theOtaku.com has teamed up with Go! Comi and the organizers (same people behind NY Comic-Con) of the New York Anime Festival to hold the Go! Comi and theOtaku.com Doujinshi Contest. The deadline is November 1, all artists are encouraged to send in their five-page doujinshi based on Go! Comi's Black Sun, Silver Moon by uploading the entry to the New York Anime Festival section of theOtaku.com.

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The Most-Promising Private Technology Ventures to be Celebrated at Event in Hong Kong

San Francisco, CA, August 14, 2007 – Red Herring Magazine announced today that ComiAsia has been short listed frontrunners of the Red Herring 100 Asia 2007 awards. The top 100 winners will be announced at the Red Herring 100 Asia event in Hong Kong, on August 29-31.

The Red Herring editorial team carefully selected the finalists based on criteria such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their ecosystem.

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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 winner of this year's World Cosplay Summit has been announced. According to Anime! Anime! (via Giapet), the winner of this year's event, held in Nagoya, Japan, is the French team, represented by Isabelle Jeudy and Damian Ratte cosplaying as Tsugiri and Myoubi from the manga Alichino.

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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.

Anime UK News reports that Random House has announced a new graphic novel competition sponsored by The Observer and Comica:

Dear Comic and Graphic Novelist enthusiasts, Jonathan Cape, one of the finest Graphic Novel publishers in the UK, in association with The Observer and Comica are searching for new graphic artist talent with the chance to be published in The Observer and to win £1000. [...] The Prize will be judged by industry experts along with the bestselling authors Nick Hornby and Posy Simmonds. It is an exciting opportunity for all aspiring graphic novelists.

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According to Kodansha, the winners of the First Kodansha International Manga Competition have been decided, and the grand prize winner is a North American manga artist.

An official announcement of the result and the name of the winners will be made in August. The grand prize winner will receive $5,000, as well as having his or her work serialized in either Morning, and even being published as independent comic books both in Japan and in other countries.

Thanks Ceena

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

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.