According to this Amazon.com listing, Tokyopop will release volume one of Gakuto Koda's light novel Missing on November 13. Currently Tokyopop has not made any official announcement regarding the license.

Source: AoD

From Times Online comes an article titled "Fantasy funeral brings out thousands of real mourners," which looks at a funeral held earlier this week in Tokyo for Raoh, the antagonist from Tetsuo Hara's Fist of the North Star series. Over 2,500 mourners appeared at the funeral held for Raoh, who will die in the upcoming Fist of the North Star movie.

Additional Info:
- Thousands attend funeral for fictional Raoh [ Newsarama Blog ]
- Thousands Turn Out To Pay Their Respects To Raoh [ animeOnline ]
- Fist of North Star's Raoh's Real Life Funeral [ Manga Jouhou ]

Celebrating their 30th anniversary, comics retailer Austin Books has announced their second annual Manga Melee event, which will take place this Saturday.

Discounted (25%-50% off) manga will be sold during the event. Also announced are special prizes provided by Tokyopop and Dark Horse, as well as Question & Answer and autograph sessions with special guests such as Rivkah and Tony Salvaggio.

Source: Newsarama

The nominees for the 2007 Eisner Comic Industry Awards have been announced, ManagBlog has a list of the manga-related nominations:

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan:

After School Nightmare, by Setona Mizushiro (Go! Comi)
Antique Bakery, by Fumi Yoshinaga (Digital Manga)

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On the USA Today Booklist Top 150 (PDF) for the week ending April 15th, Tokyopop's Fruits Basket volume 16 ranks at #15. VIZ Media's Naruto volume 13 ranks at #118.

From Asahi.com comes an article titled "S. Koreans get taste for wine from manga," which looks at how a manga titled Kami no Shizuku (Drops of God) has caused wine to see a surge in popularity in South Korea.

The new comic release list for April 18th 2007 from ComicList, compiled by MangaCast.

From MangaCast comes the Diamond Previews for May 2007, which provides information on new U.S. releases for July/August 2007.

San Jose, CA, April 2007. DrMaster Publications Inc. has just announced the publication of volume 4 of the popular series Lunar Legend Tsukihime. Fans of the hit Japanese anime, not to mention those of you lucky enough to play the import PC game, will revel in the thrilling continuation of Tsukihime.

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San Jose, CA, April 2007. DrMaster Publications Inc. has just announced the publication of Puri Puri, volume 1, an uproarious comedy about the trials and tribulations of a wannabe priest at an all-girls' school by debut author Chiaki Taro.

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