Monday news roundup

The MangaCast crew picks the best of last week’s new manga, and Manga Recon has a cover gallery for this week’s new titles. And Hazel looks to the future with a list of November releases.

Heidi MacDonald posts an entire story from vol. 1 of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack at The Beat.

Electric Ant, the new zine by Same Hat bloggers Ryan Sands and Evan Hayden, is out, and you can read samples and order your very own copy at the Electric Ant website.

Lets fall asleep takes a look at comics artists who influenced Taiyo Matusmoto, creator of Tekkonkinkreet. Click for awesome art!

Chip Kidd’s Bat-Manga: The Secret History of Batman in Japan is getting lots of attention; Joe (Jog) McCulloch and Kai-Ming Cha weigh in with their thoughts.

Madame Otaku presents the ten commandments of shoujo manga. Since she’s in the target demographic herself, she knows whereof she speaks!

Erica Friedman posts her con report on MangaNEXT at Okazu.

The Youth Welfare Office in Okayama Prefecture, Japan, is apparently tasked with looking over manga magazines and singling out those that are possibly harmful to young people. Wouldn’t you love that job? Anyway, they are being extra diligent lately and have singled out six that are especially desirable most deleterious to our youth.

At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson questions the wisdom of replacing Slam Dunk with Tegami Bachi in Shonen Jump.

Matt Blind carpet-bombs us with online sales numbers at Rocket Bomber, posting the top 500 selling manga, a summary of rankings, new releases and pre-orders, and emerging trends for the week just ended.

Animanga Nation, one of the best review sites around, is adding original web manga to the mix. Normally this would make me groan, but these guys are a class act so I’m expecting great things.

Finding Dulcinea wishes Osamu Tezuka a happy birthday!

News from Japan: ANN has lots of reports of new manga launches: Shoujo superstar Arina Tanemura has a new title in the works, Sakura-Hime Kaiden, to launch in the January issue of Ribon magazine. Takeshi Konomi is launching a new Prince of Tennis manga in Jump Square in March. The December issue of Ciao will feature two new series: Kumappuri, by Sayuri Tatsuyama, and Ultra Hanamaru Z Gumi!!!, a school manga by Mariko Kodaka. Aria and Aqua creator Kozue Amano has a new series, Amanchu!, starting up in the next issue of Comic Blade. And the gag manga Chagecha, by Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo creator Yoshio Sawai, will come to an end after an 8-issue run in Shonen Jump.

Reviews: Phil Guie reviews Yonen Buzz: Plastic Chew and the staff pitches in for short takes on Halloween-friendly manga and other assorted titles at Manga Recon. Dan Grendell focuses on new and classic horror manga in his Manga Zubon column at Comic Pants. Snow Wildsmith pulls Maid in Heaven off the shelf at Fujoshi Librarian. At Read About Comics, Greg McElhatton is not impressed by vol. 1 of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Official Casebook. Casey Brienza reviews vol. 3 of Tactics and Theron Martin looks at vol. 1 of Vampire Hunter D, the novel, at ANN. Michelle Smith reads vol. 9 of Ghost Hunt at Soliloquy in Blue. Kate, an actual teenager, explains why Bleach is so awesome. Lissa Pattillo reviews vol. 1 of MPD-Psycho, vol. 1 of Cross X Break, and all of Hana-Kimi at Kuriousity. Julie checks out Romantic Illusions at MangaCast and vol. 11 of D.Gray-Man at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Clive Owen reads vol. 3 of Gun Blaze West at Animanga Nation. Deb Aoki goes from one extreme to the other with reviews of the dark and bloody Goth and the kid-friendly COWA! at About.com. Sean Collins reviews a new PictureBox release, Monster Men Bureiko Lullaby, at Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat. (Via Journalista.)