Several fans have informed me that the Animorphs #3 (Lenticular Edition) has already been released to them via Amazon and Barnes & Noble a full week before the actual launch date! Not only that, but The Scholastic Store apparently already had them in stock 2 weeks ago! (With an additional 30% off, as they did with Animorphs #1 & 2!)
Jason, one of our visitors, even sent us proof from his local store:
Those holding out for ebook editions will still have to wait though. Expect a full paperback/ebook release from all retailers on July 1st, 2011.
This is, without a doubt, the coolest thing anyone has ever sent me! I got it in my mail today, and was caught completely off-guard by what was inside. They were sent from Jenny (aka AniJen21), who offered to order me the advanced relaunch books from the Scholastic Store sale we had a while back.
She gave me some random excuse and told me that they’d be coming in late, but it turned out that she was being totally sneaky and getting them signed by K.A. Applegate and Michael Grant at their first-ever autograph session together in the L.A.Times: Festival of Books. Here they are:
I can’t express how thankful I am for this! This is one of the nicest things I have ever received, and I will most definitely treasure it forever. Thank you so much to Jenny for going out of her way to do this! And thank you to both K.A & Michael for their kind words! 😀
A very quick post today: I have upgraded our Community Board so that it is now ad-free! This should hopefully last us a little while, as it depends on the user usage vs any length of time.
Also, the Relaunch books now have their own forum as well! This forum is for both new and old fans to discuss, so please remember to keep all details and spoilers regarding future books away from this area. A separate forum (“Animorphs Classic”) is still in place for older fans to discuss the series openly if they wish to do so. I have also added specific book threads for both Animorphs #1 and Animorphs #2, and have linked them on our archive pages so they will go directly there as well.
Lastly, I also wanted to highlight a new thread that Xan (our most recent, and 200th member!) made. He is asking for a request of ideas on a very cool project that he is making for his final term. It involves some guerrilla/viral-like marketing to promote The Sharing for his Animorphs project. I don’t post requests like this for many forum topics, but I think this shows some promise and is a very cool way to go in promoting the series. The thread can be found under the ‘Animorphs Classic’ Forum (or click here to go directly there).
A human named Patrick Henry said that. I wonder if the Yeerks knew before they came to conquer Earth that humans said things like that. I wonder if the Yeerks knew what they were getting into.”
This is it everyone: Animorphs is now officially relaunched! Even though many of us have already gotten the books in advance, this is still an exciting thing to note about. This is the first time in 10 years that the series will finally be available in book stores!
So I want to know: What does everyone think? What do you like? What don’t you like? I posted my review on Goodreads, in case anyone is interested!
Along with this, K.A. Applegate also had her first ever autograph sessions yesterday! Michael Grant (K.A’s husband and co-writer/co-creator of Animorphs) was kind enough to give us some great photo and video updates via Twitter and Facebook:
So for those that made it to this event, let us know how it turned out. If you have any pictures that you would like shared as well, then feel free to comment below! And don’t forget: Spread the word! Animorphs is back!
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:
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:
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!
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.
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)
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:
Thanks to Kaitlyn from our Facebook Page, Australian fans can now pre-order the relaunch editions for Animorphs #1 & 2! Also, if you order by tomorrow (Sunday, March 20th) then you can get free shipping on your order by typing in SMILE (Details on the coupon here). The books themselves are also currently on sale for 40% off, so grab them while you can! Here are the links:
These have been added to our pre-order page as well. Thanks again to Kaitlyn for the heads up!
As for other international orders, I have no word yet on whether they are available at the same time as everywhere else (I know a few people were asking about Indonesia). I have only checked sites like Amazon so far and turned up nothing, but if anyone knows of any specific online booksellers for international countries which have Animorphs available for pre-order, then please do let me know so that I can pass that along to the fans!
That’s all for now. If you missed out on our previous post, then make sure you’re caught up (or for the entire week, really. Lots of new info!)
Also, the Relaunch books now have their own forum as well! This forum is for both new and old fans to discuss, so please remember to keep all details and spoilers regarding future books away from this area. A separate forum (“Animorphs Classic”) is still in place for older fans to discuss the series openly if they wish to do so. I have also added specific book threads for both Animorphs #1 and Animorphs #2, and have linked them on our archive pages so they will go directly there as well.
Next we have 
Poparena, of the 
May 2011