January 31st marks the deadline of Kodansha's 2nd Penguin Illustration Contest. All original illustrations dealing with penguin are accepted, winner of the grand prize will receive 300,000 yen.

From Icarus Blog:

Lambda Legal, in conjunction with Prism Comics and media sponsor The Advocate has launched its "Life Without Fair Courts" editorial cartoon series and "Life Without Fair Courts Contest," seeking to educate the public in a new way about the need for fair courts – and Diamond and the Comic Shop Locator Service (CSLS) are participating in the event with prizes for the contestants

Go here for the full press release.

NariNari.com has posted a list of the top selling weekly magazine in Japan in 2006, while only three manga magazines appeared on the list, Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump took the No.1 spot. Note that the sales information are based on figures from the Bunkyodo store, and does not represent the entire Japanese market.

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ANS reports that Japanese fans are accusing mangaka Rin Yoshii's manga SWITCH of copying a photograph from the November 06 issue of the fashion magazine SWEET. A comparison between the original photograph and the SWITCH manga scan can be seen here and here (the scan is from the January 07 issue of Shuisha's Cookie).

According to ANS, manga centered around alcohol, including wine, cocktails, mixed drinks and bartending practices, are seeing an increase in popularity in the South Korean market:

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According to announcements from the magazine as well as diary entries of its authors, Tsukasa Shobo's adult/bishojo manga magazine Comic Dolphin will cease publication in March.

Source: Ultimatum Talk

Yomiuri Online looks at baseball mangaka Shinji Mizushima's effort in promoting an independent pro baseball league in Japan, the Hokushinetsu Baseball Challenge League.

Source: The Beat

Tokyopop's Stu Levy and Lillian Diaz-Pryzbyl are featured on a Japanese TV show, which is currently available on the Tokyopop website via YouTube.

Source: MangaBlog

Newsarama's Chris Arrant interviews Allan Gross and Joanna Estep, creator of Tokyopop's Roadsong.

MangaCast points out some new features found on Iris Print's website, which include the new Iris blog, a new webcomic called Jigsaw Hearts, the Iris Shop, and more.