Casterpenguin

"Delivering to you beautiful books everyday"

- Casterpenguin's motto

Casterpenguin is a company founded by several penguins other the decades (the current founders being Georges Casterpenguin and Kayinse Likengse), and is a company that publishes books in many different languages, mainly in English, French and Dutch. It is famous for publishing The Wonderful Exploits of Hashtag in Francterre, infamous for publishing the now out-of-print The Adventures of Mabel, notable for publishing The Wonderful Exploits of Spirale, and is also known for also publishing other books. The company specialises in printing both comics and journals, and has their own website. The company sells over a million books per year, and is also known for their logo - a slightly straightened letter "C". However, since the early 1810s, the company has been threatened by enemy forces/publishers/siblings, but have, in the case of the 2004 relaunch, managed to foil the unknown enemy's plans.

Although they tried to open twice in the past, they have been a successful company since 2004, and still continue to this day. At first, they were merely a small, almost unknown book-selling "company", but over time they earned the rights to publish and translate books (the first one in the 2004 relaunch being a Batavian novel named To Peng or Not to Peng), and some weeks later they created their own series of books (the first being the extremely infamous The Adventures of Mabel) and inventing items (the first being the Dig-Book), and finally grew more and more successful and ended up as the multi-million-coin company today.

They are based in Francterre, and have the most shops there (which is a proud 40, including mini-stalls in larger shops) and because of their large number of stores, they all bring them a lot of money, and by the end of the year the shops have hauled them a whopping 1,000,000 in net income and makes a total of 1,100,000 Club Penguin Gold Coins, including operating income. There are 15 shops in Antarctica, 16 in Club Penguin, 7 in Japaland, 20 in Batavia, 19 in Castilla, 18 in Liguria, 8 in the Finipines and their website has been translated into English, Dutch, Japalandese, Ligurian, Filipino and most importantly French.

1800-1810
In July 1800, a penguin in Liguria named Maria Casterpenguin decided that, now everything was becoming modernized, that she should take the advantage of the chaos, and make a publishing company. She, along with her husband, went into their cellar (they were renting and lived on the ground floor), found some old books they didn't want, found & took over an empty warehouse (which was acceptable in those days, given the chaos), and stocked it with their second-hand books. Instead of leaving it unnamed, Maria suggested that they may as well put up a sign with the shop name on top of the warehouse for good luck and easy identification. According to recent research, the building had no other name at this time, except the mysterious and cryptic "MCB", presumably standing for "Maria Casterpenguin Bookstore". The bookshop was a mild success, and the owners made a small profit of (current-day) 500 Club Penguin coins per week. This was enough for them to survive on bread and cheese, and once they had a chick, they needed some more coins to support the new family. They stopped buying cheese to save some coins, and went to their local official bookstore and bought two boxes of new, popular books (nobody knows how, given how poor they were and that they were selling for a retail price of 100 coins per book - a theory goes that a worker gave pity on them, bought the boxes him/herself and gave them to them), and eventually the store was making a thousand coins per week, which made the owners satisfied.

Two years passed, and as more penguins became literate the Casterpenguin family became richer at 20,000 coins per week, and the family was extended by the arrival of another chick. Seeing that there now wasn't enough room for four penguins to live in the small ground floor & cellar, they discovered a house that was cheap enough for them to buy and was close to their business, and were all the more satisfied once they moved in. They then began a renovation of the warehouse the following week, with a new coat of paint and slight expansion, and used the remaining coins to buy new, more respectable businesspenguin's clothes. Slowly, week by week, the profit they were making increased, and they were gaining more status than they had ever expected. Eventually, at 25,000 coins per week, Mr. Casterpenguin had to courage to both buy a new warehouse and expand the current shop, at good prices. As the years went by, the Casterpenguin family grew bigger, and they became richer, and there were more warehouses spread across the land - 5 shops alone were found in a certain region. Eventually, the parents bought a proper shop instead of a warehouse, and used this as their headquarters.

