Studio Proteus is a Japanese manga import, translation and lettering company, founded in 1986 by

Toren Smith Toren V. Smith (April 12, 1960 – March 4, 2013) was a Canadian manga translator and founder of Studio Proteus. Early life Smith learned to read by the age of four, and by the age of 12 had won his first award for writing from the Calgary ...

and based in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Other staff included translators Dana Lewis, Alan Gleason, and Frederik Schodt, letterer Tom Orzechowski and translator/letterer Tomoko Saito. The company worked with many different publishers, including

Viz Media Viz Media, LLC is an American entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California, focused on publishing manga, and distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. The company was founded in 1986 as Viz, ...

, Innovation Publishing and

Eclipse Comics Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book store, comic book specialty stor ...

, but its main outlets were

Dark Horse A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person, team or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, that is unlikely to succeed but has a fighting chance, unlike the underdog who is exp ...

for mainstream titles and

Fantagraphics Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and (formerly) the Erotic comics, erotic Eros Comix imprint. They have managed sev ...

' imprint

Eros Comix Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and (formerly) the erotic Eros Comix imprint. They have managed several awards for ...

for adult (

hentai Hentai () is a style of Pornography in Japan, Japanese pornographic anime and manga. In addition to anime and manga, hentai works exist in a variety of media, including artwork and video games (commonly known as ''eroge''). The developme ...

) titles.

History

Early years (1986–1994)

Smith first became interested in

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

and

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

after being introduced to it by James D. Hudnall in 1982. Smith had been involved in the comics business as a writer for several years, doing stories for Marvel's ''Epic'' magazine and

. He felt that there was a market for Japanese comics (manga) in the United States, and with Hudnall, approached Eclipse Comics with the idea of obtaining rights to various titles including '' Akira''. The unknowns and difficulties of dealing with Japanese publishers led that first attempt to fail. Smith then decided that the only solution was for him to go to Japan and arrange things directly. At about this time, noted manga expert Frederik Schodt introduced Smith to Seiji Horibuchi, who was then planning the foundation of the company that would be called Viz Media. Schodt felt that Smith's knowledge of the American comics industry and Horibuchi's connections to Japanese publishing giant

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but ...

would make an ideal team. However, a falling-out between Smith and Horibuchi after a year of working together to start Viz led Smith to found his own company, Studio Proteus, although Smith co-translated several manga for Viz, including '' Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind'' (at the express request of the creator,

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as honorary chairman. Throughout his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Anime, Japanese ani ...

). In 1986, Smith moved to Japan to try to license manga for publication in America, having previously made arrangements with Eclipse Comics to provide the publication support. Studio Proteus was designed to be a "packager", delivering completed materials to an existing publisher. Studio Proteus would be responsible for choice (with approval of the American publisher), acquisition (contracts and negotiations with the licensor), and production of the translation and lettering, delivering completed pages to the publisher. The publisher would be responsible for advertising and soliciting sales, arranging for distribution, plus collection and disbursement of income. While the industry term "packager" is more accurate, to avoid confusion the relationship was generally referred to as "co-publishing". Smith preferred to work on a profit-sharing basis, believing it led to a greater sense of responsibility on both sides."Inside Studio Proteus: A Talk with Toren Smith". ''Amazing Heroes''. July 1990, pp. 27–38.2004 - A good year to get out of the manga business?
/ref> Smith also insisted on shared ownership of the derivative copyright in the translations, which was to save his company in the future. By the early nineties, Studio Proteus was working with three publishers: Eclipse Comics, Innovation Publishing and

. Work with Eclipse had begun within a few months of Smith's first trip to Japan. When Eclipse did not want to open any more publishing slots for manga, Smith went to

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con is a comic book convention and multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California, at the San Diego Convention Center. Founded in 1970, originally showcasing primarily comic books and science fiction/fant ...

