Fred Gallagher, one of the first guests announced for Connichi 2007, revealed that he won't be able to attend this year's convention "due to family circumstances."

Connichi 2007, one of the biggest anime and manga convention in Germany, will take place from September 7th to 9th at the Kongress Palais in Kassel, Germany.

Source: ANN

From The Daily Cross Hatch comes part 1 of an interview with Paul Gravett, author of Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics and his friend Nick Bertozzi.

Via: The Beat

Deutsche Mangaka reports that Tokyopop Germany has licensed a few new manga, as well as some old works:

• Daemonenjunge Lain (Demonboy Lain) by Natalie Wormsbecher - December 2007
• Tylsim by Reyhan Yildirim - March 2008
• Stupid Story by Anna Hollmann - March 2008
• Liberty - Raised out of Dirt by Nheira - December 2007
• Yonen Buzz United (special volume) by Christina Plaka - December 2007

Read More »

The 10th Bucheon International Comics Festival (BICOF 2007) is taking place from August 16th - August 19th at the Boksagol Culture Center in Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do. Many Chinese artists are attending this year's event to participate in a special China-Korea Illustration exhibition.

Also, the Dong-A Ilbo reports that the well-known Chinese artist Chenweidong is attending the event:

He is currently leading the "New-Chinese Comics" movement that strives to re-interpret Chinese history or traditional culture with a modern outlook.

A panel called Tezuka in the USA: A Manga Publishers' Forum will take place on August 16th (today!) at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco:

The panel will be moderated by Alvin Lu of VIZ Media (publisher of Tezuka's Phoenix), and will include speakers Anne Ishii of Vertical (publisher of Buddha), Carl Gustav Horn of Dark Horse (publisher of Astro Boy), and Ian Robertson of VIZ Media. Speakers will discuss the experience of bringing Japan's "God of Manga" to American shores and how Tezuka's influence continues to pervade the current manga boom in the US.

Source: MangaBlog

The following manga appeared on the USA Today Booklist Top 150 (PDF) for the week ending August 12th:

• #99 - Fruits Basket, Volume 17 - Tokykopop - (Last week: -)
• #140 - Bleach, Volume 20 - Viz - (Last week: #85)
• #148 - Fullmetal Alchemist, Volume 14 - Viz - (Last week: -)

Del Rey Manga has completely revamped its official website. Visit Del Rey's official forum to discuss the new design.

Source: AoD

Top 10 manga (8/15) according to Tohan:

1. Naruto, Volume 39
2. Fullmetal Alchemist, Volume 17
3. Bleach, Volume 29
4. D.Gray-man, Volume 12
5. Gintama, Volume 19
6. Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Volume 16
7. WORST, Volume 18
8. Bleach Official Bootleg Karaburi+ (Colorful Bleach)
9. Kaichou wa Maid-sama!, Volume 3
10. Angel Heart, Volume 23

Akiba Blog reports that Graphsha has released a new cookbook book from "otaku princess" Yunmao Ayakawa called Otaku Meshi Cooking. The new otaku cookbook aims to teach otaku how to cook for themselves.

Source: Kotaku

Icarus Blog points out a report from the Sun of Australia that a man was fined $9,000 after being convicted of smuggling pornographic anime, games and possibly manga during a trip back from Singapore.