|
||||||||||||||||
Some fans are just really excited for the upcoming re-release of Animorphs. So excited, in fact, that they’ve created their own religion and have gone out to preach door-to-door for their new ‘Society of Animorphs’.
This one gave me a really good laugh. Kudos to the ‘preacher’ for keeping a straight face throughout the entire thing. Check it out:
With all the Q&As that we’ve been having, I thought it was time to update on some of the information that we’ve gotten from K.A. & Michael so far.
RE-RELEASE DETAILS:
From AFF:
Well, we’ve been told that Scholastic will release some books from ANIMORPHS classic in Spring 2011. How many books? Don’t know.
We have briefly discussed the possibility of a 55th book. Or a second series, an ANI reboot. But nothing has been decided and as weird as it is, it’s not our call. It’s up to Scholastic. And bear in mind that thanks to the turnover in the industry there is no one at Scholastic who was around for the first run.
From RAF:
We’re happy about a re-release. With some caveats.
Our preference would be for a book re-release of a limited number of books — there’s no way they can redo all the books in paper — accompanied by an e-book re-release of all the books. In an ideal world we’d see e-books going out for $3.99 or so.
From RAF, about the editing changes:
We don’t know how much updating there will be. We hope there will be some but honestly Scholastic doesn’t talk to us much. The decision is entirely theirs. Yes, this sounds a little odd, but right now that’s where it stands. None of the people who were at Scholastic during ANIMORPHS are there now — our editor Tonya Martin is long gone, and the boss of bosses, the series queen herself, Jean Feiwel, (Goosebumps, Babysitters Club, Animorphs) now runs an imprint at Macmillan.
The editors there now are not very familiar with ANIMORPHS. Although we think they’re familiarizing themselves with the series.
The biggest updating problem by the way isn’t Offspring (which admittedly did not hold up over time) but the ubiquity of cell phones and especially smart phones. They’d screw up many a plot point.
ANIMORPHS 2.0, IF IT WERE TO HAPPEN.
From AFF:
The monthly series idea is kind of dead now because of the economics involved. So if there is an ANIMORPHS 2.0 it won’t be the killer grind of 14 books per year, it would probably be 2 per year, maybe a bit longer. So most likely we’d do the work ourselves. Of the original series we wrote the first 24, the last 2, and all the MEGAS and CHRONICLES. Plus probably 15% of the ghosted books. Plus of course the outlines for ghosted books. While we were writing ANI we became parents for the first time — the real-life Jake — and that kind of knocked us on our butts in terms of keeping up.
TV / MOVIE UPDATE:
The TV/movie situation looks fairly hopeless for Animorphs at the moment. GONE might have higher chances of this happening, however neither series has made much progress so far.
From RAF
We’d love to see a movie. We’d be working to that end but Scholastic has essentially shut us out of any discussion or consideration of such a thing. We are not updated, we are not consulted or involved.
Michael has a great deal more involvement in and control over movie prospects for GONE than we have over ANIMORPHS.
From AFF:
As for TV or movie again, we’re all for it. But Scholastic literally does not talk to us about this. If you get the idea we’re frustrated by this situation you’d be correct.
So there you have it. However, the one last thing I do want to add to this update is the question that was raised by K.A & Michael in the previous post, about the possible re-release of Animorphs in an e-book format. I have set up a discussion topic for this on our forum, so feel free to use it and discuss it there. I know that both authors are very much looking to hear the opinions of their fans on this.
That about covers it for now, I believe. Please let me know if I’ve missed anything, or provided an incorrect source. I’ll be sure to update on this as I hear more. Until next time! 🙂
And we’re back! Most of you may not have noticed the slight downtime we had for about an hour or so, but I’ve now upgraded our blog to the latest version. It was seriously outdated by a few years, so I went ahead while I had some time off.
Visually, you won’t notice anything different, but in terms of security (with all those juicy juicy plugins I can now use), it’s a very big deal in a behind-the-scenes sort of way. Everything should be working fine now, but if you experience any problems, then reply below or contact me through the forum or my email.
UPDATE: Okay, I couldn’t resist. I’ve added in a new feature for all the iPhone/iPod Touch users like myself. If you’re viewing this through your iPhone right now, then you’ve already seen the changes happen. It’s an automatic redirect that takes you to a much simpler and easier interface to navigate through. The rest of the web will still see this blog the way it is, so don’t worry.
Also, for the iPhone users, if you decide that you don’t like this new view, then you can always scroll all the way to the bottom of the blog and change the setting there (However, you’ll be directed to the blog without the header, so make sure you have http://www.hiracdelest.com/status.htm added to your favourites!)
Lastly, I’ve also added in the same lightbox javascript plugin that I’ve used on several parts of the site already (Missions, Merchandise, etc). What’s lightbox? Well, simply click that little iPhone picture that you see with this post (on the right). Spiffy, no? It’s not new by any means, but it’s nice that the blog can do this now too.
