Status Report

Scholastic has released the entire step-by-step cover morph for Animorphs #4 in the new Fall 2011 Paperback Catalogue and the Bologna Book Fair 2011 Rights Guide! Here are the full pages below:

Sadly, no full image for the Animorphs #3 morphing process, but we’ll be sure to post about it if we find it! The images for #4 have been added in the relaunch Missions page. Until next time!

Following up from our post about the first book, Animorphs #2 is now available as an official ebook by Scholastic! It has been released on both the Kindle and the Nook. Also, Animorphs #5 is now available to pre-order in paperback as well! All of the links have been set up in our order page (see right).

Along with this, I have also gone ahead and updated the Relaunch book pages. #1 & #2 have their back covers posted (thanks to the scans from Ian), Animorphs #4 has a larger cover, and the rest of the relaunch books have been edited with new pictures and trivia as well.

Lastly, I have also gone ahead and changed our domain (hiracdelest.com) so that it now redirects right to this blog. (If anyone misses our old intro, I’ve saved it over here). That’s all for now. 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!

Okay, here is that ridiculously large update that I promised. Lots of new things, as you can tell right away from the title, so let us not waste any more time. First up:

The Mission (Book) Database: There are 80+ new international Classic covers added (And by Classic, I mean the 90’s books, so don’t freak out thinking that it’s for the relaunch). There is also 1 new inside cover added for Megamorphs #2, thanks to Matt. It was the last inside cover we were missing, so we are now officially complete with those! (I think.)

On top of this, I have also gone through all of the book pages and added videos for the ones that had their cover animations released. You will be able to see these videos right on their individual pages as opposed to the way we had it before. The book page layouts have also been slightly tweaked and rearranged to give everything a more uniform and organized look.

In addition to this, the Database has a Relaunch books section now too! I debated on how to handle this for a while, but I eventually decided that it would be best to separate it from the current Classic book pages, rather than try to merge them together. For one, it would be clutter-hell to try and organize the different marketing campaigns, promotions, products, etc, that would be related with the two book runs. I also thought it would be best to not compromise on the comprehensive amounts of detail on those current Classic pages, for fear that new readers would start reading them. Hopefully the two sections will keep things organized and at the same time be spoiler-friendly for those new to the series. I may merge them in the future, once the relaunch has run its course, but for now they are best to be kept separate.

Moving on from that, the Articles Section is now also updated: A relaunch category has been added, along with all of the official news for it so far: Scholastic’s library webcast, press release, K.A’s video, cover animation, etc.

This brings me to our very last part of the update: The Video Section. Everything is changed in there, from the way it operates, to the way it is structured behind the scenes. I have new categories set up for future Relaunch related media, and all of the videos so far have also been added in there, along with stuff we had before: morphing animations, tv show clips, trailers, etc.

So, to sum up (and for those that didn’t bother reading any of that), here is a brief rundown of everything added in for this update:

 
ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS

– Scholastic’s 2011 Spring Library Preview Webcast
– Scholastic’s Relaunch Press Release, including:

• K.A. Applegate’s video
• #1 Cover Animation

 
VIDEOS

– Restructured and new layout redesign.
– Categories and videos added for Relaunch Media (from articles).

 
MISSION (BOOK) DATABASE

Relaunch Books:

New pages for #1-6.
01: Cover Animation, Alternate cover, and related media.
02: Alternate cover, and related media.

Classic Books:

01 – Morph animation.
02 – Morph animation.
03 – Morph animation.
07 – U.K. Cover.
13 – Cover animation.
16 – U.K. Cover. Cover animation.
17 – U.K, German, and French Covers. Cover animation.
18 – German, and French Covers. Cover animation. New Trivia.
19 – U.K, German, and French Covers. Cover animation.
20 – U.K, German, and French Covers
21 – U.K, and French Covers. Cover animation.
22 – U.K, German, and French Covers. Cover animation.
23 – U.K, and French Covers. Cover animation.
24 – U.K, and French Covers. Cover animation.
25 – U.K, German, and French Covers. Cover animation.
26 – U.K, and French Covers. Cover animation.
27 – German, and French Covers
28 – U.K, German, and French Covers
29 – U.K, German, and French Covers
30 – U.K, German, and French Covers. Cover animation.
31 – U.K, and French Covers
32 – U.K, and French Covers
33 – U.K, and French Covers. Cover animation. New Trivia.
34 – U.K, and French Covers. Cover animation.
35 – U.K, and French Covers
36 – U.K, and French Covers
37 – U.K, and French Covers
38 – U.K, and French Covers
39 – U.K, and French Covers
40 – U.K, and French Covers
41 – U.K, and French Covers
42 – French Cover
43 – U.K, and French Covers
44 – French Cover
45 – U.K, and French Covers
46 – U.K, and French Covers
47 & 48 – U.K Combo Cover
49 $ 50 – U.K Combo Cover
51 $ 52 – U.K Combo Cover
53 – French Cover
54 – French Cover
MM#1 – U.K, German, and French Covers
MM#2 – 7th Inside (thanks to Matt), German, French, & U.K Covers.
MM#3 – French Cover
Alternamorphs #1 – French Cover
Andalite Chronicles – U.K, and French Covers
Visser Chronicles – French Cover
Hork-Bajir Chronicles – French, and U.K Covers (Didn’t notice this until now, but the U.K one has Aldrea looking at the reader!)

