Back in September 2006, Sirou Tunasima's mecha manga Jinki: Extend went on hiatus due to Tunasima's work rescheduling and chronic waist illness (not officially confirmed). Jinki was scheduled to restart before the end of 2006, but not only did Jinki not return, it was dropped from Mag Garden's Comic Blade (the magazine it was serialized in) because of conflicts between Tunasima and the magazine's Editor-in-Chief.

Tunasima said in his online journal that he hopes to bring Jinki back to the fans. Will the fans be able to meet Jinki in another magazine? Five titles will come to an end in this month's and next month's Comic Blade, which signals that the content of Comic Blade will undergo a drastic change.

Tunasima's Journal Entry:

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On January 16th, Yahoo! Japan launched a new free magazine on Yahoo! Comic. The new free web magazine, Flex Comix Blood, will feature contents provided by Flex Comix (which also provides content for the online magazine Shonen Blood). The free magazine will be updated every weekday, and most series are from Shonen Blood.

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

The 3rd China International Animation and Cartoon Festival will once again take place in the city of Hangzhou (Zhejiang province, 2 hours' train ride from Shanghai) from April 28th to May 4th.

This year's events will be divided into four main sections. The "exhibition section" will feature industry expo and activities; the "forum section" will feature discussion groups and industry conferences; the "competition section" will feature manga contests and cosplay contests; the "activities section" will feature a movie week as well as various other activities.

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From The Star Online comes a short interview with Tsugumi Ohba, author of Death Note, where he talks about his inspiration for Death Note as well as his views on justice. When asked about his inspiration, Ohba said, "There was nothing in particular. I started thinking of some ideas and while these ideas were still floating in the back of my mind, I got more ideas to fill up detailed plots like the rules and the god of death and so on." According to his response, Ohba did not get his inspiration from Shigeru Mizuki's short story.

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MangaCast translates the weekly Doujinshi ranking in Japan (12/02) according to Messe Sanoh, compiled by Akiba Blog (NSFW).

The cast for Hayate the Combat Butler has been announced:

- Hayate: Ryoko Shiraishi
- Nagi: Rie Kugimiya
- Maria: Rie Tanaka
- Hinagiku: Shizuka Ito

Hayate the Combat Butler is a comedy manga famous for its numerous crossovers and "easter eggs." Currently the manga is being published in the U.S. by VIZ Media.

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Fujimi Shobo has announced the winners of the 6th Fujimi Young Mystery Award and the 18th Fantasia Novel Award (both are novel awards):

6th Fujimi Young Mystery Award

Grand Prize:
- Our Paradox by Jun Atsugi
Honorable Mention:
- For "Beauty" Charlotte by Shuuichi Oseki

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Comic Gumbo, Japan's first free weekly manga publication, will be handed out by Dejima starting next Tuesday. The free weekly magazine, which will also be available online for free, will contain two complete stories and 11 series features.

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Manga newsletters from several publishers:

DMP
- Flower of Life Volume 1 in January

Broccoli Books
- Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories Volume 1 in February
- The World of Disgaea Pushed Back to February
- Galaxy Angel II volume 1 in February

Tokyopop
- New Manga from Tokyopop

Source: MangaCast