Rocket Bomber - twitter

…with a bag of stale pretzels.

You ever been in a situation where a friend of yours was throwing a party, but you had to work until 10 that night and couldn’t make it until well after the shindig was underway, and folks had come, drank, hooked-up, and left before you even made it out to your friend’s place?

And you heard about the awesome jello-shooters, and the single-barrel bourbon, and the imported beer, and it’s all gone by the time you roll up and the only thing that’s left is half a keg of cheap, evil-smelling american lager, a bowl of stale pretzels, and what appears to be the all-male membership of the local uni “Frat Boy Studies Club” losing to the Intramural Beer Pong Team?

Still, a kegger is a kegger even if you’re late, and the only thing to do is start drinking.

##

My belaboured analogy aside—

There has been a lot of twitter and blog activity around this guy, Nick, and what his half-assed comic book might mean for new publisher Radical, and also what his actions and the vehement reaction on the part of a fraction of manga fans might say about both the alleged plagiarism and other acts of outright theft — like, say… fansubs, scanlations, and things-out-there-pretending-to-be-fansubs-and-scans that are just sleazy, lazy rips of officially licensed product.

Pro Tip: Icarus is not a scanlation group, and [R1 DVD] in a bittorrent filename is theft, straight up.

Deb has the best summary up, and the conversation continues (on twitter and in the comments at manga.about.com) and Really, This is a Gift that Keeps on Giving — we could argue free vs artist vs fan vs responsibility vs expectation vs sustainability vs what is wanted vs what is owed vs market factors vs New Media bullshit until the eventual heat death of the universe. There are partisans on all seven (eight? thirteen?) sides willing to argue their points to the bitterest of bitter ends, and nothing happens — and for some, ‘nothing happens’ is exactly what they want: no change at all to the status quo that enables their bad and illegal habits.

Sure, you like manga and anime. You can tell me so on the internet, you can quote Haruhi chapter and verse and can argue the finer points of Gundam Wing vs Macross Frontier. You’re a geek and a nerd and an expert and I’m just a poseur who shouldn’t have an opinion (or be allowed an opinion) because I dirty myself with the actual commerce of manga — since I sell books for a living it should be past obvious that I’ve sold out.

Gods, so much is wrong with our society, internet or otherwise.

Anyway.

For those of you willing to consider the alternate point of view, I have three links for you. Two years ago I started to research fansubs for a column, but I never managed to finish writing it, and now a lot of the points are moot, or superseded, by events that have occurred since. But, my early readings are still valid (or more valid) and I’d like to share:

The Ethics of Fansubbing, credited to ‘dejiko’ at everything2.com from July 2000. This is an early take from a former fansubber and how things were about to go horribly wrong 10 years ago http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=634984

I’m not a lawyer, but this guy is: go read “Of Otakus and Fansubs: A Critical Look at Anime Online in Light of Current Issues in Copyright Law” by Jordan S. Hatcher http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrc/SCRIPT-ed/vol2-4/hatcher.asp

and

Ask John @ AnimeNation from March 2008, Does the Anime Industry Deserve Some Blame for the Popularity of Fansubs? http://www.animenation.net/blog/2008/03/04/ask-john-does-the-anime-industry-deserve-some-blame-for-the-popularity-of-fansubs/

##

So now I may never write that column, and these are all older links (showing that this is not a new problem by any stretch) but at least the effort wasn’t wasted.

@ProfessorBlind Chipped in $25 #cash_for_robot to help a worthy cause – encourage you to do the same. www.giantrobot.com/donate

ProfessorBlind observation: twitter ’09 = webforums ’03 = AIM/ICQ ’98 = IRC ’90 = listserv ’86 = Usenet ’81 = BBS ’79 — the more things change…

ProfessorBlind …and typically, I resist each change, and only adapt right as the new technology is dying. If trends hold, I just killed twitter.

