Disney, Marvel, Tokyopop, Kodansha, ADV – and more

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ADV , anime, comics, Disney, Kodansha, manga, Marvel, Tokyopop

So the Geekonomy has gone bugnuts crazy the last week.  Let's count the ways it changed:

  • Disney bought Marvel, giving them thousands of properties, control
    of more pop culture icons, and an endless parade of bad cartoons of
    Wolverine/Mickey Mouse fusions.
  • Kodansha is ending its licensing deal with Tokyopop.
  • ADV seems to be transferring it's properties to a holding company, making it sound like they're basically dead.

And I was worried about the Everything Wars.

First of all, let me state I DO NOT see this as part of the
Everything Wars – those are battles over technology and access.  THis
is what I've called the Secondary area of the Everything Wars – content.

And
there's a lot to chew over.  So in this analysis, let me do the chewing
– and figure out what it means for you in your career.

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Fear of change is one of the things that paralyze us and keep us from creating the lives we want.  I'm pretty sure right now you can think of several fears that paralyze you – even the fear of amitting you're afraid.  If we're honest with ourselves we can identify a lot of fears that keep us from moving forward.

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News of the day 8/31/2009

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It's all over, if you haven't heard it you haven't been watching, and YES, we'll be discussing it this weekend:  Disney bought Marvel entertainment lock stock and barrel for 4 billion.  I'm going to need to process this one for awhile, but this is an epic, seismic change in the geekonomy.  It looks like they'll just let game contracts go on and see what happens when they expire.  We'll be analyzing on this and discussing it as more news comes.  A few speculations are here.  Doesn't seem to be affecting the Paramount deals for the films.

One thing I'd look out for?  Power Pack adapted quickly.

OK, and now onward . . .

Career:
5 Common Mistakes made by first time job searchers.  A few things even experienced job seekers do are here, so give it a read.

Politics:
Japan's dominant political party for decades is OUT big-time.  This is a big shift in a country that, despite troubles, is still big in the global economy – and the center or a major part of many geekonomic industries.  Keep an eye on this one.

Anime and Manga:
Kodansha let's its licenses with Tokyopop lapse.  Considering their Ameircan presence I figure they want to do these themselves.  Let's see.

Mobile:
An analyst thinks the iPhone is fine – but AT&T may not be.  Has some good points.  A good read if you're following mobile issues.  I still wonder what's up with Apple, but this makes me more confident.

Social Media:
Wikipedia to use trust-coded colors to indicate reliability. 
Interesting as it's Wiki – but also as trust and reliability/reputation
systems seem to be slowly increasing in use in social media.  This
could be a big accelerator to the trend – which would affect
expectations of other social media, the use of them, etc.

Technology:
Google's Chrome Browser will be on some Vaio's.  So first of all, this is a good deal, and a lot of the Vaio's are sweet systems, good move.  Secondly, now Sony is happily supporting Google – a bit of the Everything wars here.  Let's see who else jumps on the Chrome Browser (and OS) wagon, but I'd say this is a shot across Microsoft's bow, and a further reason for tech types to keep up on Google tech.

– Steven Savage