Ichijinsha's Comic Yurihime, a successor publication to Sun Magazine's Yuri Shimai, has always been an "add-on" magazine to Ichijinsha's own ZERO-SUM.

Starting with Comic Yurihime Vol.11, onsale 1/18, Comic Yurihime will finally become its own magazine.

To celebrate, Comic Yurihime's editorial department has planned various treats. Aside from special covers and a "Petit Yurihime" booklet that will come with Comic Yurihime Vol.11, there will also be special collaboration series between Comic Yurihime, Comic Yurihime S and Yurihime Wildrose.

Source: Akiba Blog

ChinaNews is reporting that "special interest" manga are becoming increasingly popular in Taiwan, a place formerly dominated by shounen and shoujo manga. Not only are these "special interest" manga being used as teaching material, they're also creating a new market of adult manga readers:

According to World Journal, manga like Kami no Shizuku (a manga about wine) and Nodame Cantabile (a manga about music) were highly praised by the press, and became so popular that was they were constantly out of stock.

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ANN reports that Seven Seas president Jason DeAngelis has confirmed two new acquisitions made by Seven Seas:

• Inukami! by Mamizu Arisawa and Mari Matsuzawa
• Kuro Majo-san ga Touru!! (novel) by Hiroshi Ishizaki

From Bookslut comes an interview with librarian and recent Eisner Award judge Robin Brenner, who authored the book Understanding Manga and Anime last summer. Also included is Robin Brenner's list of the top 10 manga of all time.

Source: ANN

Jari Chevalier from Living Hero writes in to announce that Living Hero will be conducting an interview with Dan Pink, who recently announced his intention to write a career guide manga titled The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: the Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need, towards the end of February:

I'm writing to you and others in advance to give you a chance to participate in the formation of the interview questions. Just type your question into the question box widget on the right column of the page.

TangognaT reports that Nominations for Cybils, a "Children's and YA Bloggers' Literary Awards," have been announced. One manga, Yotsuba&! Volume 4 by Kiyohiko Azuma, was nominated in the Elementary/Middle Grade category.

Via: MangaBlog

From Comics212's Christopher Butcher comes a pictorial report of the Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum in Takarazuka, Japan. More photos can be found here.

Via: MangaBlog

From the Yaoi Press blog comes the "2007 Wrap-up," which looks at the state of Yaoi Press in 2007, as well as plans for 2008:

Our greatest success was Dark Prince vol. 1, which had the highest preorders and lowest initial returns of any title to date.

Our greatest failure was the comic books. Without book store sales the comic book line was unsustainable.

Celebrating its first anniversary, manga blog Shuchaku East is giving out a free copy of the manga Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms:

Of course, no blog anniversary is complete without freebies. I'm going to offer you a gratis copy of what is without a doubt the best-book-of-2007-that-no-one-read; even if David Welsh couldn't convince you to shell out for copy of "Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms," I'll take it upon myself to ship you one fo' free. Yes, that's right; free.

In his latest blog post, Del Rey Manga's Dallas Middaugh has listed his top 10 manga of 2007:

1. Phoenix: Sun by Osamu Tezuka
2. Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaki
3. Genshiken by Kio Shimoku
4. Monster by Naoki Urasawa
5. Emma by Kaoru Mori
6. MPD Psycho by Eiji Otsuka and Sho-u Tajima
7. The Drifitng Classroom by Kazuo Umezu
8. xxxHOLiC by CLAMP
9. Guru Guru Pon-chan by Satomi Ikezawa
10. Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service by Eiji Ohtsuka and Housui Yamazaki

Source: Active Anime

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., LOS ANGELES, and LAS VEGAS – From 2008 International CES and in a manga entertainment industry first, Verizon Wireless and TOKYOPOP announced the TOKYOPOP video channel is now available to Verizon Wireless' V CAST Video customers. Featuring TOKYOPOP manga entertainment, the availability of the TOKYOPOP V CAST Video channel from Verizon Wireless marks the first time manga movies, anime clips and Asian entertainment have been available in one package to mobile customers.

TOKYOPOP on V CAST offers 15 to 20 four- to six-minute videos each week from TOKYOPOP's popular manga entertainment, including manga videos known as imanga, anime clips, and other popular Asian-influenced entertainment. Video from TOKYOPOP on V CAST includes:

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From Weekly Jump Readers' Journal comes an article feature titled "WSJ Illustrated Guide: pt. 2 (1980-1984)," Part 2 of a 6-part series of articles that look at important Shonen Jump serializations, with a focus on titles that were adapted into anime.

Takehiko Inoue (mangaka of Slam Dunk and Vagabond) will be hosting a manga exhibition "Final Exhibition" at the Ueno Royal Museum from late May to early July. Promotion for the exhibition can be found here.

Source: Manga Jouhou

Diverse New Titles To Kick Off The New Year

San Francisco, CA, January 8, 2008 - VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced the launch of six highly anticipated new manga comic series for the First Quarter of 2008.

