Status Report

Thanks to Jordan for letting us know, there’s a new book by K.A. Applegate called The One and Only Ivan. It is being released January 17th 2012, and can be pre-ordered via Amazon. Here is the official summary and cover:

Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.

Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.

Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.

Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.

Next, we have fan-made book covers! Since book covers are a very big discussion topic in the community with the current relaunch, I thought it’d be interesting to share a few alternates that the fans have made themselves:

The first one is by Theresa Shreffler from DeviantArt, who is now also a published YA author herself!

Notice the subtle scales on the face, and reptilian-like eyes and fingers. It gets the point across really well without feeling gimmicky, and is something that I can actually see sitting on the YA shelves today.
 

The next one is by Katie Mazikins, a student at MICA. Look closely at the textured background, typography, and cover animal. I like the minimalist redesign, and can see these selling really well for us older fans especially (in volume hardcovers please!). You can see even more Animorphs covers by her on Flickr and Twitter in a similar redesign.

That’s all for now. If you think there’s a cover redesign or piece of Animorphs artwork worth sharing, then let us know in the comments below!

The Animorphs #4 relaunch edit list is now up on our Missions page. As with the previous three books, there some more updates to technology and pop-culture references that I think people will find interesting. If I’ve missed something in my re-read, then please do let me know!

Also, Animorphs #7 is now available to pre-order! The links are set up on our order page. A slightly larger version of the cover for #7 was also released via the 2011 Frankfurt Book Fair Rights Guide (see right). I have uploaded the PDF catalog, and posted the picture for it in it’s relaunch page.

In addition to this, I have also gone through all of the relaunch pages and taken away some of the clutter and added a few new things as well. Here are the new additions in today’s update:

• High-Res Front Covers for relaunch books #2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
• High-Res Back Covers for relaunch books #3, 4, and 5.
• New/edited Trivia on all relaunch books.
• New relaunch edits and updates list for #4.
• Frankfurt Rights Guide and larger cover for #7.

Finally, Michael Grant (co-author/co-creator of Animorphs) recently posted on Facebook that Sony Pictures has acquired the movie licensing rights to his new and upcoming series, BZRK, for the Sam Raimi Company! This exclusive post was made by Deadline New York, and the article can be viewed here.

This is very surprising, and shows a great amount of confidence in the material, considering that the first book in the trilogy isn’t even going to be released until March 2012! A very big congrats to Michael Grant from us on this excellent news!

That’s all for now. Be sure to let me know of any edits or mistakes I may have missed, and I’ll get them fixed as soon as I can. Until next time!

Michael Grant (co-author/co-creator of Animorphs) has officially announced a new transmedia project titled BZRK. It is a multi-platform narrative that is experienced through books, websites, videos, comics, and more.

The digital part of the project has already been launched, and it will tie-in with the first BZRK book, which is set to be released February 2012. A full outline and FAQ for the project is posted at gobzrk.com. Here is the official description for the first book:

The most breathtaking and exhilarating ride you will take this year, this is the first in an incredible new action thriller series from Michael Grant, author of “Gone”.

These are no ordinary soldiers. This is no ordinary war. Welcome to the nano, where the only battle is for sanity. Losing is not an option when a world of madness is at stake. Time is running out for the good guys. But what happens when you don’t know who the good guys really are?

Noah and Sadie: newly initiated to an underground cell so covert that they don’t even know each other’s names. Here they will learn what it means to fight on a nano level. Soon they will become the deadliest warriors the world has ever seen.

Vincent: feels nothing, cares for no one; fighting his own personal battle with Bug Man, the greatest nano warrior alive.

The Armstrong Twins: wealthy, privileged, and fanatical.

Are they the saviours of mankind or authors of the darkest conspiracy the world has ever seen? The nano is uncharted territory. A terrifying world of discovery. And everything is to play for…

In addition to this, we also have an update on the new book currently being written by K.A. Applegate and Michael Grant. It is a dark comedy, and is the first book that the husband and wife duo will be writing together since the Remnants series. The current working title is EVE AND ADAM AND.