1810-1816
The years passed until 1810 arrived, when they unbelievably hit 80,000 coins, and were finally able to print books themselves, much to the pride of their oldest (in a family of 11) 10-year-old chick, Peppa. Due to their assuming that Peppa was mature enough, they slowly gave her more and more responsibilities in handling the shop. At the time, they didn't realize that because of this, their increasing wealth and status in society were making the chicks more arrogant, especially the vain Peppa, who thought that they deserved all the money in the first place and that it was an outrage they were once poor. As the years passed by, Maria and her husband, due to age, decided that they should let Peppa take half the responsibilities and represent them when she went out to inspect, print and be the cashier at the nearest shop & headquarters. This was, however, a terrible decision.

Peppa, ever growing more vain and narcissistic, approved of their plan with immense joy, and began her new job by going out in her best clothes and, quite literally, yelling at the workers to be cleaner. In order not to be removed of her newfound joy, she constantly lied to her parents, and eventually managed to get her favourite sibling, the more reluctant and well-behaved but can-be-spiteful Vanessa, into coming with her. Unknown to their parents, they went about ruining certain printing presses, dropped breadcrumbs coated in butter on clean floors on purpose, and event went to damaging books every now and then, just for their (or rather, Peppa's) enjoyment. Vanessa rightfully grew tired of these larks, and, having previously signed an oath of secrecy of their "adventures", ran away in the night to Allemania, taking her share of the money and her favourite posessions with her, where she (apparently) went off to the countryside and started a mildly successful farm business.

Peppa was furious and thought that she broke their promise before running away, and, for a final act of betrayal, spread word that Casterpenguin used the cheapest quality paper possible and used a chemical process involving several viruses in order to make it look like expensive paper, and other outrageous lies. Eventually, penguins stopped buying their books, and in a moment of purposeful confusion, Vanessa recommended that her parents had better buy an expensive shop for sale in the capital city so penguins can come flocking to buy more books. Due to the lack of penguins wanting to buy their books, the family lost money, while Peppa ran away with her profit (and was never seen again), and eventually the company disbanded once the remaining family members became poor again.

1960-1963
In June 1960, Franz Casterpenguin in Alemania remembered that, several years back, he had heard about Maria Casterpenguin's attempt to make a bookstore from his grandparents (who were told by his great-grandmother Vanessa, who was in turn told by Peppa who was told by his great-great-grandparents), and thought that perhaps he should try reviving the publishing company, for a lark. He posted advertisements in the local newspaper, and managed to gather up a sufficient amount of penguins to start up a new bookstore. They took over an empty warehouse, refurbished it, and named it "CP Books", the "CP" presumably standing for "CasterPenguin". Unfortunately, the lies of the past were not forgotten, and it took a lot of persuading and evidence in order to get penguins buying their books. Eventually, they were selling again, and were making a good amount of 10,000 coins every week. This continued for a year, when Franz thought it would be good to go and open a few more stores.

He found some more empty warehouses, got the locals to help him clean it up, and stocked them with books. Unfortunately, the other major booksellers felt increasing competition, and began brewing a plan to stop the new bookstore (which had a shady past, after all) from growing. They sent a few double-workers to get employed into Franz's new business, and managed to persuade him to inspect a few warehouses in Francterre, and open a few bookstores there. Unwisely, Franz appointed one of these double-agents as the boss while he was away, and they set about causing all sorts of trouble - they sliced holes in the tables, they smashed the printing presses, and did unmentionable things to the books. Eventually, they spread the old lie of the "cheap-paper-made-looking-expensive-with-chemical-method-involving-viruses" theory, and got the company into huge trouble, which was dealt by the double-agents by closing the stores down. Franz received news of this in Francterre, and with no money left, had to stay there until he got a new job and more money.

2003-2006
In late 2003, Georges Casterpenguin in Francterre thought that there were not enough books being read or published. Remembering what his ancestors attempted, he soon contacted a friend of his named Kayinse Likengse, and together they got a team of other book lovers, and soon he and Kayinse bought an empty house in Norsemandy that was supposed to be demolished a month later. They all soon began working on the shop to try and transform it into a bookshop. In early 2004, the house was finally transformed into a bookshop, named the store "Casterpenguin" after Georges' family name, and soon needed a stock of books. The next day, their first stock arrived and were (obviously) put in the shelves for sale, and penguins who were willing to pay the most money were able to buy the books, giving the owners some money. Two months later, they had over a million books in storage, and they all soon agreed to sell them at a fixed price. This carried on for many months, until in early 2006 many books were being returned and refunded because the books all had a strange fault. An investigation was carried out, when they discovered that a bookworm was secretly ruining the books, and downgraded the condition from "Like New" (or "Mint") to "Bad". The next day, the bookworm was fired and an announcement (voiced by Kayinse) was made to every penguin who returned their damaged books that a rogue bookworm was damaging the books, and offered them to come back to shop again. Soon, the shop was making a profit again.

