Anime Vice Anime/Manga News

During the Del Rey Manga panel, marketing director Ali Kokmen commanded us all to go hang out with David Yoo, the company's new(ish) editorial assistant. How could I disobey a direct order from the man who occasionally flings free merchandise at me (literally)? So I headed off to Del Rey's booth and cornered poor David, who put up with our harassment very nicely. (We can only assume it's because he's used to it at the office.)
  
 
But perhaps to Ali's surprise, we cornered HIM later upon spotting him getting ready for the State of the Industry panel, and we grilled him on David (among other things). Ali, too, was a great sport at putting up with our inanity. It was an anime convention, after all.
  
 
I can't really do extensive biographies for either of these fine gentlemen, as I don't know the full story of either, but I'll give it a whirl:
 
ALI KOKMEN
Always dressed with a snazzy tie (full-length or bow), Ali is Del Rey Manga's resident funnyman as well as marketing manager. Before that, however, he worked for Central Park Media, long before its bankruptcy, however. That's not the beginning of his career either, though; he's worked in book publishing for over 14 years at places varying from Mud Puddle Books to Harper Collins. He's also very, very funny.
 
DAVID YOO
A young addition to the US manga industry family, David works as Associate Editor at Del Rey Manga now, but worked as a Publicity Assistant at no less a publisher Houghton Mifflin, so he sounds like a pretty good catch for Random House to me!