Team CPM Alumni Blog

2010-06-10T17:50:00.001-07:00

Sad News

2009-04-28T21:53:00.000-07:00

The Crain's New York Business news source reports that the anime and manga distributor Central Park Media (CPM) filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and has closed its doors as of Monday. According to Crain's, the company owes US$1.2 million to creditors. The company has not been active in releasing new titles in the past 12 months.

CPM and its Software Sculptors, U.S. Manga Corps, and Anime 18 labels were once the North American homes of such prominent works as Grave of the Fireflies, Utena, Mobile Police Patlabor, Record of Lodoss War, Slayers, Night on the Galactic Railroad, Project A-Ko, Dominion Tank Police, Descendants of Darkness, Demon City Shinjuku, Urotsukidoji, and La Blue Girl. It later branched out into the book publishing field by releasing Comic Party, Record of Lodoss War, Slayers, Embracing Love, Kizuna, and other titles under the CPM Manga and Be Beautiful Manga imprints. It sponsored the Big Apple Anime Fest earlier this decade.

Companies that file for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code in the United States will face liquidation — unlike Chapter 11 and 13 bankruptcies which still allow companies to restructure and continue to operate.

CPM's former management did not respond to ANN's request for comment.

Hope JOD, MOD, Stephanie & the rest of the old crew are all OK. Let's keep each other informed if we hear anything or if any of our alumni need any help!

CPM: The Next Generation

2009-02-06T14:25:00.000-08:00

For all of you who haven't been keeping up on current events (because you're not on Facebook) I'd like to announce the newest members of the post CPM team...

Brian Murray (Finance) had a son named Andy on January 31st, 2009

Trish Jagroop (Production) had a son named Jace who was born on December 20th, 2008

The results of thier typing test and math test will be available as soon as they can hold a pen...

Have fun.

Greetings from Philadelphia!

2008-12-13T14:32:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to send a "shout out" (that sounds really bad, doesn't it?) from Philadelphia. I currently work in an interactive agency and think everyday about how much I miss you guys, gals and NYC.

I hope that reunions are set-up and that you think of me when sending invites.

BTW - Chie is on Facebook, if anyone wants to contact her.

Peace!

Jonathan

Bubble Girl

2008-12-10T19:05:00.000-08:00

Sara Erickson sent this over to me to post for your perusal, Valerio's original lyrics to the Bubble Girl song...

Click to Enlarge

More news and photos coming from Sara soon!

Hey

2008-12-10T11:35:00.000-08:00

Howdy Y'all...

CB - good idea setting this up! I'm sad to hear that our local watering holes are slowly disappearing. Bummer. What about that Mexican place on 8th? Is that still around? Shit I don't even remember the name... And what about that grill across the street that Glen and Bo used to hang out at?

I've been living in Boston for the past 5 years so I'm out of touch. Still go to NY quite often so it would be cool to catch up with some of you, get drunk and tell war stories.

I'm happy to report that I'm no longer associated with filthy cartoons and instead am working as a Human Resources Manager at a reputable company. I actually also do HR for a sister company we have in London so I travel over to the UK periodically.

We dig living in Boston and taking advantage of everything that New England has to offer (skiing, hiking, the ocean, the lobsters) though we do miss NYC. There's no place like it.

Let's see, what else is there... Char and I are still happily married (no kids yet) and just celebrated our 10 year anniversary (of knowing eachother) last spring . She's an exec in the apparel industry and enjoying her career. Her job is actually the main reason why we moved up here...

Other than that, still enjoying life, going out to bars, seeing live music and living up to my reputation of being a general asshole.

We should set up another reunion for 2009 and this time get the goombas (Lupo, Valerio and Salerno) to come out.

Peace.

-Karel

CPM Reunion 2006

2008-12-08T11:41:00.001-08:00

Where are they now?

2008-12-07T22:25:00.000-08:00

Between the three of us last week, we did a pretty good job of vaguely figuring out where a good number of ex-CPMers were and what they were up to these days. A few names we couldn't place though...

Freddie from the mailroom? Last I heard he was back in Ghana.

Jeff Zitomer? Moved down to Virginia?

Jason Crystal? We heard he was laid off from Vivendi-Universal and pursuing acting, but that was years ago.

Anyone have any info? Maybe this link will spread to them?

I'll Facebook them too...

Ye Olde Tripple Inn is gone...

2008-12-07T21:39:00.000-08:00

...as is the Shandon Star, so we had to find ourselves a new bar to drink at! And if the glasses in our hands and on the table don't speak for themselves, it was just like the good ol' days at CPM! No sleeping off our hangovers in the comics room these days though!

Is it gone?

2008-12-07T19:19:00.000-08:00

When people ask me what working at CPM was like, I always compare it to being in the Vietnam War. I wasn't in that war, or any other war, but I've seen Full Metal Jacket and Platoon a bunch of times so I think I'm qualified to make the comparison.

On one hand it was the most stressful, confusing mentally scarring jobs I ever had (well, working at Disney World was worse, but that's another story). On the other hand, many of my best friends came from those trenches. I wouldn't have my apartment, I would have never been to Tokyo, I would have never worked at Marvel, I wouldn't have ever been to the Tripple if I never worked at CPM. So I'm proud that I worked there, in the same way a Marine is proud of burning down villages in the name of freedom.

But my question is, what is going on at CPM now? After the mass purge of 2006 and the explosion of anime on TV and the internet is there anything left? Inquiring minds want to know...

I'll Start

2008-12-06T14:34:00.000-08:00

Me? I'm easy...

I still live in New York City.

Still married to Mutsumi.

Still no kids, just two cats.

I write comics for Marvel and Image.

I'm also a talent scout for Marvel.

You can read my personal blog at www.chesterfest.blogspot.com.

I twitter at www.twitter.com/cbcebulski

Hey, Old Friends!

2008-12-06T14:20:00.000-08:00

There are all kinds of different social networks that we're all on these days, and use for different purposes. But it can get a bit confusing when we start cross-pollinating posts and groups to keep in touch. With this in mind, one of my old high school friends decided to create a "neutral" centralized blog for all alumni from my class to post, and it has been wildly successful. So in having beers with Glenn Mondry and Steve Pakula last week, we decided it would be pretty cool if we could do the same here, where we could catch up with all the old friends we made over the years at CPM. So start spreading the word! You can e-mail me any updates, info and pictures you'd like to put up here, or I can easily give you access to post yourself. Either way, you can e-mail me at cbcebulski@gmail.com to get the ball rolling.

I'm looking forward to catching up! Hope you are all well.

Take care,
C.B.