2006-2009
In December 2006, they began issuing books on Christmas, and stayed open at Christmas for a change. Soon, the shop earned enough money to become a publisher of books as well. They soon bought many blocks of wood (to make woodcuts, hardbacks and heavy duty spines) and printing presses, and got to work. They soon found a professional woodcutter for the cover, and a comic artist (under the pseudonym of "Maxrocks"), and soon printed their first comic book - The Adventures of Mabel. It was a short-lived series, starring an out-of-character Mabel, who (according to the inaccurate comic) is a puffle that likes her owner Explorer 767, disapproves of penguins and puffles that swear punctuation symbols and has the family name of "Brown". This series was very successful, until in May 2007 Mabel went to complain (and sue them) that she didn't really like her owner, and that her family name was Von Injoface, not Brown (after coming out of the store, she got hit on the head by Explorer 767's spade). The comic series soon finished after that incident and the company got sued for a mere two thousand Club Penguin Gold Coins, and stopped publishing the series, much to the dismay of fans.

The company, a week later, finally got the chance to both publish and translate an upcoming Batavian book in English and French, To Peng or Not to Peng. The publisher gained the rights to publish it, and because Kayinse was part-Batavian, the book was handed to him to translate. It was a breeze for him to translate, and the company soon printed (and translated) their first book. In the following months, they began to publish more and more books, and by the end of 2009 they had began a new comic series named The Wonderful Exploits of Spirale (about a mild-tempered hotel bellhop that has many adventures, owns a Raccoon Puffle-ish puffle named "Major" and has a good-tempered friend named "Amazingo"), and were printing over 55 different titles, all which had different subjects. One day before December 2009, the logo, after an idea by the lower staff, then changed from the words "casterpenguin" to the current logo, "". Books that have the old logo are now rare, and are sought after by book collectors.

2009-2012
In 2009, the company began to sell less books, and after multiple speeches in February 1 2010 Georges, Kayinse and the head staff decided that they needed to publish more titles and begin a device to read books digitally, which was named the Dig-Book. After gaining rights to publish 20 more books, a walrus tried to sneak inside the HQ to spam the area with Spam Bombs. This walrus was soon put under control by penguins good at savate, but soon the higher staff soon decided they needed some security officers. They then soon gathered some agents trained in martial arts, and named them "Security Peng"s, still in use today. This invention was proven useful, as a group of Str00dels (that wanted to make sure everybody knew what a waffle was) broke in, spamming the room with Spam Bombs and many buckets of waffles. Despite the pour of spam, the Security Pengs managed to judo chop, boxing punch and savate kick through the stream of waffles, and managed to pin down the str00dels to handcuff them, disarmed them and took them to the police station. They were soon awarded by the Chief of Police for catching the runaway str00dels (who were arrested at a sentence of 1 week for disturbing the peace), and everybody then knew that the Security Pengs would be very helpful. In 2010, they began considering the idea to begin publishing their books in different languages. They began with Dutch, and the books were earning them money. Because of the quite enthusiastic success, they began publishing the books in many other languages, including English and l33t. All went well, until in 2011, walruses and str00dels alike tried to break in to "steal money", and every plan luckily backfired. This went on for one month, until some were captured.

When they tried to make the captured walruses confess, they just said "…", while the str00dels said that they wanted to replace Casterpenguin with their own publishing group for str00dels. After this, anti-str00del positions were placed and Security Pengs were armed with waffles, to throw at the str00dels. After one month, it was certain that there would no longer be any more enemy attacks, but to tighten up security they hired more Security Pengs, in case they launched a surprise ambush. In 2012, they began publishing titles in nearly all languages, and began to have the shop open at Christmas, and closed on Mondays. All went well, and since it seemed that no more str00dels or walruses tried to attack the bookstore, the Security Pengs were ordered by Kayinse to guard other, more confidential areas.

