From ICv2 comes Bookscan's Top 20 Graphic Novels for April 2008, below are the top 10:

1. Naruto (28)
2. Vampire Knight (4)
3. Fruits Basket (19)
4. Batman: The Killing Joke
5. Hana-Kimi (23)
6. Vampire Knight (1)
7. Fullmetal Alchemist (16)
8. Death Note How to Read (13)
9. Naruto (27) w/Sticker

Top 10 manga (4/30) according to Tohan:

1. Hayate the Combat Butler (15)
2. Koukou Debut (11)
3. Kekkaishi (20)
4. Mahou Sensei Negima! (22)
5. Boku no Hatsukoi wo Kimi ni Sasagu (11)
6. Otomen (5)
7. Inuyasha (53)
8. Kamen Rider Spirits (14)
9. Cat Street (8)
10. Emma (10)

Additional Rankings:

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According to the Diamond Previews via MangaCast, Aurora Publishing will be releasing Izumi Kirihara's Hitohira volumes 1 and 2 in October and December.

Also, ANN points out that Aurora's BL imprint Deux Press will be releasing four titles in July/August:

• Heavenly Body by Takashi Kanzaki
• Maid in Heaven by Hisami Shimada
• Ruff Love by Tamaki Kirishima
• Two of Hearts by Kano Miyamoto (announced at Yaoi-Con last October)

From MangaCast comes the Diamond Previews for May 2008, which provides information on new U.S. releases for June 2008.

Voting for the first Anime Blog Awards is now closed, and the results of the nomination can be found on this page.

After more than 6 months of publication, ComiPress' online version of Udagawa-san's Manga Zombie (translated by John Gallagher) has finally ended.

Manga Zombie, written by Udagawa Takeo, was published in Japanese in 1997 by Ohta Shuppan. The book covers a range of thirty-one Japanese manga artists active primarily in the 1960s and 70s. Some of the artists are relatively well-known in the English-speaking world, while others are famous or cult figures only in Japan. However, they are all, in some sense or other, "outsider" artists and figures of the sixties and seventies cultural underground.

To celebrate the conclusion of Manga Zombie, ComiPress has conducted an interview with Manga Zombie's author Udagawa Takeo, as well as its translator John Gallagher:

• Interview with Udagawa Takeo
• Interview with John Gallagher

Of course, the online version of Manga Zombie is different from the print version, with new chapters added and some chapters left out. Currently Udagawa-san is searching for a publisher interested in releasing Manga Zombie in English, if interested, please send your contact information here.

Last but not least, ComiPress would like to thank Udagawa-san and John for giving us this wonderful opportunity to bring to the community something interesting. And finally to the readers, thank you for reading, we hope you enjoyed it!

According to .Anime, Koge-Donbo's name has been changed to Koge-Donbo* "for copyright use."

Source: MangaBlog

From Japanator comes an article titled "Manga growth slows in 2007. Is a crash coming?" that ponders the question of whether the U.S. manga market is on a decline:

We've all heard about the trials and tribulations the anime industry in general is undergoing, but we've also heard that while the market for anime DVDs is ailing, manga sales are active and healthy. Things might be changing fairly soon, However - a recent report from industry analysts at ICv2 indicates that the manga market only grew about 5% last year.

A new manga from Felipe Smith, creator of Tokyopop's MBQ, will debut in Kodansha's Morning 2 vol.10, on sale June 21st. The new series will be the opening manga with 6 color pages, and will also be featured on the magazine's cover (it is quite rare that a new artist will do the cover of a manga magazine).

The following manga appeared on the USA Today Booklist Top 150 (PDF) for the week ending April 20th:

• #124 - Naruto, Volume 28 - Viz - (Last week: #106)

Also, Comicsnob posts the weekly online manga sales rankings:

• Consolidated Online Sales Rankings For the Week Ending 20 April 2008