In early December last year, ANN reported that Japanese publisher Dijima will ceased operation after suspending its free manga magazine Comic Gumbo. Now Anime! Anime! reports that Dijima has officially filed for bankruptcy. Manga Jouhou has a translation of the article:

According to the Teikoku Databan, the large bankruptcy journal, on January 4th, [Dijima] Co. began the procedure of filing for bankruptcy at the Tokyo Region Court. The company applied to Tokyo District Court for voluntary bankruptcy on December 28th. The administration dealing with the bankruptcy is accepting credit reports until February 15th. The aggregate amount of the debt is thought to be about 200 million yen.

According to this report, publisher Digima ceased operation after suspending its free manga magazine Comic Gumbo: "the first free weekly manga magazine in Japan. It reportedly sustained losses of 200 million yen (about US$2 million)."

According to Digima, Comic Gumbo, Japan's first free weekly manga publication, will cease publication on 12/11 with the release of issue 48.

Source: Anime! Anime!

A trial issue of the manga magazine Comic Akibana! No.0 is being distributed for free in Akihabara on the 20th and 21th of October. The trial issue contains 8 manga serials, and one novel. Akibaos and Akiba Blog has posted some previews of the magazine.

Comic Akibana! is Dijima's second seinen manga magazine that's being distributed for free (the first one being Comic Gumbo).

Dijima, the same company behind Comic Gumbo, has announced a new seinen magazine called Comic Akibana. A limited number of a preview Issue 0 of the magazine will be distributed in Akihabara this October.

A new series titled Salaryman Trader Arashi by Mitsuru Sugaya will begin serialization in Comic Gumbo issue 30+31, on sale August 7th. The protagonist of this new manga will be Ishino Arashi, who also appeared in the manga Game Center Arashi by Mitsuru Sugaya, published by Shogakukan over 20 years ago.

Source: Canned Dog

Nippon Television has announced that it will purchase a 16% capital stake in manga publisher Dijima for $1.3 million, according to a report from Variety.com. Dijima is the publisher of the free manga magazine Comic Gumbo, which made Japanese headlines as a free weekly manga magazine.

Source: Journalista

Manga Jouhou translates an article from Tokyo Newspaper on the free manga magazine Comic Gumbo, and how it will affect the publication industry.

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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