2012-2015
In December 2012, they opened a small store in Antarctica, and sold books in English and French. This was a disappointingly mild success and each day only sold about fifty books, and because of this the shop closed on every weekend, Tuesdays and Mondays. However, when they opened a store in Batavia, it was more than a mild success and usually sold a few hundred books, and proved that the store in Antarctica was only a financial flop, and after serious discussions on what to do, they closed the Antarctican store for an indefinite period of time. Some time after the closure, Kayinse soon began considering making two new comic series. After he and Georges opened discussions with the staff, it was agreed that the currently inactive The Wonderful Adventures of Spirale should come back for one more series of books, and that they should make one new comic book series. They went to the "Illustrations" department, found Maxrocks, and after discussing their plans with him, Casterpenguin soon persuaded him, against all other odds, to draw Spirale and think up a new comic series.

Some time later, after five Spirale books were published, Maxrocks finally thought up of the new comic series - The Wonderful Exploits of Hashtag. Because the series starred an ancient Francterran penguin and was based on history/historical penguins, the first book in the series, Hashtag the Francterran, was a success the first day it entered all Casterpenguin bookstores, because all the parents wanted to buy it to encourage their chicks to like history. According to the archives, it defied all expectations, and the first print run of the first book in the series (of a million) was sold out in two days, so they had to use more recycled paper to do a second print run, and the stock insanely got exhausted the next day. Then a third print run. Then a fourth.

Soon, they began translating the two books into Dutch, Spanish and, in limited print runs, in Swiss. Whichever language it was, the book and soon-to-be series was very popular, and publishers began to question if the books were a sort of Mary-Sue in the world of comics. A month later, Maxrocks gave up drawing and writing Spirale after seeing his new creation was a total success, and began focusing on the Hashtag books. He then made a second book, which was less successful with parents due to the fact it happened to focus on Hashtag's quest to find some lost cheese for the tribe's magician's magic potion, which was focusing too much on fantasy. All new books being published after this book were a great success, however.

Suddenly, in 2013, Maxrocks visited an electric power-plant, after an invitation, and when he was signing a dedication to the boss's son who loved the character Miellouise (from the Hashtag series) during a thunderstorm that had just begun, a lightning bolt hit an electric mast right where they were standing, the drawing of Miellouise Maxrocks was drawing somehow leaped off the page, and scurried away. For more details, see here. Some time afterwards, an extremely toned-down version of the incident appeared in the newspaper in order not to shock anybody (e.g. "An electric-bolt hit the book, Maxrocks was hospitalized, no serious injuries," etc.), and much publicity came for the books.

In early 2015, they updated their website dating from 2004, and added a function to order on all digital devices (let it be smartphone or computer), added a "News" section and a "Contact Us" section, and opened more stores around the world. In late 2015, however, sales dropped by 25 books and for a mysterious reason each day what a hundred Gold Club Penguin Coins were beginning to be taken out of Casterpenguin's bank account in Francterre, but since the company still made so much money they didn't think of it at the time.

2015-Present
By March 2016, fifty thousand coins were taken out of the company's bank account and soon the staff became anxious, so they launched a project to try and discover the force behind it. A Security Peng was positioned as spies into all Francterran banks, and would spy using a compact camera whenever a suspicious-looking creature appeared. After 10 days, the project was losing hope, when finally they discovered the thief responsible. The penguin was taken to the police, and when confessed the penguin said that he escaped from prison, and needed the money to set up his own gang of thieves. He also said that he wanted the company to become less successful, so he and his group can rob from them without any worries. After the penguin was sent to prison for 5 years (but escaped without a single mention in the newspapers), Casterpenguin and Kayinse renamed their account number into a password, made of 3 words a publishing company needs scrambled to a seemingly random bunch of letters. Later in 2016, they opened up 2 stores in Club Penguin which was surprisingly successful, contrary with the now-closed shop in Antarctica. After many discussions, they re-opened the previous store in Antarctica, which became more popular than the first store. The company soon wanted the new website in English, but an amateur translator was accidently employed and mistranslated everything, from the "About Us" section to the motto which got mistranslated as "Bringin u lolz bookz every day" (which was originally "Delivering to you beautiful books everyday"), and according to legend (nobody expect Georges Casterpenguin, Kayinse, trusted staff and his family knows what really happened to him) he was fired. Although the website is now properly translated, the motto was overlooked as the company sold (and still does) books very well.

