animeOnline reports that Osamu Akimoto's Kochira Katsushika-ku Kamearikouen-mae Hashutsujo, or KochiKame, recently had its 1,500th chapter published on Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump. First released in 1976, KochiKame is currently the longest running manga in the world.

MangaCast translates an article from Takeshi Ishizawa, a Japanese who have spent a long time living in Indonesia. The article, "Depth of Japanese Mangas - Preface," provides an introduction to the Japanese manga culture, and goes on to explore the comics and manga scene in Indonesia.

A new manga based on the anime Gurren-Lagann will begin serialization in MediaWorks' Dengeki Gao! June issue. The manga, titled Maiking Breakthrough Gurren-Lagann, will be drawn by Kotaro Mori, creator of Stray Little Devil.

Via: Majoria's News

Tokyopop is current hosting a preview of Make 5 Wishes, the upcoming American manga from Del Rey that is created in collaboration with pop superstar Avril Lavigne.

Source: animeOnline

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

According to the latest "Sunday Backstage" (where Shonen Sunday manga artists write their rants) Hayate the Combat Butler creator Kenjirou Hata currently has some trouble with his right hand.

From Sunday Backstage Vol.123 03/20/2007:

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Papo de Budega has conducted a small interview with Viz Media regarding the release status of its manga titles in Latin America. Contrary to what has been said on numerous Latin web forums, Viz currently has no plans to release Ichigo 100% and Megaman: Starforce in Latin America.

According to Viz Media's Senior Director Public Relations Evelyn Dubocq: "We are not planning to sell Megaman: Starforce or Ichigo100% [in Latin America]." According to Evelyn, the recent rumors are not official and have nothing to do with Viz Media.

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According to Shogakukan, issue 17 of its seinen manga magazine Young Sunday will come with an original joint-illustration made by Rumiko Takahashi and Mitsuru Adachi.

The illustration, which features Azusa Satomi (from Adachi's Idol A) riding on Kosaku Hatanaka (from Takahashi's One-Pound Gospel)'s shoulders, was created earlier this month for an auction to benefit the city of Yuubari in Hokkaido. The event was part of Shogakukan's campaign to celebrate Young Sunday's 20th anniversary.

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Rabbit Valley, an online anime/manga shop, has announced that it will drop all CPM/Be Beautiful products from its catalogue due to the recent copyright issue with Libre Publishing:

NOTICE - Pirated works removed
It has come to the management's attention that several items we sold by the publisher "Central Park Media" doing business as "Be Beautiful" were not authorized, licensed reprints of an artist's work. We have pulled the following items from our catalog: "Golden Cain," "Embracing Love Volume 1," and "Selfish Love" volumes 1 and 2. It is the policy of Rabbit Valley (R) Comics to NEVER endorse piracy of any kind. Until the licensing issue is cleared up, these items have been pulled from the site. Further information is available from the original Japanese publisher's website at http://www.b-boy.jp/info17.html.

Source: Icarus Blog

A new book titled The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga-Anime Revolution will be released by Stone Bridge Press in September 2007. The author of the book is Frederick Schodt, a close friend of Tezuka and the author of Manga! Manga! and Dreamland Japan.

Source: ANN