Status Report

Alright folks, today is all about the community. I want to take a little break from the relaunch stuff and highlight a few of the interesting things that the fans have been doing.

First up: Webcomics! We have a lot of dedicated artists in our community who have been using their talents to re-create the Animorphs books into graphic novels. All of these are a work-in-progress, however new pages are added every week through scheduled releases! Here are some examples:

Animorphs #1 By Char Reed	Animorphs #5 By Lisa Charly	Animorphs #49 By FauxFolklore	MORPH By Kheetor

Next we have Animorphs Smilies! These are some very cool and original animated gifs that are being made by DinosaurNothlit and Goom from the RAF Community. They feature everything from morphing regular animals to alien creatures like Andalites and Crayak (see right).

Another project that really caught my eye was the Animorphs Infographic List. This ambitious project was started by Kiriska at the Animorphs LiveJournal Community. It’s where each fan is given a specific Animorphs book, and then asked to tally up the number of 90’s references that they find through it. The end result is pretty interesting, and you can see the current progress of it over at: livejournal.com/animorphs (Example on left).

Moving away from that, here is a really cool recreation of the Animorphs TV show theme on the piano by Arizash! I found it impressive, considering he played it by ear. I believe he plans on making some sheet music for it later:

All of this has been listed in our Projects section, so head on over there if you would like to see more details on any of these projects listed above. I have also made a new addition in there by Kevin, who has created some Animorphs Spore models as well. These are very popular over at Youtube, and people have already created several simulations of Andalite/Hork-Bajir/Yeerk battles as we previously posted about a while back.

However, before I end this post, I also want to give a quick shout out to Jeff Sampson. For those who don’t know who he is, simply flip to the start of Animorphs #22, and you’ll see that the book is dedicated to him. He was the co-founder of Morphz.com, which was easily the best Animorphs fan site back when the series ran. It provided many exclusives that the official site never even revealed!

He later on became The Informer, and even helped K.A write a few of the Remnants books as well. And now, he’s a published author! His YA debut Vesper was released earlier this year. I have personally read it, and really enjoyed it. I definitely recommend everyone else to check it out as well!

I think that covers everything new in the Animorphs fandom for now. You’ll find that the Projects section has also been cleaned up, and I have removed many of the ones that are cancelled, or no longer active. If you have any interesting projects that you’d like to share, then please feel free to forward them to me. Until next time!

Michael Grant has informed me that there is an official AMA (ask me anything) thread going on at Reddit by K.A. Applegate. She even posted a picture (see right) to remove any doubt of her being an imposter. You can check out the thread at reddit.com and ask any questions you wish there.

Along with this, I also want to follow up from our previous update and remind everyone again about K.A. Applegate’s First Ever Autograph Sessions! These are happening in 2 days, so here are the details again:

L.A. Times: Festival of Books

Saturday, April 30, 2011
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Scholastic/Diesel Booth #524

Saturday, April 30, 2011
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
CM School Supplies Booth #546

See: Full Autograph Details, and Official Program Schedule

Lastly, I have also gone ahead and updated the Support section of the site. I have been receiving repeats of many questions regarding the relaunch, so I thought it was time to devote a part of the site specifically for FAQs. Feel free to pass these along to those who are still yet unaware of the relaunch!

I have also branched off the Help Wanted part into its own page, and have now updated what we are looking for. Not everything is listed, of course, but the main idea is still that if you have something that we don’t already have, then send it to us!

That’s everything for now, but be on the look out for another update soon!

Thanks to Janice, who commented on our previous post, we now know that the Animorphs #1 (Relaunch Edition) has officially been released as an eBook! Scholastic has released it for both on the Amazon Kindle, and on the Barnes & Noble Nook. Both are priced at $5.59 U.S (at a 20% discount from the paperback version of $6.99 U.S.) Here are the links:

So far this is only being done for Animorphs #1: The Invasion. We’re assuming that Animorphs #2: The Visitor will also soon be out as an ebook, or that the release of it will depend on sales for the first book. Either way, we’ll be sure to keep an eye out and let you know if anything happens.

As always, fans can email us for the latest news, as well as follow us for the latest updates on our Facebook and Twitter. Until next time!

Following up from our post earlier today, I went down to my local Chapters Indigo Bookstore and was able to pick up my own copies of Animorphs #1 & 2!
 

So yes folks, this isn’t just a one store thing. It looks like Chapters is releasing the books two weeks in advance! My store only had 5 of each on their shelves, so grab them while you can (stock may vary between stores).

Major thanks to Tobias Mason Park for bringing this to our attention!

