It’s a busy day for Tokyopop. First the company announced a online manga initiative with GoComics, and now Tokyopop has followed up with two other deals.

The first of the new announcements should be good news for World of Warcraft and StarCraft fans; Blizzard Entertainment and Tokyopop have entered into an agreement where the comic publisher will release 22 all new WoW and StarCraft titles between now and 2010.

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Tokyopop and GoComics have announced an agreement where the two companies will work together to bring many o Tokyopop’s titles to mobile phones.

To kick off the event, GoComics will be branding the Tokyopop content under the GoComics Mobile Manga banner as well as a spin-off Tokyopop section.

“Our Mobile Manga is a great user experience and satisfies discriminating creators, editors and fans alike. A major reason for this is GoComics’ commitment to quality, simplicity, and an artistic adaptation that preserves the manga pacing while converting pages into a panel-by-panel format,” said TOKYOPOP Director of New Product Development Jeremy Ross. “We look forward to building on the success of our initial mobile manga anthology with GoComics’ “freedom of choice” offering — fans can now select their favorites from a wide catalog of titles.”

Movie more titles to the digital realm is a pretty wise move from my standpoint, however I have not been overly impresse with trying to read comics on my RAZR 2. On the other hand, with the fantastic multi-touch screen found on the iPod Touch (which I own) and the iPhone, reading mobile comics is so easy.

via GoComics and Tokyopop

DreamWorks is on a major scramble to nab up all sorts of properties, and the latest acquisition is the Japanese manga Ghost in the Shell, which the company plans on turning into a 3D live-action movie.

Created by Masamune Shirow, “Ghost in the Shell” was first published in 1989. It went on to generate two additional manga editions, three anime film adaptations, an anime TV series and three videogames. The second anime film, “Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence,” was released in the U.S. by DreamWorks in 2004.

Jamie Moss will write the adaptation with Avi Arad, Ari Arad and Steven Paul producing.

via Variety

Look closely in your local comic shop and you just might find the original Speed Racer stories by Tatsuo Yoshida in a brand new collected hardcover.

The two volume set has been restored by Digital Manga Publishing, and with the movie arriving in theaters soon, the company made the wise decision to get this collection in stores this month.

Speed Racer: Mach Go Go Go has a suggested price of $39.95, but if you know where to look, I bet you can find it cheaper.

via Diamond Comic Distributors

DC Comics announced it will be lowering the cover price of Batman: Death Mask to $2.99 per issue. The mini-series is the American comics debut of Yoshinori Natsume who will spin Batman in the manga style.

In BATMAN: DEATH MASK #1, there’s a new serial killer in Gotham, one who may have ties to the training Bruce Wayne acquired as a young man in Japan. Does the murderer know that Bruce Wayne is the Batman?

And in BATMAN: DEATH MASK #2, Bruce Wayne must confront his past and examine how the time he spent training to become Batman affected him — and whether those experiences led to the killer now rampaging through Gotham City’s underworld. (This black-and-white miniseries no longer will be in Prestige Format, and will be saddle stitched instead of squarebound.)

Issue #1 arrives April 9 with Batman: Death Mask #2 dropping May 7.

While the price drop is a nice announcement, it would be great to have all titles from the Big Two drop by another dollar.

via DC Comics

Today is Manga day at Major Spoilers (and by Manga day, I mean we have two stories that reference Manga)…

TokyoPop has announced it has signed Korean Manga creator Hee Jung Park to a multi-book publishing deal.

“Hee Jung Park is a phenomenal talent as well as a manga superstar,” said TokyoPop EIC Rob Tokar in a prepared statement. “Along with her bestselling sequential art, her work has been collected in art books and gallery shows around the world. “Inventive”, “unusual” and “sophisticated” are words that often arise in discussions about Ms. Park’s manga classics and we are both excited and proud to publish them.”

The four books will be published between March and August of this year.

Take the jump for the complete description of Hotel Africa, Martin and John, Too Long, and Fever.

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She may be a rock star diva from outer space, but that is no reason to spread rumors about the global manga star. But that is just what Tokyopop is doing with Princess Ai: Rumors from the Other Side.

According to TOKYOPOP Editor-in-Chief Rob Tokar, “Princess Ai: Rumors from the Other Side is another manga first for TOKYOPOP, but considering that Princess Ai has always been a groundbreaking project, ‘unique’ should be expected! Since Ai is an outspoken, outrageous, controversial celebrity (with wings!), it wasn’t hard to find incredible stories from people who love her, hate her and love to hate her.”

