Forum - View topicNEWS: Strife at IC Entertainment
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jmays
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 1390 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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Thank you for the explanation, SamGoody. I apologize for the tone, but there are far too many rumors flying around about IC for unsourced quotes to carry much weight.
It's taking longer than I'd like to get this follow-up finished and verified, but look for something within the next week. The article should clarify some of the points people continue to argue about here. And if it doesn't, we can keep going for however long it takes to get to the bottom of this mess. |
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takami826
 Posts: 28 Location: Cleveland, OH |
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I had a viral issue when I tried to edit a missed typo, I think I accidentally killed my comment... hopefully I can cover everything again...
Why not just have told the truth if Kei's supposed behaviour was so horrible? All you've done here is show that you are quite willing to lie. I had doubts about your honesty before, but now you've confirmed them. Thank you. You've done nothing but contradict yourself throughout this thread and you seem to have an awful lot of supposed insider information for someone who supposedly doesn't work for them. Oh that's right, you just attend a lot of conventions and just happen to know all this supposedly inside info. I've dealt with a lot of comic book publishers (including ironcat) because I am a comic creator, attend cons and have observed many of the publishers in action at cons, small and large. I've submitted and received offers from several of them as well. I have had no problem ever telling a potential publisher that I didn't want to go with them because of how I saw them treat staff/volunteers/fans. If the behaviour you supposedly experienced was so horrible, especially from a company you supposedly don't work for yet volunteer and supposedly love so much, why did you choose to lie? One of the reasons I chose to go with IC was working with Kei. Out of all the different publishers I've had dealings with, she was the most courteous, responsive, and communicative -something a lot of other publishers could take notes on- especially after the observations I made after I hooked up with IC. In my dealings with IC, I also got to work with Stephanie, who, like Kei, struck me as an extremely hardworking, devoted employee who probably had entirely too much on her plate. I've learned a lot working with these two, more than I have from anyone else in the biz. If you felt so inclined, you could peruse my group's ezboard forum -if it's still up, it's in the process of being relocated to a better host- because I've never changed my tune and have said since the end of 2002 that I felt there was entirely too much work to be done and all the responsibilties were dumped on a very small crew of employees. I have never blamed them for any of the problems I've personally had with IC in the last year because it's clearly obvious these were people doing the best they could in an awful situation. (and believe me, I have lost a fair chunk of change this year because the upper management -as in above Kei- stonewalled getting my books timely for conventions and pretty much jerked me around for 5 months before they finally shipped my books... way too late for the cons I had also paid to have table space) Should I even bother getting into how long it would take to get paid? 
Here's what's convinced me that my original thoughts were right, that the employees were not to blame but the higher ups... after the exodus, when I caught wind of it, I obviously had a lot of questions -and still do- about the future of AmeriManga and obviously how contracts/licensing situations are going to be handled, resolved etc. I have called. I have sent emails. I have answered the pitifully lame AMERIMANGA ARTISTS POST HERE junk on their forums. NOTHING has ever been responded to. I see that they cleaned all the comments up and have a new callout to Amerimanga artists and I have repeatedly heard from various sources that they can't find people. As I have said, a google search finds EVERYONE -if I can track em down, so can IC. Their prattle about how an unnamned SOMEONE made off with all that info, that's a total crock of bullshit. I have got to be one of the easiest people to track down. Now if someone like me, who only does this part time, can see all of this since back in Dec of 2002, how can anyone involved full time not see it. Beyond me. |
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SamGoody0491
Posts: 37 |
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First of all Ironcat, has openly said everything i've stated at their panels, and their tables. Especially in the recent line of events.
I dont have to lie about anything, the truth is far more damaging. -I didn't say it was "horrible", I said what she was saying raised alarms in my head. -I dont volunteer/work for them. I have offered a "nicety", i.e. Free Ad-Time on my website (I did mention in one of my past posts) -Yes i do love their company. As for the rest of the past and current ironcat employees, I have nothing ill to say about them either. I was relaying MY personal experience with Kei, and again what was said at panels openly. |
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annuser
Posts: 2 |
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[quote="HeeroTX"]well, I WAS going to stop, I didn't need the last word or anything, but:
HiHi, ^-^ Sorry, when the term "patient in charge of the crazy house" means the employee being in charge while the doctor (Steve) -should- be the one calling the shots. It wasn't that Steve is the "patient". He's suppose to be the doctor, warden, captain, head person, boss... Personally, I don't believe he (Steve) ran the operation as tightly as he could. Was K.Blue responsible for any of the crap IC is going thru? Maybe? Yes? No? I don't know; however, Steve should had stopped any problem before it ran away from him. 
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satijade
Posts: 1 Location: usa |
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Now I was always under the impression that the customer is always right. Well this is still today atleast partly true, especially when it is the fault of the business and not the customer. Several months ago I was very unfortunate to have placed an order with IronCat Studios and it was the most horrible transaction with any company I have even come across.
