Tag: Arkhaven

The Last Comics Publisher

It’s probably apparent to a fair number of you why Arkhaven matters, and why a non-comics leather book snob like myself nevertheless troubles to do what I can to keep independent comics infrastructure alive. The decline and ongoing collapse of DC and Marvel and IDW has been well-chronicled, after all. But what you may not know is that the same forces, indeed, in one case, the exact same corporate vehicle, is now targeting the two alternatives to the mainstream comics industry for destruction.

First, Japanese manga:

Blackstone launched a 275.8 billion yen ($1.74 billion) bid to take Japanese digital comic distributor Infocom, including a tender offer for a per-share price of 6,060 yen, Infocom said on Tuesday. The tender offer will amount to 141.4 billion yen, Infocom said. The company’s current parent Teijin said it will sell all of its 58% stake in Infocom for 134.4 billion yen in a share buyback after the buyout is completed. Infocom operates digital comic site Mecha Comic, which is among Japan’s largest, according to its website.

Second, Webtoons:

Webtoon Entertainment, which describes itself as the world’s largest web comic platform, has set its market value at $2.67bn (£2.11bn) ahead of its US listing. Its shares are due to start trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange on 27 June at $21 each, the top end of their marketed range. The Los Angeles-based company is owned by South Korean technology giant Naver, which has been boosted by the growing online popularity of Korean and Japanese comics. Webtoon says it has 170 million monthly active users in more than 150 countries around the world. The company is aiming to sell 15 million shares and raise $315m in the initial public offering (IPO).

The world’s largest fund manager BlackRock has expressed interest in buying up to $50m of shares.

BlackRock is Disney’s second-largest shareholder, controls several seats on its executive board, and owns about 78 million shares in the company, or the equivalent of $9.5 billion.

It’s really fascinating to see the massive amount of money suddenly being pumped into converging these culture war vehicles, especially in light of the obvious superiority of the best that Arktoons has to offer vs the best that Webtoons has on display. Below is a comparison between the #1 most popular Webtoon which is apparently about lesbian furries vs the recently updated Silenziosa:

So, in the coming months, you can expect to see a number of changes and improvements at Arkhaven, including subscriptions to specific comics, comments, and other features. The best way to support this right now is simply to subscribe for free to the Arkhaven Substack, where we’ve recently launched a daily serialization of Alt★Hero that begins with The Gods of Peaceful Sleep.

Now, of course, it’s easy to say “I’m not a comics guy, what do I care?” But do you really think the clowns running BlackRock and Blackstone care about comics, much less manga? It’s not about money either. They will never make their money back by driving these things into the ground. It’s about complete control of the cultural space, control that our community will never cede them.

We’ve also modified our approach to text serializations on Arktoons based on what we’ve learned from the substacks. Instead of running an episode once a week, we’re going to run them straight through, every day, with the exception of Quantum Mortis: A Mind Programmed, which will run on weekends. Since Chuck Dixon’s Snakehand ends today with Episode 56, Sidewinders will continue with the second novel in the series, La Gringa.

We’re looking for more volunteers to help chop up comics into Arktoons-presentable episodes, so if you’re willing and able, please get in touch. And authors who want to serialize their published novels are welcome to join the party too.

UPDATE: JDA’s more informed take on Fandom Pulse isn’t any more optimistic:

Manga fans have largely mocked American comic fans for years, calling American comics “dead” and laughing at the fans as Marvel and DC Comics circled the drain and slowly killed their content. Even superhero manga like My Hero Academia blew away the competition from Marvel and DC in American markets, which should have given the companies a signal something was drastically wrong…

Blackstone has already announced its plans to focus on female-centric content by focusing on genres with that target audience in mind. This means manga fans are likely to see a rampant feminization of their content out of the gate.

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The Streets of Midnight

SILENZIOSA is not the only Arkhaven comic that is running new episodes this week. Both MIDNIGHT’S WAR: NIGHT STREETS and HYPERGAMOUSE are back in action.