Slated to work on the project are Misaho Kujiradou (Princess Ai trilogy), Steve Buccellato (Battle of the Bands), Ashly Raiti and Irene Flores (Mark of the Succubus), Hans Steinbach (A Midnight Opera), Armand Villavert (Zapt!), Sara Winningham (Pride & Prejudice), Emma Viceli (Rising Stars of Manga UK), Mike Schwark and Ron Kaulfersch (Van Von Hunter), Erica Reis (Sea Princess Azuri), T Campbell and Amy Mebberson (Divalicious), Che Gilson, Brett Uher and Mara Aum (Dark Moon Diary), Pauro Izaki (Princess Ai of Ai-Land comic strips) and Kim Mi-Kyung (11th Cat for Ice Kunion).

Princess Ai: rumors from the Other Side arrives in stores in March 2008.

Anyone read this? Or do I need to head over to the Wiki to find out the deelio?

Top Cow’s Witchblade Takeru Manga #12 is about to hit stores, and the company has sent Major Spoilers a sneak peek at the final issue.

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Top Cow Productions has sent Major Spoilers a sneak peek of Witchblade Takeru Manga 9 that arrives October 17, 2007. This in continuity series features Takeru and Kuo hunting for the origins of the Witchblade, which has caught the interest of the US military.

As a bonus, Witchblade Takeru Manga 9, and all following issues to issue 12 will be oversized to accommodate the story. 40 pages of Witchblade-iness for $3.99.

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When issue #8 hits the stands, Witchblade Takeru Manga will get a new storyarc that has the US Government looking closely at the title character.

Top Cow has sent a preview of the issue that you can see after the jump.

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If you haven’t figured it out already, manga is a huge money maker for publishers. So don’t be surprised to see more companies snatching up manga titles left and right to republish to the English speaking world.

The latest acquisition comes from Dark Horse that announced it will be publishing GANTZ in the United States.

Gantz tells the story of a team of dead people who are forced to take part in a �game� that has them hunting aliens and other creatures who live among the populace of Japan. The story focuses on Kei Kurono, a teenage boy who died saving a homeless man from a train. He, along with a band of others who are recently deceased, is forced to complete a series of dangerous and complicated missions by a strange device called Gantz. On these missions characters can even die again, only to be quickly replaced by others like them. As the plot progresses, so does the intricacy of relationships between characters.

Gantz is expected to be available in the Summer of 2008.

via Dark Horse

Have you been following the series? Are you ready for the Witchblade anime series airing soon? If you can’t get enough of Witchblade, manga, or anime, take the jump for the sneak preview of issue #7 that Top Cow has sent to Major Spoilers.

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The manga comics publisher Tokyopop has announced it has signed with William Morris Agency. The company will rep Tokyopop in all film, tv, and other merchandising rights.

Film projects in development include “Lament of the Lamb,” a horror story of a young man who discovers he might be the last in a bloodline of vampires, and “The Ai-Land Chronicles,” which plans to blend live action and animation and is based on the company’s successful manga franchise “Princess Ai.”

via Hollywood Reporter

Dark Horse Comics announced it would be publishing a new original manga with the minds and talents behind CLAMP.

If you are like me and don’t know what the hell CLAMP is, it is comprised of Satsuki Igarashi, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi and Ageha Ohkawa.�the manga-ka all-female supergroup known to their millions of fans worldwide.

The new manga from CLAMP will be launched in the US, Japan, and Korea at the same time.

The story will come out in a small digest consisting of about eighty pages each, which will then be collected into trade paperbacks with bonus material. CLAMP and Dark Horse are coining the bilingual term Mangettes to describe this innovative new format for manga distribution. This digest format, or Mangette, signifies CLAMP’s personal wish to reach their large international readership by now speaking to them directly as artists through Dark Horse, and on a basis of equality with their Japanese fans.

More word on this series as information becomes available from Dark Horse.

Production I.G., the company behind such mega anime hits like Ghost in the Shell, Evangelion: Death and Rebirth, and the animated segments of Kill Bill have announced plans to purchase Mag Garden this December, primarily to turn Mag Garden’s titles into animated features.

Founded in June, 2001 Mag Garden publishes four comic mags under the Comic Blade label, as well as more than 100 stand-alone paperbacks. The company is capitalized at Y540,971,000 ($4.4 million). It has had a business tie-up with Production I.G. since November.

Short list of some of Mag Garden’s titles it publishes after the jump.

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