in 1988 and licensed Johji Manabe's '' Outlanders'' to the fledgling Dark Horse Comics. Smith originally was unable to sell the comic to Dark Horse, but met fantasy writer Raymond E. Feist for dinner that evening. Feist gave Smith the advice he considered the most valuable business advice of his career: "Don't tell them how good it is; tell them how much money they are going to make." The following day Smith sold ''Outlanders'' to Dark Horse and Yuzo Takada's '' 3×3 Eyes'' to Innovation. Studio Proteus was, from the beginning, quality oriented. Smith refused to work from photocopies of published books, instead shooting directly from the original art. The techniques for retouching the sound effects were developed by award-winning comics letterer Thomas Orzechowski, and later refined by Japanese manga artist Tomoko Saito. All translators had over a decade of experience and had written books, magazine articles, and fiction outside of their translation work. To encourage quality production, page rates for Studio Proteus letterers and translators were the highest in the industry, and they were also paid royalties—a practice unique to Studio Proteus. In some cases, original covers were commissioned from the manga artists themselves. The early years of publishing manga in America were surprisingly successful, buoyed by the new popularity of black and white comics in the direct sales market, and Marvel's bestselling colorized version of '' Akira''. This grace period came to an end when the black and white comics boom imploded in 1988. Both Viz and Studio Proteus had been experimenting with a wide variety of manga genres, but when the market tightened only those which appealed to the core "comic book store" market survived. It was not to be until the early 21st century that manga would again cover so large a range of subjects. Studio Proteus was heavily involved in the promotion of manga and anime during the early years, and Smith gave numerous interviews, appeared on television and radio (including

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

and Canada's Basic Black), and spoke at Georgetown University and the Smithsonian as well as writing dozens of articles for magazines. Working together with anime company

Gainax Gainax Co., Ltd. (stylized as GAINAX; , Hepburn: ) was a Japanese anime studio famous for original productions such as '' Neon Genesis Evangelion'', '' Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise'', '' Gunbuster'', '' Nadia: The Secret of Blue ...

, Studio Proteus also organized the first large anime and manga convention, AnimeCon '91. However, Smith publicly admitted that, as a very private person, he was not fond of these promotional activities. As soon as other spokespeople for manga and anime appeared (such as Trish Ledoux of '' Animag''), he retired from the public eye and rarely gave interviews after approximately 1993. In 1994, due to Eclipse Comics' failure to pay owed profit share monies, Studio Proteus legally acquired all shared translation rights and production materials for all of their co-published manga. These were re-licensed to Dark Horse Comics and immediately made Dark Horse the second largest manga publisher in America. When Eclipse declared bankruptcy, Smith paid all outstanding royalties due to his Japanese licensors out of existing Studio Proteus funds. All Studio Proteus titles were Toren Smith's personal picks, which were then accepted and approved by the publishers. If it was rejected by the first publisher, it was offered to another. If rejected by all, it was abandoned. Smith's instincts turned out to almost always be right, even when his thinking was highly unconventional. In 1994 Smith convinced Dark Horse to publish ''

Oh My Goddess! , or ''Ah! My Goddess!'' in some releases, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kōsuke Fujishima. It was serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine ''Monthly Afternoon'' from September 1988 to April 2014, with its ...

'', although Dark Horse had so little faith in this manga (despite cross promotion with the

AnimEigo AnimEigo is an American entertainment company that licenses and distributes anime, samurai films and Japanese cinema. Founded in 1988 by Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams III, the company was one of the first in North America dedicated to licens ...

OAV release), Smith had to guarantee them against losses. ''Oh My Goddess!'' became a surprise hit, and for years was one of Dark Horse's bestselling manga titles. In addition, it was one of the first translated manga to attract a large female audience, along with ''

Ranma ½ is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' from August 1987 to March 1996, with the chapters collected in 38 volumes by Shogakukan. The story revolves a ...

''.

Middle years (1995–2001)

Throughout the 1990s, the team of

and Studio Proteus was one of the two largest manga publishers in the U.S., competing with Viz. The crash of the direct sales market in the middle nineties had a tremendous impact on the manga business, another blow after the previous bust in 1988. By the time the market had reorganized, there was only one distributor left ( Diamond Distributors) and over half of the comic stores in America were out of business. Manga's growing popularity saved it from the worst, but nearly one third of all manga titles were canceled due to lack of sales, and continuing difficulty in getting the trade paperback collections (graphic novels) into bookstores left manga stalled in the marketplace for several years. Studio Proteus responded by streamlining the production process and working with smaller bookstore distributors to whom manga represented a valuable percentage of their sales. The slump in the comics market in the late 1990s affected the sales of all manga published in America. None of the attempts by American manga publishers to create a manga anthology magazine such as ''Tokyopop Magazine'' and Viz's '' Animerica Extra'' with several stories running simultaneously were very successful at this time, and were mostly viewed as loss-leaders for future sales of the collections. ''Super Manga Blast'', the Dark Horse/Studio Proteus magazine, gave Smith an opportunity to bring readers in via titles of known popularity, such as ''Oh My Goddess!'', and get them to try something different, such as '' Club 9''.

