Thursday 19 April – Wednesday 20 April 2011
TOKYOPOP: Bringing Manga to the UK
Daiwa Foundation Japan House
Organised by the Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation
Manga is now the fastest growing market in UK publishing.
At the forefront of the manga revolution has been TOKYOPOP. The world’s largest manga publisher outside of Japan and the market leader in the US, this Los Angeles-based publisher established its UK operations in 2003. Last year it agreed an exclusive UK trade sales and distribution deal with Pan Macmillan.
TOKYOPOP is now evolving further as a youth-oriented entertainment brand with its development of manga-originated intellectual properties into film, television and digital entertainment.
This seminar provided a unique opportunity to learn more about the business model of the leading innovator in a new and rapidly expanding market.
The event coincided with the current exhibition at Daiwa Foundation Japan House, The Rising Stars of Manga, a showcase of the winners of TOKYOPOP’s annual competition to find upcoming artists living in the UK and Ireland.
About the contributors
John Parker
John Parker is President & Chief Operating Officer of TOKYOPOP. Now based in Los Angeles, Mr Parker has extensive experience of the international entertainment industry. He joined TOKYOPOP after a five-year assignment in Hong Kong and Taiwan as the Managing Director of KPS Entertainment, a retailing and distribution organisation for home video, music, and computer software. From 1992 to 1994, he was a Regional Director of Operations for Blockbuster Video in Los Angeles. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration/Marketing from California State University at Northridge and is fluent in Spanish, with additional language skills in Mandarin Chinese and German.
Dennis McGuirk
Dennis McGuirk is UK Director of TOKYOPOP.
Paul Gravett
Paul Gravett (chair) is a freelance journalist, curator, lecturer, writer and broadcaster. He co-edited and co-published the influential British comics culture magazine ESCAPE and its line of graphic novels in the 1980s, and directed the Cartoon Art Trust’s project in the 1990s to found a cartoon art museum. He has continued to curate and consult on comic art exhibitions and TV series, including Cult Fiction, a Hayward Gallery touring exhibition, and Comics Britannia for BBC4. He started the ComICA festival in 2003, has written authoritative books on manga, graphic novels and British comics, and writes for The Independent, Daily Telegraph, Dazed & Confused, Comics International, The Bookseller and other periodicals.