From the Chronicle Herald comes an article on Svetlana Chmakova, creator of Dramacon. The article mentions the possibility of a show by Chmakova that may end up on Cartoon Network.

Via: Giapet

From ICv2 comes an interview with Del Rey Manga's Dallas Middaugh, who talks about the U.S. manga market, the upcoming manga releases, and Del Rey's future plans.

Del Rey Manga has launched its official forum as part of AoD's Official Forums:

We have a new addition to our Official Forums section today as we're now hosting the Official Del Rey Manga Forums. This will be linked from their site later today and provide a place for fans of Del Rey's manga and prose releases to talk with each other and with representatives from the company.

From theBookseller.com comes an article on Little, Brown Book Group's deal with Hachette Book's Yen Press manga in the U.K. The deal begins in September 2007 with 7 titles being released in the U.K.:

Little, Brown's science fiction and fantasy imprint Orbit will market the Yen Press list in the UK. Orbit business manager George Walkley said: "Orbit has been watching the development of the manga market closely, and we’re confident that in Yen Press we have found the ideal publishing partner.

International Manga Awards runner-up Madeleine Rosca has posted the final part of her International Manga Award trip to Japan.

Daily Yomiuri Online has published an article looking at Japan Football Museum's Captain Tsubasa Exhibition that began on July 21st:

The exhibition, subtitled Everyone was once a Captain Tsubasa, displays enlarged copies of key scenes from the 26-year-long series, comments from professional players who were influenced by Captain Tsubasa and copies of the comic books translated into various languages including Italian, German and Chinese.

The new comic release list for August 3rd 2007 from ComicList, compiled by MangaCast.

A year ago we featured MangaCast on Backstage. A lot of things have changed since then, new faces can be seen among the crew, and rumors have been floating around regarding a MangaCast 2.0.

A year after the original feature, we caught up with Ed Chavez once again to discuss the past, present and future of MangaCast!

Read the full interview at MangaCast 2.0: Ed Chavez on the Growth and Future of MangaCast.

Also included is a small peak at the mysterious MangaCast 2.0 in the Layout section.

A new series titled Salaryman Trader Arashi by Mitsuru Sugaya will begin serialization in Comic Gumbo issue 30+31, on sale August 7th. The protagonist of this new manga will be Ishino Arashi, who also appeared in the manga Game Center Arashi by Mitsuru Sugaya, published by Shogakukan over 20 years ago.

Source: Canned Dog

According to Send2Press, Orange Lighthouse, Inc., in an exclusive partnership with Trend Pro, Inc., has just launched Ad-Manga.us. Ad-Manga.us is the U.S. division of Trend Pro's Ad-Manga program. The new division will offer manga contents for advertising to U.S. companies:

The Manga generation in the U.S. is growing quickly, and to attract them, and to inform them about new products and services, or to educate them on complicated matters, Manga is an effective tool and will open a new era for business advertising.

Source: Active Anime