Alan Payne, Tokyopop's National Accounts Manager, will leave Tokyopop and join IDW as Vice President of Sales on January 2nd.

Source: ICv2

Cybils, the 2006 Children's and YA Bloggers' Literary Awards, has announced its nominations, which includes a graphic novel category with a number of manga nominated.

Source: MangaBlog

When Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys ended abruptly last April in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits, leaving only a note stating that "the next part of the series will resume in Spring 2007," fans wondered if the series will actually finish.

After months of waiting, Big Comic Spirit has finally announced that the "final chapters" of 20th Century Boys will begin serialization in Big Comic Spirit No. 4+5 New Year's issue, on sale December 25th.

Also announced is a new manga from Tohru Fujisawa (of GTO fame) titled Animal Joe, which will start in issue 3 of Big Comic Spirit, on sale December 18th.

A new series called Yuru Yuru Future by Haruko Kashiwagi will begin in Big Comic Spirit No. 6+7.

After going on hiatus for over a year, The Law of Ueki + (plus), the sequel to Tsubasa Fukuchi's The Law of Ueki, will finally return in Weekly Shonen Sunday No.1, on sale December 6th.

Also, after only 10 chapters, Yuuichi Itakura's manga Hand's will end in Weekly Shonen Jump No.1, on sale 12/4.

Hara Taira (63), a popular cartoonist known for his frequent appearance on the quiz show "Quiz Derby," passed away at a hospital in Fujimi city in the Saitama Prefecture on November 10th. The cause of death was liver failure. The date of the funeral service has not been decided.

Hara Taira has been contributing works to manga magazines since his teens, and he became a mangaka in 1963. His works such as "Gebageba Jihyou" and "Monrou-chan" are known for their nonsense gags and high spirit.

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Too lazy to read manga on your own? Why not use the Automatic Manga Reader?

Macworld looks at the growth of technology and how it's affecting the way we read comics in "Excelsior! Digital comics on your Mac," included is an in-depth guide on how to read digital comics on a Mac.

According to the latest issue of Big Comic Superior, Moonlight Mile by Yasuo Otagaki will be adapted into an anime TV series.

Also announced was that the Moonlight Mile manga is on hiatus due to its author's illness.

Volume 10 of VIZ Media's Fullmetal Alchemist ranked #146 on this week's USA Today Booklist Top 150 (PDF) for the week ending November 19.

The animation Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time), directed by Mamoru Hosoda, was nominated as one of the five candidates for the upcoming 2006 Japan SF Grand Prize (Nihon SF Taisho), held by the Japan SF Writers Club.

The other candidates are: Ai no Monogatari by Hiromu Yamamoto, Shangri-la by Eiichi Ikegami, Tenku No Toride by Issui Ogawa, and Barubara Ikai by Moto Hagio.

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