CLAMP member Mokona will be holding an autograph session in February:

Shibuya:
Start: 13:00.
Place: Logos Gallery (where an special exposition will be held from February 16th~28th.
Tickets will be given for the first 200 people who purchase CLAMP Mokona no Okimonokimono at Logos Gallery on February 16th at 10:00.

Ikebukuro:
Start: 17:00.
Place: Libro Ikebukuro Parco Shop.
Tickets will be given for the first 200 people who purchase CLAMP Mokona no Okimonokimono at Libro Ikebukuro Parco Shop on February 15th at 17:00.

*Translation from Chibi Yuuto's CHRoNiCLEs

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The Consumerist has published an article criticizing Walmart.com and Target.com for selling the BL manga Yaoi Hentai (published by Yaoi Press).

From the article:

The Consumerist may not be porn, but Walmart is now in the business of selling it, in comic book form. [...] Yes, we're surprised as well. Not that we're prudes or anything. It's just, you know, Walmart. Are congratulations in order? Golden tentacles? Target, meh, we knew they're sluts anyway. —MEGHANN MARCO and BEN POPKEN

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Creator's Partner has announced a new free manga magazine aimed at girl otaku. The magazine, titled bourgeon, will be made available both in print and online.

From ANS:

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From Manga Jouhou comes a complete translation of Yomiuri Online's 2006 article, which looks back on the Japanese manga industry in 2006.

The latest issue of PCWC looks at Diamond Book Distribution and its business in "Revenues Up, Returns Down at Diamond Book Distribution."

The Perseus Books Group has announced that it will offer the publisher clients of Publishers Group West a deal to pay them 70% of the money owed to them by PGW, in exchange for distribution contracts with Perseus, which would benefit publishers affected by the AMS/PGW bankruptcy.

Source: Icarus Blog

New Akiba reports that during the 25th Anniversary Jisedai World Hobby Fest, a new Obake no Q-taro (by Fujiko Fujio) manga titled Shin Obake no Q-taro was announced for Shogakukan's children's magazine CoroCoro Comic.

Source: Manga Jouhou

Norwalk, CT, January 22, 2007: In a significant development that will transform it into a year-round national event, New York Comic Con (NYCC) has announced that it will launch an audio and video podcast available free to the general public.

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A live event called Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekisou (涼宮ハルヒの激奏) will be held at Omiya Sonic City on 3/18. The event, expected to last four hours, will feature all five SOS-dan members, as well as Tsuruya-san, Kyon's sister, and Taniguchi.

On 1/20, Animate began selling tickets in advance at selected stores and online website for 4,500 yen. As expected, the tickets were sold out in a very short amount of time. Now the tickets are available on Yahoo Auction for 10x the original price. The ticket of a good seat was sold for 66,000 yen, while tickets of slightly less desirable seats are around 30,000 yen.

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The winners of the 52nd Shogakukan Manga Awards have been announced.

Children's Category:
- Kirarin Revolution by An Nakahara
Serialized in Ciao (Shogakukan)

Boys' Category:
- Kekkaishi by Yellow Tanabe
Serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday (Shogakukan)

Girls' Category:
- 7 Seeds by Yumi Tamura
Serialized in Flowers (Shogakukan)

General Category:
- Bengoshi No Kuzu by Iura Hideo
Serialized in Big Comic Original (Shogakukan)

Judging Committee Special Award:
- Kimagure Concept by Hoi Choi Production
Serialized in Big Comic Spirits (Shogakukan)

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ICv2 has announced the addition of six new panelists to its second annual ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference at New York Comic Con in February. The new panelists are: Larry Gonick (graphic novelist); Kurt Hassler (co-publisher of Yen Press and ICv2's "#1 Most Powerful Person in Manga" last year); Glenn Kardy (CEO of Japanime, publisher of Kanji de Manga, etc.); Dallas Middaugh (associate publisher of Del Rey Manga); Ted Rall (Pulitzer Prize-nominated cartoonist, and graphic novelist); and Tomoko Suga (Senior Manager, Foreign Rights Department of Kodansha).

