Status Report

I wanted to give a quick shout out to the Animorphs: A Graphic Novel Project. It’s being drawn by the fabulous Char Reed. So far, everything looks fantastic. I eagerly await her updates whenever she has a new panel to share with us (via Twitter and her Blog), so I thought I’d pass it along to you guys as well.

At the same time, there is also a new project started for an animated series, called Animorphs: A Second Chance. I believe they are looking for artists, editors, voice actors, etc to get going. They have a Youtube account set up, and the project is being lead by Capnnerefir.

Both projects are added in the Projects section (which I randomly decided to re-organize today). All info regarding both projects, including contact info, has been posted up in there. 🙂

Looks like after we posted our previous bit of news, fans from both the Animorphs LiveJournal and RAF communities asked Michael Grant (co-author/co-creator of Animorphs) if the rumor of the re-release was true.

The answer, is YES. The re-release is definitely happening! Michael Grant confirmed this via his Twitter account. I’ve compiled all of his responses so far in the image below:

So to sum up and update upon our previous post:

1. Yes, the re-release is happening. It is no longer a rumor.

2. There WILL be new covers. Our Scholastic source told us that they are going to be “lenticular”. We’re assuming this means that they will be 3D covers that morph from one image to another when they are tilted.

You may have already seen examples of this in a variety of products, everything from trading cards to dvd covers. (Those that have the Animorphs Invasion Board Game will have a better example, as they came with a deck of morphing holographic lenticular cards for all the Animorphs. We’re guessing that the new covers could be similar to that).

3. The release date is now no longer 2012, but is estimated to be 1 year from now, so somewhere around late 2010 to 2011.

4. The re-release is still being used by Scholastic as a way to test out the market, and see if a brand new ‘Animorphs 2.0’ series will be profitable enough to invest into. They will be looking at both the sales and fan reception once the books are re-released.

5. Editorial changes to KASUs and continuity errors are still unconfirmed, and so are the packaging details (whether the books will be sold in volumes, or individually as they originally were).

More updates to come as we hear them here at Hirac Delest. 😀

Edit: Thanks to wildweathel for correcting us on the proper term for the covers. I’ve made the appropriate changes to that above.

Here’s another Andalite costume that was fan-made for Halloween this year. (Sorry for the late addition; I got it 2 weeks after Halloween, and then I got sidetracked myself. Nevertheless, this is just too awesome. I had to share it!)

Here is R.A and his father tells us: “He is 7 and been reading the series of books for over a year now. He is a big Ax fan so when it came time for him to decide what he wanted to be for Halloween, it was an easy decision. Let’s just say this costume took several hours to complete. It was a big hit and I am glad he got to enjoy it.”

Thanks so much to R.A and his father for sharing this with the rest of us! The costume turned out great! 😀

I’m sure a lot of you older fans remember Vegemorphs. It was a one time book parody that was released when Animorphs was at the height of its popularity. It even ended up being part of an Arthur episode ‘D.W. Tale Spins’. (Thanks to Sarita Wolf from The Animorphs Fan Forum for finding this episode).

There was also a live-action fan film that was based on the book, and then posted on Youtube a few years back. I’ve posted both parts of the Arthur episode, and the live action fan film, in the Vegemorphs book page. You can find the Vegemorphs book in Articles & Interviews, under the Database section (since it is not officially linked with the series). Both this and the Cracked magazine parodies have been listed under the Published Parodies category.

Following up from our previous post, our good source is back to let us know that Scholastic is indeed planning on going ahead with the re-release of Animorphs! However, to clear up any confusion, our source tells us that the re-release will only be for ‘Animorphs Classic‘ (the current series), and that it is estimated to be released (with new covers) around Spring 2012. Official Date TBA.

Now the bad news: It seems that Animorphs 2.0 is currently on hold, pending review. Apparently Scholastic will also be using the re-release of Animorphs Classic as a way to determine whether to go ahead with Animorphs 2.0. This means that they’ll be looking at both the fan reception and the sales of this release to see if a new series will be profitable enough to pursue.

No further news on how the Classic re-release will be handled, aside from the fact that they’re supposed to have new covers. It’s far too early to tell whether the series will have new artwork, be bundled into volumes, or have any editorial changes be made to them (as some of you have suggested). Rest assured though that we here at Hirac Delest will let you know as soon as we hear about it ourselves!

That about sums it up for that bit of news. As a side note, I also want to let you guys know that I’ve updated the side link for our Facebook page (on the right). If you haven’t done so already, then ‘Become a Fan’ of Hirac Delest on Facebook. All of our updates, like this, will now be posted directly on to your news feed to let you know that we’ve updated!

Until Next Time! 🙂

From the Animorphs Livejournal Community, check out how these awesome Animorph fans are celebrating Halloween 2009:

That is probably the BEST (or possibly, the only) Animorphs Fan Costume I’ve ever seen. Props (literally) to faerykore for making this. I absolutely love it!