One thing that has changed is that we’re going to make use of more black-and-white due to the fact that we’ve observed color comics double the production costs while seldom increasing the sales at all. And the leather editions will have black-and-white interiors anyhow, so while we definitely prefer the look of color, and while we will continue using color for those comics with the support for it such as ALT-HERO, our new MIDNIGHT’S WAR and BLACK WARRANT comics will be monochrome until further notice.

And while neither Arkhaven nor Arktoons have yet proven to be quite as successful as we anticipated, the infrastructure we’ve built is very sound and you’re going to see a lot more new products being released, both in print and on Arktoons, from GHOST OF THE BADLANDS and SOMETHING BIG to OVERMIND. The fact that we’re not only stable, but growing, when DC, Marvel, and IDW are all teetering on the brink of complete collapse is one positive, another one is the way that even the flagship mainstream comics-related shows are observably taking note of what Arkhaven is doing.

Firecracker, “the leader of the Alt-Supe” movement on THE BOYS, looks pretty familiar, doesn’t she? And that’s her formal costume with the Seven; when she’s first introduced on the show has somehow become an overt apologia for elite Hellmouth pedophilia, she’s wearing cutoff jeans just like a certain Alabama cheerleader who also has a Southern acccent.

If you want to know what’s new to Arktoons every day, be sure to subscribe to the Arkhaven Comics substack.

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MIDNIGHT’S WAR on Amazon

First, the gold-logo backer’s editions arrive at the warehouse today and the tracking numbers should start going out to the backers later this week. This was delayed from when we first finished them because we did a second round of revisions in order to correct some color profiles that had printed a little darker than we preferred. Second, both the hardcover and paperback retail editions are now available direct from the Arkhaven store at NDM Express and on Amazon. All of the editions are printed in the larger 8 x 10.88-inch size we introduced with MY SISTER SUPREMA and GHOST OF THE BADLANDS.

Third, regardless of where you happen to buy the book, or even if you’ve read the comic on Arktoons, it would be good to see some reviews for it up on Amazon.

Nothing beats a good book.

WELCOME TO THE MIDNIGHT WORLD

In the year 8466 of the cainite calendar, in the aftermath of a catastrophic global economic crisis, the vampire tribes came out of the shadows for the first time in more than 2,600 years and revealed themselves to an unsuspecting humanity. With near-complete control of the media, the national governments, the global financial system, and most of the major international institutions, humanity was helpless to resist the vampiric bid for power. A dark world order was established. The global monetary system was replaced with a new currency backed by human blood, and a global tax was introduced to ensure humanity’s new rulers that their endless thirst would never again go unslaked.

The Great Concord of Gomorrah was established to secure the rights and duties of Man and Vampire alike. Under the protection of the Concord, an astonishing array of famous, infamous, and downright notorious figures emerged from the annals of history and were revealed to have survived their apparent deaths through the Rites of Cain. But as an ocean of blood flowed freely through the new global economy, long-dormant vampire rivalries were reborn in new forms.

But not all humans submitted to the Great Concord, and more significantly, not all human blood proved to be palatable to Mankind’s cruel overlords. For some of the ancient legends turned out to be true. Drawing inspiration from the crusading orders of the Middle Ages, twelve young men joined together in a new military order, The Knights of Saint Michael and of the Catacombs of Rome. Armed with little more than their faith and blood that is poison to their enemies, The Knights of Saint Michael wage a desperate war against the vampire lords of the Midnight World.

UPDATE FROM ARKHAVEN SHIPPING:

You know the drill. It’s time to send out the paperback and hardcover omnibus Vol 1-6 to the backers and while we do have an email and the backer number, we have neither names nor mailing addresses. So what I need is for you to respond to the email that will be sent to you later today. The good news here is that we are upping our crowdfund game and it looks like we can integrate our shipping software directly into the crowdfund platform. So while we are still cleaning up the previous crowdfunds, going forward the delivery system should be top notch. That being said, for the time being we will need you to respond to the email sent to you in order to be sent your copy of Midnight’s War.

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A New and Better Bookstore

Castalia House and Arkhaven Comics are extremely pleased to announce that a) the Arkhaven store will no longer sell Castalia House or Arkhaven print editions and b) the NDM Express store will be selling Castalia House and Arkhaven print editions, as well as merchandise related to everything from Arkhaven to Sigma Game.

