News

Canned Dogs (via Muhyojo) has news of Kodansha's plans for celebrating Weekly Shounen Magazine's 50th anniversary:

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Popular mangaka Moyoco Anno (Hataraki Man, Happy Mania) announced on her blog that she will be taking a rest from work due to health problems, and that all of her work other than Ochibisan will be put on hiatus. According to this Mainichi report:

Moyoco Anno has been in poor health for the past few years, and confessed her feelings in her blog: "during cases when my health failed, I tried to restart my work after a brief rest, but now even that has become difficult for me. Let me take a rest for a longer period of time, so I don't have to go over the same trouble again." [...] "although I can't say when I'll be back, I want to draw manga again. I want to be back so I can do it."

Source: Mainichi Shimbun

Japanese BL publisher Libre Publishing will be launching a new manga magazine called Kurofune ZERO on May 28th.

Source: Ultimatum

Adult manga publisher Icarus Publishing has released the first issue of its digital manga magazine Comic AG...for free. The magazine is available through BitTorrent.

Mainichi Daily News has an article on how a 66-year-old doctor who served as the inspiration for the manga Dr. Koto Shinryojo will "carry on working after spring this year, despite reaching retirement age, thanks to support from local residents."

The Guardian has an article on how manga is influencing a wave of new Chinese designers.

The Star Online reports that eateries in Japan where customers and waiters role play themes from manga, particularly BL manga, are becoming increasingly popular.

AHN is reporting that legislation is being drafted in Japan, under international pressure, to ban possession of child pornography. However, the, "the prohibition reportedly exempts manga comics and animated film." The Guardian has more:

Manga belonging to the popular "lolicon" - Japanese slang for Lolita complex - genre are likely to escape the ban, as MPs are concerned that outlawing them could infringe on freedom of expression and drive men who use them as an outlet for their sexual urges to commit more serious offences.

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From TH.Yu diary, online diary of artist TH (Tim) Yu, comes a gallery of photos taken at Manhua! China Comics Now, one of the UK's largest festival of Chinese culture launched by CHINA NOW, in order to "explore Manhua - the powerful narrative art form of comics and graphic novels in China."

Celebrating its soon-to-be 1,000th post and 1,000,000th visitor, yuri blog Okazu has announced two contests, the 1 Million Visitor Art Contest and the 1000th Post Contest.

From Manly Manga and More... comes the German Manga Top 15 for January/February 2008 based on charts released by Egmont Manga & Anime (EMA) and Carlsen.