Also, interesting note for those that have read our previous blog posts, you’ll notice that two of those members are none other than Kevin James and Ryan Murphy, who made the Animorphs film short, The Questioning, a little while back!

These pictures were an awesome surprise for me to stumble on to, and I hope you all enjoyed it as well. Happy Halloween from every one of us here at Hirac Delest! Until next time! 😈

Michael Grant (co-author/creator for Animorphs) won the “Best Children’s Novel” Award yesterday at the SCIBA 2009 Author’s Feast, for Hunger (from the Gone Series). The nominees and finalists for that category, as well as for every other category, have been posted up at the Official SCIBA Website. The picture for him receiving the reward (below), was posted by the SCIBA Facebook profile today, and a close up of the award was later uploaded by Michael via Twitpic as well (right).

A very big congrats to Michael Grant from us here at Hirac Delest, and from the rest of your fans as well!

In addition to all of this, Andrew Smith, the author for In the Path of Falling Objects, also wrote about the entire event on his blog (including his meet with Michael Grant, and the speech Michael later gave in the event). You can read it all here.

Sources: SCIBA Facebook Album, and Ghost Medicine: Blog of Andrew Smith.

Thanks to Ian , who forwarded us this link. College Humor recently used Megamorphs #2: In the Time of Dinosaurs in one of their articles as one of the alternate theories as to why the Dinosaurs went extinct.

Here is the Animorphs part:

THEORY: Warmongers send a comet to Earth as revenge after being outfoxed by the Animorphs

THEORIST : Megamorphs #2: In The Time of Dinosaurs

Though there is much literature that speaks of a comet striking the Earth and killing the dinosaurs, only Megamorphs #2 pins the crime on the war-mongering Nesk. The Animorphs actually have an opportunity to stop the comet from wiping out the dinosaurs and their new friends the Mercoca, but decide to allow the genocide when they realize the implications of altering the timeline and allowing the Mercoca to establish a presence on Earth. Heavy stuff for a book called "Megamorphs."

Source: College Humor. October 07, 2009.
"11 Alternate Dinosaur Extinction Theories"

A fan named moriath, from the Animorphs Livejournal Community, blogged about the recent NYC Barnes & Nobles Event that Michael Grant appeared at. (See our previous blog post). Along with him, there were also other YA authors such as Scott Westerfeld, Carrie Ryan, and James Dashner. Here’s a brief look at the blog post featuring Michael Grant’s part:

“Finally up was Michael Grant of Gone and Hunger as well as my beloved Animorphs series. I have to admit I felt extremely vindicated when, during the Q&A session, he brought up the “abrupt” ending of Animorphs (oh man is THAT an understatement!) and acknowledged, “Well, that didn’t work out well.” So he’s promised that he knows how the series is going to end (though not in detail as JK Rowling claimed to know the whole Harry Potter series – he kinda thinks she made that all up just to keep her editors from freaking out) and it won’t be abrupt like Animorphs.”

Source: Bookish Blather. October 16, 2009.
“Book Events: Post-Apocalyptic Teen Fiction panel, Barnes & Noble”.

Michael Grant (co-author/creator for Animorphs) updated his Facebook and Twitter this morning to inform the fans of his GONE series that he will be at the NYC Barnes and Nobles on October 15th at 7PM, with the first 20 people at the book signing to receive a flash drive with the opening chapters of the 3rd Gone book LIES, as well as to his new upcoming series, the MAGNIFICENT 12.

Along with him will also be Scott Westerfeld, who will be celebrating the release of his latest book LEVIATHAN (cover image on right). Scott Westerfeld, by chance, is also another one of my long-time favourite authors. A personal recommend from me to check out his UGLIES and MIDNIGHTERS series if you haven’t already!

Below is also a quote by Michael Grant from his blog:

Yes. I am still alive.

If you’d like proof, I will be at the BARNES and NOBLE at 86th and Lexington in New York City, October 15th, 7:00 PM.

I’ll be wearing black.

Also there: the great and powerful Scott Westerfeld! The lovely and vivacious (I assume) Carrie Ryan! And the, oh, let’s say the talented and translucent (look, I’m tired and I’m out of adjectives, okay?) James Dashner!

Never in the history of young adult literature has such a panel of luminaries assembled in one place. The sheer brilliance will astound you! It’s entirely possible that we will combine to form a singularity and suck not only you but the entire bookstore into a black hole. That’s right: we are just that deep.

But wait: there’s more! The first 20 people who show up and buy a book (one of mine, duh) for signing get a flash drive containing the first chapters of LIES and the first chapters of an entirely separate series, THE MAGNIFICENT 12.

Sweet Lord, can you imagine a more astounding offer? You can? Well, too bad because this is all the offer I have right now.

Come one, come all, and hear four YA authors bloviate, pontificate, and try to top each other in pandering to you, our devoted audience. Should be fun.

Michael Grant

So the short version:

Barnes & Nobles
86th and Lexington, New York
October 15th, 2009
7:00 PM

Got it? Good! Until next time!

SOURCES: stupidblogname.com; scottwesterfeld.com/blog