O.K. Here goes whats up.

The Chinese have a saying, or is it a curse? "May you live in interesting times." Well I gotta tell you someone may not like the lot of us pop culture media types because times they are a interesting indeed.

Monday on the ole Facebook page I got about 75 replies to the topic of the day, that being "Marvel bought by Disney". Today I awake to find out that ADV, one of the top 2 anime distributors in America is " restructuring" ie. ADV as we know it is dead. I am sitting on my hands right now wondering," WHATS NEXT?"

I think that change is inevitable and what it brings we just have to deal with to the best of our ability. Having said this, i hope that Disney's purchase of Marvel Entertainment is a plus. I hope that Disney can help Marvel shore up it's deficiencies and vice versa.

Both companies have exhibited very predatory practices in the past. So I gotta be honest and say that I wonder what this is going to do for the comic industry as a whole. It could be good in that with an infusion of capital the likes of which Disney will give Marvel, we might see more product, which means that the comics industry will open up a lot more to new talent. However,Disney isn't known to be to freelancer friendly.
Also, as has been going on lately comic companies in general have been mining places like South America and the Phillipines for their talent. Knowing that they don't have to pay these people what they would have to pay an American artist. So even in an expanding market, we can't be sure that us stateside artists would benefit.Good ole NAFTA.

Also, let's look at what happened when Warner Bro's bought DC Comics, basically they bought DC for Batman and Superman, and later pushed DC's development of Vertigo. We haven't seen anymore movement in comics because of this purchase. However, The WB bought DC back in 1969 so things were kinda different back then. The concept of synergy hadn't even come into the public consciousness.

I am pretty excited about the possibilities for Marvel and Pixar though. If done right, these guys could redefine the entire comicbook movie genre. I love what Pixar does and the philosophy that John Lassiter and Co work by. If Disney treats this thing like the Pixar purchase at the very least it would basically leave Marvel to do what it does best.

Next stop the ADV restructuring. Last I checked I thought it was illegal for the officers of a parent company to be involved in companies that were buy the assets of said parent company. ADV sold it's assets to 4 companies, all or most of which are run by their legal counsel who is also a former officer in ADV. This looks clearly like a case of hiding assets in plan site.

I only hope that ADV knows what it's doing. But the entire anime industry has no one else to blame but themselves. Over the years,the anime industry has tried to pen the blame for it's sale dilemna on illegal downloading but in reality downloading just exposed the industry's inability to quickly meet demand, and the costs of it's prohibitive pricing model.Now the companies are finally forced to use the internet to try and distribute their product. Companies, like Funimation have done a great deal to bridge the divide with the fan's by being as responsive as they can be the their fans.


I only hope that all of these changes will create a more positive environment for u creative types who really want to contribute to these industries. Only with responsible stewardship by the media conglomerates can we hope to build a more lush and inviting landscape in which what's good for corporate conglomerates is good for the rest of us in the industry.