Ever since late 2016, the store has attracted many buyers, and has sold many, many books since. In January 2017, Georges Casterpenguin retired and (cautiously, seeing how Peppa ruined everything in the past) handed the shop over to his oldest daughter, Marie-Louise Casterpenguin, who would in charge of the store with her favourite sister, Sallie Casterpenguin and like before, Kayinse would be their trusted adviser. She and her sister is currently the head of the publisher. Marie-Louise re-translated the English motto in June 2017, and now has attracted more buyers in English. Also in June, they began publishing over 3 journals at once with different subjects, named The Booker's Magazine (about books, every week), How to Be Nice (about kindness and the mind, twice a week), and The Casterpenguin Times (covers news about the world and their bookstore, five times a week) respectively. On the 1st of July 2017, they also granted rights to one of their branches, Studios Casterpenguin, to publish their own journal - The Cinematic Daily, which covers new movies, has a schedule for Club Penguinian, Francterran and Antarctican television stations, and to subscribers, this magazine is delivered almost everyday.

Involvement
The company usually prints books, and is one of the main suppliers of books in Francterre. It earns many coins per month, and is a multi-million coin company. The company is mostly independent, and would refuse to sell the company to a more powerful one. It is responsible for publishing many famous comics both in and out of translation, and is also known for publishing many other, less famous books. It sometimes supplies public newspapers their charts to show how well they are doing to everybody, but it is mostly confidential. Sometimes, spies sent out by rivals to see how the company is so successful are sent, but are usually arrested by the Security Pengs and are taken to jail. Sometimes, however, journalists get mistaken for spies and any that are caught are usually given many apologies.

Controversies
However, the company has one main controversy - the books published under the name of "" are usually found in their own bookstores and on online bookstores. This gives penguins that don't own a computer or don't have a Casterpenguin bookstore near their homes a great hindrance, and the shop tries hard to have shops around the world. Apart from this, there are nearly zero controversies and spends one-third of their money on trying to stop any controversies and complaints from customers, and follows the intention of Georges Casterpenguin to spread books around the world. A minor controversy was their mistranslated logo in English, which stopped many penguins wary of suspicious online sellers buying their books in online bookstores. However, as mentioned before, this has ended as the motto was re-translated in June 2017 (originally the embarrassing "Bringin u lolz bookz every day"), and now earns more coins.

Key Staff
Only in the HQ & Casterpenguin Main Store (also known as the "Casterpenguin First Store") in Norsemandy, there is a Hall of Fame for the most important staff members. In the Hall of Fame, there is a portrait of the penguin, and a short description on why (s)he is here. Without these penguins, the successful company named Casterpenguin would never have been either successful or created. The two most important members in the Hall of Fame are George Casterpenguin, and the Batavian-Francterran penguin named Kayinse Likengse (pronounced "Kaj-eense Leek-enh-guhse"), as they were the main two bookworms who helped gather others of their kind and together they bought the empty house in Norsemandy, while the third important penguin whose portrait is on the hall is Maxrocks, the artist & creator of The Wonderful Exploits of Hashtag. The second section of the Key Staff also have a Hall of Fame of their own, mostly filled with the photos of everypenguin that was the occasional printer/letterer/penguin with good idea.

Georges Casterpenguin
Georges Casterpenguin is obviously here because he was one of the main founders of the company, and always spent most of his money on the project. Without his seemingly never-ending supply of money at the time, he helped the store become what it is now. As he is the most important person in the company (as well as Kayinse), his portrait is hand-painted from real paint (e.g. made from rocks like Lapis Lazuli, which makes the colour blue) and his portrait's frame in the hall is made of 50% real gold, 40% mixed silver and 10% gold paint, for reasons of price. The frame is also decorated with symbols of books, and has his family motto (and symbol) in a circle at the top of the frame.

Kayinse Likengse
Kayinse is here because he helped Georges find the spot for the new store, and was his favourite staff member. In fact, a few days after the store opened, his position was changed to "Adviser", and he then became a respected member forevermore. If it wasn't for his contributions and ideas for the store, the company may never have been as successful as it is now. His portrait was taken with a large black-and-white camera, and was hand-painted with freshly-made paint from rocks. His portrait's frame is made from silver, and is covered with beautiful decorations.

