Hetalia Cosplayers, Tokyopop Wants You!

Toykopop is calling all Hetalia Cosplayers to participate in their contest that will feature 12 winners in Volume 1 of Hetalia Axis Powers, which is scheduled to be released in Fall 2010. The deadline to enter is Sunday, July 11, 11:59 PST. Check out the link below for the participation instruction and contest rules. Good luck!
© 2010 Linda Thai

"I'm in Hetalia Axis Powers" Manga Contest!

VAMPS at New York Anime Festival 2010

JAPANESE ROCK GROUP – VAMPS – TO BE GUESTS AT NYAF
Popular Rock Stars to Appear at Convention for Q & A and at
Roseland Ballroom for Concert!

Norwalk, CT, June 23, 2010: Officials at New York Anime Festival (NYAF) have revealed their first guest announcement for this year’s show which will be co-located with New York Comic Con (NYCC) and which will take place October 8 – 10 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City. The guest will be the musical group VAMPS who will appear at NYAF on Friday, October 8 for a Q & A session with fans, followed by a concert at Roseland Ballroom in midtown Manhattan on Saturday, October 9. Tickets for the concert must be purchased separately from tickets to NYAF and NYCC. As noted, this is the first guest announcement for NYAF. Convention officials recently disclosed that Stan Lee will be the Spotlight Guest of Honor for NYCC.

YuGiOh TCG Hidden Arsenal 2

UNLEASH 60 ALL-NEW, ALL-FOIL MONSTERS WITH
Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME’S HIDDEN ARSENAL 2
Hidden Arsenal 2 Features Monsters from Nine Monster Groups –
Including the Brand New “Jurrac” Dinosaurs
and “Fabled” Fiends!

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (June 22, 2010) – Duelists, get your shine on with Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc’s (KDE) next big Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG) release – Hidden Arsenal 2! Loaded with monsters, Hidden Arsenal 2 is an all-foil 60-card set that’ll give Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG players more options than ever before. This set features monsters from different monster groups, including the all-new “Jurrac,” “Fabled,” and “Naturia” monsters.

QC Anime-zing! Announces 2011 Dates & Location

Davenport, Iowa – June 22, 2010 – QC Anime-zing! is excited to announce that next year the anime convention will be held June 17-19, 2011 in Davenport, Iowa at The RiverCenter which features over 100,000 square feet of convention space. QC Anime-zing! is a three-day festival celebrating Japanese arts and animation, and the fandom surrounding them.

QC Anime-zing! was first held this past weekend at The Lodge Hotel & Convention Center (Jumer's Castle Lodge) in Bettendorf, Iowa.

Minnesota is the location of the 2010 USA YuGiOh Championship Qualifier

KONAMI DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT, INC. DECLARES MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA THE HOST CITY OF ITS ILLUSTRIOUS Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME UNITED STATES WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIER 2010
Thousands of Duelists from around the country invited to attend this prestigious Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME event July 9-11

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (June 9, 2010) – Known for its powerhouse teams such as the MLB’s Twins, the NFL’s Vikings and the NBA’s Timberwolves, Minnesota is no stranger to Championship play. The quest to be the best continues in Minnesota at the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG) United States World Championship Qualifier 2010. From July 9th – July 11th, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (KDE) will bring its Guinness World Record best-selling Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME to the Minneapolis Convention Center, as thousands of Duelists will compete for their chance to be crowned Champion.

Stan Lee and New York Comic Con 2010

STAN LEE TO BE “SPOTLIGHT” GUEST OF HONOR AT
NEW YORK COMIC CON
Lee is First (and Only!) “Spotlight” Guest of Honor at 2010 Show!!
Registration and Ticket Sales for NYCC Are “Live” on Web Site

Norwalk, CT, June 9, 2010: Stan Lee, a comic book legend and a super hero to millions of fans, has agreed to appear at New York Comic Con in 2010 as a “Spotlight” Guest of Honor. This marks Lee’s third visit to NYCC but it will be his first as a “Spotlight” Guest of Honor, a new designation created especially for Mr. Lee to underscore his prominence and status in the pop culture universe. Stan Lee is Chairman Emeritus of Marvel Enterprises, Inc. and is currently overseeing the growth and development of his own company, POW! Entertainment, which will be a Presenting Partner at New York Comic Con this year. Specific details about Stan Lee’s participation at NYCC will be made available in the near future but officials note that the industry icon will be involved in a range of activities including panel appearances and signings.

