Mr. Media's Bob Andelman interviews comics artist and film maker Mark Tatulli, who talks about his recent creation LIO.

On January 23rd, Director Katsuhiro Otomo and actor Joe Odagiri attended a public meeting during the preview event of the live-action movie Mushishi. Mushishi is based on a popular manga title by Yuki Urushibara (the pen name of Yuki Yoshiyama) that is currently serialized in Afternoon. The manga has sold over 2.9 million copies, and was nominated for the Kodansha Manga Award in 2006.

Director Katsuhiro Otomo (known for anime films such as Akira) adapted Mushishi into a live-action movie after his 16-year break. The movie was screened twice during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah under the title Bugmaster (23-24th January), and all tickets were sold out. Offers for the rights to distribute the film overseas are rushing in from the U.S, Australia, Korea, and various other countries (10 total). A number of press came to the preview event, some audience even stood to watch because they couldn't buy reserved seats. Mushishi will appear on the screens in Japan on 24th of March.

Cinema Leaf has posted an interview with Katsuhiro Otomo and Joe Odagiri, who played the role of Ginko (the main character of Mushishi).

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Frrom Tokyopop comes an interview with Banri Sendo and Shibuko Ebara, the female mangaka duo known as PEACH-PIT (Rozen Maiden, DearS)

Tokyopop's Stu Levy and Lillian Diaz-Pryzbyl are featured on a Japanese TV show, which is currently available on the Tokyopop website via YouTube.

Source: MangaBlog

Newsarama's Chris Arrant interviews Allan Gross and Joanna Estep, creator of Tokyopop's Roadsong.

From The Anime Blog comes an interview with Chinese doujinshi artist Yang Fan, who drew illustrations for Chinese magazines such as Comics King and XinGanXian, and is currently working on tarot cards for Sega's online game Three Kingdoms.

Also featured is an interview from December 2006 with an artist who goes by the name Apricot.

From The Star Online comes a short interview with Tsugumi Ohba, author of Death Note, where he talks about his inspiration for Death Note as well as his views on justice. When asked about his inspiration, Ohba said, "There was nothing in particular. I started thinking of some ideas and while these ideas were still floating in the back of my mind, I got more ideas to fill up detailed plots like the rules and the god of death and so on." According to his response, Ohba did not get his inspiration from Shigeru Mizuki's short story.

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Manga Cast points out an interview from Japan's national broadcating network NHK with mangaka Moyoco Anno (Flowers & Bees, Happy Mania, Sakuran, Sugar Sugar Rune, and the most recent Hatarki Man). An English version of the interview can be found here.

MangaBlog's Brigid interviews Kurt Hassler, the former Graphic Novel Buyer at Borders and the most powerful person in American manga publishing who went on to establish Yen Press.

From Anime Boredom comes an interview with Seven Seas editor Adam Arnold, who is also the writer of Aoi House.

Source: MangaBlog