The new comic release list for May 23rd 2007 from ComicList, compiled by MangaCast.

From MangaCast comes the Diamond Previews for June 2007, which provides information on new U.S. releases for August/September 2007.

Top 10 manga (5/23) according to Tohan.

1. XXXHOLiC, Volume 11
2. Fairy Tale, Volume 4
3. Hajime no Ippo, Volume 80
4. Shinshi Doumei Cross, Volume 7
5. Life, Volume 15
6. Gakuen Alice, Volume 13
7. Major, Volume 63
8. Otomen, Volume 2
9. Angel Heart, Volume 22
10. Gantz, Volume 21

Additional Rankings:
- Weekly Top 10 (5/07-5/13) from Taiyosha
- Weekly Doujinshi Top 10 (5/19) from Toranoana
- Weekly BL Doujinshi Top 10 (5/19) from Princess Side

Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso announced on Tuesday the creation of a "Nobel Prize of Manga" for foreign manga comic artists in hopes of spreading Japan's pop culture overseas.

Candidates for the new international manga award will be nominated by the general public as well as publishers from Japan and overseas:

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ICv2 has released the April 2007 top 100 graphic novel sales estimates and the top 300 comics sales estimates based on Diamond Indexes and Publisher Title Data. Also from ICv2 is an analysis of the trends in April based on the graphic novel sales chart.

Tokyograph translates two business manga-related surveys from Oricon.

The first survey asked its readers what manga they would like to see turned into a television drama, the results are:

1. Cooking Papa by Tochi Ueyama
2. Hataraki Man by Moyoco Anno
3. OL Shinkaron by Risu Akizuki
4. Takeko-san no Koibito by Reiko Mochizuki
5. Money no Ken by Norifusa Mita

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801 Media blog points out that Amazon.com has added a new Yaoi category to its online store, showing yaoi is finally being recognized by Amazon as its own category instead of just a shojo sub-genre.

Via: Icarus Blog

Stars and Stripes reports that the U.S. Navy is using manga to introduce itself to the Japanese public:

Commander, Naval Forces Japan public affairs is taking a page out of Japanese pop culture to explain the U.S. Navy, its ships, sailors and mission to the Japanese public.

MangaCast points out that Del Rey has acquired Basilisk author Masaki Segawa's Yagyu Ninja Scrolls. The manga, which was licensed during NYCC, is currently listed on Del Rey's release schedule for Q4 2007 (PDF). The first volume will be released in October 2007.

A new manga titled Shirogane no Karasu by Akimine Kamijyo, mangaka of Samurai Deeper Kyo, will begin serialization in Weekly Shonen Magazine issue 26, on sale 5/30.

Source: Ultimatum Talk