Manga News and Information
February, 2008A round up of the new comic release list and views for the week of February 20th 2008: Top 10 manga (2/21) according to Tohan:
Additional Rankings: Kodansha's 3rd Morning International Manga Competition is now accepting submissions. The deadline for the third competition is September 30th, 2008:
The grand prize winner will receive $5,000, as well as having their work featured in Morning or Morning 2. Ichijinsha has announced that it will launch a new light novel label called "Ichijinsha Bunko" on May 20th, 2008. The lineup of light novels to be released under this label will be composed of "boy's" light novels and "girl's" light novels. Source: LightNovel.org Moon Phase is reporting that according to the current issue of MediaWorks' Dengeki Daioh, the magazine Dengeki Comic Gao will be suspended after this month's issue. Series currently serialized in Dengeki Comic Gao, such as Venus Versus Virus, ef - a fairy tale of the two and Gurren Lagann, will be moved to Dengeki Daioh. Source: Heisei Democracy
In the previous entry's comment column, it was pointed out to me that I'd neglected to mention the 1970s mangaka Shinji Mizushima. Oops... I did, didn't I. So I did some investigating on him. Kodansha's 2nd Morning International Manga Competition (M.I.M.C.) has announced the results of its initial screening, 31 works are selected, the final results will be announced in April. According to this post from AoD (Via MangaCast), several new titles have appeared on Simon Says under Viz Media, scheduled for release in October/November 2008:
According to an article from the American Go Association's E-Journal (Via AoD), the English version of Shonen Jump will replace Hikaru no Go with Takehiko Inoue's Slam Dunk:
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. Highly Anticipated New Manga Story Arc Launches Featuring A Teenage Naruto And Offers New Volumes Every Two Months San Francisco, CA, February 20, 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 the long-awaited new NARUTO manga story arc beginning with Volume 28, which is the first to feature Naruto as a teenager. The volume is expected to hit stores nationwide on March 4 with an estimated retail price of $7.95 and will include an exclusive full-color poster insert in the first print run. New editions of the hit series will now debut every two months. Brazilian Panini announced on it's website the cancellation of two titles: Eden and Peach Girl. According to Panini, the cancellation was mainly a result of slow sales. In both cases, the cancellation was a "re-break," because both titles have already been canceled once. Many fans were angered by Panini's cancellation, since the publisher promised to release the entire Peach Girl series to its end. So far, the only Brazilian publisher to finish releasing an entire series is JBC. Source: Papo de Budega Panelosophy - Retro Hits
by Chloe Ferguson In the upcoming year of licensing, old is new. Barely two months into 2008, and the list of pre-1980 manga titles set to street is both sizeable and various. From Tezuka to Takemiya, the trend of mining manga's history is here to stay. When it comes to older titles, U.S. manga companies have been less than forthcoming, largely thanks to the awkward transitional period of figuring out just who older titles should be aimed at. Viz tentatively broached the topic early in 2002, first releasing volume two of Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix as a standalone single book, while later (and rather haltingly) releasing the other volumes in the series. The effort proved less than successful, but Viz's handling of Phoenix was an unfortunate victim of hazy target marketing and minimal support; the book has always been a rara avis in bookstores and failed to strike a chord with any particular readers. Anime news and review website Active Anime has announced the result of its Active Anime Top 25, a continuation of Animefringe's annual ranking of websites has voted by readers. Below are the rankings: ALC Publishing, the world's only all-Yuri publisher, is recruiting writers and artists for their award-nominated Yuri anthology, "Yuri Monogatari." Writers and artists who wish to be considered for the new anthology should read the submission rules at http://www.anilesbocon.org/alc.html carefully before sending any materials. Questions can be emailed to nilesbocon01@hotmail.com. Recruitment will be held through March 15, 2008. Due to the time constraints of the project, no applications can be accepted after this time however, completed comics can be accepted at any time. See the above page for details. From Newsarama comes its annual analysis of data provided by Nielsen BookScan:
Via: MangaBlog Following the launch of the English version of AkibaBlog, another English otaku news/community website, Akibanana.com, has been launched on Valentine's Day. The full press release can be found here. According to YaoiSuki, Youka Nitta, mangaka of Embracing Love, will be attending this year's Yaoi-Con, which takes place from September 26 to 28. According to its latest newsletter, eigoMANGA will be attending this year's WonderCon, taking place from February 22nd to 24th. Find eigoMANGA in the exhibit hall at booth #1001, where it will talk about its spring 2008 releases, as well as be available for portfolio reviews and meetings. Also, eigoMANGA will appear at this year's Anime Pavillion, taking place on May 7th in downtown San Fransisco. A recent issue of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Japan Economic Times) ran an article on the 2008 Manga Taisho. According to the article, winners of the 1st "Manga Grand Prize" will be announced at the end of March. The planning committee constitutes of staff from the manga sections of the "big 4" book retailers. The award was created through volunteering of professional manga fans. 76 commissioners in the Selection Commission were selected as "reliable manga readers" from various fields by the planners. The qualification requirement of a manga for the award states that the manga needs to have "at least 8 volumes of tankoubon were published, with at least 1 volume was published in 2007." SPLAT! A Graphic Novel Symposium will take place on Saturday, March 15 at the New York Center of Independent Publishing (NYCIP) in Manhattan, with keynote speaker Scott McCloud . The NYCIP is a non-profit educational program (part of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen) dedicated to promoting and supporting independent publishers across the United States. VANCOUVER February 16th, 2008 – Last night the Video Game, Animation Industry and Digital Art Students turned out in full force to celebrate Canadian supremacy in the fastest growing entertainment industry in the world. Canadian video game developers and publishers, animators and studio heads and the brightest students and top academia gathered at 2nd Annual Elan Awards held at The Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts in eager anticipation to learn the winning names behind some of the biggest games and shows in North America. Dark Horse editor Philip Simon has posted an announcement regarding the current status of Hiroki Endo's manga EDEN, which came close to being canceled by Dark Horse last year. According to the announcement, although EDEN will be released at a slower pace, Dark Horse has decided to release the manga up to volume 12 (for now): According to 801 Media's latest blog post, the yaoi publisher has acquired 4 new titles to be released later this year:
Source: MangaCast According to ANN, Gary Steinman, the editorial director of ADV's upcoming magazine PiQ, is leaving ADV today. |
Manga Zombie
Finale: Panelosophy
An ongoing conversation about the philosophy behind manga both in the U.S. and abroad. Manga Ranking
Monthly charts of comparative manga rankings based on aggregate online sales listings from Matt Blind. |
The 
ComiPress teams up with writer Udagawa Takeo and translator John Gallagher to publish an online version of the English-language translation of Manga Zombie.
