Left Turn Only.

Through Thought Balloons and ICv2: manga backlist sales starting to look pretty formidable on the direct market. Number-crunching ensues.

Of course, this week's noteworthy manga are all covered at the ever-essential Right Turn Only.

This is vaguely scary. James Cameron is working on a live-action adaptation of Battle Angel Alita?

Among other titles, Viz has picked up Hunter x Hunter and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, both Shonen Jump series.

Following on the heels of the XXXHolic movie announcement, it appears that an anime incarnation of Tsubasa will soon be upon us. (Can anyone fully translate the scan shown above?)

Don't know why I'm bothering with this one, but ... if you really, REALLY like schoolkids who fight each other by proxy ... Yu-Gi-Oh! the Movie Ani-Manga comes out next Tuesday.

On the review front: AoD thinks Tokyo Babylon Vol. 2 is awesome. CWR thinks Cheeky Angel Vol. 3 is pretty funny.

SnoopyCool has just put up a Midori No Hibi omake from the end of Vol. 7, which means they have just one more volume to go now ...

XXXHolic: Innocence

Las Vegas City Life profiles Chiba Tetsuya, creator of the seminal Ashita No Joe.

Have you ever wondered what you would look like as a manga character? No, me neither. But if you have the skills of an artist, you could find yourself "manga-fied" and drawn into a future Seven Seas book.

So, I hear that the exclusive Dark Horse / B&N deal is pissing retailers off, but for what it's worth, they've got Hellsing Vol. 1 and Trigun Vol. 2 due out soon, with the 1st volumes of Akira and Trigun already on shelves.

Asked whether it would be safe to assume that the three series involved would continue beyond these volumes, Dark Horse spokesperson Lee Dawson said, "Not necessarily, right now those are all that were contracted for. If they do well there's a possibility we might do more." Dawson also said that no additional titles had been contracted for as of this date.

Yeah, that's encouraging. :p

From the strange and flowery haunts of CLAMP comes news that the XXXHolic anime movie adaptation will be produced by Production I.G.. If they get anywhere near the budget that they had for End of Evangelion (I'm not hoping for a Ghost in the Shell 2 or anything here), this could be pretty awesome.

AoD delves into the ridiculously cute world of Koge Donbo with a review of Pita-Ten Vol. 1 ...

... while Johanna @ CWR looks into the most high-stakes Kindaichi volume yet with Kindaichi Case Files Vol. 10: Kindaichi the Killer.

No God, Just Father

ANN has a review of Shadow Star by Mohiro Kitoh. Geez, Dark Horse, you need to do a better job of getting this kind of manga out there, because ... it's Mohiro Kitoh!

And hey, they put up my review of Wolf's Rain Vol. 1.

So ... according to Diamond's list of new stuff, Tokyopop is soliciting the Warcraft manga in this December's Previews. Iiiiinteresting.

And Seven Seas' new titles are being solicited in that issue too.

AoD has a review for the fanservicey Psychic Academy Vol. 1.

Finally, Furinkazan has started work on Yakuza Papa, an odd little tale about a tough-as-nails mobster who's trying to raise a five-year-old daughter. (Hey, wasn't there a short-lived American sitcom like this ... ?)

Read or Don't

Something awesome from Kevin @ Thought Balloons:Where can I get this?! A comic about jazz ... man, sign me up. (...being Korean, I reckon it'd qualify as manwha, hmm?)

AoD's review of Trigun Maximum Vol. 3 says: Vash is still awesome, but Yasuhiro Nightow is losing it.

Now here's something that hasn't been licensed yet, but is worth checking out: Read or Dream, about a trio of book-loving sisters with the power to telekinetically control paper. (This is actually really awesome.)

Ready, set, post!

Computer crashed on me just now, so you get the Cliffs Notes version of the links I was going to post:

Top 100 GNs on direct market: sword-swinging and gunslinging still rule the manga sector.

AoD reviews Mahoromatic Vol. 3.

Viz has a new shoujo poll as part of their not-so-secret market research.

Giant Robot magazine turns 10.

Hey Ladies! Comics!

Picked this one up from Shawn @ Worlds Within Worlds: Tokyopop is looking for josei readers (i.e., women in their 20s/30s) to help promote their mature manga titles. So I guess they're declaring Mission Accomplished on the teen market, then ...

It's that time of year again; Jingle Belle is back! I always likes me some seasonal cheesecake.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin has what is possibly the most succinct and accurate description of Negima! yet: "Harem Potter".

Now here's something to while away the hours: if the zen-like comedy of Azumanga Daioh is to your tastes, then check out School Rumble. This manga is freckin' insane, I tell you.