Phew! At this point I’d also like to add that I will forever hate Amazon and other book sites for unnecessarily adding white space to all of their cover pictures. I had to individually crop every one of those covers folks!

Anyway, I think that’s it for now. The archive is no where near complete, but we are making progress, and this update was another huge step forward. Look around, enjoy. If you see anything wrong that needs fixing, or if you have something that I don’t already have (or have it in better quality), then please get a hold of me as usual. I will do my best to get it up there as soon as I possibly can.

Until next time! 🙂

Pre-order links have also been updated with the rest of the books (see right).

And FYI, this isn’t the big archive update I mentioned in my previous post, but I thought it’d be best to get these links up as soon as possible. (Thanks to Ian for keeping me updated as well!)

More coming soon!

It doesn’t look like much, but we finally have a custom header for our blog! It took about a month’s worth of frustration, and for me to learn just enough PHP in order to figure out how to do it.

So what does this mean? Well for one, the rest of the site will no longer remain isolated by that framed header I had in its place before. You can link away to individual articles all you like, without worrying that people can’t see the entire archive. The rest of the sections on the site are still framed up top, just to simplify the 100+ pages (900+ files!) I have for updating needs, but the blog is no longer held back by it, which was my biggest concern of all.

I think that’s all for now! Our blog link is hiracdelest.com/blog, so please update your bookmarks! If you notice any problems or issues, then be sure to let me know right away. I would most definitely appreciate it! Also, be on the lookout for another archive update soon. I’ve got a big one coming!

Wow, lots of news recently! For those that missed it, Animorphs got a dedicated time slot in the Scholastic Spring 2011 LIVE Preview Webcast today, and the Animorphs segment portion of it was presented by David Levithan (V.P. Editorial Director of Scholastic). The live webcast is now officially over, but will soon be available to watch on Scholastic again (No idea when exactly, but we’ll make a new post as soon as it does!)

Update: Just received word that it will be available 6pm ET on Wednesday, October 20. We’ll post the link once it’s available!

In the mean while though, here are a few pictures that I quickly snapped while it was being talked about:

I didn’t get a chance to listen to everything, but Mr. Levithan was talking about the relaunch of the series from the 90s, and how it would work for audiences today. The snapshots I took also officially confirms the Animorphs #1 book cover that we posted recently. (And in case anyone is wondering about the 3rd pic, it’s him trying to re-enact the morphing pose, from himself to a moose, lol. He was doing this because he mentioned that they couldn’t show the full animation effects for the lenticular morphing online.)

Going along with that, Scholastic is also planning a full on assault with marketing plans for the re-release. The first book is already in their Online Catalog, with a Summer Series Ad PDF that finally displays the full before-and-after of the first cover! Behold, our new Jake model for Animorphs!

Set within the catalog, there is also a 12-Copy Mixed Floor Display item available for retailers, which will hold both Animorphs #1 & 2, but no pictures are available for it yet.

Lastly, here are also some marketing plans of what Scholastic intends to do with upcoming relaunch of the series:

Marketing Plans

Over 35 million copies of the original series in print!

• 100,000-copy announced first print
• National media campaign
• Select author appearances
• Major advertising campaign, including:
• In-theater advertising in select markets
• Online advertising linking to special content on Animorphs website www.scholastic.com/animorphs update, including:
• Games & Video
• Summer camp sampling
• Outreach to Animorphs fan sites

Quotes / Reviews

Praise for Animorphs

“Engaging… impressive.” –School Library Journal

“There’s clearly something about Animorphs that has kept kids enthralled.” –Publisher’s Weekly

I think that’s everything for now. Expect more updates soon! Lots of things are coming up, and we’ll try to stay on top of it all to keep you fully updated!