Now a days, people place orders online all the time. Infact, for many companies, online is the only place to buy from some companies. I thought it would be EASIER to buy straight from IronCat rather then wait around for their releases to come to either a bookstore I myself could go to or a bookstore online, like Amazon.com. Boy was I mistaken. After placing what I thought was an easy order online at IronCat Studios and paying for it through an easy online payment company, I eagerly awaited the arrival of my anime. After what was a 2 month wait, I got concerned and called. After speaking to a somewhat disgruntiled employee, I was told they had lost my order (funny they took my payment though) and would put that through right away. I took the time to confirm they had the right items etc, and I was assured that they did. Now about 3 weeks later, I did get a package from IronCat, HOWEVER, I was sent the wrong order. Of course after this, I was really pissed off. I called up and spoke to another not-so-polite employee who told me they would send my correct purchases to me ASAP. Fast forward to a month later. I still did not have the correct items I ordered, I had sent several emails asking about my order, and several phone calls that were constantly a waste of my time. After all of this, I was told that my order was not being sent to me because I had not sent back the wrong items they mailed to me. WELL I had never been told to do any such thing! So on top of them screwing up my order, they now wanted me to pay additional money to send the items back to them (something they had never asked me to do in the entire length of these going ons). Well finally after I sent the wrong order back to IronCat Studios, about 3 months later and several more phone calls I received the items I paid for. I will never ever ever ever order from IronCat again. I have never experienced a company that has so little respect for its customers. And on top of relating this story to several anime forums, I find out that I am not just some fluke in the system, that this has happened to several hundred other individuals. Now after reading this article about how the employees are treated as well, its no surprize. Not only does IronCat never keep the release dates it swears the items will be released on, they can't keep their customers OR employees happy. I for one will not be shocked if this is one anime company that goes bust. |
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Kidotai
 Posts: 138 Location: one of those islands in the pacific |
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I just want to ask a question regarding IC Entertainment (not spread a rumor, so be nice), because this "rumor" came up while I was trying to get my homeoffice to order more manga for the bookstore I work at (I'm trying to not go insane after corporate ordered and gave us enough Chobits #8 and Naruto #1 to destroy an entire rainforest and why they refuse to give me the titles people are asking for, like Initial D (due to the Arcade upstairs having 3 of the machines, packed with kids) and other girls-type manga like Ceres and Paradise Kiss).
Our orderer noted that we couldn't order anymore IC books, due to "the fact" one of the people there jumped-ship to Comics One and threw everything into chaos. I asked why, and they claimed "oh, we heard from their shipper." And I do know slightly better due to the ANN article. I have to ask: Corporate BS or Fact? |
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takami826
Posts: 28 Location: Cleveland, OH |
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I laid out $450 for copies of Amerimanga 1-3 (which my story appears in, had the cover one one issue and a poster insert in another) in FEBRUARY. I had cons in March, April, and May that I booked and paid for tables at $50 each. I was promised I would have those books within the month.
March came. Nothing. And yes I called, I emailed, nothing happened. Missed the con, lost that money. Why have a table when I have no freakin books. April came. Still no books, another missed con. I'm seething pissed and nothing was done. Apparently the $450 agreed upon wasn't sufficient and I said "fine, refund my money" then it was "ok ok ok we'll get you your books." May came. Not a goddamned thing, direct calls to IC during these three months went blown off so finally A FedEx box shows up at the end of May. This one had like 10 Amerimanga #1s in them. I had ordered FAR more of each issue than that and was incomprehensibly pissed off at this point. Not only was I out the potential biz a small press con can generate for someone, I was out the $ for 3 con tables AND the $450 for the books. Anyone who sez "so what? You can write it off" is totally missing the point. 2003 was supposed to be our year to launch our self published works formally and pro because the in-house work we've done constantly sells out. This 'little' problem caused us massive amounts of headaches this year. There was some salvation in the fact that another small presser was going to a con and offered to showcase my books even tho I could not attend. So I get the box, like a moron tho I assumed the box was correct, drive 2 hours across town to get the books to the guy -who delayed his freakin trip so I could do this- we open the box and it's a friggin assload of hyperdolls comics. Now what the holy hell am I gonna do with that?????????? 
So needless to say, Kei got an earful and she got the books and packed them herself and I finally got them. Knowing nothing more than I felt they were understaffed, I blamed the whole damned lot because I was pissed and didn't care who knew. However impressions last a lifetime. With the amount of crap I had to go to just to get paid for my submissions to AmeriManga to the hassle of just refunding my $ back so I could have just gone to the stores at that point and buy the damned Amerimanga for the cons, to the HAHA SUCKER KISS MY ASS HERE'S SOME HYPERDOLLS THAT YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING WITH snub, I outright refuse to be involved with IC Entertainment. It was the most unprofessional, generally horrible experience I have ever had. And what's worse, from my colleagues in the comic biz, this is apparently becoming a serious 'epidemic' -I'm repeatedly told "you think you had it bad with IC, try working for CrossGen". Now I have a slew of AmeriManga that I'm stuck with because of my paying job's schedule, it's hard for me to get out to cons for the foreseeable future. This experience right here should explain to anyone who ever said to me or asked of me to 'just quit that job because you're good, you can make a load of money in the comic biz' basically got the response 'yea right, my ass.' I feel extremely bad for anyone who depends on this sort of biz for their livelihood and extremely grateful I have the foresight to not dump my entire life into this endeavor. When you get screwed, when you get ripped off and the OWNERS render his employees ineffective (for whatever causes) you're company's reputation will get around -bad news spreads far faster than good- and it's too bad IC's old forums aren't available anymore because during my attempts of contact, I was always on their board trying to 'catch' someone online at least and the customer above who complained about trying to get his/her order, that was insanely commonplace on their boards. [/i] |
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