Maxrocks
If it wasn't for Maxrocks, then the multi-million copy-selling series The Wonderful Exploits of Hashtag would have never been created, and the store would have become not a major book-seller and publisher. His portrait was taken with a high-quality (and expensive) colour-photograph-producing camera, and his portrait's frame is carved out of 40% bronze and 60% silver. There are decorations carved onto it, and has a dedication carved on it by Georges Casterpenguin.

Inventions
Although the company mainly specialises with books, they have also released and invented items, sometimes not connected with books. Their most notable invention is the Dig-Book, which is a device to read books online.

Dig-Book
Main article - Dig-Book

The Dig-Book (short for Digital-Book) is a device for reading books digitally, and can be installed on any digital device, and is often used on smartphones and computers. It is free to download the device to upload the "books", and only costs 5 Club Penguin Gold Coins to install any book available in the app. It has begun releasing books on the device first, and then printing them 2 weeks later after their digital release. If not taken proper care of, it sometimes malfunctions, and this causes The Subtractor to randomly pop up to annoy the reader. This is a no-no to owners of Dig-Books, as he annoys by moving the words/pictures around (and turning the pages too quickly), which causes it to crash. Luckily, penguins can now buy installments to stop The Subtractor from popping up, and the chance of him turning up has decreased by 60 percent.

Security Peng
A Security Peng is a penguin, like a police officer, that protects everything in all Casterpenguin bookstores. They are responsible for the safety in the store, and can now trap any villains/vandals/walri that appear in the shop, by using a small gun that thrusts out a sort of sticky cobweb net which sticks to the said creature. They are usually found dressed in either navy-blue EPF-Agent-type shirts with a S.P. badge on, or in blue skirts with the S.P. badge on. However, under their tough-looking exterior, they are actually very friendly and helpful penguins, willing to make sure that everything is alright.

Studios Casterpenguin
Set up in late November 2016 and fully activated on the 22 of December 2016, Studios Casterpenguin is the newest, most dynamic branch of Casterpenguin, and specialises in filming. They usually film adverts for both Casterpenguin and other companies, and the occasional cartoon/film for chicks. It sometimes does artwork for book covers too, in the style of a photograph of an animation. The head of this branch is currently Dickens Casterpenguin, with his assistant (who specialises in cartoon animating) Hobnob "the" Moore. They also have their own journal, named The Cinematic Daily, which began in July 2017.

Journals
Ever since they began publishing them in mid-2017, they have began publishing 4 different journals. They are -


 * The Cinematic Daily - This magazine-like journal focuses on new movies released in the last week or so, and also feature a semi interview by anybody who was involved in the movie. It has competitions, a movie FAQ, four pages devoted to the fan base's thoughts and letters, and occasionally the "Children's Section", whenever a children's movie is released. The pages in this magazine varies in every issue.


 * The Casterpenguin Times - This is a weekly newspaper, stating everything that happens connected to Casterpenguin. The newspaper has 12 pages, with 2 pages devoted to activities (such as quizzes and crosswords) and a further 2 pages for comics. This magazine has its own staff section, known as the "Weekly Times Division", consisting of 1 chick, 1 editor, 5 writers, 3 calligraphers and 2 artists.


 * The Booker's Magazine - This magazine is devoted to bookworms, and lists the books recommended by the staff, including a list of best-selling books. Like The Cinematic Daily, the pages in this magazine varies every issue.


 * How to Be Nice

Trivia

 * Because they are eco-friendly, they always use recycled waste paper and use it in their books/magazines/journals.
 * The pages of their books are usually glossy. Nice!
 * Each shop has roughly 20 to 50 employees, but the amount of employees in the Casterpenguin First Store is 407.
 * This is due to the size of the store, which is enormous.
 * They have, as of 2018, 1100 employees, including those in foreign countries.


 * Casterpenguin is the only trustable companie that has a police force.
 * This is based on the Belgian book publishing company Casterman.
 * Studios Casterpenguin is a slight parody of Belvision, the company who produced Hergé's Adventures of Tintin.
 * Hobnob "the" Moore is a parody of Bob de Moor, right-hand man to cartoonist Hergè.
 * The Wonderful Exploits of Hashtag is obviously a parody of the popular comic-book series Asterix.
 * The Wonderful Exploits of Spirale is based on the comic-book series Spirou.