UPDATE: For those who are interested, I have now read the first book and reviewed it on my GoodReads. A warning to old fans— the review gives away slight spoilers to the changes in the book, so if you’d rather not know anything at all, then don’t read it! The review can be found here.

UPDATE #2: Amazon.com now has the books ‘In Stock’ as well, and are shipping out the pre-orders, according to the fans at the Animorphs LiveJournal Community. Also, for anyone who has a Waldenbooks/Borders near them, they are carrying the books in-store there as well.

Here is an excited Tobias Mason Park at a local Chapters Indigo Book Store holding up early relaunch copies of Animorphs #1 and #2!
 

The books don’t officially launch until May 1st, so most likely this is just a mistake by an employee for placing them on the shelves early. (But take a stroll down at your local book store. You never know!)

UPDATE: Good news for Canadians, it looks like Amazon.ca now has Animorphs #1 and 2 In Stock as well. We’re assuming that Amazon.com for U.S. residents will also soon follow. (Click here for all order links)

Poparena, of the Opinionated Animorphs Book Guide, recently did an audio interview with Ron Oliver, who worked as a writer and director for several of the Animorphs TV episodes during the show’s run. The interview covers many behind-the-scene insights to the show’s budget, actors, crew, creative decisions, and effects.

Ron Oliver Interview, by Poparena
Download Here (38MB)

The interview is approximately 40 minutes long, so for those who want to skip ahead, the Animorphs TV discussion begins around the 8:50 mark. (Source: Animorphs LiveJournal)

Also, following up from our previous post, Michael Grant has now posted several Q&A video responses at Youtube (Here is the first one). Fans of the GONE series will appreciate it the most. There is also an answer to the Gone TV/Movie situation, which hasn’t really changed from last time, but is there for those who are interested:

That covers everything for now. The relaunch is also almost here, so I hope everyone has their pre-orders ready! Until next time!

It was inevitable that when the new models were released on the official website, that the fans would compare them to the original models they grew up with from the first run of the series. However, one particular issue took priority over all other nitpicks as fans quickly noticed that the new Marco was paler and lighter from any of the previous models, and who did not match the half-Hispanic “dark complexion” (with dark skin and dark hair) that the character was often described by.

For those unfamiliar, this practice is most commonly known as whitewashing, where characters from minority backgrounds are often misrepresented in the media by being given favour to models or actors with lighter and paler skin. (If you’re looking for a more in-depth discussion about this, take a look at The Book Smugglers. They wrote a great article about some of the more popular cases from last year.)

Once fans realized what had happened, they sent out a petition and contacted both Scholastic and Michael Grant (co-author/co-creator of Animorphs). Marissa from Racebending also published a really well written article on her blog, as a show of support to the fans. The topic and concerns from the fans were well covered in that article, and I would recommend everyone to go read it at racebending.com

However, the issue didn’t linger for very long. Scholastic replied back quickly and confirmed that they were already going ahead to change the Marco cover model. The change will be reflected onto the new cover and official website once the photo shoot and morphing animations have been completed. Here is their full response, thanks to Blue Rampion:

“Thank you again for getting in touch with us about the Marco model for the cover of Animorphs #5: The Predator. We always appreciate hearing from Animorphs fans, and we want you to know that we have heard and share your concerns. We will, in fact, be using a different model for the actual books from the one that currently appears in our catalog and on the Animorphs web site. The first Marco book won’t be published until December 2011, so there is plenty of time to make sure we have a model who truly represents the description of the character in the books. (Please note that the website will be corrected as soon as the new photo shoot has been completed and the morph animation can be redone; in the meantime, the placeholder Marco will remain.)

While getting a new model was something we were already planning to do, we truly appreciate you advocacy on behalf of Marco. The support and passion of the Animorphs fan community has always been a crucial part of the success of the series, and we certainly want to be responsive when concerns arise.” -Scholastic

Along with this, Michael Grant also responded (for both him and K.A. Applegate) to the fans via Twitter, thanks to LisaCharly:

So there you have it. A very big congrats to the fans for sticking up for this (especially to those in the Animorphs LiveJournal Community), as well as big thank you to the great Scholastic team in charge of the Animorphs Relaunch for being so positively receptive to the fanbase’s concerns!

As for the new model, there’s no telling how long this will take, but we’ll be sure to keep you all updated as soon as the change is reflected onto the official site. For those who are interested in reading more about this subject, I’ve assembled a collection of related links for you here:

Discussion: Official Site launch & models
Discussion: Marco model petition launch
Michael Grant and K.A. Applegate respond
Racebending.com article for Animorphs
Discussion: Scholastic responds about Marco’s model
Michael Grant and K.A. Applegate apologize to fans

Until next time!