barbapapa writes: *ANZAI Nobuyuki, author of Flame of Recca and Marchen Awakens Romance, is starting a series called MiXiM ♀ 12 in issue #21-22 of Shonen Sunday.

FUJITA Kazuhiro, author of Ushio and Tiger and Karakuri Circus is starting a series called Gekkou Jourei in issue #17.*

Anonymous writes: For the past few months the site of long time manga distributor, MagicBulletGirl, [also the home to the group Endless Youth and Co.] has been the target of hacking. She scans in various mangas from the magazine Shonen Sunday and seems to always be willing to buy manga if requested. Those zips of raw manga, as well as the ones of manga her group scanlates, were deleted in the most recent spree of hack-deleting.
The identity of the hackers is unknown.
The zips are currently in the process of being restored according to a message on the site.

Unfortunately, a fairly new group is forced to close down. Guerriero, staff of HYDE Ltd., has stated that his group is dead for right now due to time constraints, including school and Air Force training.

We hope that in the future, they can once again take up scanlating

I'm going with a more "serious" poll this time. Just choose the method you usually get your manga. I'm interested in knowing how many people use manga hosting sites...
Thanks go to Razril for suggesting the original question, to fallofkakashi for adding in another option, and last of all to MajorMarmot for reminding me to change the poll (or else I'd have forgotten...)

As a reminder, our mascot contest is still running:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=4274
We've had some good entries so far, but the more the merrier!

New for the previous poll:
Question: You are in a school based manga, what are you?

Choices:
The guardian (bully) of the school - votes: 423 (4.9%)
The head student, respected by all except by the gangs - votes: 676 (7.8%)
The pervert with the camera - votes: 603 (7%)
The quiet person in the corner - votes: 4467 (51.6%)
The beauty with friends - votes: 506 (5.9%)
The loud athlete - votes: 314 (3.6%)
The showy geek - votes: 633 (7.3%)
Not part of the breakfast club - votes: 792 (9.2%)
The one everyone beats up - votes: 235 (2.7%)
There were 8649 total votes.
The poll ended: March 1st 2008

It appears most of our users are the shy librarian types that'd rather be alone and read manga by themselves...

barbapapa writes: *NISHI Yoshiyuki's Muhyo & Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation and KONOMI Takeshi's Prince of Tennis (both published in English by Viz Media) are both ending in issue #14 of Weekly Shonen Jump, on sale in Japan March 3rd.

Mr. Fullswing's SUZUKI Shinya is starting a new series in issue #16 of Weekly Shonen Jump, called "Bari Haken".*

Edit: Corrected an issue number for the magazine

We are happy to announce a little contest here! We're planning to spice up the look of the site a little, so we are announcing a

Mascot Contest

Go here to read the rules: http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=4274
That means if you have not registered on the site already, you must register in order to post your design in that topic.
The winning design will be used as officially as a mascot, and posted everywhere on our next version of the site
Good luck to everyone!

Yay! New poll! We're still gonna try new weekly polls for now. This interesting one was given by our member reanimated838uk. If you wanna submit your own poll suggestions, post in here: http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll:
Question: If you worked on a real manga series, which job would you choose?

Choices:
Advertiser - votes: 200 (3.7%)
Publisher - votes: 205 (3.8%)
Translator - votes: 538 (10%)
Artist - votes: 881 (16.4%)
Story/Script Writer - votes: 1408 (26.3%)
Editor - votes: 758 (14.1%)
I'd rather read manga for fun - votes: 1373 (25.6%)
There were 5363 total votes.
The poll ended: February 23rd 2008

A pretty close race there. I guess many people think they can write better stories than the existing series out there...

Anonymous writes: *Production has "slowed" but continues for Eden

Dark Horse editor Phillip Simon has announced on the Dark Horse forums that while production on Eden has slowed, he has received the "green light" to proceed with production on volumes 11 and 12 of Eden.

Volume 10 will be released this May, however no dates have yet been announced for volumes 11 and 12. They are currently working on the translation of volume 11.

In October, Simon suggested that if sales of Eden did not support a quarterly release, the manga might be shifted to a bi-annual (twice a year) release.

Eden was named "Manga of the Year" (2007) in the January issue of Wizard Magazine.*

Taken directly from Anime News Network

We have a new poll about the job you would take to produce a manga! Vote vote vote~

Previous poll:
Question: For the usual series you read/watch, which of the following do you usually do?

Choices:
Download from the first group that releases - votes: 6277 (42.7%)
Wait for the best quality release - votes: 2069 (14.1%)
Faithfully follow certain groups - votes: 4154 (28.3%)
Do not care - votes: 2202 (15%)
There were 14702 total votes.
The poll ended: February 16th 2008

As I expected, most people read from the first group that releases. That means for all those Bleach/Naruto groups, whoever releases the newest chapter first wins. I pity Maximum7...
(But as for me, I faithfully follow the groups I love~ Maybe it's because I've worked for a lot of the groups I like...)

Magnum writes: *Kodansha's Rando magazine has confirmed that AYAMINE Rando (the mangaka of Get Backers) will begin serialization of a new work which will begin in April in a Kodansha's Rival magazine. The new manga will be called Holy Talker.

KISHIMOTO Seishi (666 Satan) is also planning his own new series, but no further details are available at this time

Source: AnimeNewsNetwork *

Edit: Corrected some information. Thanks go to barbapapa