I am now heading to my FINAL panel here at Comic-Con International 2008: CMX! The DC imprint already announced a couple of new titles via The Beat a couple of days ago, but I’ll be there to see if any other announcements are made and for q&a.

The panelists are acquisitions manager Asako Suzuki, editor Jim Chadwick, editorial coordinator Sarah Farber, Larry Barry (whose name and title I’m not 100% on) and special guest, MangaCast’s Ed Chavez, who edits a couple of CMX titles and does their newsletter.

Moving on to some upcoming releases: Yoshinori Natsume’s Batman: Death Mask, which will come out in traditional comic issue format as well as collected.

Next up is Emma, whose first volume will be reprinted, so bug your retailers for it! Do totally recommend. Crayon Shinchan by Yoshito Usui, volume 4 out later this month.

The Flat Earth/Exchange by Toshimi Nigoshi…Shirley, Emma creator Kaoru Mori’s maid shshort stories, some of which predate Emma– this just came out.

The Girl Who Ran Through Time, based on the novel that the film (and manga) The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is effectively a sequel for, due out september and november for the two volumes.

Yu Yagami (creator of Those Who Hunt Elves) had Go West! coming out from CMX soon, in November. Due in October is Classical Medley by Sanae Kana, a Flex Comics title.

Astral Project, by Marginal (a pen name for the creator of Oldboy) and Syuji Takeya, described as Vertical-esque…Suihelibe!, another Flex title, by Naomi Azuma, first volume out in October. Fire Investigator Nanase by Hashimoto Izo and Ichikawa Tomoshige, coming out January 09.

Jihai, also by Flat Earth/Exchange’s Toshimi Nigoshi, is coming out February 09, and Mai Nishikata’s Venus Capriccio in April 09.

Ballad of a Shinigami, the manga version of K-ske Hasegawa’s novels, drawn by Asuka Izumi, spring 09. The Name of the Flower by Ken Saito, missed the date.

Genghis Khan, a new (this weekend) title by Nakaba Higurashshi, is coming April 09 if I heard right. And the other is March on Earth by Mikase Hayashi, March 09.

Now, CMXtra, the newsletter (by Ed). The monthly newsletter includes Monthly Hot Manga, new releases, convention news, imprint updates, and behind the scenes. They may add in Ask CMX, too.

Moving into the q&a…how do you pick manga? There’s no specific criteria; Suzuki says she picks it based on the titles she likes and doesn’t want someone else to get. She tries to get something for everyone.

I can’t hear the next question but it involves Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which Suzuki is a fan of the original movie of (not the recent anime one).

Why do they have so many books that involve car accidents? Coincidence. Might you get a mecha manga someday? There’s always a chance, Suzuki has to find one she wants to deliver to fans. Ed mentions they have a couple of tokusatsu-type titles like Kikaider. Suzuki says they may have something to say by NYCC.

Is the new Yu Yagami title as fanservicey as Those Who Hunt Elves? No, it’s more of a comedy/drama, less fanservice.

Most of their protagonists are young and female, are they shying away from male protagonists right now? No, sometimes a bunch of licenses in progress finish at once which may have led to this peprception but Suzuki tries to bring stuff for all demographics and they have several titles with adult and/or male protagonists.

Will they keep doing From Eroica With Love? Yes, but they wish it sold better and that we blogged about it more. Or people cosplayed it. Hmm.

Have they thought about bringing mangaka? They’d like to but it’s tough, and the authors are always working. A few of us suggest Kaoru Mori as an option if they were going to do it.

What are your favorites? Sarah’s is Emma, Suzuki can’t pick a favorite child, same with Larry, Sarah mentions Cheeky Misaki too. Ed likes Recipe for Gertrude and recs it for everyone.

I’m not sure what the question is here, something about socialites..ohhh, he MEANS slice of life. Socialite’s a little different! Once again, CMX has a pretty diverse line. Suzuki notes that she likes bringing in artists we haven’t heard of.

Next Penguin Revolution is coming in November, last volume next year.