NDM Express was already handling all of the shipping and customer relations for the print editions, so we decided that in the interests of efficiency, customer satisfaction, and allowing Castalia House to focus on what it does best as opposed to that which it barely manages to do at all, it would be to everyone’s benefit to move the sales operations to NDM. We also anticipate fewer of the problems with credit cards being rejected that have plagued the Arkhaven store.

Castalia will still be selling all leatherbound books through the Arkhaven store, so if you’re a Library, Libraria, or History subscriber, nothing changes at all. Individual editions of Library, Libraria, and History books can still be purchased there.

However, speaking of Castalia History, we’re pleased to also announce that the first LEGO ERGO SCIO t-shirts and hoodies are now available in black and navy blue at NDM, for those who aren’t ashamed to display their intellectual superiority in public.

Everything from Razorfist’s GHOST OF THE BADLANDS to THE JUNIOR CLASSICS VOLS 1-8 are already available at NDM Express, so please be sure to visit when you’re in the market for a book or comic.

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The Arkhaven Substack

The Castalia Library substack has been so popular, and so useful in providing Library and History subscribers with updated information about the production process and necessary shipping news that it is obvious that we need the same thing for Arkhaven Comics, especially in light of the delays in shipping Ghost of the Badlands to the recent retail purchasers.

More about that soon, hopefully later today, but the TL;DR version is that the first printing of the retail editions had a problem, so we fixed it, sent out copies to Razorfist for approval, and we’re waiting for him to receive them and approve the revised editions for shipping out to everyone.

One can theorize as to the whys and wherefores all one likes, but the simple fact of the matter is that provably Substack works to keep a community informed in a timely manner much better than a blog, a mass-mailing service, a social media site, the post, or carrier pigeons.

So, if you are a) an Arkhaven buyer, b) an Arkhaven backer, c) an Arktoons reader, or d) an Arktoons creator, I would very strongly encourage you to subscribe to the Arkhaven substack in order to keep up on all the latest news related to our print and digital comics.

REBEL DEAD REVENGE Episode 112: I’ll Deal With You Later

CROSS+WORD Episode 8: Party Time

A MIND PROGRAMMED Episode 49: Expendable Tools

上嫁小鼠 Episode 37: 是好是坏

STONETOSS Episode 289: Lost Civilization

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A Tale of Two Comics

Alt★Hero: Q Volume 1

When federal agent Roland Dane is sent to Peru to escort a U.S. Cabinet member, he has no reason to believe his assignment is connected in any way to his Treasury team’s recent bust of a ring of amateur counterfeiters. But when the Secretary of State and his entourage is unexpectedly attacked and the subsequent news reports of the attack bear no resemblance to the events he witnessed, Dane is forced to confront the shocking discovery that absolutely nothing in his world is quite what it appears to be, including the U.S. government for which he works.

Created by Vox Day and written by the Legend Chuck Dixon, Alt★Hero: Q is an incendiary action comic series that explores the mysterious phenomenon of QAnon and makes James Bond look like a tea party.

The Gold Logo editions will be shipping out to the backers soon. But Arkhaven supporters who didn’t back the project can now preorder the hardcover and paperback editions from the Arkhaven store for shipping next month in company with MIDNIGHT’S WAR, the retail editions of which are also now available.

Midnight’s War Volume 1

In the year 8466 of the Cainite calendar, in the aftermath of a catastrophic global economic crisis, the vampire tribes came out of the shadows for the first time in more than 2,600 years and revealed themselves to an unsuspecting humanity. With near-complete control of the media, the national governments, the global financial system, and most of the major international institutions, humanity was helpless to resist the vampiric bid for power. A dark world order was established. The Great Concord of Gomorrah was created to secure the rights and duties of Man and Vampire alike. The global monetary system was replaced with a new currency backed by human blood, and a global tax was introduced to ensure humanity’s new rulers that their endless thirst would never again go unslaked.

But not all humans submitted to the Great Concord, and more significantly, not all human blood proved to be palatable to Mankind’s cruel overlords. For some of the ancient legends turned out to be true…

Same deal, so if you want to order both, you can do so and they will ship together from the Castalia warehouse early next month, as the hardcover and paperback editions are now available for preorder.

