ShiftyLook was a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings that was focused on revitalizing older Namco franchises, with their first step being video game webcomics based on the company's various franchises. The subsidiary later offered webtoons, anime, playable games, music, message boards, and graphic novels as well. ShiftyLook regularly held substantial exhibitions at large US comics conventions, having a major booth presences and holding large giveaways of promotional merchandise.
ShiftyLook was headed by editor-in-chief Robert Pereyda. The idea behind the company was to revive Namco's more obscure, dormant video game franchises for mediums such as webcomics and animations. Pereyda believed that entertainment formats like webcomics were largely successful, and that if these intellectual properties become popular through them, it could garner more interest in those series and make Namco Bandai interested in creating new games for them.[1] Namco Bandai also believed that ShiftyLook was a venue for content creators to collaborate on projects, and to establish working relations with artists and developers for future projects. In an interview with CRB.com, Pereyda stated: "Basically, what we're doing is taking a look at stuff that's forgotten IPs, stuff that's sleeping, stuff that — just to be honest — some people don't care about and thinking what we can do with it. This is a big system and we know that not everything's going to succeed, but if some of them can make it to the big time, we've done a good job. We're casting a really wide net. We're doing different styles, different artists, different kinds of titles, just filling out a whole matrix of different things we can do and then seeing where that goes." If the webcomics were successful, Pereyda hoped that content such as merchandise and print versions would be available as well.[1]
The old ShiftyLook logo
ShiftyLook officially launched on March 9, 2012.[1] Five webcomics were announced to begin production under the company; Bravoman, Xevious, Sky Kid, Rocket Fox, and Alien Confidential: Black and White. Comics were made available for free on the website, all without advertisements aside from those for Bandai Namco's other projects.[1] In June 2012, ShiftyLook announced that Japanese manga artist Hitoshi Ariga would begin work on a webcomic based on Klonoa, becoming the first ShiftyLook comic created outside North America.[2] To increase their viewer base, ShiftyLook regularly attended fan conventions in their own booth, where they featured artists behind some of their comics as well as merchandise. A YouTube channel was launched in 2013, featuring short animated series based on Bravoman and Mappy.[3] The same year, Namco Bandai released an endless runner game based on Bravoman, titled Bravoman: Binja Bash!, for iOS and Android devices. ShiftyLook also published Wonder Momo: Typhoon Booster, a sequel to Wonder Momo developed by WayForward, and Namco High, a comical dating simulator game designed by Homestuck creator Andrew Hussie. A five episode anime series based on Wonder Momo was released in early 2014 on Crunchyroll.[4][5]
On March 10, 2014, ShiftyLook announced that their site would no longer be updated beginning March 20, and by September 30 the company and website would be shut down entirely.[6][7] They also announced that their YouTube channel, mobile games, and other digital merchandise would be pulled.[6] The shutdown was announced by company executive Casy Casoni, who said that ShiftyLook "battled the video games abyss and won, which means it's time for us to move on and let the hit-makers play with some new toys." Before the company's closure, Udon Entertainment published hardcover books for Bravoman, Katamari, and Wonder Momo that featured the first 100 strips. A print version of Galaga was announced but never released.
Writing for Publishers Weekly, Calvin Reid felt that ShiftyLook "looks to have failed overall" as only a few properties, namely Bravoman, Wonder Momo, and Katamari, had reached the success the company had hoped for.[8] Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool believes that financial difficulties were to blame for the company's downfall, despite the creative talent and marketing push behind it.[9] Matt Moylan, the CEO of Udon and the writer for 300 strips of the Bravoman comic, described his work at ShiftyLook being "one of the most creatively rewarding experiences [he has] ever had in comics." Moylan stated that Bandai Namco likely invested too much money into ShiftyLook up front and that plans to monetize its productions did not materialize until it was too late.[9]
Scott R. Kurtz is an American webcomic artist. Known for creating the daily online comic-strip PvP, Kurtz is among the first professional webcomic creators.
