Fluid Friction Comics is a Hong Kong-based comic company that releases titles in English and Chinese internationally across the world.

Fluid Friction is perhaps one of the first companies in the world to have formed "a true East meets West team with local Chinese and Western artists and writers working seamlessly side by side to produce truly unique products." Below is an interview with Spencer Douglass, Fluid Friction's business development manager, who talks about Fluid Friction, its view of the comics market, as well as plans for the future:

Please introduce yourself.

My name is Spencer Douglass and I am the business development manager at Fluid Friction Comics. My job entails overseeing the production and timelines for the comics, setting up distribution across the world, organizing all the marketing, working with retailers to promote directly to their customers, handling PR, setting up and running our exhibits at various comic-cons and bringing in partners to work with us on things like possible films, games, TV series, merchandise, mobile content, etc.

So I suppose you could say I am essentially a "comic salesman." :-)

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About.com:Manga has talked with representatives from Digital Manga Publishing and got the official story about recent layoffs and restructuring at the Gardena, California-based
manga publisher:

Compared to the firestorm of commentary that accompanied the layoffs at TokyoPop earlier this year, the recent restructuring at Digital Manga Publishing was met with muted murmurs and conjecture. Now DMP is breaking their silence by confirming more details about their recent personnel changes, cutbacks and delays in their 2008 - 2009 release schedule, and putting to rest the rumor that their 801 Media yaoi manga imprint is folding.

From About:Manga comes another interview from Comic-Con. This time with Hiro Mashima, the creator of Fairy Tail, Rave Master and Monster Hunter Orage: "In our interview and from Q&A from his Comic-Con appearance, Mashima-sensei talks about the real-life inspirations for the wizards of Fairy Tail (like how he got the idea for Natsu's motion sickness) and how he creates both a weekly and a monthly manga series for both Shonen and Shonen Rival magazine and still find time to have fun."

From About.Manga comes an interview with Tite Kubo, the creator of Bleach, during SDCC: The life of a successful manga artist is a hectic one, especially for a creator like Tite Kubo who works on a hugely popular shonen manga series like Bleach. So it was a rare treat for U.S. manga fans to meet Kubo-sensei at San Diego Comic-Con. Besides catching his panel appearance, I also got a few moments with this shonen manga superstar to ask him about his beginnings as a manga artist, his early influences, his creative process and his most memorable Comic-Con moment.

From the Japan Times comes an article titled "Stan Lee's marvelous manga plans" by Patrick Macias, which looks at Ultimo, the new collaboration manga between Stan Lee and Hiroyuki Takei (mangaka of Shaman King).

From Okazu comes an interview with yuri translator Anastasia Moreno:

8) What's your favorite and least favorite thing about your job?

My favorite part of the job is to find little in-jokes in a story (that are totally apparent to native Japanese people but often overlooked by Americans) and being able to explain it in the translation notes. Unfortunately for Strawberry Panic, the whole story was a big parody, so I had nothing to add...

From otaku blog Akibanana comes an interview with Okura Atsuhisa:

Okura Atsuhisa, 39, a Kodansha Award laureate known for his work in the November 2007 edition of Wired. With the second volume of Moe USA in stores now, we decided to sit down with Okura to get to the bottom of the global move to educate otaku and experience Akihabara.

From Otaku USA comes an interview (in podcast) with Stan Lee on his latest project ULTIMO.

Also, Okazu has an interview with Erin Subramanian, translator of the yuri scanlation group Lililicious.

From Active Anime comes an interview with Megumi Uhde, founder of the new fan run convention Zuiichi that takes place on August 3rd:

[AA] What is Zuiichi?
[MU] Zuiichi means "elite" or "foremost" in Japanese. The event focuses on all of the best things in fandom, and with the venue and cuisine, we thought it appropriate. The focus for this year's Zuiichi is trifold - Anime, Lolita and other Japanese fashion, and Joss Whedon. As we grow, we'll incorporate more of the random fandom into the Dreamland fold.

Plus the Tokyo International Anime Fair, Kawaii Kon & Sakura-Con, contests & more in episode 64!

GRIMES, IA, April 11, 2008 – Anime producer and mega-online anime retailer Right Stuf, Inc. is pleased to welcome Gonzalo Ferreyra - the vice president of sales, publishing and home video for VIZ Media – to episode 64 of ANIME TODAY.

In this new interview, Ferreyra discusses how anime and manga are interconnected, plus the challenges and opportunities that arise when both anime and manga components of a series are available in the same market.

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