Tokyopop Announces New Editor in Chief Lena Atanassova

Tokyopop announced at the end of September that its LoveLove imprint Brand Editor Lena Atanassova will be the new Editor in Chief. Atanassova will lead the editorial team, manage production of all titles, and expand Tokyopop's catalog to horror, manhwa, and webtoon-originated titles. She will also manage and expand production of manga and graphic novels based on licensed IP from Disney, Ubisoft, and other companies.

Atanassova joined Tokyopop in 2018, and played an important role in establishing the LoveLove imprint in 2020. The imprint focuses on romances with titles focusing on straight and LGBTQ+ stories.

Tokyopop announced in May a multi-year sales and distribution agreement with Penguin Random House Publisher Services (PRHPS), a division of Penguin Random House, to distribute the entire Tokyopop frontlist and backlist across all sales channels worldwide, starting on January 1, 2025.

Stu Levy founded Tokyopop, originally called Mixx, in 1997 and published manga in serial form in its Mixxzine magazine. Tokyopop later pioneered the publication of "unflipped" manga (shown in its original right-to-left reading format) for all of its titles in 2002 and launched divisions in the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as an imprint devoted to boys-love manga called Blu, between 2003 and 2005.

Tokyopop shut down its North American publishing operations in May 2011 but collaborated with other companies to release manga and world manga after the closure. Tokyopop announced at its Anime Expo panel in 2015 that it was planning to begin publishing manga again in 2016, and announced its first new manga licenses in 2018.

Source: Press release