Klonoa is a platform video game series created by Namco in 1997. It stars Klonoa, an anthropomorphic creature who explores dream worlds. The series includes two main games: Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (1997) for the PlayStation and Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil (2001) for the PlayStation 2. A remake of Door to Phantomile was released for the Wii in 2008, and remasters of both games were released in 2022. The series also includes a set of handheld games released between 1999 and 2002 for the WonderSwan and Game Boy Advance.
Chōzetsurin Jin Bravoman is a 1988 beat'em up arcade video game developed and published in Japan by Namco. Described as a "comical action game", the player controls the titular character, a bionic superhero with telescopic limbs, as he must defeat the villainous Dr. Bomb before he takes over the world. Bravoman can use his arms, legs and head to defeat enemies, and can also crouch and jump over them. The game ran on the Namco System 1 arcade board.
Wonder Momo is a 1987 beat 'em up arcade game that was developed and published by Namco exclusively in Japan. It was ported to the PC-Engine in 1989, with both versions of the game later ported to the Wii Virtual Console, and ported to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 as part of Arcade Archives. The game was also included in Namco Museum Encore for the PlayStation. Wonder Momo inspired a webcomic series in 2012, an anime miniseries in 2014, and a sequel game by WayForward Technologies in May 2014. A sequel titled Wonder Momo 2 was planned for the arcades on 1993, but was cancelled due to decline of popularity.
Dragon Spirit is a 1987 vertical-scrolling shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. In North America, it was distributed by Atari Games. Controlling the dragon Amul, the player must complete each of the game's nine areas to rescue the princess Alicia from the demon Zawell. Similar to Namco's own Xevious, Amul has a projectile weapon for destroying air-based enemies and a bomb for destroying ground enemies. It ran on the Namco System 1 arcade board.
Yuu Miyake is a Japanese composer and sound engineer formally for Bandai Namco Entertainment. His most known work surfaced with Katamari Damacy soundtracks, on which he served as a sound director. Other notable works include various tracks in the Tekken and Ridge Racer series.
Golly! Ghost! is a 1991 light gun shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. It employs a diorama which is controlled by the game's driver board to open and close mechanical doors which are connected to solenoids, much like the moveable items on a pinball table. The diorama has five 24-volt globe lights that come on only during gameplay to light up the rooms - and they are all on when the game is being played during the shooting scenes, and off for the cutscenes, title screen, and high scores. The globes are not individually controlled, and are either all on or off; the driver board powers the diorama unit's solenoids and lights via several connectors on the driver board and the guns also plug into the driver board via another small connector. In 2012, the game was adapted into a webcomic for Namco Bandai's ShiftyLook webcomic service.
Long Vo is an entrepreneur, freelance illustrator, producer and creative/art director.
Christopher Hastings is an American comic writer and artist. He is known for his webcomic The Adventures of Dr. McNinja as well as writing for Unbelievable Gwenpool and the Adventure Time comics.
The Topato Corporation is a widely recognized online retailer of webcomics and related merchandise. It was established around 2004 by artist Jeffrey Rowland.
Area 11 is an English rock band from Nottingham, England. The band consists of four members: Thomas "Sparkles*" Clarke, Alex Parvis, Jonathan Kogan and Leo Taylor. To date, they have released a number of singles and EPs, and three studio albums.
Red Giant Entertainment, Inc. is a Florida-headquartered comic book publisher and "transmedia" entertainment company established in 2005. Red Giant was founded by Benny R. Powell, former marketing writer for Priceline.com. Other key players included David Campiti, director and COO; and Chris Crosby, CTO and the CEO of Keenspot Entertainment. Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach joined the board in November 2014.
Udon Entertainment Corp. is a Canadian art studio and publisher. The company publishes original and translated comic books, graphic novels, manga and art books related to anime and video games. It was founded in 2000 and is named after udon, a kind of Japanese noodle.
Notable events of 2004 in webcomics.
Notable events of 2011 in webcomics.
Notable events of 2014 in webcomics.
Klonoa is a side-scrolling platform video game for the Wii developed by Paon and published by Namco Bandai Games. It is a remake of the 1997 PlayStation game Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, the first game in the Klonoa series, updating the game with fully 3D graphics, additional content, and gameplay changes. It was released in Japan in December 2008 and in North America and Europe in May 2009.
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