Mangamo is a subscription service for fans of manga, or comics and graphic novels originating in Japan. It launched this year and already has over 300 titles available on the service, working with over 15 publishers to bring titles like Seven Deadly Sins and Attack on Titan to fans digitally.

We chatted exclusively with the co-founder and executive editor of the service, Dallas Middaugh, who has a lot of experience with comics and graphic novels. He previously taught a class on publishing graphic novels at NYU, and he has been involved with over 2000 published works over the past couple of decades.

Dallas told us which titles on the streaming service, and he also chatted with us about a few other things that will likely be of interest to comic book enthusiasts. To hear the audio portion of the interview, click the podcast player below!

Literary Joe: I’m curious. I know a little bit about your history Penguin and Random House and stuff, but I’m curious if you can summarize your career trajectory for us and what led you to found this new app?

Dallas Middaugh: So I’ve been working in manga publishing in the US for 20 years now. I got my start back in 2000 with Viz and since then went on to work with several different publishers. I co-founded Seven Seas and helped to set up the Delray Manga and Kodansha Comics lines as well.

And then, after that, I did a little bit of work at Crunchyroll, and while I was at Crunchyroll, I really came to understand more viscerally and, from a firsthand perspective, the importance of subscription services for this kind of thing. And, there are so many pirate apps out there.

What I think we really wanted to do with Mangamo was kind of take a page out of Crunchyroll’s book and provide a legal option for people to use, one that would have a really broad and far-ranging selection of manga. And also one that would actually work to support the actual creators and publishers of the work in Japan. That’s always been something that from day one has been really important to me. 

Literary Joe: Now, I was reading one of the articles you have on LinkedIn about how anime is changing in the West; and I’m curious, how do you think that informed the decisions that you made when putting Magamo together?

Dallas Middaugh: Well, I think it’s important; first, I want to acknowledge that I’m one of the co-founders of Mangamo and that I work with Buddy Marini and Yusuke Sasano as well as a whole team, but those were the core group in terms of being the founders. So it certainly wasn’t just me.

But again, kind of going back to what I was saying before, there are other manga subscription services out there. So what we wanted to do was to have a combination of introducing readers to new series that they may not have heard of as well as series that they are more familiar with.

That’s why we were really excited a couple of months ago to announce our partnership with Kodansha, for example, because that brought in over a hundred series with things like Fire Force, and Attack on Titan, and Seven Deadly Sins.

But overall, we’re actually working with 15 publishers currently. I’m never certain the exact number, cause we keep adding to that, but it’s at least 15. We currently have over 300 series on the service, and it enables us to offer a little bit of something for everybody.

Literary Joe: I know you mentioned Attack on Titan, and I was going to ask, cause I was kind of scrolling through the stuff earlier. I saw Seven Deadly Sins and a couple of other things, but do you think Attack on Titan is the biggest, most well-known title that you guys have on the service?

Dallas Middaugh: I think that that’s a hard question to answer. In the broadest sense, I suppose the answer is yes, but frequently, well, I guess if you’re asking what’s best known, yeah. Attack on Titan is probably the biggest, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the most popular at any given time.

You know, anime, again, I know this from working at Crunchyroll, there’s anywhere from 40 to 80 anime series running concurrently every quarter, and they’re constantly launching new things. So the reason I mentioned Seven Deadly Sins is that aside from it being a great series and being popular, it is, you know, the newest season came out on Netflix about a month ago at the beginning of August.

Fire Force is in the middle of its second season currently. Coming up, there’s a great series called Two Year Eternity, which is going to be launching in anime. I’ve read it’s going to be launching in October. So I’m really happy to have that series on the service.

But I think you’re asking about it in more broad terms than that. And I would probably say probably yes, Attack on Titan is probably the most visibly recognizable series on the service.

*This interview has been edited for clarity, and was co-hosted by Anime Mojo contributor Nick Brooks.*

Mangamo is currently available for 4.99/month, and you can check it out here.

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Australian writer and actor Michael Cusack has made his impression on the internet for years with comedic videos like Yolo and Ciggy Butt Brain. He gained further fame stateside with Bushworld Adventures, the Australian spin-off of Rick and Morty aired by Adult Swim.

Now, he’s found further recognition globally with Yolo finding new life on Adult Swim in the form of Yolo: Crystal Fantasy. It makes history as the first international project on Cartoon Network’s adult programming block, Adult Swim.

We spoke exclusively with Cusack about several topics, including different influences on his work, Australian media, recording in a Melbourne church, and the journey from Youtube to television. If you’re interested in hearing the audio component of our interview with Michael Cusack, you can do so via the podcast player below.

Literary Joe: I don’t know a whole lot about Australian media, so I was wondering if you could kind of shed some light on some of your influences from that side of the world.

Michael Cusack: Sure. So, when I was growing up, I grew up with shows like Kath & Kim, which was a big hit here. They tried to make an American reboot of it, which failed pretty miserably because the humor didn’t translate, I don’t think, but yeah.

Literary Joe: That’s the same thing that Tod mentioned!