Animorphs #1: The Invasion, and Animorphs #2: The Visitor are now both listed on Amazon.com and are available to pre-order! Both are priced at $6.99 (US) and will be available in paperback. Here is a brief product description provided by Amazon for Animorphs #1:

The wildly popular series by K.A. Applegate is back! The first six books of Animorphs return, with striking new lenticular covers that morph.

The Earth is being invaded, but no one knows about it. When Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, and Marco stumble upon a downed alien spaceship and its dying pilot, they’re given an incredible power — they can transform into any animal they touch. With it, they become Animorphs, the unlikely champions in a secret war for the planet. And the enemies they’re fighting could be anyone, even the people closest to them. So begins K.A. Applegate’s epic series about five normal kids with a limitless amount of forms and abilities.

Interesting thing to note about the wording from the description above: It says that only the first six books are returning with new covers. If we refer this back to our previous post, it seems as though that they really are the only ones confirmed to be re-released at this point (Not the entire series, as previously believed).

My guess is that more of the series will reprinted once Scholastic has taken a look at the sales figures behind these releases. We have no idea what their plans are after that, but we can assume that they are going to continue re-releasing them if enough people are still buying them.

Aside from that, nothing else is new. Pre-order links are posted below (please use them from here if you can). We’ll be sure to keep you updated if anything else comes up!

 

Pre-Order Animorphs #1: The Invasion (Lenticular Edition)
Release Date: May 1st, 2011

Pre-Order Animorphs #2: The Visitor (Lenticular Edition)
Release Date: May 1st, 2011

**You can help support Hirac Delest if you pre-order from the links above. You will NOT be charged anything extra for doing this! All it will do is add in Hirac Delest as a referral for your transaction(s). In return, Amazon will give us a tiny percentage of your sale, which will then go entirely towards paying for the hosting and domain fees for this fan site, keeping us online and running ad-free. Doing us this small favour would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

A big credit to RAF‘s Magdaleen, who posted a sneak peek at the upcoming cover of the 2011 Re-Release Edition of Animorphs #1: The Invasion! (see right).

As most of you know from our previous posts, the new covers are supposed to be lenticular, meaning that they will transform and change right before your very eyes. So the image that you currently see is only a still of what is to be an animated version. It’s also very possible that this isn’t the final version, as the release date for the book isn’t for another 7 months.

As for the source, the image itself was found on the Ute Körner Literary Agent site, which also included an entire page blurb about the relaunching of the franchise. Here it is:

Scholastic will re-launch the internationally bestselling Animorphs series in Summer 2011, starting with a six-book arc. In its heyday, the Animorphs series sold over 20 million copies worldwide and was translated in 26 languages and was turned into a popular Nickelodeon TV show.

For the re-launch, Scholastic has updated the covers to give them a fresh, modern look: in keeping with the eye-catching nature of the original covers, the new books will make use of morphing lenticulars: the characters transform right on the covers.

An updated look gives the series new vitality for a new generation of readers.

Animorphs is sci-fi at its best: fast-paced, thought-provoking, and a lot of fun.

The page also has a downloadable PDF which contains the above blurb, along with the release dates for the rest of the books! This is the schedule that we are currently looking at:

Animorphs #01: The Invasion – May 2011
Animorphs #02: The Visitor – May 2011
Animorphs #03: The Encounter – July 2011
Animorphs #04: The Message – October 2011
Animorphs #05: The Predator – January 2012
Animorphs #06: The Capture – April 2012

Out of all of this though, the biggest surprise about this page is the fact that you can currently also ORDER a reading copy of this re-release! (However, that seems to only be available to those who have the proper publishing credentials to do so).

Lastly, there is also a heavy emphasis on the fact that Animorphs has been published in 26 languages. At the moment, we have nothing confirmed regarding translations in other countries, but we’ll be sure to keep an eye out for that info for our international fans!

That is everything new that we have learned at this point. However, there is one piece still missing, and that is the animated version of this cover. The PDF that contains the cover talks about an animated gif being attached, but it can’t be found anywhere! If anyone happens to stumble upon it, then please do email us ASAP! We’d love to take a look at this thing in action!

That’s all for now, we’ll be sure to post more info as we receive it. And again, another big big credit and thanks to Magdaleen for finding this!

Happy Anniversary everyone! Just wanted to thank you all for your support and kindness over the years. This has been an exciting year, and next year (with the re-release) seems to sound like an even more promising one as well. We’re very much looking forward to keeping you all updated and sharing the experience with you every step of the way.

Thank you 🙂