In the latest issue of PWCW, Brigid Alverson interviews Buzz Dixon and Marlon Schulman, the duo behind the Christian manga publisher Realbuzz Studios.

Also, Manga Life's David Rasmussen has an interview with Seven Seas' Adam Arnold.

Via: MangaBlog

The following manga appeared on the USA Today Booklist Top 150 (PDF) for the week ending March 23rd:

• #34 - Fruits Basket, Volume 19 - Tokyopop - (Last week: #112)
• #39 - Naruto, Volume 28 - Viz - (Last week: #26)
• #149 - Fullmetal Alchemist, Volume 16 - Viz - (Last week: #334)

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MangaCast's Ed Chavez will be attending this year's Tokyo International Anime Fair as one of its panelist discussing "the Anime Fan's State of the North American Anime Business":

Like many fans of visual media I have my share of opinions on the state of the anime business. A good chunk of those thoughts are more directed at what happens overseas than what NA fans are doing. Luckily I was asked by the moderator for contributions to the discussion, so maybe we will talk a bit about the JA scene and the history of the American anime fan as well.

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A round up of the new comic release list and views for the week of March 26th 2008:

• ComicList: ComicList for 03/26/2008
• MangaCast: New Manga Release List ~ March 26, 2008
• Precocious Curmudgeon: Upcoming 3/26/2008

Top 10 manga (3/26) according to Tohan:

1. Nodame Cantabile (20)
2. Fullmetal Alchemist (19)
3. Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE (23)
4. Ahiru no Sora (19)
5. Fairy Tale (9)
6. Hajime no Ippo (83)
7. Konjiki no Gash!! (32)
8. Air Gear (20)
9. Minami-ke (5)
10. History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi (28)

Additional Rankings:

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Comics Worth Reading is reporting that Tokyopop is giving anyone who participates in its Tokyopop Dreaming prose competition a free copy of Tarot Cafe and a piece of key art from The Dreaming.

Also, Tiamat's Anime and Manga Reviews has some news on Seven Seas' relationship with distributors, and problems they're facing by switching from Diamond to Tor/Macmillan:

We agreed to end our distribution through Diamond at the end of December 31, 2007, and as of January 1st, 2008, Tor/Macmillan became our "Vendor of Record" as it's called in the industry. [...] However, Diamond informed us they would not release most of our back stock to Tor until the end of February, since they were still accepting returns until then, and didn't want to make two separate and substantial shipments to Tor's warehouse.

Via: MangaBlog

From Manga Recon comes an interview with Christy Lijewski, artist of Tokyopop's RE:Play, and Tokyopop editor Tim Beedle:

PCS: How do you respond to fans who feel the term "manga" should only be applied to Japanese comics? Where do you see RE:Play fitting into the current comic market?

Christy: I think they're over thinking things to be honest. I mean, so many manga magazines and publishing labels in Japan are called "Comics" and no one there seems to go, "This isn't a comic!" I don't see why we see the word "manga" here and have to go, "This isn't manga!"

According to posts on 2ch, PEACH-PIT's popular seinen manga Rozen Maiden, which was discontinued last year in Gentosha's Comic BIRZ, will resume serialization in issue 20 of Shueisha's Young Jump (4/17).

From comics212 comes an interview Alvin Lu, Viz Media's Vice President, who talks about bringing Kazuo Umezu's manga Cat-Eyed Boy over to the U.S.

Celebrating Shonen Sunday's and Shonen Magazine's 50th anniversary, Kodansha an Shogakukan are collaborating on a variety of special features.

In order to keep the English fans up-to-date on the special features and events, Rumic World has created a special page to keep track of everything that's coming out, as well as translations of the press conference and others.