Source: MangaBlog

The Comics Reporter and comics212.net looks at the nominees for the Angouleme Essential Awards, the prize of which will be handed out at the Festival International de la Bande Dessinee. Manga nominated for the award are:

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SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Jan. 12, 2007) – MySA.com, the online portal for the San Antonio Express-News, has posted its winners of the 2006 Commie Awards, which honors the best and worst in comic books for 2006.

Resident geeks and hosts of the weekly Geek Speak Comic Cast, Chris Quinn, René A. Guzman and Sean M. Wood list their picks in an online podcast accompanied by a video montage of the winning work.

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AnimeNEXT is proud to be bringing its world famous Manga Library to the NY Comic Con for the second year in a row. Last year was great success and we had many visitors to the library. It was great to bring the art of Japanese Manga to the crowd; some attendees knew and loved Manga already, other comic book fans were introduced to the medium for the first time.

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The Wild Side, a German BL manga publisher, is looking into becoming a general manga publisher:

The Wild Side has decided to do some branching out. Aside from Yaoi and Shounen Ai we also want to publish mangas with other adult oriented themes like Shounen, Horror, Thriller, Action and so on. The stories should be mature and well thought out, sex is optional.

Source: Deutsche Mangaka

Between January 21st and February 2nd, a commemorative exhibition called "Japan's Power of Expression" will be held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Japan Media Art Festival. The celebration event will take place at the newly established national fine arts museum in Roppongi, Tokyo.

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MangaCast translates the weekly Doujinshi ranking in Japan (01/20) according to Messe Sanoh, compiled by Akiba Blog (NSFW).

ALC Publishing, the world's only all-yuri publisher, is pleased to announce that they will premiering their newest Yuri anthology, "Yuri Monogatari 4" New York Comic Con, being held at Jacob Javits Center in New York City on February 23-25, 2007.

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According to a press release (PDF), Sega Toys will release a limited edition (3,000 sets only) 200-volume miniature set of Osamu Tezuka's manga beginning January 27th. The manga set, 4.45 x 3.65 centimeters in size, will be sold for 73,500 yen.

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From The Anime Blog comes an interview with Chinese doujinshi artist Yang Fan, who drew illustrations for Chinese magazines such as Comics King and XinGanXian, and is currently working on tarot cards for Sega's online game Three Kingdoms.

Also featured is an interview from December 2006 with an artist who goes by the name Apricot.

From ANS:

Japanese publishing house Shimanaka has announced putting steps in motion to begin the dissolution of the company as of January 10th. Degrading sales are cited as the reason. Shimanaka was known for printing its "Island Comics Primo" masterpiece series of manga reprints by authors including Shotaro Shotaro Ishinomori, Fujiko F Fujio, Reiji Matstumoto, Monkey Punch, Go Nagai and others.

Korean Comics: A Society Through Small Frames, an exhibition sponsored by the Korean Society, will take place at the Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library from January 16 to March 16. The event will feature "83 framed works by 21 of Korea's most talented cartoonists, drawn over a period of 40 years. It includes work by artists from both South Korea and North Korea."

From the Japanese blog lovelovedog comes an article looking at the cost of manga production in Japan. The analysis, written by a school teacher, calculates how much it takes to produce a volume of manga, and compares the result with incomes from other fields.

On the Cost of Producing Manga
- Written by a school teacher

In the case of anime production cost, various references can be found in the following article:

- On the Cost of Producing Anime

Generally it takes around 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 yen to make a 30 minute episode anime. In the case of manga, because there isn't much information available, for now we'll consider the pay for a one-page manuscript as 20,000 yen. Please pay attention to how the calculations are handled, since even by analogy the following calculations contain many steps.

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Visual novel developer/publisher KID (Kindle Imagine Develop), creator of visual novels/dating sims such as Pia Carrot he Youkoso, Memories Off, Ever 17, and Ai Yori Aoshi, has filed for bankruptcy. However, according to a blurb on KID's official site, there still may be a chance for their near-completed games to be released.

Source: insert credit

A new adult magazine titled Men's Young Special Ikazuchi will be released by Futabasha on January 22nd. Men's Young Special Ikazuchi is a special issue of Men's Young.