Monster!

I'm a big Manga and Anime fan. The genre has come a long way since my youth and Gigantor and Marine boy. My current favourite, as both Anime and Manga, is Urasawa's Monster. It's not that new, but the Anime is blowing me away at the moment. The animation is outstanding. It's a horror/suspense/medical drama, and it is superb. Here's a sample Scanlation:

I'm also looking forward to New Line's live action movie of the series.

There are Torrents out there with the complete series, all 18 Chapters, and even translated Anime. We could learn much from the Scanlators (translated, scanned, often reworked so that the pages read left to right) about promotion. The work is made available online for download unless or until one of the main US publishers, Tokyopop, Viz, or Darkhorse options the work to publish it here.

Another favourite of mine, Drifting Classroom is a good example of how this works. The work built up a tremendous following online and was then pulled from the sites because Dark Horse is publishing it in the West. It's not that the work is given away for free online, it's more that the scanlations serve to publicize the work to a broader audience. At any rate, it seems to work.