Michael Cusack: Ah, really? Interesting. Yeah, honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s saying the same stuff I am. We’ve got like three pop culture points to address. There’s Kath & Kim, Big Girl’s Blouse was a great show, Fast Forward. A lot of these shows had the same actors involved with them. We had a really funny era in the nineties when it comes to sketch shows and stuff on TV.

Also, to be honest, it wasn’t just TV. It’s the people you see around. Cause Tod, me, Sarah, like every Australian kid, grew up with shows like the Simpsons. We tend not to really watch Australian comedy. It’s more American and English. So you really get a lot of your entertainment from real life a lot of the time here.

Literary Joe: Yolo marks the first international project for adult swim, which is huge. And hopefully, it starts a domino effect for a lot more. But I wanted to ask; you guys are recording in a church in Melbourne?

Michael Cusack: Yeah, so, we’re under the production company Princess Pictures for Yolo, and they’re based in a church in Melbourne, and yeah, a lot of the production was done there. Tod and I were not only the voices for the show along with Sarah, but we were also the audio engineers and all that kind of thing.

So we set up a makeshift audio booth in this church to do all the voices in Yolo, and yeah, it was a weird experience. You kind of forget the strange surroundings when you’re in the middle of it, but now you look back, and you’re like, yeah, that was, that was quite weird.

Karp: I just want to say it was interesting when you mentioned Eagle Raptor. The first time that I saw Yolo, I don’t even think Yolo 2 was out yet at the time, or it may have been in production, but that was like my first initial thought. I was like, Oh, this reminds me of Eagle Raptor. Like quite a bit.

Michael Cusack: Yeah! A lot of the comments said that, and you know, I can’t deny that he was a massive inspiration on me. I think I probably wouldn’t animate without being inspired by Eagle Raptor and his awesome series. I went to Newgrounds and would scour for new stuff from him.

And also, people like David Firth he was a huge inspiration to me. He had a site called Fatpie that I used to go on all the time as a kid to watch Salad Fingers and all the other stuff he did. 

Karp: I definitely remember Newgrounds having cool flash games and a lot of cool animations and people kind of getting their start, you know, almost like the birth of the internet. 

Michael Cusack: Well, what I’ve found, what’s good now, so many talented people came from Newgrounds, and they ended up working in the animation industry in one way or another as storyboard artists or animators. But it’s really nice to see a lot of the Newgrounds people getting more success now and shows. 

Cause it did feel like a big underground back in the day and if Newgrounds got a show in like 2006, you just be like, what? It’s an internet guy getting on TV? But right now, it’s been happening for the last few years, the internet and TV are merging, and people are catching on. So it’s really nice to see. 

It’s a really interesting, strange time right now where the market is so saturated, but I think it’s a benefit to see all of that as a positive because it’s a disruption to this system that was, you know, the old way that Hollywood used to make TV and content. And it’s all being merged and mixed together in this weird way that no one really knows what the outcome’s going to be, but it’s a very good time to get into it, I think because it just means it’s more opportunity.

Karp: Piggybacking on what you’re saying there, do you think that this is giving a little bit more creative power and more influence to, for lack of a better term, I’ll say, everyday people, people who aren’t really maybe born of Hollywood or came from that background?

Michael Cusack: Yeah, I think it is. I mean, a lot of the funniest videos online are just like a teenager with their phone, and that’s the scariest thing in the world to a network executive because it costs $0 to do, and it’s getting more views than some of the stuff they pump millions of dollars into.

So yeah, of course, it feels right to have this rebellion against an old way, but I think it’s all fun. It’s a healthy thing for an industry to be challenged.

Karp: Yeah, definitely. To some degree, it’s changing. The ideas are almost cracking the foundation of what entertainment and media and all this stuff is supposed to be. And that’s kind of what I saw, especially when I watched Yolo. I was just like, for being like a YouTube video at the time, wow, this is, this is really out there. I can’t believe that to some degree. YouTube isn’t necessarily super censored, but it’s kind of leaning more that way now. I feel like at the time I was just like, this is crazy.

Michael Cusack: That initial video is much weirder and crazier than the actual show on Adult Swim. And that’s not Adult Swim saying, you’ve got to tone it down. That’s just me because I think everything’s contextual, right? Like, if you’re a TikTok artist and you got famous for making a meme, that was you going crazy in your car. And it was really funny, or whatever it is, this let’s say three-second TikTok video that goes viral.

If a network is interested in you, you’ve got all these executives saying, Hey kid, you’ve got millions of views. We want to get you to make ten seasons of a TV show for us. Well, I don’t think it’s going to quite work if that it’s just that video over and over again for ten seasons. You’ve kind of got to adapt and figure out how to play the game, which is very risky because people see you as a sellout or you’ve lost your touch, or you’re watering down, all that kind of thing. But that’s a good challenge.

