As part of the Spring/Summer Workshops at Max the Mutt Animation School, DRAMACON writer and artist Svetlana Chmakova will be teaching a two day seminar (April 28th & 29th) in creating manga. Nominated for both Harvey and Eisner awards, Svetlana is a celebrated OEL Manga creator with two volumes of DRAMACON under her belt and a new series called NIGHT SCHOOL in development for Yen Press. She is also a regular cartooning contributor for COSMOGIRL.

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HP Singapore has agreed to become prime sponsor for "ComiIdol 2007", the contest to find the best digital artists in Singapore – a theme that fits well with HP's "Invent" brand values. This sponsorship also coincides with the official start of pubic voting today!

A nationwide contest created by ComiAsia (www.comiasia.com) and supported by Singapore's MDA (www.mda.gov.sg), ComiIdol is a new initiative with the singular mission of discovering and nurturing a new generation of superstar digital artists from Singapore.

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Kodakawa Shoten's 2007 Light Novel Award is now open to public voting. The award contain five categories:

• Love Comedy category
• School Life story category
• Action category
• Mystery category
• Novelize category

According to the awards page, those who vote will receive a chance to win gifts:

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From Newsarama comes an interview with Kurt Hassler and Rich Johnson from Yen Press, who discuss Yen Press' initial launch titles, their relationship with Square-Enix, and the future of Yen Press.

According to this press release, a special manga section will appear at the Bristol Comics Expo, taking place 12th/13th May:

This year will see a much expanded manga section in the Bristol Comics Expo, 12th/13th May, which will be put alltogether in a special 'manga alleyway'. The section is previewed at: http://www.comicexpo.net/spotlight.htm

DRAGON DRIVE, MILLENNIUM SNOW, SHAKUGAN NO SHANA, HOSHIN ENGI and YURARA offer unique stories for readers of all ages

San Francisco, CA, April 9, 2007 - VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced the debut of five highly anticipated manga series for the second quarter of 2007. The new releases include DRAGON DRIVE, MILLENNIUM SNOW, SHAKUGAN NO SHANA, HOSHIN ENGI and YURARA.

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From MangaCast comes the translation of a new article from Takeshi Ishizawa, a Japanese who have spent a long time living in Indonesia. The article, "Depth of Japanese Manga - TOYO Kataoka and MIURA Yasuto," looks at mangaka Kataoka Toyo and Yasuto Miura and their respective drawing styles.

The results of the school textbook authorization of 2006 were announced on March 30th in Japan. "Manga Textbook" appeared on the results as a Mathematics II textbook for high schools. However, the textbook's publisher, Keirinkan, had to delete more than half of the manga-related contents the draft version of the textbook.

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According to Manga Jouhou, DMP/June has announced a "Spring Cleaning Contest":

The staff members of DMP/June Manga are breaking out the mops and brooms for a little spring cleaning! We have collected a lot of stuff over the past year; and since the weather is soo nice these days, we have decided to crack open the windows and clean out our warehouse. So everything we find has got to go! Autographed goodies, character goods, advanced books, models and figurines.

Source: Manga Jouhou

According to Sankei Shumbun, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affair has designed a 16-page Detective Conan pamphlet aimed at educating students on foreign affairs.

Source: Manga Pontification

On April 9th, Japanese yaoi publisher Leaf Shuppan posted an official statement on its homepage announcing that it has filed for bankruptcy on the 9th of April.

Icarus Blog has more information on the bankruptcy:

Yuuhi Publishing, described as a "major publisher of BL novels," has fired off its entire staff without warning...

*Yuuhi publishes BL novels under the imprints "Leaf" and "Ai."

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Gemini Jetpack, a manga and anime store located in Waterloo, Ontario, has announced that it will be closing its doors due to various reasons:

First up, is the vastly changed market place. When we started up, over 5 years ago, one of my motivations was that you couldn’t find anime anywhere. None. At least not the good kind anyway. Now, years later, anime seems to be on every network, with specialty anime devoted networks popping up all the time, not to mention Anime On Demand. And that's cool, but hurts business here of course.

Source: The Comic Reporter

According to Moon Phase, Inoue Takehiko's basketball web comic Buzzer Beater will be adapted into an anime. This marks the second time Buzzer Beater is adapted into an anime. The new anime will be aired in July.

The Hearst-backed E Ink, which produces portable, foldable displays that mimic conventional paper, is testing a prototype that could open the technology to e-magazines and e-newspapers. According to the report, the new digital text allows readers to take blogs "off the computer screen and to the beach." Thanks Isaac.

ComiPress recently went through a software upgrade, while at it, we decided to implement a new theme. Thanks to the upgrade, many new features were introduced to the site, like the ability to rate news stories or the hideable menus (There are more surprises waiting for you!).

Please let us know what you think of the new design, or any suggestions/comments you may have by leaving a comment here!

In response to an article claiming weekly manga magazines is becoming more and more expensive, the Japanese blog "Justification of Information, Print Media or Story Addiction" recently published an article analyzing the price of weekly manga magazines in the last 30 years, and concludes that the price of weekly manga magazines have remained stagnant for the past 30 years.

Weekly Manga Magazines Price Remains Stagnant for the Last 30 Years
- That means the "price per page" rate of weekly manga magazines has remained the same for the past 30 years.

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According to Earthtimes, The Bangkok International Book Fair 2007 ordered the removal of adult manga on sale at this year's event after pornographic contents were revealed by Thailand's minister of social development:

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A reminder from Kodansha International Manga Competition's Ceena to manga artists who are interested in submitting their works to Kodansha's International Manga Competition, the deadline of which is less than two months away:

ABOVE US ONLY SKY
There are no boundaries. There is one sky.

The first full-scale international competition for Manga worldwide.
INTERNATIONAL MANGA COMPETITION presented by the manga magazine "Weekly
Morning," Kodansha, Japan.

Submissions are now being accepted in ten languages: English, Spanish,
French, German, Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Thai, Italian, and Swedish.
The deadline: May 31 2007.

For more information at www.e-morning.jp/imc/.

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Chapter one of Kazuo Maekawa's Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright) is currently available on Young Jump's website. Gyakuten Saiban is a manga based on Capcom's popular game of the same name. In April, Shueisha moved the manga from Bessatsu Young Magazine (Young Magazine Extra Issue) to Young Magazine.

As a first in all of China, Beijing Chaoyang District's local tax office announced a new manga character to promote the payment of tax. The name of character is Nana.

On April 4th, students from Baijiazhuang, Chaoyang District met with Nana, special manga featuring Nana were also handed out during the event. According to the Chaoyang tax office, Nana was created in order to educate the youth about basic income tax knowledge, and to help establish integrity and a sense of duty as a taxpayers.

After the recent incident in Shenyang, Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's Death Note is finding itself in yet more trouble in China. Late last month, Chinese officials have begun confiscating "Death Notes" around a school near Wuhan. According to the director of Wuhan's Publication Bureau, a copy of the confiscated "Death Note" has already been sent to be processed and checked. As soon as the notebook is declared illegal, the authorities will begin taking further actions against "Death Notes" sold around schools.

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MangaCast has discovered two new manga from Viz Media, listed in the Simon & Schuster listings for 2008:

• Tekkon Kinkriito All in One by Matsumoto Taiyou
• High School Debut by Kawara Kazune

According to this AoD post, the latest issue of Faust, a literary magazine published by Kodansha, came with an announcement that "volume seven will be out this summer...And the American edition will start in Spring 08."

Source: AoD

The new comic release list for April 4th 2007 from ComicList, compiled by MangaCast.