(San Antonio, Texas) October 15, 2007 - Devil's Due Entertainment exclusive creator Tim Seeley sat down recently with ComicBloc's Eric Moreno for the latest installment of the acclaimed interview series Inside the Comic Writers Studio.

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From Yaoi Suki comes the annual Yaoi Awards. In '06-'07 Yaoi Awards: Part II, the winners are:

• Fumi Yoshinaga's Shit-Ton of Titles Award: Hyouta Fujiyama
• Best Mangaka Whose Best Work is Still Unlicensed: Mika Sadahiro, Under Grand Hotel
• Best Unlicensed Mangaka: Taishi Zaou
• Thank God It's Over: La Esperanca

ICv2 has released the September 2007 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 September based on the graphic novel sales chart.

Manga publisher Viz Media has launched its official blog, VIZBlog:

There are a lot of itchy fingers around the VIZ Media offices. Wait, that didn't sound right. There are a lot of people around here just itching to write some blog posts. Yeah, that's what I meant. We'll be telling you about manga we are reading – both professionally as well as personally, anime we are watching – again, for money or for fun, games we are playing, our co-workers and their habits, what we ate for breakfast, the contents of our handbags, hell, all kinds of really, er, interesting stuff. We hope you enjoy it!

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From Newsarama comes an article titled "Yûjô! Doryoku! Shôri! The fiery spirit of battle manga" (guest commentary by Jason Thompson), which looks at the similarities between shonen manga and superhero comics:

In both American and Japanese comics, there is one question that never gets old: "Do you think character X could beat character Y?" Despite the relative popularity of Japanese girls' comics and increasingly fluid gender demographics, shonen manga is still the #1 demographic category, and within shonen manga the #1 genre is "battle manga."

ANN reports that Slam Dunk and Vagabond creator Takehiko Inoue is coming to NYC this November:

Viz Media is planning to host Takehiko Inoue, the world-renowned manga creator of Slam Dunk, Vagabond, and REAL, as a special guest at the new Kinokuniya flagship bookstore in New York City on November 19. Inoue will create an exclusive drawing on a wall that has been reserved for him on the store's second floor.

The Japan Times interviews Junko Mizuno, who is known for her works that mixes childish cuteness with blood and terror.

Source: MangaBlog

Dark Horse has announced that it will stop releasing Hiroaki Samura's samurai manga, Blade of the Immortal, in its monthly comic book format as of issue 131, and focus on releasing the manga as a graphic novel. AICN Anime has an interview with Dark Horse's Blade of the Immortal editor Philip Simon, who shares his opinion on the end of the monthly edition of the manga.

According to ANN, the Washington State Young Adult Review Group (WSYARG) has nominated volume one of Death Note for the 2008 Evergreen Young Adult Book Award.

The following manga appeared on the USA Today Booklist Top 150 (PDF) for the week ending October 7th:

• #69 - Naruto, Volume 21 - Viz - (Last week: -)
• #77 - Naruto, Volume 20 - Viz - (Last week: -)
• #82 - Naruto, Volume 19 - Viz - (Last week: -)
• #109 - Bleach, Volume 21 - Viz - (Last week: #220)

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