From Channel NewsAsia come an article on how manga helped a kid come back to school:

While the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) is her immediate route to a great graphic artist, Sam has her sights on bigger things. She hopes to enroll in top design schools in the United States for her degree, and work in Japan in future to produce top notch Manga for comic lovers around the world.

Source: MangaBlog

According to ICv2, one of the newest play style for Green Ronin's Mutants and Masterminds RPG will be based on manga and anime:

Green Ronin has announced that it will initiate new styles of play for its Mutants and Masterminds RPG system in two new books, one based on manga and anime, and one on comic fantasy. Both will be released in the second half of 2008. The tentative titles are Mecha & Manga, and Warriors & Warlocks.

From business news website Bloomberg.com comes an article titled "Manga's Doe-Eyed Girls, Ninja Boys Woo U.S. Comic-Book Readers" that looks at recent manga trends:

While manga magazines and books sold 1.26 billion copies of 70,000 titles in 2006, domestic sales have been falling for 12 years. The comikets are the perfect place to discover a new artist with the potential for a global mega-hit like the shonen manga for boys named "Naruto" or the shojo manga for girls called "Fruits Basket."

Via: Japanator

ICv2 has released the December 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 December based on the graphic novel sales chart.

Also, MangaBlog provides its own look at the data, as well as a list of manga from the Top 100 Graphic Novels chart.

Issue 27 of ImagineFX, an U.K. digital art magazine, was released as a special manga-themed edition subtitled "Manga mayhem!". Some of the special features included in the issue are:

Manga mayhem! The beautiful cover art is by Kyoung Hwan Kim ??? who we discovered after he sent in his art for FXPose.

Manga Artist Q&A
Everything you need to know about creating amazing manga art

Manga workshop
Michael Chang Ting Yu shows how you can tell your fantasy story though your cover or poster art, using Painter and Photoshop

Anime studios special
GONZO, Bee Train and Studio Ghibli open their doors in this anime special

Source: Anime UK News

The Daily Yomiuri has an article that explores the dramatization of the manga Saito-san by Yua Oda. Also, Nichi Bei Times looks at the popularity of manga in France in "Manga Gaining Rapid Popularity in France."

From the Los Angeles Times comes an article titled "The rise of Japan cool," which looks at various Japan-related topics, and comes with an interview with Tokyopop's Stu Levy:

In contrast, Northridge-born Stuart Levy has no problem selling his products to anyone who will buy them. The chief executive of Tokyopop, Levy has made millions licensing and creating anime and manga books and DVDs for America's new breed of comic hipsters.

Source: MangaBlog

From Otaku Champloo comes a multi-part article looking at the relationship between Shonen Jump serializations and the fujoshi culture throughout the years, 2 parts have been published so far:

- A history of the fujoshi love affair with Jump
- Jump History and Fujoshi (2): Captain Tsubasa love

Via: MangaBlog

Nikkei.net reports that the JPO (Japan Publishing Organization) is collaborating with 470 publishers, 30 distributors and 6,300 bookstores to implement embedded IC tags inside 100 million manga in 2009.

The tag, which will later spread to regular books, aims to prevent shoplifting.

Source: MJ

In "Comic inspires classical concert," The Star Online looks at how manga like Nodame Cantabile are helping keep classical music alive:

But on the Eastern front, new methods are being brought into play to shake off those stereotypes and bring new audiences to classical music. Starting with a Japanese comic book, Nodame Cantabile, and continuing with a 2006 Japanese television drama of the same name, the latest offensive is a series of classical concerts in South Korea.