Later years, criticism and buyout (2002–2004)

As times changed, however, Toren Smith developed an acrimonious relationship with the more hardcore parts of manga fandom. As shōjo manga became increasingly popular, fans berated Studio Proteus and Dark Horse for not releasing any shōjo, despite Smith's repeated explanation that since he did not enjoy shōjo manga, and knew little about it, he had no interest in releasing any. Studio Proteus' initial output was predominantly science fiction and action; this may have reflected Smith's tastes as a writer and member of SFWA, but also reflected the tastes of the American comics

direct market The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for American comic books. The concept of the direct market was created in the 1970s by Phil Seuling. The network currently consists of: * three major comic distributors: ** Luna ...

(who were the primary purchasers of manga at that time) and manga fandom of the 1980s and 1990s. However, Studio Proteus also released non–science fiction manga such as Makoto Kobayashi's relationship comedy ''Club 9'' and the pet manga '' What's Michael?'' However, Toren Smith continued to vocally defend "flopped" manga up until 2002, at a time when it was growing unpopular even among mainstream manga fandom. He became perceived as a conservative force in manga publishing, despite his publication of non-mainstream manga such as the

transhumanist Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement that advocates the human enhancement, enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available new and future technologies that can greatly enhance longevity, cogni ...

manga ''Version'', and ''The Rebel Sword'', a manga about Kurdish revolutionaries, and his decades of effort in popularizing manga and dedication to quality production. However, by the end of 2002, Smith was convinced that his belief that readers would have difficulty adapting to read manga "backwards" (also known as "unflopped", reading right to left as in the original Japanese publication) was incorrect, citing the fact that an entire generation of new manga readers have grown up since he had started Studio Proteus and they did not have the mindset of early manga readers, most of whom came to manga from regular comics. However, he maintained that as long as the distributors were reluctant to buy unflopped manga, there was little anyone could do to try to change the industry. At that time, the comic book direct market was still shrinking, while manga sales in bookstores were growing, although not very quickly. Smith had pointed out for many years that the problem with the bookstore market was a lack of support from the buyers at the chains, and lack of designated shelf space (comics were often racked with art books or science fiction and fantasy). Smith often cited

Tokyopop Tokyopop (styled TOKYOPOP; formerly known as Mixx Entertainment) is an American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa and Western manga-style works. The German publishing division produces German translations of licens ...

's poor sales of their first experiments with unflopped manga as proof the problem was very real. In 2002, Dark Horse's graphic novel distributor LPC Group went bankrupt, hurting the presence of Dark Horse (and thus Studio Proteus) manga in bookstores. The fortunes of manga in America were changed forever that year when Kurt Hassler of Borders (who has been called "The Most Powerful Person in Manga" by ICV2, a designation Smith has publicly agreed with, adding that he considers him " e most important person in the history of American manga") successfully persuaded Waldenbooks to commit to racking a large quantity of unflopped manga titles, even placing them in "dump bins" near the cash registers. This was the turning point for manga sales in America, and the resulting success of what is now considered a "standard" manga (small, unflopped paperbacks at approximately $9.99) more than doubled the size of established manga publishers such as Viz, and raised Tokyopop (Waldenbooks' partner in the venture) to prominence. However, the upheaval in the manga market caused by Hassler's opening of the door to bulk sales of unflopped manga spelled the end for ''Super Manga Blast'' and in the chaos surrounding the conversion of most of Dark Horse's manga to the prevailing unflopped standard, almost none of the series running in the magazine were continued as graphic novels, even though some (such as ''Club 9'') had already been completed. While Smith had finally become comfortable with the idea of unflopped manga now that bookstores were willing to buy it, it had become clear that the industry was becoming big business, with publishers such as Del Rey and DC getting involved in manga, and Japanese companies such as Shogakukan beginning to treat their American operations as serious businesses instead of sidelines. "I'm just a manga fan who started my company because no one else was ublishing manga in English" he commented on the Studio Proteus website. "To move ahead now would require me to become more of a corporate type, and I know that's not for me." In February 2004, Dark Horse Comics announced that it had purchased the publication rights to Studio Proteus translations (not, as was widely and erroneously reported, the company itself). Toren Smith stayed on as an adviser and translator for selected titles, but by 2006 he had left completely. In a 2004 interview with ''

The Comics Journal ''The Comics Journal'', often abbreviated ''TCJ'', is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels. Known for its lengthy interviews with comic creators, pointed editorials and scathing r ...

