According to the latest newsletter from Viz Media, the top 5 spots of Viz's best-selling manga list are all taken by Naruto, which also dominated the top-selling anime list.

Source: Comics Worth Reading (Via MangaBlog)

Earlier this year, Sirou Tunasima's mecha manga Jinki: Extend was dropped from Mag Garden's Comic Blade due to conflicts between Tunasima and the magazine's Editor-in-Chief. Since then Tunasima has confirmed that more than 10 publishers offered to continue carry Jinki: Extend.

Today Chuosha announced that Jinki: Extend will continue in MediaWork's Dengeki Moeoh. While no official date has been given for when the series will resume serialization, starting with the August issue Dengeki Moeoh will run special illustrations from Tunasima for three issues.

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The official website of the recently announced Juushin Enbu anime has been launched at www.jyushin.jp.

MangaCast points out through the recent Diamond Previews list a new title that has appeared under Infinity Studios:

• Kyohaku Dogs by Shaa

The manga, a side story of a light novel called Nogizaka Haruka's Secret.

According to Ultimatum, Enterbrain's manga/novel magazine Magi-Cu (derived from Magical Cute) will cease publication after the release of volume 40 (on June 25th).

Source: Ultimatum Chat

Starting with volume 4, Kodansha's Morning 2 will become a bi-monthly magazine.

Asahi.com reports that the NPO Kotoba no Atelier has started a new Tokiwa-so project to rent low-cost housing to young manga artists:

The NPO rented four old houses in Tokyo to accommodate young cartoonists. Rents in the communal homes run from 30,000 yen to 50,000 yen a month, including utilities and Internet fees. The artists sign yearly contracts, renewable for three years.

From ICv2 comes a report of this year's American Library Association Annual Conference held in Washington, D.C. publishers that appeared at the event include Viz Media, Tokyopop and Yen Press:

With graphic novels for teens at the heart of the expansion of graphic novels in libraries, but growing numbers of titles also hitting juvenile and adult collections as well, libraries continue to grow in importance as a distribution channel for graphic novel publishers, and as a way for new fans to be exposed to the medium.

Backstage returns!

Rumic World is one of the most complete English guide to the works of renowned female manga artist Rumiko Takhashi.

The large fansite consists of 7 series-specific subsites: Tomobiki-cho, Life at Maison Ikkoku, Ranma ?? Perfect Edition, The Inuyasha Companion, Mermaid's Flesh, The Ring & The Rosary and Rumic Theater.

Over 10 years old (counting its subsites), Rumic World is one of the oldest site of its kind, and it continues to grow as new works from Rumiko Takahashi are published every week in Japan.

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Channel NewsAsia has a report on the Media Development Authority (MDA) of Singapore's Comics Publishing Forum 2007, which took place on June 23rd. Present during the event were representatives from Tokyopop and Diamond Book Distributor, many Singapore comic artists also attended the event:

Speakers shared key fundamental aspects in comic book development and gave a workshop on the techniques of sequential art story-telling. [...] Participants gained insights into strategies for marketing, distributing, and breaking into foreign markets.

More detail on Comics Publishing Forum 2007 can be found here.