The challenge is to see if you can outdo yourself and make something better than what you became famous for in your little viral videos. So that was the goal, with me with Yolo was just to try to make a little bit more of a legit TV show rather than just like craziness and loud noises all the time. Even though I love that stuff, and it’s still in the TV show. I guess the goal was to make the show a little bit more mature, for lack of a better term.

*This interview has been edited for clarity. The interview is co-hosted by Kevin Lynch, credited as Karp.*

Yolo: Crystal Fantasy airs on Adult Swim on Sundays at midnight. You can check out the series here.

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Star Trek has always been a franchise that celebrates diversity and inclusion. With Star Trek: Discovery‘s third season, the universe will finally introduce its first non-binary and transgender characters.

Blu del Barrio will play Adira. Beyond being the Star Trek universe’s first non-binary character, Adira is “highly intelligent with a confidence and self-assurance well beyond their years.” A brief look into Adira’s story in the upcoming season reveals they will form an unexpected bond with Lt. Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz).

Blu del Barrio will be making their television acting debut in Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, as they were in their final year of studies at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art when they auditioned for the role of Adira.

Star Trek‘s first transgender character, Gray, will be played by Ian Alexander, a 19-year-old actor who uses they/them and he/him pronouns. Gray is described as “emphatic, warm and eager to fulfill his lifelong dream of being a Trill host.”

Alexander is best known for their roles as Buck Vu on Netflix’s The OA. They also played Lev, a transgender character, in Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part 2 video game.

“Star Trek has always made a mission of giving visibility to underrepresented communities because it believes in showing people that a future without division on the basis of race, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation is entirely within our reach,” said Michelle Paradise, co-showrunner and executive producer. “We take pride in working closely with Blu del Barrio, Ian Alexander, and Nick Adams at GLAAD to create the extraordinary characters of Adira and Gray, and bring their stories to life with empathy, understanding, empowerment and joy.”

Little is known about Star Trek: Discovery‘s third season, aside from the fact that it will take the crew well into the future.

After making the jump in the second season finale, season three of “Star Trek: Discovery” finds the U.S.S. Discovery crew dropping out of the wormhole and into an unknown future far from the home they once knew. Now living in a time filled with uncertainty, the U.S.S. Discovery crew, along with the help of some new friends, must together fight to regain a hopeful future.

Star Trek: Discovery‘s third season will premiere on Thursday, October 15. The season will consist of 13 episodes, available on demand weekly, exclusively for CBS All Access subscribers in the United States. 

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DC FanDome was a huge success for Warner Bros., generating millions of views in 24 hours and resulting in plenty of positive publicity for the studio and its slate of DC Comics movies, TV shows, and video games. Now, the hope among fans is that this could become a yearly occurrence. 

During an interview with Variety, Ann Sarnoff, head of WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group, reflected on the event’s enormous success. Initially revealing that “[after] Fandome we saw viewership of our DC movies pop on HBO Max,” she then indicated that Warner Bros. is looking at ways to continue that success, albeit by monetising the concept. 

“One of the big themes we’ve been talking about since the beginning is using our content and our IP in bigger and better ways,” Sarnoff explained. “It’s clear we have a very big fan base that wants to stay very connected to us. We’re going to keep doing it in the spirit of super-serving fans and then see if there’s a way to monetize it.”

That could be as simple as including adverts in the next DC FanDome…or as disappointing as asking fans to pay to access certain content and panels. That could backfire in a huge way. 

Clearly, it’s still early days, and there’s no reason to be concerned just yet. Ultimately, no one can blame Warner Bros. for looking to cash in on DC FanDome’s success, and it does make sense for them as a business (however, it’s still believed the event cost less than a Hall H panel at Comic-Con). 

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We’ve known for a while that Hugo Weaving wouldn’t be making his return as Agent Smith in The Matrix 4 due to scheduling conflicts, but the outspoken actor has now elaborated on what led to that decision being made.

In the original trilogy, Smith was essentially the lead villain and a great foe for Neo to face (their fight scenes were nothing short of extraordinary). Now, Weaving has explained that it was director Lana Wachowski who made the decision to “pull the plug” on his return as Agent Smith, explaining that he was even part of table read. 

“Lana Wachowski had rung me at the beginning of last year,” the actor told Coming Soon in a recent interview. “Lana was very keen for me to be involved in The Matrix. There was a reading with Keanu [Reeves], Carrie[-Anne Moss] and myself and a few others from the old family.”

It sounds like Weaving had reservations about returning for The Matrix 4, saying that he read the script and “loved a lot of it and wasn’t sure about other bits.” It turns out there was a clash with his commitments to the National Theatre, and even though a deal was worked out, “Lana decided she didn’t think it was going to work. So, she pulled the plug on the negotiations. That’s where it ended up. She basically didn’t feel that my commitment to the National Theatre was going to fit in with the dates that she had in mind for me.”

A number of cast members are returning, and there have been some impressive new additions as well. However, Laurence Fishburne’s absence has upset a lot of fans, while Wachowski’s track record is very hit-and-miss, meaning there’s always a chance The Matrix 4 might not be that great regardless of who does or doesn’t return.

We’ll have to wait and see.

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