Looks like that’s the end! Of Comic-Con! For this year! Yay! I have a few more posts to do– photos and Okazaki-sensei and stuff. Dunno when I’ll get to them but soon, I promise!

Starting late but here we go!

I’m going to start by noting that I am a Kurt Hassler fangirl. Just fyi.

Now, on to real panel-y goodness. We’re starting with YEN PLUS YAY! Special unannounced titles in the left-to-right section include Sarasah by Ryang Ruy, a manhwa with lots of bishounen, and One Fine Day by Sirial.

New license: the Kieli novel by Yukako Kabei, due out April 2009.

Next, a Chinese man hua: Step, by Yanshu Yu, a full-color title.

More manga: Oninagi by Akira Ishida and GA Geijutsu Art Design Class, by Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro creator Satoko Kiyuduki; this one is a 4koma, as is the nex license: Ichiroh! by Mikage. All due April 09 for first volumes.

Next up, Cat Paradise by Yuji Iwahara, coming out July 09.

Here’s a European comic strip: Toxic Planet, by David Ratte. It’s going to run as a webcomic on Yen’s website as well as in print.

Aaaaaand…Cirque du Frea by Darren Shan, a Shogakukan title with art by Takahiro Arai– sister company Little; Brown (future publisher of the Haruhi novels) publishes the prose version of the series. A major movie is also being made.

That’s it for news, now q&a!

To build up steam for Atsushi Ohkubo and Soul Eater (v1 out in October 09, with Yen+ in the meantime), they’re going to release Ohkubo’s B-1 as well.

Yen+ should generally be in the magazine section of stores but may sometimes be in young adult sections.

Is licensing Japanese stuff different frm European? Very, western pubs talk about an advances and that’s mostly it, but it’s more in-depth and complex.

Special extras with the Yen+ magazine? They’re working on stuff like trading cards and things so yes. Special covers, dust jackets, etc– it’s all possible.

Will the magazine always be double-sided (i.e left-to-right section AND right-to-left section)? Yes, a la Korean manga/manhwa anthologies. There’s a stop page in the middle to help people with it.

There is a feedback page in the magazine, and if you send stuff in you’ll get entered in a drawing for a free subscription.

There will be other content like articles and interviews in the future, next month Svetlana Chmakova gets interviewed.

The end!

…In just a few! We’ve got Marc Weidenbaum, Pancha Diaz, and Narasu Rebbaprasada.

They’re going to show three anime clips, including Vampire Knight– which, again, they do NOT have the rights to.

We’re walking through titles we’ve heard about recently: Honey Hunt, Magic Touch, We Were There by Yuki Obata, Nana– anime clip here…coming out early next year.

Some Nana and LoveCom trivia giveaways….then VIZBIG, Fushigi Yugi with color pages, and Hot Gimmick too.

Back to regular editions, Otomen, Heaven’s Will, aaand Honey and Clover! More anime.

Now more giveaways.

Captive Hearts by Vampire Knight’s Matsuri Hino! Coming November 08.

.St. Dragon Girl by Natsumi Matsumoto.

Blank Slate by Aya Kanno.

And of course, Vampire Knight. Cue more anime. I like these anime breaks, they give me a chance to hit the save button!

Once again, they ABSOLUTELY DO NOT have the rights to Vampire Knight! Do! Not! Have them!

Arina Tanemura artbook in October, and now q&a– two-way.

Are they trying to get shoujo anime on tv like viz’s shounen titles? There’s no natural place for it but they think Nana and Honey and Clover are good candidates.

Online distribution? Already on iTunes, though still just shounen titles (naruto, bleach, and death note).

HanaKimi manga, there’s a bonus chapter, no official news on whether Shojo Beat will publish it.

How do they pick titles? They try to decide if it will sell because if it doesn’t it sours things for the market and the license owners in Japan.

Now they’re asking us questions…on talk about subscriptions, one person notes that they can’t get through to ADV for a PiQ refund.

Back to us asking– extras in magazine? It’s hard in the US because people tear bonuses out (but they don’t in Japan) and they’re hard to ship, too.

Any more all-ages shoujo? they want to but no immediate announcements.

Now audence members are polling too- one just asked about the new original program and whether we’re interested in shorts about peoples’ experiences with manga.

Any chance of VIZ doing dramas? Viz pictures might but no announcements now.

What about theatrical releases for shoujo flicks like shounen? No plans but it’s a great idea.

I think that’s the end! Whew, just Yen Press left tonight!

Del Rey Manga / Hiro Mashima is starting in about fifteen minutes…then I have Shojo Beat, then a break until Yen Press. Whew!

They’re giving away more slap bracelets…looks like there’s some kinda prize involved with them. Pretty sure mine doesn’t have any identifiable markings on ‘em– alas!

No hat on Dallas this time, but there he is. And there Hiro Mashima is! Damn he’s cute! Can I take him home? He greets us in English and hopes we have a rockin’ time.

When Mashima-sensei was a child, his grandfather would bring home thrown-away manga for him to read s he always wanted to make manga.

Inspiring manga for Mashima…Dragonball is all he says. He loves fierce battle scenes. His first debut work was called Magician. He created a 60-page audition work which won an amateur manga contest which led to his debut in 1999.

Mashima is doing two manga at once right now: Fairy Tail and Monster Hunter Oranj (sp?). His schedule is difficult but Monster Hunter is monthly and Fairy Tail is weekly, which helps. He does Fairy Tail on weekdays and Monster Hunter on weekends, so yes, he works seven days a week. Mashima is a big fan of the Monster Hunter game, so he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do it.

Plue– a small, vaguely snowman-like creature– appears in many of his manga. Mashima says he imagines Plue as a creature that could exist anywhere, including our world.

On the plot vs character debate, Mashima says that both are important but if he has to pick it’d be characters, because you actually have to think of a plot buthe can pull characters from real life…and Fairy Tail’s Natsu is based on Mashima’s young self, and other characters are based on friends, coworkers, etc.

Mashima likes Spiderman, fyi.

Mashima was a judge picking new manga for Shonen Rival, the monthly that features Monster Hunter. They judged about thirty submissions; Mashima met with other editors and hashed them out and picked the best. One of his assistants submitted too, so he was worried about nepotism, but it was an awesome series so it got in fine.

On names, he thought western fantasy names would be too tough for Japanese fans, so Rave’s Haru is a spring-like character, Natsu is warm and fiery like summer, etc. When he runs out of names– and he used Fuyu, winter, and Shiki, season, in other works –so he is already out, except maybe Sezan, French for season.

How would Mashima cast a Hollywood Fairy Tail movie? That’d make him happy he says he’d put Johnny Depp in as Happy, the cat…he doesn’t know many young American actors. Hm.

Mashima is going to do a drawing demo for us, sweet! Whew, he’s fast! I took video but I’m going to ask and make sure it’s okay to post.

Favorite character to draw? Natsu. Does Mashima worry about hand injuries? When he was younger it was hard but he’s learned to work with it.

If Natsu is Mashima, does Mashima get motion sickness? He’s scared of heights and airplanes but has no motion sickness problem..that came from a friend of Mashima’s.

Harder question, about whether he starts drawing and runs with it or if he does character studies first. He doesn’t really do studies, he’s always been fast so he usually runs with it.

How far out does he plan stories? Generally he thinks of the next issue as he works on the one before but sometimes he has writers block and sometimes stuff just comes to him when he’s on the toilet.

Movies inspire him, so he looks at camera angles and mentally rotates the camera..like Kubo. Someone asked about character reuse…to a degree the similarity of characters is a service for fans, plus nostalgia and homage.

What kind of music does he listen to while working? Rock and punk, he loves Green Day.

Does he have a friend like Gray who likes to take off his clothes? Heanswers “me.”

I’m askuing about where he shops, the answer being Shibuya and Amazon.com. He’s got awesome jewelry.

Any other artists he’s inspired by? Akira Toriyama of course.

This is Mashima’s first comic-con and he likes the cosplay and is thrilled to find so many manga fans.

Weird stuff from fans? He does get stuff, but the best was a muffler from a fan at yesterday’s signings– they’re here in cosplay today.

Who would he cast in a Fairy Tail jdrama? He’s not sure…maybe Arashi’s Ninomiya(?) as Natsu.

Where did the idea for Fairy Tail come from? He games with friends in the wee hours, and he wanted something with that cameraderie, like if he and his friends were wizards.

He has a twenty-tatami (8000 sq ft) area with seven desks, a sofa and tv. And presumably a game machine.

How did Natsu get his neck scar? Still a secret but good attention to detail.

How many assistants does he have and what is their role, do they contribute story ideas? Six, and the storyline is all Mashima and editors but he appreciates his assistants very much.

Advice for aspiring manga artists? It’s important to be passionate about manga, but get inspiration from other media as well.

Will Lucy ever be unable to get into her apartment because everyone’s there? Great idea, maybe he’ll use it!

What anime studio would you like to work with, presumably if there as a Fairy Tail anime? He says Pixar. Heh.

Did he go to art school or is he self-taught? At first he thought school was important so he went to a manga school for a while, then quit and taught himself.

Any special mangaka hangouts or hotspots in Japan? No set place but he does hang out with other artists.

Any romance in Fairy Tail? Do we have suggestions? Someone shouted Lucy and Erza, which he liked. Does he evveer cosplay? He’d like to try but not yet…maybe as Happy. Blue face and rock it!

I asked who he hangs out with among artists. He says Miki Yoshikawa who hasn’t debuted in the States yet.

Final comments from Mashima: he says thanks everyone, and please wait for volume ten, which will kick butt. Even though we’re only on 3.

The end!

Starting shortly.

There is a giant Kon here…I’ll add him to my mass photopost for later. (Only barely got him, too…)

Wow, they’re not allowing ANY photography during the panel. I know that’s common enough with bl magaka, but apparently some mainstream creators, too.

Much applause for Kubo-sensei, of course. Sensei is being given an award by comic-con. Comic-con guy just called him “taito” kubo. oops! award is Comic-Con Inkpot Award for Comic Book Excellence! Kubo says he’s honored, especially since predecessor Osamu Tezuka won it too.

The additional panelists are Viz editor Hiromi Sasagawa, JP Bleach editor Nakazaki-san, and Shonen Junp editor Pancha Diaz…plus ten essay contest winners from Japan.

Openers from Kubo-sensei: everyone, i’m glad to see you all. Than you very much.

Now, q&a! Questions are put on cards in advance, and questions not answered here may be used in an exclusive two-hour interview for shonen jump, plus an undisclosed video project– I’m thinking Bleach bonus feature.

Kubo is impressed by Comic-Con which is many times larger than Jump Festa. This is his first time to America and out of Japan at all, so he had to get a passport for this.

We’re seeing pictures of his studio, never seen anywhere else ever period. Sensei says he got work done in Japan so he wouldn’t have to work here.

He has three assistants, and sensei always picks the music they listen to. It’s a cool studio. They store screentones and stuff in white stacked drawers in the back of the studio. One of the assistants loves Doraemon, hence some merch in the studio…the assistants put whatever they like on their desks.

Sense is the kind of guy who wears sunglasses indoors, btw. They have an ornamental tv as well as a real (big) one. Kubo has a rare Bleach watch, looks very high-end. There’s some fanartt on the wall, including Bobobo…oh, not fanart; Kubo and his artist friends exchange sketches and autographs.

DAMN Kubo has a shit-ton of CDs! About 1200-1300 on shelves, and more stacked up, maybe 2000 total. The kitchen is clean because they never cook.

Upstairs is Sensei’s work area, and we see him sans sunglasses working in the video he’s coloring Bleach art for Jump. He has two pairs of sunglasses hanging on the wall. The audoence likes his chair, it’s very modern…and he based Aizen’s chair off of it. Huh.

Sensei’s editor visits him two or three times a week. That’s when Nakazaki-san gets manuscripts…I might have his name spelled wrong. Kubo apparently frequently gets fan letters from overseas fans.

Kubo-sensei decided to become a mangaka when he was in elementary school…but since then he’s become interested in design and architecture.

Bleach was inspired by the fact that he wanted to draw shinigami in kimonos, and to make something no one had seen before…he started with Rukia’s design.

Characters definitely come before story in sensei’s creation process.

Interesting question: why the hispanic cultural stuff in Bleach? It wasn’t really intended, he just felt that Chad should have some Mexican heritage during the design process.

The characters’ normal clothes are the ones Kubo wishes he could find but can’t. Maybe he should consider a fashion line.

For aspiring manga artists, Kubo-sensei says to believe in your talent and that it’s important for both you and the readers to enjoy your work.

Where does the Quincy idea (and name) come from? It was to create a rival for Ichigo, hence the white outfit, and the long-range archery weapons. Quincy comes from quintent, the quincy star has five points…also Quincy Archer sounds like a name which he thought was cool.

Kubo doesn’t have models for action scenes, he just has rock music in his head and he imagines the scene, then mentally pauses it and rotates around the camera and picks the best angle.

It wasyesterday that Kubo realized just how many fans he has here. Heh.

Kubo-sensei’s favorite part of the manga process is when he thinks about the story and gets to draw something he’s wanted to for a while. He has random ones in his head he wants to do so he tries to find good ways to incorporate them into the manga. He also likes inking.

Questions for the Japanese editor…Kubo finishes his pages a couple of weeks before they get published. Huh.

Will he do a backstory for Ishin(?), Kubo says yes.

Three minutes left!

Is the Kon doll based on something? He wanted something fake-looking and usually you wouldn’t have a seam in a face…he liked that fact.

When Kon was first found he was on the street, dropped by a bratty kid who didn’t get the toy he wanted. Awwww! The giant Kon cosplayer is saaaad.

Last one: when Kubo was looking for a word to go with shinigami, he found a word that is raven butterfly, which flies in the dark, which he liked…hence the hell butterflies. The end!

Dark Horse starts in 15 minutes, but don’t forget it4 regular Dark Horse as well as manga so I will once again be selective about what parts I include– pretty much just manga news, and then anything else that interests me. ;)

Righto, then! Having some technical difficulties on the powerpoint…Publicist Jeremy Atkins and editor Scott Alley are manning this ship. Lots of Buffy talk, apparently there is no big announcement this month in spite of something Whedon said, I’m not a Buffy fan but I know you’re out there…

Oh look, functioning powerpoint presentation!

Captain Hammer comic! From Dr Horrible. By the way, John– I never woulda gotten into that thing; apparently 3000 people wanted in, and only 1000 were let in. And there’s no special access for press at those events. SO THERE!

Anyway…CLAMP word! God, give us something new, pleeeease…Clover omnibus, and they’re now saying the new simultaneously-released series will come out next summer.

New titles: Shinjuku, by Mine and…

ohgod I am sitting five feet from bruce campbell suddenly O.O;;;; and another surprise guest in a few. Uh…well, we’ll go back to manga in a sec.

Okay, gonna be more than a sec here, but I WILL get those titles! After these “My Name Is Bruce” trailers. And q&a. o.o;

ok, the titles are Shinjuke, by Mine and Yoshitaka Amano, and World Embryo by Daisuke Moriyama.

Tite Kubo next!

So you may have noticed that I did NOT liveblog the Eisners. I had planned to but by the time they were coming up I was exhausted, plus my computer AND phone were drained of power, leaving me unable to liveblog even if I had gone.

Fortunately for you, The Beat DID liveblog them, and here’s the news pertaining to manga fans:

- The main manga-related category was of course the “Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material– Japan,” which included among its nominees The Ice Wanderer and Other Stories, Mw, Monster, Tekkonkinkreet, and Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms. The winner? Tekkonkinkreet.

- The only other manga-related category with more than one nomination was the “Best Comics-Related Books” category, which included Jason Thompson’s Manga: The Complete Guide and Robin Brenner’s Understanding Manga and Anime, both of whom lost to Douglas Wolk’s Reading Comics.

The following were the nominees who did NOT win in their categories:

- Best Continuing Series: Monster (Naoki Urasawa/VIZ) - WINNER: Y The Last Man
- Best Publication for Kids: Yotsuba&! (Kiyohiko Azuma/ADV) - WINNER: Mouse Guard
- Best Archival Collection/Project: Apollo’s Song (Osamu Tezuka/Vertical) - WINNER: The Complete Terry and the Pirates
- Best Writer/Artist: Fumi Yoshinaga for Flower of Life (DMP) - WINNER: Chris Ware
- Best Writer–Humor: Brandon Graham for King City (TOKYOPOP) - WINNER: Eric Powell
- Best Penciller/Inker: Takeshi Obata for Death Note (VIZ) - WINNER: Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan

…The end! ‘Night folks.

Heading to VIZ now…This is my last panel today. All I have left is a LOT of waiting to try and get into Kevin Smith, and then I’ll be at the Eisners reporting on manga wins (and losses).

okay, looks like Marc Weidenbaum and Mark Chang are back, plus some others: Eric, Beth Kawasaki, and Candace. Yes, I missed some last names. Sh!

Starting out with a recap of the shonen jump jump festa contest from earlier. The room is packed, btw. Apparently Kubo-sensei will only sign shikishi, no books or posters or anything.

Greg Oden will be around signing stuff at noon Sunday, for those who missed the Laker girls.

Eric is talking about VIZ’s original comics venture, so he’s going to talk about portfolio review stuff. He says they’re more interested in good comics than manga per se, and that storytelling is more imnmportant than visual style. They want to make comics that are relevent to the fans, and they favor episodic stuff. They’re hoping to reach the 18-30 dmographic generally but if they like something they’ll publish it. We’ll start seeing original stuff in Shojo Beat, generally with an autobiographical, Japan-themed stuff.

Moving on to anime, we’ll see if there’s anything new. In the meantime: Blue Dragon on Sept. 16, volume 2 in November…then Naruto, movie 2 out on Tuesday and 3 on November 11th. Bleach movie on October 14th. Buso Renkin final box set on October 7th…InuYasha season six box set December 2nd. Hunter x Hunter first box is Dec. 2008.

Death Note anime box set November 18th with the first 20 eps and 30mins of bonus content. Not to be confused with the manga box set mentioned earlier.

That’s it for anime, now for maaaaaanga. Starting with the same stuff from the shonen jump stuff: fifth anniversary, manga box sets as earlier, collector’s editions– hardcover first editions. Apparently Kubo is going to show off his home studio in the panel tomorrow.

Now vizkids! (no new manga either?) The diamond and pearl Pokemon manga, Pokemon activities and puzzle books Pokemon pocket guides, aaaaand…Naruto chapter books, prose books for ages 7-10, brand new and American-only, they’re not translations, and they have illustrations from the manga.

The Zelda manga is also part of vizkids, apparently, and it’s due in October. Also Bakegyamon, Happy Happy Clover (there was an anime!), Leave It To PET, Dinosaur Hour the gag manga, in 2009.

Shojo Beat…Fushigi Yugi in VIZBIG, along with Hot Gimmick. Heaven’s Will by Satoru Takamiya, not new I think, but January 09. Magic Touch, the massage manga, also January. Otomen, yaaaay! January 12th. Honey Hunt…and during the Shojo Beat panel they WILL show Vampire Knight clips but they do NOT have the license (yet)! Duly noted.

One Pound Gospel, back in print since Rumiko Takahashi has finally finished it. Black Lagoon in August, BUY IT! They have early copies at their booth, must. get.

ok, 2009 announcements…Gestalt, but I think that’s not new either. By Yun Kouga, btw. Dogs, Volume 0, by Shirow Mina, due out April 09, is that new? I think so, but not sure…then +kigami by Mase Motoro, due May 9th.

VIZ Signature…Takehiko Inoue’s REAL, due this month…Vagabond VIZBIG, 700 pages, starting September 2008…and then the Vagabond artbooks, September 16th…

solanin is coming out October 2008 by Asano Inio…Oishinbo, of course, which they’re publishing the seven a la carte editions rather than the hundred or so out in Japan. Coming January 09, with a couple of recipes in each book.

Okay, NOW new announcements.

20th Century Boys manga trailer. Is it finally time? Yes! Due out February 2009, bimonthly from there! Finally!

Next up, another Naoki Urasawa title, one I’m less familiar with: Pluto, a revisioning of Astro Boy (by, of course, Osamu Tezuka). Also out February 09, with bi-monthly releases. Please excuse my drool.

Only time for ONE question: a manga noob, who doesn’t understand why it akes so long to bring out the US editions. There are worse only questions, I guess…some titles, like Vagabond, are pretty close, they get the files before the books go to print in Japan, but mostly it’s the translation and printing process. They started publishing YuGiOh before the tankobon come out in japan.THE END BYE.

At the tail end of an Archie Comics panel (SO nostalgic!), and then broccoli starts. Whee!

Shizuki Yamashita presides, and she has no powerpoint today (technical difficulties), but she’s talking about the newly-released Koi Cupid and upcoming Sola (manga, natch).

And then there’s the special Cosmode, which I failed to get at expo but which I will get in the dealer room here! Apparently it didn’t originally have Gurren Lagann on the cover but then they heard the show was getting pimped big-time at Expo.

Honoka Level Up is also being mentioned, along with Disgaea which is in production, and Nui, whose third volume is in preproduction now.

That’s about it– no new announcements, I guess, so q&a. Why no character goods at the booths anymore? Because the booths are getting smaller, especially here at Comic-Con, who decreased the number of booths significantly…the con is too big even for its XXXL britches, if you hadn’t heard.

Broccoli titles are available in regular bookstores and they’re getting into libraries now too. On the Galaxy Angel games front, Broccoli Japan has done talks to get people to keep making games for the franchise, and the PS2 game is 2D so it’s hard to get out in the US these days– it looks old.

Apparently Broccoli is talking to MangaGamer, the new downloadable bishoujo games distributor, and that’s a possibility, but the US is still an unknown market for these games, so they’re experimenting with the downloadables to see if the market is big enough for packaged product.

Anything new for bl line Boysenberry…Yaoi Con is in touch since Pet On Duty mangaka Nase Yamato is guest of honor now so they’re trying to get Cigarette Kisses out in time for that.

On I Wanna Be An Angel, the license expired two years ago so good luck finding it; Kamui 10 is coming out…they’re in production but a lot of stuff got shifted to get sola out with the anime (d’oh!).

The state of the industry: Broccoli president thinks manga grew too fast and consumers were overwhelmed, it became hard to tell what’s good. And there’s no way to really preview manga, except shonen jump, shojo beat, and now yen+. So the manga world has struggled, and while overall manga sales are on the rise, but the number of individual titles selling is falling (i.e. some series just aren’t selling). It’s hard to make the titles known…although one of their better-selling recent titles (My Dearest Devil Princess) was panned by reviewers.

Any updates for the Broccoli website coming? Shizuki blogs now so less updating for the main site.

If borders gets bought by barnes and noble how will that affect Broccoli? Some titles that did well will be fine, like Juvenile Orion, but some titles might not, but Broccoli likes to focus somewhat smaller stores. In Japan, not every manga is in ebery store– you won’t find Sola at Kinokuniya, Yamashita says. They’re mostly sold at otaku shops like Animate, Gamers, Toranoana. A lot of manga is niche even in Japan, but all of it is niche here, so they’re hoping to see more specialty stores.

Gamers online store…went bye-bye when they started working on dot-anime with Bandai Visual USA, which of course has fallen apart slightly since BVU merged with Bandai Entertainment. As for brick and mortar they’re doing a lot with Anime Jungle in LA since they had to close the physical Anime Gamers shop some time ago.

Breaking into US manga…a lot of the work is package design and website design, lettering, that kind of thing, rather than actual drawing. A lot of letterers are interning these days, and freelancing is good, and that works for translating as well. Also, shmooze with Yamashita at cons! (Check!) Also, manga is not a very high-paying industry, so if you want to make a lot of money you might wanna try something else. You also need to have a worker attitude, not an artist attitude for graphic design: it’s more about the client than the artist in that field.

I think that’s it. Janken time now?

Hokay, still fail Internets, but phoneposting ftw!

The Shonen Jump panel is starting now, with Marc Weidenbaum, Pancha Diaz, Mark Chang, and a Kon plushie presiding. To no one’s surprise– Ultimo will be talked about, according to the first slide. And of course, Tite Kubo.

The September issue of SJ will have the first chapter (or maybe it’s just a preview?) of Stan Lee and Takei-sensei’s Ultimo, it looks like…yadda yadda Bleach character book and posterzine…fifth anniversary Shonen Jump collector’s edition…40th anniversary of weekly shounen jump in japan…

Dragon Ball Illustrations in October, Slam Dunk in February, and 10 winners from Japan were given trips here– and VIZ is sending one Shonen Jump reader (plus a friend or parent) to Japan for Jump Festa. The Japanese contest was an essay contest; ours will be a contest running August to October…and in one million VIZ manga and dvds will include a sticker– three manga, three dvd, which can be put on a poster in the August Shonen Jump.

Send the poster in to enter to get to Japan. Also, each of those big stickers comes with a small sticker, so get three of those and mail it in and you get a gift. Whew.

New titles: Waq Waq by Ryu Fujisaki, previewed in the August issue, and Nora by Kazunari Kakei, preview in the October issue. They’re both coming out in the same respective months in tankobon form.

Bleach box set for Seepptember 2008…Death Note box set in October. And now they’re talking about Jump Sq., which we’ll hear more of in the near future– Weidenbaum notes that Jump Sq. has been sending in baka para: two pages created in Japanese by VIZ for this Japanese mangabon. Did not know that! This has been going on since Jump Sq.’s first issue, too.

Leading up to an announcement here…the next issue of jump sq. will feature comic con. And a new shonen jump title: Tegami Bachi, or Letter Bee, a favorite of mine for the beautiful art by Hiroyuki Asada. It’s a supernatural futuristic fantasy tale kinda thing.

They changed printers so they can do all the color pages that are done in Japan.

Laker Girls at VIZ booth at noon, and passes for the Bleach movie..wait, no, they’re out of tickets. Ah well.

And now, q&a! Wait, no, surprisee guest– Stan Lee himself. Heh, glad that wan’t announced. Once again five feet from Stan Lee!

Stan Lee has one hell of an entourage, and he knocked Kon over. Aww.

Lee is still learning how to read right to left, and heh, he’s got a drawing of himself for Ultimo…Shonen Jump cover, Lee wants to know why his picture is so small…he’s talking about how manga’s pacing and art are different, and he’s still learning about manga so maybe in a few years he’ll know what he’s doing, he says.

As for Ultimo, he liked the name and thought it suited a robot. And if you’ve got a good Ultimo, you need a bad Ultimo. And that’s all about robots. .Does he start with a title usually? Sometimes yes, sometimes it’s hard to come up with a title.

I asked about Heroman, the Bones animation project, no new details but Lee lets slip that he has a tird Japan-related project in the works! The end of Lee, whois a veeery busy man this weekend.

Back to q&a, though I missed the first one and something very noisy is happening in the back–they’re hopeful about getting YuGiOh R and they’re considering guests for next year, including the Naruto mangaka, Kishimoto-sensei.

Let’s see…someone asked about something that’s being announced at the general VIZ panel later but I didn’t catch it. How do you get into Shonen Jump? Win a contest. Kubo signings are tomorrow.

Live-action Naruto? Nothing to announce at this time. Huge Naruto dvd box set? An amazon exclusive includes the first ten box sets. YuYuHakusho? Manga’s still running from Viz. Shaman King products: more please! No announcements, but send in letters. 4kids has the merch rights for that.

Sounds like Viz is going to announce the Vampire Knight anime in the shojo beat panel, tomorrow I think…Funi dub helping One Piece manga? It’s super popular is the only answer given there. Are they going to do (some Jump Sq. title I missed the name of– a shounen ai one?). The answer: maybe, sit tight for more jump sq. stuff.

Bleach box for those who bought the dvds separately? they’ll consider it.

The end!