'', he expressed his reasons for essentially selling the company he had founded: "I was burning out. Over 15 years I had put out 70,000 pages of manga. I had no life...Tokyopop puts out more in a month than I've put out in my entire career. The manga business kind of moved out of my league. But if anyone believes that expansion can continue indefinitely, they're incorrect. Booms are always followed by a bust...My opinion is that what has occurred is the commodification of the product. All ookstore retailerscare about is how it's formatted and what it costs...For a long time, America has seen nothing but the best of the Japanese comics, but there's lots of crap over there. There may be some smart bookstore buyers out there who can distinguish between them, but I've never met them." His controversial predictions—informed by his experience with the comics crashes of the 80s and 90s—were borne out and the manga industry has weathered a severe boom-and-bust cycle since then, with publishers such as Tokyopop cutting their releases by over 40% in June 2008, and laying off 36 employees, and laying off 15 more employees in December 2008 and others (e.g. Broccoli Books) pulling out of the market entirely. The trend has continued with Viz cutting 60 personnel and DC shutting down their CMX manga imprint and Tokyopop finally shuttering their U.S. publishing operations in May 2011. However, Smith also predicted the market would eventually stabilize at a sustainable level and not disappear completely. Smith has stated that he is "regretful" that the flopped/non-flopped controversy of the last few years of his career seem to have overshadowed his twenty years of fighting to promote and publish quality manga. The last manga produced by Studio Proteus staff in the flipped, left-to-right, American comic format was the ''

Blade of the Immortal is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiroaki Samura. It was serialized in Kodansha's Seinen manga, manga magazine ''Monthly Afternoon'' from June 1993 to December 2012, with its chapters collected in 30 volumes. The ...

'' #131 in November 2007, making it the longest-running manga ever published in the American format. The series then moved to graphic-novel-only format. Toren Smith has also done manga work outside of Studio Proteus, such as editing Tori Miki's"Three Steps Over Japan: Tori Miki"
/ref> '' Anywhere But Here'', writing afterwords for various manga collections in Japan such as the hardcover reissue of Masahiko Kikuni's ''Gekko no Sasayaki'', Kenji Tsuruta's ''Suiso - Hydrogen'', consulting on English for anime companies, and other manga and anime-related activities in the United States and Japan.

Awards and nominations

Despite the relatively small output of Studio Proteus compared to the major manga publishers in America, the company collected a large number of awards and nominations for their publications. Awards won by Studio Proteus manga: * ''What's Michael?'', New York Library Book Award, 1991 * ''Blade of the Immortal'', Will Eisner Comics Industry Award, 2000 * ''Lone Wolf and Cub'', Will Eisner Comics Industry Award, 2001 * ''Akira'', Will Eisner Comics Industry Award, 2002 * ''The Legend of Mother Sarah'', Parent's Choice Award, 1995 * ''What's Michael?'', Parent's Choice Award, 1997 * ''Lone Wolf and Cub'', Harvey Awards, 2001 * ''Lone Wolf and Cub'', ( Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material) Eisner Awards, 2001 * ''Lone Wolf and Cub'', Harvey Awards, 2002 * ''Lone Wolf and Cub'', Harvey Awards, 2003 * ''Akira'' (dual awards: Best Archival Collection/Project and Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material), Eisner Awards, 2002 * ''Anywhere But Here'', Entertainment Weekly's Top Ten #1, 2005 Award nominations: * ''What's Michael?'', Eisner Award, 1998 * ''Blade of the Immortal'', Eisner Award, 1999 * ''Intron Depot 2: Blades'', Eisner Award (Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material), 1999 * ''Intron Depot 2: Blades'', Eisner Award (Best Comics-Related Book), 1999 * ''Nausicaa'', Harvey Awards, 1990 * ''Appleseed'', Harvey Awards, 1990 * ''Ghost in the Shell'', Harvey Awards, 1996 * ''Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind'', Harvey Awards, 1996 * ''Oh My Goddess!'', Harvey Awards, 1997 * ''Gunsmith Cats'', Harvey Awards, 1997 * ''Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind'', Eisner Awards, 1998 * ''Blade of the Immortal'', Harvey Awards, 1998 * ''Oh My Goddess!'', Harvey Awards, 1998 * ''Blade of the Immortal'', Harvey Awards, 1999 * ''Blade of the Immortal'', Harvey Awards, 2001 * ''Lone Wolf and Cub'', Harvey Awards, 2001 * ''Akira'', Eisner Awards, 2001 * ''Lone Wolf and Cub'', Eisner Awards (Best Archival Collection/Project), 2001 * ''Akira'', Harvey Awards, 2002 * ''Lone Wolf and Club'', Harvey Awards, 2002 * ''What's Michael?'', Eisner Awards (Best Writer/Artist: Humor), 2002 * ''Super Manga Blast'', Harvey Awards, 2002 * ''Super Manga Blast'', Eisner Awards (Best Anthology), 2003 * ''What's Michael?'', Eisner Awards (Best Humor Publication), 2004

