ComiPress reports that the winner of Kodansha’s international manga competition is the artist known as rem. Tokyopop spilled the beans in their description of Vampire Kisses, which rem illustrates. She also was the first winner of the Rising Stars of Manga competition. The first prize is $5,000, and rem’s comic, Kage no Matsuri (which was originally done as a webcomic) will be published in an upcoming issue of Morning magazine in Japan.
In other international competition news, the Manila Standard interviews two Filipino artists who placed in the top 15 in the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s manga competition: Elmer Damaso, the artist for Ravenskull, and Jhomar Soriano, who draws Mr. Grieves. Both are published by Seven Seas.
Bookslut interviews Anne Ishii, director of marketing and publicity at Vertical and blogger extraordinaire. (Via blog@Newsarama.)
At the MangaCast, Ed has posted audio of the DrMaster panel at Anime Expo.
ICv2 has more info on the new titles announced by CMX at SDCC.
John Jakala celebrates the joy of Kekkaishi character designs, with lots of illustrations.
The Forbidden Planet blog takes a look at some of Yen Press/Orbit’s upcoming books.
Jake at Ye Olde Comick Booke Blogge ‘fesses up about concocting the KISS yaoi hoax. And apparently we played right into his hands!
“Want to get teens’ attention? Use manga!” Yeah, try throwing it at their head when they ignore you. Seriously, this post at the Humane Education Blog highlights the only OEL manga I have heard of from Viz, the 1 World Manga series.
In case you missed all the SDCC announcements, Viz brings us up to date on upcoming releases.
Reviews: Another day, another Maki Usami manga review from Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page; today’s selection is Orange Kiss. Hobotaku likes vol. 1 of Nana. Julie checks out vol. 7 of Moon Child at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reviews vol. 3 of To Terra… Erica Friedman reviews vol. 3 of Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ at Okazu. Scott Campbell reviews vol. 1 of XS Hybrid and Holly Ellingwood checks out vol. 1 of Words of Devotion at Active Anime. Comicsnob Matt Blind reviews vols. 1 and 2 of Kitchen Princess. At the Comic Book Bin, Leroy Douresseax reviews vol. 4 of Hayate the Combat Butler.