ProfessorBlind Blind’s Law: A net communication ‘revolution’ every six years, ‘new’ but used the same old way. The New Hotness due in ’12, adopted in ’14

I took a very quick pass through the data for 2009 (scarcer, lumpier, and less polished than I’d like) and was able to crunch some “points” based on the rankings that may or may not correspond to online sales for Yaoi Press titles in the past year. Anyway, here are the top YP titles based on my rankings, with an adjusted score for all of last year:

Cain Trilogy – Yaoi Press, Apr 2009 [141]
Winter Demon 4 – Yaoi Press, Oct 2008 [102]
Dark Prince Trilogy – Yaoi Press, Apr 2009 [91]
Happy Yaoi Yum Yum 1 – Yaoi Press, Jul 2009 [73]
Winter Demon 1 – Yaoi Press, Oct 2006 [61]
Yaoi Hentai (anthology) 3 – Yaoi Press, Feb 2007 [37]
The Lily and the Rose – Yaoi Press, Aug 2007 [13]
Stallion – Yaoi Press, Jul 2006 [11]
Enslaved by the Dragon – Yaoi Press, Sep 2005 [5]
Gothic Yaoi Bundle: The Works of Dany & Dany – Yaoi Press, Dec 2009 [4]
Yaoi Hentai (anthology) 4 – Yaoi Press, Oct 2007 [3]
Yaoi (anthology) 1 – Yaoi Press, Mar 2007 [1]
Wishing for the Moon – Yaoi Press, Apr 2007 [1]
Yaoi Hentai (anthology) 1 – Yaoi Press, Oct 2006 [1]

One thought that occurred to me is that a single ‘point’ may correspond to x volumes sold (maybe 10?) and that online sales as tracked by Amazon, B&N, Borders, et al. necessarily exclude direct sales, and also I have no idea what was moved through book stores and comic shops. So overall sales may be up to 40 (but likely only 20) times the point value found. (but what to make of a single point? The Lily & the Rose likely sold more than 100 copies online, but still didn’t crack the top 1000 on the sites that I track…)

I can only guess… and my best guess is based on manga that hit the sweet spot in the middle of my charts — Dark Horse series Blood+ was the touchstone I used last year (because they posted actual sales numbers for the books that I could base an analysis on) but I know the very top of the chart is under-represented, and I have no real idea what to make of the bottom.

[Not that Yaoi Press is putting out bad books, I did not say that: I’m just saying their volume is lower than the majors. Which should be obvious, but which also means I have less data from which to develop educated opinions]

There are also these, which didn’t rank in 2009 but are still in my database from 2007-8:

Cain 1 – Yaoi Press, Sep 2007 [0]
Cain 2 – Yaoi Press, Apr 2008 [0]
Dark Prince 2 – Yaoi Press, Apr 2008 [0]
Dark Prince 3 – Yaoi Press, Sep 2008 [0]
Reflections: the Artwork of Kosen – Yaoi Press, Jan 2008 [0]
Saihoshi the Guardian Omnibus – Yaoi Press, Dec 2007 [0]
Winter Demon 2 – Yaoi Press, Jun 2007 [0]
Winter Demon 3 – Yaoi Press, Feb 2008 [0]
Yaoi (anthology) 2 – Yaoi Press, Apr 2008 [0]
Yaoi Gothic Sketchbook – Yaoi Press, May 2007 [0]
Yaoi Hentai (anthology) 2 – Yaoi Press, Apr 2006 [0]

I know these sold more than zero. This reflects the limitations of my method. Maybe I have good guesses for YP’s top 5, or top 10 — but I can’t say much about the rest of their catalog, and I can only hope my aggregate online sales estimates are close to the mark. A direct hit is a lucky shot, more often than not.

And thanks: to @yaoipress for sending a few folks my way; hopefully y’all will stick around.

Ha ha ha. (no, I’m not actually laughing, that’s a dry, ironic recital of those three syllables to show mocking, begrudging acceptance of a ridiculous situation)

I signed up for twitter — not so much because I feel it’s a necessary part of an online life but rather because it seems an ideal tool for what it does: a forum for short, snarky reflections on life, the universe, and everything.

However, my proper name was taken, my website’s name was taken, both my preferred handles were taken — and a few of my backups (Beer Disposal Unit, Taishi’s Otaku Army, Epictetus of Nicopolis) are all too long.

I can’t use my professional pseudonym, so… I’ve decided to instead take on a mantle of pretension — not without cause, as I have taught college courses in the past* — if you decide to follow me on Twitter you’ll have to look for ProfessorBlind.

(if you already subscribe to my RSS feed, you can likely ignore me on Twitter, unless Twitter is your preferred platform)

[* as a TA. Psych 1001, Ga. Tech. I also taught homebrewing as an extension course for three years.]

who thinks Gareb Shamus/Wizard/whomever should drop $100K or so Marvel’s Disney’s way so they can use Doctor Doom as the spokesman for their faux “Comic Cons”?

“DAMN YOU REED EXHIBITIONS!”