Everyone is talking about Tokyopop.

The popular publisher of Japanese Manga comics has been under the microscope lately after they released the details of their creator contracts for their new Manga Pilot program. The contract is so completely one-sided in favor of Tokyopop that it’s caused a ridiculous stir in the comic industry blogosphere. Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley made an impassioned statement against Tokyopop and went into detail about the contract on his Live Journal as did Lea Hernandez, Heidi MacDonald and others. You can read the actual contract here.

Here’s the thing: Tokyopop is not the enemy.

For years, publishers have been offering creators contracts that are completely in the favor of the publisher. This Tokyopop contract is nothing new in the publishing industry. I’m sure you can walk into any popular comic book convention, walk up to any professional over the age of 35 and hear a story about a horrible contract situation. Creators have always received the short end of the stick when it comes to the work they do for larger companies. If Stan Lee has to sue Marvel Comics to get Spider-Man movie profits, what hope does the independent unknown creator have to get a fair shake?

The very sad an inevitable truth is that despite all the attention that this Manga pilot contract is getting, despite all the analysis and warnings, someone is going to sign that contract willingly. That’s going to happen. Despite everything. Someone is going to knowingly and willingly sign away all their rights and just pray to God that everything goes their way, despite every indication that it won’t.

And to me, THAT’S what the blogosphere should be addressing.

Every aspiring cartoonist/writer/artist has experienced that almost crazed feeling of desperation when it seems like the entire world is passing them by. It’s a maddening rock in your stomach that constantly just eats at you. You pour so much of yourself into your work and you so desperately hope and dream that all the toiling is going to one day pay off. Sometimes you can channel it into pushing yourself, but a lot of time it’s nothing but counterproductive. There’s a reason that so many of us seem damaged in some way. So long as aspiring young creators find themselves in those moments of desperation, publishers will take advantage of them. Period. That is never going to change. No amount of blogging, ranting or light shining is going to stop publishers from offering shitty contracts to first-time creators. Going after Tokyopop is a pointless endeavor; a futile gnashing of teeth.

What we as a community need to do instead is to champion alternative, safe, and rational paths to creative fulfillment and success that young creators can consider and find contentment with. We need to spotlight fair and competent publishers and vendors who offer creators fair shakes. We need to start sharing our own paths to success so that we can learn from each other, and we need to be honest about our mistakes so that we can learn from those as well.

The enemy, my friends, is not Tokyopop, nor any other publisher out there offering one-sided contracts. The enemy is clearly our own ignorance and desperation. The true enemy, is the pervading belief that some disembodied benevolent entity is going to notice us, swoop us up and make us stars. So long as pie-eyed young creators sit around waiting for some king-maker to come knocking on their door, publishers like Tokyopop have an opportunity to falsely present themselves as such.

Now I would like to take a page out of my father’s book and reference an episode of Star Trek to drive home my point.

Picard: Mister Worf, villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well-camouflaged…Vigilance, Mr. Worf. That is the price we have to continually pay.

Who’s excited about the 4th edition of D&D? It’s hitting shelves in 8 days. Guess what? I got to play it early. No kidding.

A couple months ago, Wizards of the Coast approached Penny-Arcade looking to do some marketing for 4th edition. But they didn’t want to just bore it up with those normal banner ads, they wanted to do something special. So the guys at PA came up with the idea of flying me out to Seattle to play 4th edition with Mike and Jerry in front of some microphones to record the whole session as a series of podcasts.

I was instantly both elated and terrified at the prospect. It’s been years….YEARS since I touched table-top D&D. And to be perfectly honest, when I did sit down with my friend to play, my attention never lasted very long on the game. Inevitably, I would start drawing my character, or the characters of my friends in various scenes and comics. I pissed off a lot of frustrated Dungeon Masters by paying more attention to my drawings then their campaign. Wizards, however, was excited to hear of my predilection. In fact, they openly encouraged it.

We spent an entire Wednesday playing 4th edition. Chris Perkins and Andy Collins came down from Wizards to be our official DMs and run us through “Keep on the Shadowfell.” The whole time, four microphones were recording our every word, die roll, hit and misses (there were a lot of misses). Mike and I sketched as we played and didn’t get one stern look from behind the game screen for it. This experience was a double honor for me, because it was Mike’s first time playing Dungeons and Dragons EVER. I was there for his very first roll of the D20. It was a very proud moment and it’s all captured on Mp3. If you’ve never played D&D before, these podcasts can give you a good idea of how quickly and easily you can get into the fun. If you’re a veteran to the game, like Jerry, the podcasts will give you your first sneak peek into the new game mechanics.

Wizards will be releasing a new chunk of our 8 hour session every week, and each podcast will be accompanied with a couple panels of a comic book that Gabe and I are creating based on our sketches. Mike and I have never officially collaborated on a project before and it’s been a grueling but rewarding experience. That bastard can draw and color like a Dire Owlbear (see what I did there). Keeping up with that son of a bitch is killing me. We keep sending each other art and cursing at each other. I hope this leads to more future collaborations because it’s pushing both of us to improve our work. I can’t believe I’m making official D&D art alongside Gabe from Penny-Arcade.

If you hit the WOTC site here you can grab the first show and see the first two panels of the comic. If you don’t have one already, you will need to sign up for an account. It’s free and easy to register.

This was an afternoon I’ll never forget. If you went back in time and told 16 year old Scott that one day Wizards of the Coast would ask him to play D&D and draw comic book art about the adventure, he would say “What’s Wizards of the Coast? TSR makes D&D”. So 16 year old Scott would be pretty confused. And then one day, when he reached the age of 37 and realized what happened to him in the past, the thought of space and time bending just to inform him of an upcoming gaming session would haunt him until he died.

So thank God time travel doesn’t exist.

Check out the podcasts.