Publications

: ''See

for

titles'' Titles co-published by Studio Proteus, and their initial U.S. publication dates, include: * '' 3×3 Eyes'' (1991) * '' Akira'' (1988) * ''Anywhere But Here'' (2004) * '' Appleseed'' (1988) * ''

'' (1996) * '' Cannon God Exaxxion'' (2001) * '' Caravan Kidd'' (1992) * '' Chronowar'' (1996) * '' Club 9'' (2001) * '' Cyber 7'' (1989) * '' The Dirty Pair: Biohazards'' (1988) * '' The Dirty Pair: Dangerous Acquaintances'' (1989) * '' The Dirty Pair: A Plague of Angels'' (1990) * ''

Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...

'' (1993) * '' Domu'' (1995) * '' Drakuun'' (1997) * ''

Ghost in the Shell ''Ghost in the Shell'' is a Japanese cyberpunk media franchise based on the manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga, first serialized between 1989 and 1991, is set in mid-21st century Japan and tel ...

'' (1995) * '' Gunsmith Cats'' (1995) * '' Hellhounds: Panzer Cops'' (1994) * '' The Legend of Kamui'' (1987) * '' The Legend of Mother Sarah'' (1995) * ''

Lone Wolf and Cub is a Japanese manga series created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. It was serialized in Futabasha's manga magazine '' Weekly Manga Action'' from September 1970 to April 1976, with its chapters collected in 28 ' volumes. ...

'' (2000) * '' Lost Continent'' (1990) * ''

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

'' (2003) * '' Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'' (1988) * ''

'' (1994) * '' Outlanders'' (1988) * '' The Rebel Sword'' (1994) * '' Seraphic Feather'' (2000) * '' Shadow Lady'' (1998) * '' Intron Depot 1'' (1992) * ''Intron Depot 2: Blades'' (1992) * ''Intron Depot 3: Ballistics'' (1992) * ''Intron Depot 4: Bullets'' (1992) * '' Shadow Star'' (2000) * '' Spirit of Wonder'' (1996) * '' The Two Faces of Tomorrow'' (1997) * '' The Venus Wars'' (1991) * '' Version'' (1992) * '' What's Michael?'' (1990) * '' You're Under Arrest!'' (1995)

Anime translations

* ''

'' (script rewrite) * ''

Venus Wars is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. It was serialized in the Gakken magazine ''Nora Comics'' from 1986 to 1990. In 1989, ''The Venus Wars'' was adapted into an anime film directed by Yasuhiko, co-written ...

'' (subtitles)

References

{{Reflist

External links

Studio Proteus
(Archive)
Dark Horse Interview with Toren Smith

Second Dark Horse Interview with Toren Smith

Dark Horse announces their purchase of Studio Proteus

The Comics Journal Interview with Toren Smith
!-- https://web.archive.org/web/20080114072900/http://www.tcj.com/259/n_proteus.html --> *
Dark Horse Comics acquires manga production company Studio Proteus
"

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...

. 1986 establishments in California Book publishing companies based in San Francisco Defunct companies based in California Publishing companies established in 1986 Hentai companies Manga distributors