The winner of the 1st Morning Internation Manga Competition (MIMC) was decided in July. While Kodansha has not announced the winner, according to a leaked from Tokyopop, Rem, the artist of Tokyopop's manga Vampire Kisses, has won the competition with her manga Kage no Matsuri. The winner of MIMC will receive $5,000, as well as possibly having their work serialzed in Kodansha's magazine.

According to a flyer from Rem, Kodansha will publish Kage no Matsuri in the October issue of Morning2 magazine. Kage no Matsuri will appear on the cover of the magazine, and will also be getting a full page spread in the magazine.

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The official website of Kodansha's new monthly magazine Shonen Rival is now available at http://www.shonenrival.com/. According to the website, the reason the magazine is called "Shonen Rival" is to show "the rivalry between the protagonist and his rivals. Also, when a boy matures, the concept of rivalry is indispensable."

Also mentioned is the 1st Shonen Rival Comic Grand Prix. The winning works will be serialized in Shonen Rival, and the grand prize winner will receive 3,000,000 yen.

After Kodansha announced that Comic Bom Bom (also known as Comic Bon Bon) will be suspended at the end of this year. Mangaka and animator Gen Sato, who was closely involved with Comic Bom Bom, has posted on his blog what he believes to be the reason behind Comic Bom Bom's suspension.

Sato mentions that he wasn't surprised to see what happened with Bom Bom. Having been with Comic Bom Bom for over 20 years, Sato warned Bom Bom's editorial department multiple times that the magazine would go under if the magazine only published manga according to its like and dislikes, and did not look objectively at works that readers enjoy. However, his advice was ignored.

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Kodansha has officially announced that Comic Bon Bon (also known as Comic BomBom) will cease publication with its December issue, which goes on sale 11/15.

Also, a new monthly manga magazine aimed at junior high students, titled Monthly Shonen Rival, will debut next spring.

Ultimatum Tidbits also points out that Get Backers artist Rando Ayamine mentioned in his blog about "Preparing a serialization for a new manga magazine from Kodansha next April."

Source: Jiji Tsushin

Kodansha to host a second International Manga Competition

Our first full-scale international competition for manga, the "International Manga Competition," has received a phenomenal number of submissions from more than ten countries. We sincerely appreciate your enthusiasm and support.

It will take time to finalize our selections, since we received more submissions than expected, so we plan to announce the results in August on our "e-morning" website (http://www.e-morning.jp/mimc), and publish the grand prize winning work in "Morning 2" #6, slated for mid-October.

Due to the enormous number of submissions we have received, we've decided to host a second International Manga Competition.

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Popular series becomes one of the first Original English Language manga licensed for the Japanese market

(Ann Arbor, MI: June 10, 2007) - FredArt Studios and Dark Horse Comics announced today that Kodansha will publish a Japanese language edition of Megatokyo Volume 1 under the Kodansha Box imprint. It will contain the same material as the English language Dark Horse edition with additional notes and commentary for Japanese readers. It is the first Original English Language manga title to be licensed by Kodansha for the Japanese market.

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From animeOnline comes an interview with Yohei Takami, editor of Monthly Shonen Magazine. The interview touches on the work of an editor, and provides an extensive look at the manga Beck.

In celebration of Tantei Gakuen Q (Detective School Q)'s TV series premiering on July 3rd, the popular detective manga from Seimaru Amagi and Fumiya Sato (the duo behind Kindaichi Case Files) has resumed serialization in issue 30 of Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine.

The manga, which began serialization in Shonen Magazine in 2001, originally ended in 2005.

Mita Norifusa's Dragon Sakura ended in issue 30 of Kodansha's Morning, which was released on June 28th.

Boku no Shokibo na Seikatsu by Fukumitsu Shigeyuki will end in Morning No. 31, on sale July 5th.

Also, two light novel series will be adapted into their own manga series in the September issue of Media Work's Dengeki Comic Gao!:

• Alison, written by Keiichi Sigsawa and illustrated by Kohaku Kuroboshi, will be adapted into a manga series by Hiroki Haruse.
• Toradora!, written by Yuyuko Takemiya and illustrated by Yasu, will be adapted into a manga series by Zekkyou.

Source: Ultimatum Talk

Starting with volume 4, Kodansha's Morning 2 will become a bi-monthly magazine.