Pre-Anime Festival with Dark Horse

Hey it is that time again: New York Anime Festival!!! I would like to introduce to you the Director of Asian Licensing for Dark Horse, Michael Gombos (Applause (^_^))!!! I had the pleasure to interview Mr. Gombos thanks to Jeremy Atkins, Dark Horse Director of Publicity. They are so nice (^_^). Need to give them a hug.

Guess what? Dark Horse got freebies!!! FREEBIES for you at NYAF and more!!! What Dark Horse got for you didn't just happen over night. It takes hard work and dedication to pull it off. So you will learn about the work done in preparation for NYAF and in being the Director of Asian Licensing. So read on and enjoy!

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So are you excited?
Definitely. I haven’t been to the Anime Fair before, and with all the events happening with Mr. Amano and Mr. Kikuchi, I think it will be the best NYAF ever (not that I have much actual experience to credit this assumption!).

According to Publicity, you are Director of Asian Licensing. What are your duties and responsibilities in that position?
Dark Horse is a small company, so you have your finger in a lot of pies (as it were), no matter what your position is. Basically, I help pick the manga (or find new stuff), art books, novels, etc., and then go and acquire the rights to translated and publish them in English-language territories. Since we have strict approvals for every title we do, I submit and act as the conduit between Dark Horse and Japan, or Korea, in the case of manhwa. Also, I am the only Japanese speaker here, so I interpret business meetings, and do spot translations when editors are working on their books and they’re missing a translation, or need further clarification. Basically, if it has to do with Japan at Dark Horse, I have something (or in most cases, everything) to do with it.

For your duties at NYAF, what do you expect yourself to be doing for those three exciting days of NYAF?
Since we helped bring Mr. Amano to the show, hanging out and with him and helping with what he needs, as well as staying in the booth and selling DH manga and products. Since Mr. Amano is the guest of honor, the majority of the things we’re bring this year are related to properties that he is involved with.

Who else will be attending this event or man handling the booth?
Myself and the Director of Special Projects, Mr. Mark Bernardi.

Do you have any negative or positive thoughts about the event and Dark Horse’s participation?
I am just happy to be there; we’re in our 20th anniversary of publishing manga, so I feel glad to attend as many manga/anime-related events as we can this year (besides our normal presence at Anime Expo).

What can fans expect from this year’s Dark Booth booth? Are there any big surprises for the fans out there? Any freebies?
We’ll have some freebie posters and whatnot, and we’re still putting together a possible announcement list for the show. However, these projects are still in the midst of contractual execution, so we’re not sure if they will be able to be announced for the show this year. In actuality, the booth will be quite small (we base how many people we send, etc., on attendance at the show itself), but we hope that fans will stop by and look at what we have, and at least say hi!

What are the differences and similarities between this year’s attendance and last year’s?
Not too sure about this one, to be honest; I know that the projected attendance for this year’s event is higher, but we’ll know once the show is over. Also, as I didn’t attend last year, so I don’t have a good measure for comparison.

How did you decide on what to do for this year’s attendance? Is everything ready? If not, why?
As stated above, we base how many people/what products we’re bringing based on projected attendance and who will be the special guest of honor. Luckily, we have a lot of Amano-related products and projects, so we’re hoping for great things.

Anything you guys wanted to bring to the convention that is unable to? What prevented it from happening?
I wish we could bring our San Diego booth and staff it with 40 people, but for the reasons being (see above), we can’t. It's important to remember that DH is primarily an American comics company, and those events tend to take precedence. Also, the company attends 50+ shows of different natures every year, so we have to be careful when considering who to bring, how much of what to bring, and whether or not it works out schedule-wise.

Anything still in the works for the preparation of the attendance and why? Any worries?
I think we’re all pretty set here; the stuff is being shipped as we speak and Mark and I are ready. I just hope things go smoothly from start-to-finish.

Did you bring up any ideas for the Dark Horses attendance? What are they and why?
We helped get Mr. Amano to the show, and he became their special guest, so that’s one of the primary reasons for attendance. And, as usual, it’s always great to talk with the fans about their questions and concerns face-to-face.

Anything you want to add to this interview? Anything you want to tell the fans?
Just that I hope they stop by and see us at the show!

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If you want to learn more about Dark Horse please visit http://www.darkhorse.com/
© 2008 Linda Thai