Crow & Black-Winged Dragon Duelist Portfolio

FANS OF THE Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s TRADING CARD GAME WILL RELISH THE CROW & BLACK-WINGED DRAGON DUELIST PORTFOLIO
Team Up with Crow to Rule the Skies and Keep Your Cards Protected in the New Duelist Portfolio – Displays Up To 160 Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Cards

El Segundo, CA (June 8, 2010) – This summer, Blackwing Decks are going to be one of the hottest things around. So Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (KDE) is making it easier for players to keep their top cards close at hand with the release of the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s TRADING CARD GAME (TCG) Crow & Black-Winged Dragon Duelist Portfolio. This portfolio includes 20 4-pocket pages and will display a whopping 160 cards (MSRP $7.99). The front cover shows Crow with his latest Synchro Monster from The Shining Darkness booster set, and the back cover has a trio of Blackwings, including the new Blackwing - Breeze the Zephyr (also from The Shining Darkness).

BioWare and FUNimation Entertainment

BioWare and FUNimation Entertainment Sign Anime Movie Deal for Award-Winning Dragon Age Franchise
Anime Leader to Create Home Video Adaptation of Award-Winning "Dragon Age"

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., Jun 7, 2010 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) --BioWare(TM), an Electronic Arts Inc. (Nasdaq:ERTS) studio, and FUNimation Entertainment, the leading distributor of Japanese animation in North America, announced today an agreement to create an anime feature film adapted from BioWare's critically-acclaimed fantasy Action RPG franchise Dragon Age(TM). Production of the Dragon Age anime movie is slated to begin this month with a home video release in 2011. Executive producing the film are BioWare's Executive Producer Mark Darrah and Creative Director Mike Laidlaw, as well as FUNimation's president and CEO Gen Fukunaga and Director of Original Entertainment Chris Moujaes.

Toronto is the location of the 2010 Canadian YuGiOh Championship Qualifier

KONAMI DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT, INC. ANNOUNCES NEXT LOCATION OF ITS PRESTIGIOUS Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIER 2010 –GREATER TORONTO AREA
Hundreds of Duelists from around Canada invited to attend this premier Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME event in Mississauga, Ontario June 26-27

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (June 5, 2010) – The recent Olympics may be a distant memory but the fierce competition for gold continues in Canada at the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG) Canadian World Championship Qualifier 2010. Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (KDE) will bring its Guinness World Record best-selling Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME to the International Centre in Mississauga, Ontario, on June 26th and June 27th.

Pre-Order Top Shelf's August Releases

The new (June) Diamond Previews catalog (for books shipping to stores in August) spotlights the mind-bending debut graphic novel from Will Dinski, Fingerprints, as well as a new printing of the legendary Lost Girls by Alan Moore & Melinda Gebbie! Be sure to let your local comic retailer know you're interested -- that helps us, as well as them.

FINGERPRINTS by Will Dinski
-- A 96-Page, Full-Color Hardcover Graphic Novel, $14.95 (US)
-- Diamond: JUN10-1133
-- ISBN 978-1-60309-053-7

New Arrivals from Top Shelf!

MOVING PICTURES by Kathryn & Stuart Immonen
-- A 144-Page Graphic Novel with French Flaps, $14.95 (US)
-- Diamond: MAR10-1136
-- ISBN 978-1-60309-049-0

During the Second World War, French efforts to inventory, categorize and hide the collections of the major galleries collided with the German Military Art Commission’s attempt to do the same. Moving Pictures is the story of the awkward and dangerous relationship between curator Ila Gardner and officer Rolf Hauptmann, as they are forced by circumstances to play out their private lives in a public power struggle. The narrative unfolds along two timelines which collide with the revelation of a terrible secret, an enigmatic decision that not many would make, and the realization that sometimes the only choice left is the refusal to choose.

Praise Rolls in for the Swedish Invasion!

Critics have now gotten a chance to digest the Swedish Invasion graphic novels we debuted in April -- and the verdict is in: it's a hit! Just to give you a taste of the buzz, USA Today called Hey Princess "Funny, relatable, honest. What's not to love?" and Boing Boing said The 120 Days of Simon was "incredibly entertaining." Meanwhile NPR loved The Troll King, which "throbs with a sort of primal, allusive, pre-verbal power," and MTV praised both the "crazy adventure" of The 120 Days of Simon and the "great coming-of-age story" of Hey Princess. For more on the Swedish Invasion, just click here.

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Top Shelf Productions Press Release

Advance Buzz Sharpens Anticipation for AX!

Top Shelf's first ever collection of Japanese comics has been anxiously awaited, and those in the press who've seen advance copies are very, very excited: "Top Shelf's release of Ax is a giant leap forward for manga available in English... I got chills reading it." "Ax goes out on a limb where most manga creators dare not go... it will blow your mind." "Within Ax's four hundred pages are over thirty stories that explode everything you might have thought about what manga is." "One hell of a book... absolutely recommended." Check out the advance praise and amazing preview pages at the Top Shelf site.

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Top Shelf Productions Press Release