Readers can now vote for Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga 8 - People's Choice competition. Voting ends at 6pm on March 14, 2008. Winning entries will appear in the upcoming issue of Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga this July:

Get ready to vote on the future of manga! Whose star will rise the highest? It's up to you to decide - vote for your one favorite entry in the Rising Stars of Manga 8 People's Choice Award here!

Via: About.com:Manga

Canned Dogs is reporting that several new series will begin serialization in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday:

• New manga (title rumored to be Gekkou Jourei) by Fujita Kazuhiro (Ushio to Tora, Karakuri Circus)
• MiXiM♀12 by Nobuyuki Anzai (Flame of Recca, MÄR)

INTERNET Watch is reporting that Yahoo! Japan has made 45 chapters of the Doraemon manga available online for free to promote the upcoming movie Doraemon: Nobita to Midori no Kyojin Den.

ANN has more:

Yahoo! Japan created an "Otona no Tame no Doraemon Tokushū" ("Doraemon Feature for Adults") section. [...] To browse the free chapters on the linked page, select one of the "今すぐ読む" links and then select the "立ち読み only works in IE" link in the resulting page. Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer are required.

The list of nominees for the YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens has been updated, and several manga can be found on the list:

• Pet Shop of Horrors: Tokyo, vol. 1
• Sand Chronicles, vol. 1
• Harukaze Bitter Bop, vol. 1
• Demon Flowers: Kuruisaki no Hana, vol. 1
• Demon Flowers: Kuruisaki no Hana, vol. 2
• Gakuen Alice, vol. 1
• Zombie-Loan, vol. 1

Readers can nominate their own titles here.

Source: MangaBlog

theOtaku has launched the new "Version Vibrant" of its website:

Welcome to theOtaku.com Version Vibrant. After months of development we are pleased to usher in the birth of a new site, complete with new code, a new design, and 50+ new features. Welcome! Visit this page every day for a quick overview of the activity around our network.

MangaCast reports several new licenses from DMP:

• fafner by Ubukata Tow (light novel)
• KNIGHTS by Murao Minoru
• Red Angel by Tateno Makoto

A round up of the new comic release list and views for the week of March 5th 2008:

• ComicList: ComicList for 03/05/2008
• MangaCast: New Manga Release List ~ March 5, 2008
• Manga Recon: Weekly Recon: Super-Sized Shojo Spectacular
• Precocious Curmudgeon: Upcoming 3/5/2008

Canned Dogs reports that the manga Kare to kanojo no kyoukaisen, which is currently serialized in Ichijinsha's Comic REX, ended unexpectedly due to the death of its mangaka, Yorishiro Tomoyuki:

The latest issue of Comic REX has revealed the saddening news that author Yorishiro Tomoyuki who had just started serialisation on Comic REX has passed away unexpectedly while he was working the 3rd chapter of his manga Kare to kanojo no kyoukaisen.

The following manga appeared on the USA Today Booklist Top 150 (PDF) for the week ending March 2nd:

• #73 - Naruto, Volume 28 - Viz - (Last week: #0)

Brigid Alverson's MangaBlog is three years old! In Brigid's own words:

Yep, it's MangaBlog's third birthday today, which means I'm about a year or so away from becoming a grizzled internet veteran. So thank you for reading—you are the reason I show up to blog every day.