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.

South Carolina Now is reporting that a student was removed from his school due to possession of a "Death Note":

A Hartsville Middle School student has been removed from school, pending a discipline hearing, after a school administrator confiscated a notebook titled "Death Note" earlier this week.

Via: Journalista

From About.com:Manga comes an interview with Jenna Winterberg and Michelle Nguyen, editors of Gothic & Lolita Bible. Also available is a preview gallery of Gothic & Lolita Bible volume 1.

ICv2 has released the January 2008 top 100 graphic novel sales estimates and the top 300 comics sales estimates based on Diamond Indexes and Publisher Title Data. Also from ICv2 is an analysis of the trends in December based on the graphic novel sales chart.

Also, MangaBlog provides its own look at the data, as well as a list of manga from the Top 100 Graphic Novels chart.

From Newsarama comes its annual analysis of data provided by Nielsen BookScan:

The book selling the most pieces in 2007 was Naruto v13 with 80,423 pieces sold. Like last year, you can probably call it Naruto???s year, as all 27 (!) volumes chart, and they all chart within the top 100 (or Top 65, to be more precise) ??? that???s a pretty major accomplishment.

Via: MangaBlog

ICv2 has released its 2007 anime and manga sales report:

ICv2's manga and graphic novel market estimates aren't available yet, but it does appear that manga had another strong year in 2007 although its rate of growth is clearly slowing.

Also included in the report is ICv2's top 10 manga properties for 2007:

1. Naruto
2. Fruits Basket
3. Death Note
4. Bleach
5. Kingdom Hearts
6. Pokemon
7. Vampire Knight
8. Fullmetal Alchemist
9. Absolute Boyfriend
10. Loveless

Shakespeare has it all, and now you can experience the action and appreciate the intrigue in Shakespeare-- The Manga Edition! From the experts at CliffsNotes?? (www.cliffsnotes.com) comes a new reference series that takes reading and learning to another level: The Manga Edition. Manga is a Japanese graphic novel, characterized by highly stylized art, which has grown into a worldwide phenomenon.

February 11, 2008 -- Dreams and schemes! Alliances and betrayals! Murder and mayhem! Passions and poisons! Shakespeare has it all, and now you can experience the action and appreciate the intrigue in Shakespeare-- The Manga Edition!

Read More »

Canned Dogs is reporting that Core Magazine, one of the biggest adult manga publisher in Japan, is currently looking for blogs to review their newly released products:

Adult book and magazine publisher Core magazine has announced that they are now looking for approximately 50 blogs that are willing to receive newly released books from Core magazine over a 6 month period and review them.

Daily Yomiuri Online takes a look at the "fujoshi" culture in "THROUGH OTAKU EYES / 'Boys love' a vicarious escape for girls.":

Fujoshi is a pejorative Japanese term referring to women who are fans of manga and novels that feature romantic relationships between men--as a fantasy.

Fujoshi readers love the subgenre of comics and novels called "BL" (boys love) or "yaoi"--the abbreviation of "yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi," meaning "no climax, no ending, no meaning."

From Channel NewsAsia comes an article titled "China eyes French comic book festival as springboard to Europe" that looks at how China is trying to break into the European graphic novel market through the Angoul??me International Comics Festival and compete with established Japanese manga:

With their own national pavilion set up in city hall, a large Chinese delegation boasted of 11 million euros (US$16 million) worth of deals in the fields of comics and animated cartoons.