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Vote For The Top 25 Anime Website. Formerly Known as The Animefringe Top 25 is Now Active Animes Top 25

January 7, 2008 - Houston, Texas – Active Anime, a site dedicated to anime and manga, is continuing one of Animefringe Webzine's annual traditions by asking fans to vote for their favorite website.

Originally unveiled in 2000, Animefringe conducted this annual tradition for 5 years straight, and has garnered tons of votes during those times until Animefringe closed its doors on December 2005. However, the site is still available and contains all the back issues of the webzine for fans to peruse and enjoy.

Now in 2008, Active Anime, with the blessing Animefringe's former editor-in-chief, Adam Arnold, is continuing the tradition for the fans after almost a 3 year hiatus.

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From Weekly Jump Readers' Journal comes an article feature titled "WSJ Illustrated Guide: pt. 1 (1968-1979)," Part 1 of a 6-part series of articles that look at important Shonen Jump serializations, with a focus on titles that were adapted into anime.

VANCOUVER January 7, 2008 - The Producers of the Canadian Awards for the Electronic and Animated Arts (CAEAA) along with their Event Partners Ernst & Young, Electronic Arts (EA), Autodesk, N-GAGE by NOKIA, and the Government of British Columbia are ecstatic to announce Seth MacFarlane as the Host for their 2nd Annual Elan Awards Show on February 15th, 2008 at The Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts.

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(JANUARY 7, 2008- New York, NY) - DC Comics announced today the ten entries in the first www.Zudacomics.com contest of the new year. The selected comics are diverse in both their subject matter and tone, spanning a wide variety of genres - from comedy to thrillers, to fantasy and science fiction. Each is the unique vision of an aspiring comics creator.

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From ICv2 comes a 3-Part interview (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) with Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson, who talks about the state of Dark Horse and the graphic novel market, as well as Dark Horse's plans for 2008.

Via: MangaBlog

From PopCultureShock comes ComicRankings, a new project that "will collect reviews from across the web and calculate the average score. [...] emphasize the bigger picture to show how a series or creator or publisher has fared over time." Included is the "ComicRanking's Best & Worst Of 2007," which looks at rankings of manga, publishers and creators in the year 2007.

Imagine Norman Rockwell drawing a manga series...about a gay love affair between Abraham Lincoln and a lean-hipped, square-jawed cowboy. That's pretty much what Ishihara ("Japan's Norman Rockwell") Gōjin created with Yagyū Jūbē, published in 1967 in the mass-circulation weekly Shūkan Sankei. The president is, of course, a shogun - Tokugawa Iemitsu to be precise; and the cowboy is the samurai Yagyū Jūbē. This swashbuckling period drama is one of Ishihara's very few gekiga, and it displays in full his uniquely subtle artistic touch. The question is - how was an artist with such a polished style able to produce work at the frantic rate the weeklies demanded?

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Plus an Ohayocon 2008 preview, Wii workouts, reviews & more in episode 57.

GRIMES, IA, January 4, 2008 - Anime producer and mega-online anime retailer Right Stuf, Inc. is pleased to welcome Chris Beveridge - the founder and webmaster of Anime On DVD (AnimeOnDVD.com), - to episode 57 of ANIME TODAY.

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ICv2 is reporting that Tokyopop's global manga Undertown by Jim Pascoe (story) and Jake Myler (art) is being turned into a Sunday newspaper strip:

[...] beginning this Sunday January 6th. It will appear in over 50 papers, including the LA Times, Denver Post, Vancouver Sun, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Via: MangaBlog

Saki Okuse (Legend of Zipangu BLOOD SUCKER) will begin a new series titled Doro Neko 9 (ドロねこ９) in the March issue (1/30) of Gentosha's Monthly Comic Birz.

Shueisha has released new information on the Winter 2008 edition (1/12) of its Akamaru Jump. The issue will carry the final chapter of Tatsuma Ejiri's P2! -let's Play Pingpong!-, as well as many one-shots, omakes and posters. Weekly Jump has the details.

Violinist of Hameln creator Michiaki Watanabe will start a new series titled Violinist of Hameln ~Shchelkunchik~ (ハーメルンのバイオリン弾き ～シェルクンチク～) in Square Enix's Young Gangan No.3 (1/18).

Iwasawa Masahiro, mangaka of Let's Play Baseball!, will start a new series titled Let's Play More Baseball! (もっと野球しようぜ！) in the February issue of Akita Shoten's Monthly Shonen Champion.

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New Imprint To Offer Omnibus Editions Of Popular Manga Series With New Cover Art, Color Pages And Bonus Content

San Francisco, CA, January 3, 2008 - VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, brings a new perspective to the manga marketplace with the launch of a new imprint called VIZBIG Edition. The new imprint will release omnibus editions of top-selling manga series in a larger 5-3/4 x 8-5/8 size (larger than the standard 5 x 7-1/2 manga) with special premium presentations including new cover art.

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