Del Rey has announced its schedule for this year's Comic-Con International, taking place in San Diego on July 26 - 29. Del Rey also announced its plan to collaborate with Active Anime to bring "exclusive reports straight from the convention floor for those who cannot attend the convention."

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Anime news and review website Active Anime has announced a new giveaway of e-Frontier's Manga Studio 3.0:

Active Anime is once again doing another giveaway, and this time, we would be giving away Manga Studio Pro EX Version 3.0 Software (MSRP $299) courtesy of e-Frontier. We would also like to congratulate VINCE of Souther California for winning the $500+ Anime / Manga Giveaway which also includes the software.

Manga publisher Tokyopop has launched a beta version of its new website.

Via: MangaBlog

Precocious Curmudgeon points out that ICE Kunion's website now redirects to www.freemanhwa.com, which says on its frontpage "Check back in October 2007 for the latest Manhwa and Manga-Shojo, Doujinshin and it's all Free!"

Otaku blog ikimashou.net has announced the winners of its 1,000th post anime/manga/figurine contest.

It has been a little over a year since Brigid Alversion's Manga4Kids/MangaBlog became Backstage's first featured site. Since then there have been some big changes within the online community, and many old blogs are no longer around. However, Brigid's MangaBlog is still going strong, and Brigid now finds herself more involved with the community than ever, writing articles for sites like Comixpedia, PWCW and Digital Strips.

On March 4th, MangaBlog celebrated its 2nd anniversary. Backstage caught up with Brigid and asked her a few questions about the state of MangaBlog for the past year.

Read the full interview at MangaBlog Anniversary Feature: Interview with MangaBlog's Brigid Alverson.

Yen Press has launched a "temporary site" at:

www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/features/yenpress/

Source: MangaBlog

Manga Publisher Go! Comi has relaunched their website:

We loved our little website, but we knew it was time to "level up." We figured, "If we're going to do this anyway, why not go from a cozy little house -- to a great biiiiig mansion with room for all our fans?" And so the grand plan was born!

Via: MangaBlog

In celebration of its 1,000th post, otaku blog ikimashou.net has announced a new anime/manga/figurine contest.

Also, from the blog Riuva comes an article that analyzes the trend, philosophy and development of otaku blogs.

The anime/otaku social networking site animeOnline as launched a new forum.

Also available for downloads are episodes of Trinity Blood, Kiddy Grade and Rumbling Hearts: Kiminozo from Funimation for $1.99 each.