The plot and release date is unknown at the moment, but it will be told through both male and female perspectives, where Michael will be writing for the males, and Katherine for the females. We’ll keep you updated on the details as we hear more.

And lastly, there is some more new press for the Animorphs relaunch! A recent article from the School Library Journal shares some quotes from the new series editor and K.A. Applegate herself. Here’s a small highlight:

Zachary Clark, editor of the series, comments on the new design: “We decided early on that part of what made the original series such a success were the dynamic covers. They may look a little hokey to us now, but wow, in the ’90s those morphing kids were so cool. Lenticulars seemed like the best way to capture the spirit of the original books, and also offer something really eye-catching.”

Author K.A. Applegate agrees with this assessment and is “thrilled” with the result: “They [Scholastic] somehow managed to retain the essence of the original covers while bringing them completely up to date. They are so cool: when you walk into a bookstore, they just leap off the shelves. Booksellers have told me they are the easiest books in the world to hand-sell. Even the most reluctant reader wants to grab a book and makes that dude morph into a lizard.”

Launched over a decade ago, the series has had a lasting effect on readers. K.A. Applegate recounts meeting “long-time fans, now in their twenties” at a recent book festival, some of whom “talked about how they’d been struggling readers, and how Animorphs was the way they learned that reading could be fun. Others were born readers who found the story lines compelling. There were soldiers and biology majors and artists and techies and aspiring authors. It was great to see.”

Read the full article: Fresh Approaches: The Return of Animorphs

That’s all for now! Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more Animorphs-related updates!

Rijab is back again, this time with the cover for Animorphs #7: The Stranger! (He previously gave us a sneak peek at the covers for #3, 4, and 5!)

As before, this is just a thumbnail preview, but it gives us an idea on what kind of design to expect from this future release. Animorphs #7 currently does not have a set date, but is confirmed to be released in Summer 2012, with Animorphs #8. (Our guess is in May, but we’ll make sure to confirm that.)

The new #7 cover has been updated on our relaunch page, and #6 has been given a larger version of its cover as well. Thanks again to Rijab on passing along these great updates! If anyone has any extra relaunch details, please feel free to contact us via our email, Facebook, or Twitter.

Until next time!

David B. Mattingly (the original Animorphs artist) is back again with new videos! He has posted up character videos for Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Ax and Marco (no Tobias?) which feature the flipbook animations that were printed in the original Classic books. I have created a playlist so that you can watch them all in order. Here they are:
 

 
Again, if you like these Animorphs updates by him, then be sure to comment on his videos! That’s all for now!

David B. Mattingly, the original artist for the Classic Animorphs series, has posted 2 new videos up on his Youtube channel. Here is the first one, featuring Marco in a few of his original flipbook animations:

The second video is for the Sanctuary screensaver morphs, which can be viewed here. This video, however, is a compilation and does not include the original audio from the individual videos that were released by Scholastic.

To watch them as they were, I have them stored in our video archive (scroll down to ‘Sanctuary Screensavers Morphs’ from the drop down menu and click ‘Go’). I saved these a long time ago, back when the Animorphs Sanctuary Club was still active at Scholastic’s official website.

Mr. Mattingly has also stated in his video summaries that if there is enough of a request from the fans that he will post more animations. So make sure you rate and comment on those videos!

UPDATE: The Marco video was removed and re-uploaded with other character videos by David B. Mattingly (Full Post HERE), so I replaced the above with the Sanctuary Screensaver video instead.

The relaunch edit list for Animorphs #3 is now online! I have also updated the edit list for the first two books as well, with 2 KASUs fixes in Animorphs #1, and an error fix in Animorphs #2.

Along with this, I have also gone ahead and added KASU lists in the Animorphs #1-3 Classic books too! This will hopefully be an interesting comparison between the two types of editions, and the kind of editing that went into the reprints.