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The Death Spiral of the Big Two

And the concomitant rise of Arkhaven Comics. The 2023 numbers are in and they look absolutely disastrous for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics alike, as Fandom Pulse reports:

A new report shows DC Comics is in massive trouble, with a 25% annual sales drop as the comic industry continues its death spiral.

Sales figures have been confirmed to be in a state of decline, again in a ComicsBeat expose on the industry. Brian Hibbs released an annual report from Bookscan, highlighting sales in the industry to regular bookstores. While we still don’t have the accurate numbers for comic shops, this gives a bellwether as to where the industry is going. In this expose, Hibbs writes that Marvel and DC Comics represent less than 10% of comic book sales, a shockingly low number for what many call the Big 2.

However, it gets worse for DC Comics, as he writes, “DC had a pretty bad year, with their lowest sales since 2004 – down 25% from 2022 in the bookstore market – even with their highest ever number of titles in the total list. In 2023 they had only 14 titles in the Top 750; in 2013, ten years ago, they had 130. That is a huge and troubling drop – but maybe laying off nearly your entire sales and marketing team is not a great strategy for growth? If someone had been been making a concerted effort to dismantle DC Comics, they couldn’t have been more surgical – luckily, DC still has talented execs like Marie Javins, Jim Lee, Annie de Pies and the rest of the staff who have thwarted those plans. And from what we’re hearing, 2024 will see some more moves to reverse this concerning trend.”

Amazingly, ComicsBeat writers can still spin this as “and that’s a good thing” as many mainstream articles try to mitigate the destruction of entertainment industries like comics at the hands of the woke. These are the same executives who initially led DC Comics into this mess. A new relaunch of a universe—as he’s alluding to with the Absolute DC line—might give a short-term boost but isn’t going to fix the comic industry problems.

DC Comics is on a death spiral, and unless they make wholesale changes to prioritize story and less identity politics virtue signaling at the hands of creators like Tom King or Tom Taylor, we can expect this sales decline will continue.

The sales declines at Marvel and DC going to continue because the very same individuals who have taken what was already a converged situation and gave it turbo cancer are still in control at both companies. This situation is, as Fandom Pulse correctly noted, a death spiral, because as with all fully converged companies, the Big Two have completely lost the ability to serve their traditional market, which is to say they can no longer entertain young men with illustrated picture books.

IDW is almost certainly going to auger in as well. It lost $5 million last year thanks to a 26 percent collapse in revenues. Meanwhile, independents such as Arkhaven, Razorfist, Ethan van Sciver, and Eric July have repeatedly proven their ability to raise more than $250k to develop a single title, and have reliably provided better storylines, characters, and art than the mainstream publishers. The demand is there, it simply isn’t being met by the traditional publishers.

Yesterday, Razorfist released the trailer for GHOST OF THE BADLANDS, his new Western comic that is now being published by Arkhaven Comics. The Monochrome Hardcover and the Monochrome Paperback editions are now available on the Arkhaven store in oversized European bandes dessines-style formats, and the two color editions will be available there from May 17th. Later in the year, there will be a deluxe leather edition as well.

In other Arkhaven-related news, both ALT-HERO: Q volume 1 and MIDNIGHT’S WAR volume 1 are now complete and published in the system. We’re making some final touches before sending out the Gold Logo editions to the backers, and the retail versions will be available on the Arkhaven store before the end of the month. AH:Q backers should note that due to the format’s lack of popularity, we will NOT be producing six separate small Gold Logo issues; the 37 Gold Logo Edition backers will instead receive their choice of a standard Gold Logo paperback omnibus or the variant cover Gold Logo paperback omnibus.

Both AH:Q and MW will be released as large-format 10.88 x 8″ omnibuses, as we find this format to be preferable to the 10 x 7″ format previously utilized for the Alt-Hero and Chuck Dixon’s Avalon omnibuses.

The standard Gold Logo omnibus cover.

The process may be taking much longer than any of us may like, but slow and steady is how Arkhaven will gradually, inevitably, and inexorably outlast and outcompete our much larger predecessors in the comics industry. Project Asteroid has landed, but its ramifications and reverberations are only beginning to be felt.

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