From Icarus Publishing's blog comes a preview (NSFW) of the adult manga that are shipping in April 2008 based on Diamond Previews.

Tokyopop has launched a "I-Manga Music Video Mash Up Contest," which asks its participant to remix scenes from two of Tokyopop's more popular manga into music videos.

The winning video will receive an Apple Video iPod packed with Tokyopop music and all of the i-manga webisodes, as well as being featured on the TOKYOPOP TV YouTube page. The contest ends March 23rd, rules can be found here.

From About.com:Manga comes an interview with Madeleine Rosca, artist of Seven Seas' Hollow Fields and recipient of an honorable mention in Japan's First International Manga Awards organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

One of the Biggest Talents of Anime and Video Games Comes to Nation's Largest Convention

Anaheim, California (March 20, 2008) ‹ Famed American voice actor and writer David Hayter is the latest addition to the hottest line up of Anime Expo® 2008 Guests of Honor for the highly anticipated 2008 convention July 3-6, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. More information can be found on the website www.anime-expo.org.

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The following manga appeared on the USA Today Booklist Top 150 (PDF) for the week ending March 16th:

• #26 - Naruto, Volume 28 - Viz - (Last week: #17)
• #112 - Fruits Basket, Volume 19 - Tokyopop - (Last week: #0)

Manga romances to be available to cell phone and Internet users

TORONTO, March 20 -- Harlequin Enterprises Limited, the global leader in series romance and one of the world's leading publishers of women's fiction, announced today an agreement by their Japanese operation, Harlequin K.K., to provide digital manga content to SoftBank Creative of SoftBank Group, one of the largest providers of cell phone services in Japan.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080320/NYTH007-a )
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080320/NYTH007-b )

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Gardena, CA, March 19, 2008 - Digital Manga Publishing, one of the industry's most innovative manga licensing and publishing companies, has announced the debut of five new novels under its Juné imprint for Fall 2008!

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ICv2 has released the February 2008 top 100 graphic novel sales estimates and the top 300 comics sales estimates based on Diamond Indexes and Publisher Title Data. Also from ICv2 is an analysis of the trends in December based on the graphic novel sales chart.

Artinfo reports that the International Asian Art Fair, which takes place March 15–19, is featuring a contemporary gallery called Art Miya that dedicated its entire booth to manga sculptor Yabuuchi Satoshi.

Also, AkibaBlog has a report on "Raku-Job," an event where fans attend to look for a job in the anime, manga and game business.

Finally, BBC News looks at this year's China Comics Now exhibition in "When Manga meets communism."

According to ICv2, Tokyopop will be releasing the first volume of Speed Grapher by Tomozo and Yusuke Kozaki, based on the anime of the same name from Gonzo, this September. Also, the second volume of the manga will be released in December along with "a 248-page novelization of the anime series by Minoru Niki."