Launching this summer in India, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, USA & UK, Fluid Friction Comics have announced that the first issue of their debut series DevaShard: At First Light will feature the artwork of world famous artist Simon Bisley on the cover.

Simon Bisley made his name in the comic book world with his work on 2000AD in the 1980’s and especially on the characters Slaine, the Horned God and Judge Dredd. From there he went on to work on a wide selection of the world's best known comic books, including Batman during the 1990's at which time he was specially selected to portray the Dark Knight when he was being reinvented as the darker hero we know today. Other important titles he has worked on include the Heavy Metal fantasy art magazines, X-Men and later Wolverine.

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The winner of this year's World Cosplay Summit has been announced. According to JBC Publishing, the company that promoted WCS in Brazil, the winning team is the team of Gabriel Niemietz and Jéssica Campos, who cosplayed as the robot Jango and Jo from Burst Angel.

Source: Papo de Budega

HONG KONG'S FIRST EVER INTERNATIONAL GRAPHIC NOVEL

Launching the first issue of their debut title DevaShard across America in September 2008, Hong Kong based company Fluid Friction looks set to revolutionise the comic book and graphic novel industry.

In the long history of comics and graphic novels in Hong Kong, no one has previously attempted to launch a truly international product. However, with 6 markets initially (HK, Singapore, Macau, India, USA & UK) and many more to follow, Fluid Friction looks to be the first to release its graphic novel worldwide and simultaneously in English & Chinese.

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ANN points out that Kodansha's Morning 2 website has leaked news of the winner of the 2nd Morning International Manga Competition. According to the preview of the next issue of Morning 2, the winner is Fairy Tale by Taiwan's Meng-Lin Yu.

Deadline of the 3rd M.I.M.C. is September 30th, 2008.

Also, MangaCast has a "surprising" report on the latest issue of Morning 2.

Jiji Press reports that UNIQLO, a Japanese casual clothing store chain, is planning on bringing its manga and anime T-shirts overseas:

Fast Retailing hopes to boost sales of the manga and anime T-shirts by luring more overseas customers who seek after Japanese pop culture as "Japan Cool." [...] In France, Fast Retailing on Monday opened a time-limited T-shirt shop at Galeries Lafayette, a major department store in central Paris. [...] UNIQLO's adult-size T-shirts are priced between 1,500 yen and 1,900 yen in Japan. [...] In 2008, the company aims at selling more than 12 million T-shirts worldwide. It operates UNIQLO shops in Britain, France, Hong Kong, mainland China, South Korea and the United States in addition to Japan.

Source: MangaCast

According to Active Anime, the 9th International Manga Summit will be taking place in Kyoto, Japan this coming September:

This year's summit theme called "Environmental Innovation", will attempt to pursue and inform society about environmental conservation through manga with three sub-themes focusing on Global Warming Prevention, Dietary Education, and The 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle).

The Associated Press looks at the popularity of mobile commerce in Japan.

TMC.net reports that Devil's Due Publishing is collaborating with uclick to make their comics available to mobile phone users.

Finally, the Manchester Evening News has an article titled "How did Manga take over the world?" that looks at the popularity of manga around the world.

Bandai Entertainment Leads with Most Nominations Followed by Viz Media, Geneon Entertainment, Bandai Visual and FUNimation Entertainment

Anaheim, California (March 27, 2008) ‹ The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA), the overseeing body of the nation¹s largest anime/manga convention (Anime Expo®), announced the SPJA Industry Award finalists for 2008 at the SPJA Symposium held at Tokyo International Anime Fair held within Tokyo Big Sight¹s Special Theatre 2(Thursday; March 27, 2008; 16:30-18:00-Tokyo time). More information can be found on the website www.spja.org.

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According to Muhyojo, the latest issue of Kodansha's Morning revealed that the second volume of its Mandala magazine on March 21st. ANN has more:

Not only will this new 290-page volume be bigger (20 milimeters larger than A4 paper size, or roughly North American "Letter" size), but it will be in full color. 15 creators from eight countries contributed to this project, including 10 artists who returned from the first Mandala volume.

Also from ITmedia (via ANN) is the news that to celebrate the magazine's 50th anniversary, Konami will be making a game that will feature popular characters from Kodansha's Shonen Magazine and Shogakukan's Shonen Sunday.

Iranians and Israelis, Americans, Russians and Chinese, Europeans and Africans Gather to Say a "Good Word"

Hod Hasharon. Israel, February 25, 2008. BuzziNews is the world's first and only online journal reporting exclusively in cartoons. Cartoonists come together from around the world and communicate their positive message to a global audience. The portal has been online for 3 months and has already attracted world-renowned illustrators from 18 countries who have sent in their cartoons.

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