I can't believe I missed this

Kazurou Inoue continues to set the standard in shounen comedy as SnoopyCool releases the next several chapters of Midori No Hibi.

Now it's my turn to get pwned

Kevin has total dish on the manga and graphic novel market as he looks over Publishers Weekly's graphic novel supplement.

Also, (and this doesn't really merit a separate entry) Broccoli Books has annouced a December 8 release for Leave it to Piyoko Vol. 1, the next entry in the Digi Charat mythos.

They're multiplying

Check out Kotonoha's latest release, "Bunnies" by Tetsu Kasabe. A mad scientist, a glimpse of the future, and ... well, I wouldn't want to give away the twist in this freaky, weird-out manga.

More hot boy-on-boy action

Active Anime reports that yaoi imprint Be Beautiful has acquired Target in the Finder and will be promoting the new title at Yaoi-con, which will be held in San Francisco on Halloween weekend.

Freelance photographer Akihito Takaba secretly investigates the mysterious Asami, said to control Japan's underworld society. Asami captures Akihito and submits him to a night of pleasure and pain he could have never before imagined. Soon thereafter, Fei Long, son of the most powerful Chinese mafia boss, comes after Akihito to demand the critical evidence he's uncovered.

Reviews Galore!

The ever-prolific AoD has new reviews for Beyblade Vol. 1 (working title: Buy our toys, ya stupid kids); Geobreeders Vol. 2 -- girls and guns, always a good combination; and Revenge of Mouflon Vol. 2 from Gutsoon, the Crossgen of manga. Well, not really, but they did go "on hiatus" due to "financial troubles" and all their releases since have been "delayed."

Also, iComics.com has a review of Del Rey's Othello Vol. 1, which may very well be the next big shoujo thing if it weren't so repetitive.

Previews snark, minus the snark

Is every comics blogger required to makes some sort of comment about the latest Previews? AoD has just noticed from the publication that ComicsOne has quietly picked up the licenses for Lunar Legend Tsukihime and Pretty Maniacs and will be releasing the titles starting in, well, January.

Goku could totally beat Spider-man

From ANN: Shonen Jump is teaming up with AOL to deliver thirteen episodes/chapters of Dragonball manga in Flash.

Each Friday for the next thirteen weeks, AOL’s RED service for teens will offer an exclusive premiere of a new episode of the popular fantasy action series at 3:00pm EST. Teens on the RED service will have exclusive access to the episode for a period of 48 hours, before it becomes available to all Internet users at www.shonenjump.com. The compelling flash manga takes storylines from the pages of Akira Toriyama’s famed graphic novel series and combines unique, full color and movement provided by Macromedia flash technology.

Cruel Angels High School

The apocalypse draws ever nearer, as Studio ADTRW has released the next chapter of Evangelion Iron Maiden 2nd, a.k.a. Eva Lite, a.k.a. Love Eva, a.k.a. The World's Only Official Licensed Evangelion Doujinshi.

Vertical Climb

From Vertical Inc.: Koji Suzuki, author of the prose versions of Ring and Spiral, will be coming to NYC and Toronto to promote his latest book, Dark Water. Schedule:

October 24 (Sun), IFOA, Harbourfront Centre,Toronto.
25 (Mon), same.
26 (Tues), Borders Books & Music, 32nd St. and 2nd Ave. NYC 7pm
27 (Wed), Barnes&Noble, 22nd St. and 6th Ave. NYC 7pm media-open

AoD, meanwhile, has a review of Kia Asamiya's Nadeisco Vol. 4.

Descendants of Conan

AoD has new reviews of Descendants of Darkness Vol. 1, considered by many to be the quintessential shounen-ai work, and Case Closed Vol. 1, considered by many to be ... a really really long series. (It's been running in Japan continuously since 1994, so those who wish to collect the complete manga series had better be in it for the long haul.)

Ignore following post

OH MY HOLY CRAP after 3 months of waiting Anime Waves has finally released the next chapter of the Stellvia manga!

This concludes my fanboy moment of the day. I would not actually recommend this title to anyone besides myself. The whole Hogwarts-in-space aesthetic is one of my guilty pleasures and holds little artistic merit or entertainment value to the casual reader.

Reaching into the barrel

AoD puts up their review of Kare First Love Vol. 1, but most interesting is the grab bag of new manga licenses that they've announced:

Tokyopop has picked up In Dream World (more of the same-old same-old magical adventures), Visitor (shoujo manwha, with supernatural powers!!11z0rs), and PhD: Phantasy Degree (about a school for demons, which seems mildly original). Of course I like the other PhD better.

Infinity Studios has picked up Cafe Occult, Popo Can and Na Na Na Na, and they really ought to update those webpages with information and synopses for the newly acquired titles.

Land of the Shoujo-oriented

Precocious Curmudgeon has a nice, comprehensive review of Land of the Blindfolded, one of the new offerings from DC's CMX line.

Also, it would appear that a new Graphic Novel Review is up. Hideshi Hino is on the masthead.

My Darling is a Manga-ka

Missed this one on the ANS infodump: The Japan Times has this charming profile on the Da-rin wa Gaikokujin (My Darling is a Foreigner) series, a wildly popular slice-of-life manga detailing the existence of manga-ka Saori Okuri and her American husband Tony Laszlo. Don't expect to see the tweeners in the Borders manga aisles gabbing about it anytime soon, but it's clearly found its audience among casual readers in Japan. If it ever came to the States, it'd probably be picked up by a Japanese language and culture publisher first rather than the usual manga suspects ...

The Numbers Game

Lots of incoming news as ICv2 has September stats for comics and graphic novel sales in the direct market. You can see the Top 300 Comics for the month and Top 100 Graphic Novels (Ultimate X-Men is on top, but Hellsing Vol. 4 sold like gangbusters and the one-volume Bone is still doing well). There's also a new Retailer Guide to Manga that includes a list of the hottest manga properties. For all the talk about the impact of shoujo, only one title in the Top 10 -- Fruits Basket -- is blatantly girly; the rest have evenly divided fanbases and cross-gender appeal.

The Next-to-Last Samurai

Ever had trouble keeping up with all the name-dropping in Rurouni Kenshin or Peacemaker Kurogane? There may be hope yet, as Anime News Service reports that a quarterly e-newsletter, Samurai History Papers, will give you all the lowdown on the great samurai of the Meiji era. The catch? You'll need to pay a $25 one-year subscription in advance.

Just Another Yaoi Monday

AoD is looking at more Be Beautiful titles, including Kizuna Vol. 2 and Selfish Love Vol. 1.

The Shueisha Atrocities

ANN has a full round-up of the growing Kuni ga Moeru manga controversy:

The Japanese Protestors cite 4 greviences with respect to the manga:
1. That the Nanking Atrocities require academic study to determine what happened.
2. That the photo, attributed to the Japanese army, is a Chinese falsification.
3. That Young Jump misrepresented history and unfairly influenced youth via use of the false photograph.
4. That the presentation is hurtful to those involved at the time, as well as their families, and thus the manga cannot be excused.

And other vital information can be had at the link.