without making that plunge. All those factors combined have limited the breadth of the salable titles at retail. The last issue is that there’s still a question as to which retailers will not only survive but become stronger over the next few years, and which may or may not make it including some of the national chains.


But some reveals more of the entrepreneurial streak Levy is known for:

From my point of view, the thing I’m really excited about right now is that we’re doing a tour this summer. Basically I’m hitting the road with one of my guys and six students, university students. We’re auditioning right now to choose the six. We’re going to be in a bus for three months. We’re going to tour America and we’re going to film it for the Web as a reality show.

http://tinyurl.com/yauqvm3