From Newsarama comes an interview with Tokyopop editor Tim Beedle, who talks about the company's exclusive deal with The Jim Henson Company to produce original graphic novels based on fantasy titles like Return to Labyrinth and Legends of The Dark Crystal.

Via: MangaBlog

Kazuo Koike, author of popular series such as Lone Wolf and Cub and Crying Freeman, announced on the 10th the formation of Kazuo Koike Gekiga Sonjuku Co., Ltd., a one-man company based on the Gekiga Sonjuku program, originally established to educate new manga creators.

The new company (headed by Koike) was created for the education of new creators as well as for the protection and management of intellectual property of Japanese manga. According to the announcement, Koike has become increasingly frustrated with how he couldn't do much to protect his works from being used in foreign movies and other media.

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Anime news and review website Active Anime has announced a new contest:

Win the Chibi Vampire Manga Vol. 1 - 4 and the two volume novels. The manga is rated OT (16+), so contestant should be at least 16 years or older to enter the contest. To participate, send an email to chibi(at)activanime(dot)com with your name and information. One winner will be announced on September 30, 2007. US and Canadian residents only. One email per contestant only.

MangaNEXT has announced three more guests for this year's event that's taking place from October 5 to October 7:

MangaNEXT is pleased to announce three more guests for 2007, Jason Thompson, Hiroki Otsuka and Mari Morimoto. Jason Thompson's favorite manga genres are horror, battle manga and romantic comedies. From 1996 to 2006 he worked as an editor at VIZ Media LLC, where he supervised the English editions of Dragon Ball Z, Shaman King, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Secret Comic Japan, Uzumaki, Tekkonkinkreet, SHONEN JUMP magazine and many other titles. His book Manga: The Complete Guide, an encyclopedia of all the Japanese comics released in America, comes out from Del Rey on October 9. He has also written for Otaku USA, The Comics Journal, Animerica and PULP. He draws the web comic The Stiff at www.mockman.com.

Osamu Tezuka's longtime manga editor, Nobumichi Akutsu (84), passed away on the 12th due to larynx cancer (some report it as brain cancer). As Tezuka's editor, Nobumichi Akutsu's name was used by Tezuka in some of his works. Akutsu was also the editor for Shueisha's Beet the Vandel Buster.

Sources: Mainichi, Yomiuri, Jiji

Canned Dogs reports that in the wake of Shinzo Abe's sudden resignation, Japanese Prime Minister hopeful Aso Taro will be visiting Akihabara to give a speech.

Also, The Japan Times has published an article on Taro Aso titled "Cabinet veteran Aso more than manga fan," which looks briefly at Aso's past outside of his affiliation with manga.

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According to DMP's latest blog post, due to licensing issues, future volumes of Robot will most likely not be released (originally announced at AX07):

Unfortunately, we had sad news that we announced previously at Anime Expo 2007. Due to some licensing issues, we will most likely not be seeing Robot Vol. 4 +. In a nutshell, it's pretty much stuck in "licensing hell".

We're very dissapointed in the news and apologize to all the fans of the series.

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StarTrek.com is reporting that Tokyopop will hold a series of promotional events from September 13 to October 6 in Southern California to promote its new Star Trek The Manga: "Kakan ni Shinkou".

Source: ANN

A Chinese company called Cayie has recently released a new brand of Doraemon-themed mooncake for the Mid-Autumn Festival, which takes place on 9/25 this year. Not only is the Doraemon mooncake cheap, but it also comes with toys for kids. According to initial statistics, the mooncake is especially popular among females, and over 95% customers bought the product based on its appearance alone.

According to theOtaku, Tezuka Productions has announced that it plans to digitize and colorize all of Tezuka's manga. Anime! Anime! has another report, a translation of which can be found here.