Special 32-Page Sampler Edition of Nation's Most Popular Manga Anthology - SHONEN JUMP Magazine To Feature NARUTO, BLEACH and SLAM DUNK

San Francisco, CA, March 26, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced its participation as a Gold Level Sponsor in the 2008 Free Comic Book Day, taking place May 3rd. VIZ Media is producing a special edition (rated "A" for All Ages) of SHONEN JUMP Magazine (rated 'T' for Teens) to be distributed for free at participating stores nationwide.

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Coming in on the heels of Newtype USA's cancellation arrives PiQ, ADV's new entry into the magazine industry. Boosting content that reaches out to a broader audience, PiQ leaves the anime-focused style of Newtype for a wider spectrum of content including video games, comic books and popular television series.

"The primary goals of PiQ are to share and celebrate the love we have for these particular forms of entertainment with our readers, as well as shine a light on those often-overlooked projects, artists, creators and studios throughout the entertainment world." - PiQmag.com

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Celebrating Shonen Sunday's and Shonen Magazine's 50th anniversary, Kodansha an Shogakukan are collaborating on a variety of special features.

In order to keep the English fans up-to-date on the special features and events, Rumic World has created a special page to keep track of everything that's coming out, as well as translations of the press conference and others.

GB Shuppan has released the first issue of a full-color bishoujo manga anthology titled Comic Comomo (コミック小桃) on March 20th. Due to various circumstances, the magazine's release date was delayed from February 20th to March 20th. The magazine contains adult content and is aimed at males.

A Comic Comomo "volume 0" was released during last winter's Comic Market 73.

ANN reports that Shueisha has launched Ultra Jump Egg, an online spinoff of its Ultra Jump manga magazine:

The website has begun serializing the first manga installments of Rabian Ekusutasu by Toshiki Inoue (Galaxy Angel anime) and Mario Kaneda (Girls Bravo), Neko-Kyuu9 by Kaishaku (Steel Angel Kurumi), Hana-Yome Han by Yukimaru Katsura (Air, Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~), 9-Shinohara's manga adaptation of Ishio Yamagata's Tatakau Shisho to Koi Suru Bakudan light novels, Saikyō Mahō Shōjo Akira by Rco Wada, and Bunka-bu o Ikutsu ka by F4U.

Japanese manga publisher Hakusensha will be launching a new josei manga magazine titled Jossie on April 8th. According to Hakusensha, Jossie will be an "brand-new happy romance manga magazine."

Fusosha is also launching a new josei magazine. The first issue of the new magazine, titled Malika, will be released on April 28th.

Source: Ultimatum

According to Muhyojo, the latest issue of Kodansha's Morning revealed that the second volume of its Mandala magazine on March 21st. ANN has more:

Not only will this new 290-page volume be bigger (20 milimeters larger than A4 paper size, or roughly North American "Letter" size), but it will be in full color. 15 creators from eight countries contributed to this project, including 10 artists who returned from the first Mandala volume.

Also from ITmedia (via ANN) is the news that to celebrate the magazine's 50th anniversary, Konami will be making a game that will feature popular characters from Kodansha's Shonen Magazine and Shogakukan's Shonen Sunday.

The latest issue of Shounen Sunday came with a free Sakuya (a character from Kenjiro Hata's Hayate the Combat Butler) card that can be used in Hayate the Combat Butler TCG. New Akiba is reporting that a Hayate fan bought 398 copies of Shounen Sunday in order to get 398 copies of the Sakuya card.

Canned Dogs has more:

He had to travel to 82 different branches of 7-Eleven buying several copies of Shounen Sunday from each branch to complete the task (leaving a few copies so others can get their own copy) [...] 398 is a wordplay on the name "Sakuya", which is why he bought 398 copies.

Canned Dogs (via Muhyojo) has news of Kodansha's plans for celebrating Weekly Shounen Magazine's 50th anniversary:

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Japanese BL publisher Libre Publishing will be launching a new manga magazine called Kurofune ZERO on May 28th.

Source: Ultimatum