2008.4.8 – It's that time of the year again when school kids in Japan return to school beneath the showers of cherry blossom petals, and draw hearts on envelopes containing love confessions to their future sweethearts (a few heartbreakers too...but we're optimists here at Wacom). To celebrate this time of year, we'd like to invite anime and manga artists to illustrate your own anime/manga scene of your first love for the 2nd Wacom Anime/Manga Contest on the Wacom Community. Good luck!!

More info and online entry here:
http://www.wacom-asia.com/community/contests/anime2/index.php

Theme: "My First Love"
Awards: Grand Prize, Most Romantic Moment Award, Kawaii (Cute) Award

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Company Set to Release Four Titles in 2008: Fever, Hotel Africa, Martin and John, and Too Long

Los Angeles, CA (March 4, 2008)-TOKYOPOP, the leader of the global manga revolution, is thrilled to announce a multi-book publishing deal with Korea's hottest female manga creator, Hee Jung Park. In 2008, TOKYOPOP will release Fever (March), Hotel Africa (April), Martin and John (July) and Too Long (August). The company will premiere each of these stunning new series on its web site (www.TOKYOPOP.com) as well as on its MySpace profile (www.Myspace.com/TOKYOPOP). The free previews are part of a year-long effort--which will also include contests and giveaways, convention promotions, and online features--to promote the luscious artwork and sophisticated storytelling of this innovative global manga creator.

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In "Comic inspires classical concert," The Star Online looks at how manga like Nodame Cantabile are helping keep classical music alive:

But on the Eastern front, new methods are being brought into play to shake off those stereotypes and bring new audiences to classical music. Starting with a Japanese comic book, Nodame Cantabile, and continuing with a 2006 Japanese television drama of the same name, the latest offensive is a series of classical concerts in South Korea.

Riyoko Ikeda, creator of The Rose of Versailles (also known as Lady Oscar), will be making a manga adaptation of the Korean drama series Story of the First King's Four Gods, the new manga will start serialization in Kodansha's magazine Tokyo Isshoukan and Kansai Isshoukan on September 25th.

Source: ANN

The winners of this year's Seoul Drama Awards have been announced, and the live-action adaptation of Nodame Cantabile won three awards: Best mini-series, director (Takeuchi Hideki) and best music.

Source: ANN

The 10th Bucheon International Comics Festival (BICOF 2007) is taking place from August 16th - August 19th at the Boksagol Culture Center in Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do. Many Chinese artists are attending this year's event to participate in a special China-Korea Illustration exhibition.

Also, the Dong-A Ilbo reports that the well-known Chinese artist Chenweidong is attending the event:

He is currently leading the "New-Chinese Comics" movement that strives to re-interpret Chinese history or traditional culture with a modern outlook.

In the latest issue of PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha takes a look at Korean publisher YoungJin.'s educational imprint, Y.Kids, which recently released a line of educational manga aimed at children between 9 to 12:

All Y.kids books are original material, produced specifically for the English-speaking market in left-to-right reading format and in full color. Marciniak said he expects this will make Y.kids material more palatable for educators and give the publisher a competitive advantage.

The actions of a few Korean internet users have been arousing criticism from within South Korea. The internet users in question created parodies that describe the Taliban, which abducted 23 Koreans and killed one of them, as nice people known as "Tsundeban."

As of July 27th, several parodies were uploaded onto a website called DC Inside, a popular forum in South Korea that specializes in photos and images.

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Last year Dark Horse celebrated its twentieth anniversary of publishing original graphic works by some of the world's greatest creators. Next year, Dark Horse celebrates their twentieth anniversary of publishing manga in English. This year, at San Diego Comic-Con Dark Horse is proud to announce that these two commitments held for so long have come together. Dark Horse will have the honor of publishing a new original manga created by Satsuki Igarashi, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi and Ageha Ohkawa.--the manga-ka all-female supergroup known to their millions of fans worldwide as CLAMP.

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UDON Brings Fresh New Korean Manhwa Titles to North America

Toronto, ON - May 29, 2007 – What is Korean Manhwa? Combine unique storytelling techniques and manga-influenced artwork with the rich and diverse culture of Korea and you'll end up with the latest craze in Asian comics! UDON Entertainment has partnered with Korean publisher Haksan to bring the best Korean Manhwa to North America and English readers everywhere in the Fall of 2007.

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