SDCC, Otaku tour & more!

The stream of San Diego Comic-Con press releases has begun (with more to come over the next week). So far, my inbox has mainly had word from Viz Media, who are mostly touting anime and game-related items, with just a couple bits of manga news in the mix.

First of all, they’ve got Stan Lee lined up to sign copies of volume two of Ultimo, his co-creation with Hiroyuki Takai, on Saturday the 24th, 2pm at the Viz booth. I had difficulty getting into the series’ first volume, but I’ve got the second in line for a look soon. Mr. Lee will also appear on Viz’s Shonen Jump panel earlier that day.

Secondly, there’s quite a bit of fuss being made around the Vampire Knight anime series, which is not something I’d normally mention here, except that Nancy Thistlethwaite, editor of the manga translation, will be appearing alongside the Vampire Knight voice actors on a panel at 3:30pm on Friday the 23rd. Nancy edits quite a number of Viz shojo series these days (including a personal favorite, We Were There), so that’s a panel I quite wish I could attend.

Meanwhile, Tokyopop reminds us that they’re on the road with the America’s Greatest Otaku tour! Grand prize is a trip to Tokyo, Japan, so check the link out for details!

For a little bit of site news, just a reminder that next week is Fumi Yoshinaga week here at Manga Bookshelf! Check out this earlier news post for more! This week, look for a new installments of Off the Shelf with my co-host Michelle Smith, and The NANA Project with Michelle & Danielle Leigh, hosted at Comics Should Be Good. Also, don’t miss last week’s Breaking Down Banana Fish and yesterday’s interview at Osmosis Online!