Also, a big credit to Anifan12 who gave me the list of KASUs for the Classic books! The list was originally hosted on Geocities, so he handed it off to me for the archive when Yahoo was shutting those pages down. I’ll now be making sure to add these Classic KASU lists along with release of every reprint edit list that I come out with.

That’s all for now!

Ian is back to let us know that the relaunch edition of Animorphs #4 is now shipping early via the Scholastic Store, even though their site says that they are only taking pre-orders for September. Here’s some proof:

In addition to this, Ian tells us that the Animorphs #5 cover has also been replaced in the back, with the new Marco model we previously posted about.

Lastly, the Scholastic Store is also holding the Animorphs #4 Relaunch Edition Paperback for an additional 30% off, along with the first three books. The official release date is still September 1st, however, so expect the eBook and Paperback versions to be released at other retailers as planned.

Animorphs #3 is now officially relaunched today! The book has already been released early at a few select locations, but it should be at all retailers now, including in ebook form. Book summary:

Animorphs #3: The Encounter (Lenticular Edition)

When Tobias and his friends were given the power to morph, they were also given an important warning: Never stay in a morph for more than two hours. But Tobias broke the time limit, and now he’s trapped in the body of a hawk — forever. When he discovers an important Yeerk secret, Tobias knows he has to do everything in his power to destroy it. But to do so, he’ll have to contend with a part of himself that’s wrestling for control. A part that isn’t human.

See: Paperback and eBook Order Links

In addition to this, there’s also some interesting relaunch info by Renata from Why, a Blog!, who attended David Levithan’s panel at the annual American Library Association (ALA) conference this year. Here’s a brief quote:

Anyway, so he starts up his presentation and the first slide is covers of the Babysitters Club and Animorphs relaunch titles, though he said that he didn’t have anything to do with Animorphs (although he did work at Scholastic when Animorphs was being published). He talked about the late 80s and early 90s as the “heyday” of series fiction, when books would come out once a month or twice a month. He cited BSC, Animorphs, and Goosebumps as Scholastic’s “Big Three,” which was interesting to me because I never thought Animorphs were as popular as BSC or Goosebumps? As a kid, I definitely knew more people who read the other two series than Animorphs. But maybe that was just my school. Also, he described all three series as being “episodic” fiction where it didn’t necessarily matter if you read them in order, or read all of them. To some extent that’s true of Animorphs (there are definitely books you could skip, for example) but I don’t think it’s true in the same way it is for BSC or Goosebumps.

Oh, and he talked about revamping the series-es (I think the plural of series is just series but whatev) and making them “time neutral.” The example he gave was if a character was listening to a Walkman, they didn’t change it to “iPod,” since you’d just have to change that again in 10 years. Instead they changed it to “music.” He said it wasn’t that hard to do, which I thought was a little surprising.

I suggest everyone check out the entire post, as it’s an interesting read. She covered the event by posting at both Why, A Blog! and the Animorphs LiveJournal Community.

Lastly, I have also updated the missions archive. Animorphs #1 now has a list of all the relaunch edits that I could find in the re-read (Please let me know of any edits I may have missed), and Animorphs #3 now has the back cover added (via amazon), and a new higher-res front cover.

Oh, and I renewed Hirac Delest‘s hosting/domain for another year (We’re now 4 years old!). Thanks to everyone who has supported us through the years! Until next time!

Taking a little break from the relaunch stuff, I came across this neat trailer a little while back that I think is worth sharing. It uses a few scenes from the TV show, but is otherwise filmed entirely by fans:

There are also a few fans out there that have written their own scripts for the adaptation of the books. The first one is by Dogman15, for Animorphs #1: The Invasion. And the second one is actually a theatrical production for Animorphs #6: The Capture by Drake. He tells me that this has already been staged and is in production for a play-writing college class in Florida. He’s going to try and get this filmed, and pass it along to us if possible! I have added links to both scripts in our fan fiction section.

To close off today’s post, here is another great little clip I found that the Animorphs TV Show fans will appreciate. It’s Nadia Nascimento (Cassie) being discovered at a party: