Manga

The long on-again, off-again life action Akira movie is decidedly on again at Warners, with Jaume Collet-Serra to direct the Steve Kloves script. Given that AKIRA is a worldwide classic of anime and Japanese film in general that hugely influenced both animation and the cyberpunk movement, it seems ripe for reinvention in that Hollywood way. And of course, also in that Hollywood way, despite the story being set in and infused with Japanese culture, because American moviegoers are all white and cannot be persuaded to pay money to watch Asian people on the screen, the film is being moved from New Tokyo to "New Manhattan " (essentially New New York) and replacing all the Asian characters with white people if casting rumors are true.

After many starts and stop -- an Albert Hughes directed version had the plug pulled after pre-production had already started earlier this year -- Warner Bros has greenlit a live action AKIRA remake again. This time Jaume Collet-Serra (ORPHAN) is set to direct. The movie apparently got new life after the budget was cut to a practically spartan $90 million.

Yen Press has announced two manga style adaptations of bestselling YA novels: Sherrilyn Kenyon's Chronicles of Nick and Cassandra Clare's The Infernal Devices trilogy.  HyeKyung Baek...

This is interesting.  Viz is migrating Shonen Jump to a digital edition that's only 2 weeks removed from the Japanese original.  (And you can...

Yeah like the rest of you East Coasters, we just had a little wee temblor. My mind refused to believe it was happening, preferring to think that it was a big truck driving by or the Second Avenue Subway rattling by...except that doesn't exist just yet. Having been in the Northridge quake, I knew it wasn't serious...yet, but the idea of the piles of books in Stately Beat Manor tumbling down filled my heart with dread. But the cat didn't even wake up. Hope the folks closer to the epicenter are okay. Virginian Colleen Doran tweeted:

Remember manga? It's still around, even if it isn't the juggernaut it was in the olden days. The big, big news in manga this week was the launch of Jmanga.com, best described as what if Marvel, DC, Random House, Dynamite, and Fantagraphics all teamed up to create their own comiXology. After years of sitting around anxiously watching piracy take a toll, the top Japanese publishers have finally banded together to create their own LEGAL online portal. The site just launched this week, and there been a ton of talk. J.K. Parkin has a great round-up of much of the reaction but it hasn't been universally loved:

Eiichiro Oda's ONE PIECE continues to be the fastest selling comic book of all times, with the new Vol. 63 selling at a record breaking clip:

Eiichiro Oda’s “One Piece” manga continues its strong sales record with the latest volume 63 passing the 2 million sales mark just within 4 days of its release. This amazing result outshine the performance by Vol 60 & Vol 61 which only managed to pass the 2 million mark after 1 week.

A previous volume of ONE PIECE, #60, set another record by selling 3 million copies in an 8-day period.

Otakon, the anime/manga show held each year in Baltimore, drew a record 31,000 fans. Brigid Alverson runs down the announcements from Viz, Bandai, Funimation and Aniplex .

This year's Bronze medalistAbby Denson alerts us to the call for applications for the 5th Annual International Manga Awards, presented by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At San Diego Comic-Con it was announced that Anne Rice's classic vampire novel, Interview With a Vampire, is being adapted into graphic novel format by webcomic creator Ashley Marie Witter for Yen Press, due out in 2012.

Manga publisher Viz has just announced VizManga.com, a digital comics site which immediately went live during the con. Viz's wide variety of manga titles are now available there in an array of digital formats, with first chapters available free, and first volumes available at 40% off for the first month.

In an effort to compete with the huge ad-supported pirated manga aggregator sites, the Japanese Digital Comics Association has announced that this August they will be unveiling Jmanga.com, a new English-language digital manga site with free content.