Manga News and Information
May, 2008Sunrise, FL - May 22, 2008 - Cuban American fine artist, Carlos Aleman has begun a series of paintings called 'Springtime'. Working from his home studio, the artist is time lapse videotaping some of his work and featuring it on Youtube. The paintings are a tribute to Japanese comic book art and animation. The series focuses on love and the passing of time as represented by flower petals floating in the wind. You can view Aleman's work on his website http://www.carlosaleman.com.
Of course, this doesn't mean there will be absolutely nothing posted here all summer. Articles and long news posts on special manga-related events (if they happen, that is, ho ho) will still be posted, but the everyday run-of-the-mill news posts that you all know and (hopefully) love will be gone until after August. In the main time, do visit these sites to to quench your desire for all things manga (think of this as our unofficial summer-online-manga-reading-list): Top 10 manga (5/21) according to Tohan:
Additional Rankings: San Francisco and Santa Monica, CA - eigoMANGA is scheduled to deliver a series of "Made On A Mac" workshops for the Apple Store in San Francisco, CA on Friday, May 30 at 6:00pm (PST) and for the Apple Store in Santa Monica, CA on Saturday, June 7 at 1:00pm (PST). eigoMANGA's team of comic book artists and editors will be presenting live demonstrations and techniques behind their latest publishing and media projects produced on Mac computers. This event is opened to the public. FOR ULTRA-RARE APPEARANCE AT 2008 SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL Creator Of BLEACH And ZOMBIEPOWDER. Manga To Appear On Special Panel and For Signings At VIZ Media Booth #4113 San Francisco, CA, May 21, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced that its SHONEN JUMP magazine will welcome prolific manga (graphic novel) creator Tite Kubo for a series of rare in-person appearances beginning on Friday, July 25 at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con International. The sci-fi love comedy anime CODE-E by Studio Deen, and the action manga Black Lagoon by Hiroe Rei, will both be adapted into light novels. The CODE-E light novel will be authored by Sakaki Ichirou (Strait Jacket light novel series) and illustrated by Ogata Kouji (Boogiepop light novels), while Black Lagoon will be authored by Urobuchi Gen (Fate/Zero light novel) and illustrated by Hiroe Rei himself. Also, the fantasy light novel Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu written by Takaya Kagami and drawn by Saori Toyota will be adapted into a manga by Chouzou Hiroko and start serialization in the August issue of Dragon Age (on sale July 9th). Source: LightNovel.org According to Yahoo! Japan, Shogakukan is considering suspending its weekly seinen manga magazine Young Sunday due to declining sales. ANN has more:
Anime Expo® 2008 Masquerade Sign Ups Available Online Anaheim, California (May 19, 2008) ‹Anime Expo® 2008 will be accepting online applications for one of the most highlighted and enduring traditions of the nation's largest anime and manga convention-the Masquerade held at this year's Anime Expo® 2008 held from July 3-6, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA. More information can be found on the website www.anime-expo.org. Amateur costumers hailing from around the world have graced our stage with their wonderful costumes and performances. Interested parties will be able to register, as a contestant, online on May 19, 2008 after 6:00 pm PST at www.anime-expo.org Death Note II – "The Last Word" Special Bank Holiday Date: 26th May 2008 According to Canned Dogs, the Japanese blog Katsujichuudoku has discovered the reason why Takehiko Inoue decied to serialize Vagabond in Kodansha's Evening magazine after his popular basketball manga Slam Dunk ended in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump: The following manga appeared on the USA Today Booklist Top 150 (PDF) for the week ending May 11th:
Also, Comicsnob posts the weekly online manga sales rankings: Also available is Comicsnob's 2007 in Review for manga in Japan. From the Japan Times comes an article titled "Stan Lee's marvelous manga plans" by Patrick Macias, which looks at Ultimo, the new collaboration manga between Stan Lee and Hiroyuki Takei (mangaka of Shaman King). San Francisco and Santa Monica, CA - eigoMANGA is scheduled to deliver a series of "Made On A Mac" workshops for the Apple Store in San Francisco, CA on Friday, May 30 at 6:00pm (PST) and for the Apple Store in Santa Monica, CA on Saturday, June 7 at 3:00pm (PST). eigoMANGA's team of comic book artists and editors will be presenting techniques behind their latest publishing and media projects produced on Mac computers. eigoMANGA first began hosting a "Made On A Mac" workshop at the Apple Stores during the San Francisco store's grand-opening on June of 2004. There the company officially launched it's shojo (female oriented) comic book publication, Sakura Pakk. eigoMANGA made an additional in-store appearance in the San Francisco location during MacWorld Week in January 2007. Bungaku Shoujo, a light novel series by Nomura Mizuki (author) and Takeoka Miho (illustrator), will be adapted into a manga by Kousaka Rito and will be serialized in GanGan Powered starting with the August issue (6/21). Another light novel series, Young Gun Carnaval by Fukami Makoto, will be adapted into a manga by Satou Yuko, and will serialize as an e-manga on FlexComix Next beginning June 3rd. The Beat reports that winners of the 2007 Eagle Awards has been announced. The winner in the Manga Category is Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's Death Note. Top 10 manga (5/14) according to Tohan:
Additional Rankings: Brazilian publsiher Panini Comics has announced that it will release Rei Hiroe's Black Lagoon in May, a manga that Japanese animation and manga specialist Rolando Jose made some interesting comments about, especially during moments in the story when the characters are in Latin America. Source: Papo de Budega Winners of the 32nd Kodansha Manga Award have been announced. Kodansha Manga Award is awarded annually to works published in the previous year by Kodansha. This year the winners are: Children's manga category: Shounen manga category: Shoujo manga category: General manga category: The winners of the 37th Japanese Cartoonists' Association Award (Nihon Mangaka Kyokai Awards) have been announced: Grand Prize - 20th Century Boys/21st Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa Award of Excellence - Alfheim no Kishi by Seika Nakayama The winners of the 12th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Award (sponsored by Asahi Shimbun) have been announced: Grand Prize:
Shinsei (New Hope) Award:
Short Manga Prize:
Special Award:
Source: Anime! Anime! After a long wait, JBC will finally release Shoujo Kakumei Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena) by Chiho Saito in Brazil. The press release can be found on Anime-Pró. For more comments check Shoujo Café blog. MangaCast points out that Go! Comi has licensed Amemiya and Ichihara's manga 07-Ghost. MangaBlog has more. From Okazu comes an interview with yuri translator Anastasia Moreno:
Japanese fansite Takahiro no Kenkyuukan reports that recently Ichijinsha has released readership data of their magazine for potential advertisers. Canned Dogs has a summary of the data in English. |
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. |
During the past few weeks, you may have noticed a slow down in news here on ComiPress. After operating day after day for over 2 years, the staff here at ComiPress decided it's time to close the door and call it quits...just kidding! Although we're not going the way of the dodo, this summer, CP's news staff will be taking a well-deserved break in order to recharge their editorial batteries for the cold weather that is sure to follow.
ComiPress teams up with writer Udagawa Takeo and translator John Gallagher to publish an online version of the English-language translation of Manga Zombie.