That’s all for now. More updates coming soon! 🙂
An update from our previous post, K.A & Michael have now also joined AFF (The Animorphs Fan Forum), along with RAF, to answer questions from the fans.
The same rules apply on AFF as they do on RAF. Members have to send their questions to the staff before they are approved to be submitted to K.A & Michael. This is done to avoid any repeated questions from previous Q&As. Here are the updated links and details for both forums:
There’s also still the Facebook Group set up specially for Michael Grant’s Gone series, for those who are fans of that. Michael Grant is still regularly answering questions there.
Lastly, as a way to keep all of these Q&As organized and documented (this is still an archive site, remember?), I updated the Articles section with the original RAF Classic Q&A that was held back in 2008 (It’s the one that holds that infamous response to that Animorphs movie we’ll never ever see, sadly).
As for the current Q&As, I won’t document or archive them until they are fully finished. In the mean while though, do check them out if you haven’t already. There are some great answers posted on both forums. In RAF, K.A. & Michael are even asking fans on their thoughts of a possible re-release for Animorphs in a monthly ebook form. So definitely share your opinions on this. You can bet that both K.A & Michael are reading, and that they are very interested in their fans responses.
That’s all for now. Until next time! 🙂
Thanks to capnnerefir for passing this along to me on our forum, here is a new fan made Animorphs Parody by Box of Danger. I just watched it, and I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s very very funny. Even if you hate the TV show (and I suppose, especially if you hate the TV show), give it a watch. It’s worth it, in my opinion.
Though, before I do unleash the video, I also want to give out a slight language warning to the younger viewers out there. It’s nothing overly offensive, but I know that some parents also frequently visit this site as well, so I thought I’d pass along a fair warning before hand.
Here’s another awesome bit of fan art. A poster named BananaFairy from the Animorphs LiveJournal Community recently posted her own custom made Andalite Mini-Munny to share with the rest of us.
Not only that, but she’s also considering selling this to the fans. No details are set yet, but I believe it’s going to be sold in auction on eBay. Follow the link and let her know there if you’re interested. I’ve also included these pics in the Fan Art section and linked to her DeviantArt on that page.
Michael Grant has informed fans, via Facebook, that the first 6 chapters of LIES (Gone #3) have been published for free online at Pensive Sarcasm.
Read the first 6 Chapters of LIES here!
Also, in relation to this, I have noticed that there has been a lot of discussion about the Gone series in general here on the blog (see right side under recent comments), so I’ve decided to create a separate section and category on the Hirac Delest Community Forums to talk specifically about the Gone series. Simply click on ‘Community’ in the header above and sign up at the forum. (Registration is free and only takes a few minutes).
Registered members of Hirac Delest also get special privileges to the Downloads Section at the forum (some of the content which is unavailable at the site, and invisible to those who are only guests).
That about covers it for now. More updates coming soon.
Richard, site owner of RAF, recently posted an update to let fans know that K.A. Applegate and Michael Grant are coming back to answer questions from fans on the forums! The Q&A is going to be working a little differently this time though. Instead of everyone rushing in and overwhelming the duo, Richard is asking posters to send in questions directly to him instead. This will get rid of any well known FAQs, or duplicates that the fans asked last time.
Also, for any Gone fans out there, there is a separate group on Facebook where Michael Grant has begun answering questions on a weekly basis.
Lastly, you can now also follow us on Twitter! Our Twitter account is @hiracdelestnews. Follow us to get the latest updates, like this one, tweeted directly to you! You can also join our Facebook Fan Page to get the same benefit. Everything has been updated on the right side of the blog!
That’s all for now, until next time! 🙂
Bob Lippman, a freelance sculptor, has shared a few pictures of his amazing fan-made sculptures with us. Both him and his 9 year old son are Animorph fans who began reading the series together a little over 2 years ago. The 2 sculptures (one Dak Hamee from HBC, and the other Visser Three, from Visser) are currently work-in-progress projects as a part of his hobby.
However, he wishes to share the progress along with rest of us as they are being made. Below is one snap shot featuring both sculptures. If you click on it, you’ll see more photos in his fan art page, which I’ve added to the site under the Projects section.
Bob hopes to eventually make these for any collectors who may be interested, but more importantly, he wishes to send at least one set to K.A. Applegate as a thanks for making the series.
Amazing work Bob, we look forward to the final product!
This is not Animorphs related, but I thought I’d share it with the fans of the Gone Series by Michael Grant (co-author/co-creator of Animorphs). Here is a promo video released by Egmont for Hunger (Gone #2):
For those that have missed out on Hunger‘s first hardcover release, you can catch its re-release on April 6, 2010 in paperback. Also, in addition to this, Lies (Gone #3) will be released on May 12, 2010. Michael Grant has released the first few pages of it for free online, in collaboration with his son, for a new project that they are working on. You can check it out at getfre.com
Lastly, as a side note, I wanted to add that I’ve slightly changed the right side of the blog. You can now view ‘recent comments’ made on the most discussed blog enteries and go directly to them, rather than scroll through page after page, looking for your topic. 🙂
