Okay, so if you don't read Japanese but really want to learn, there's a cool magazine you can get called Mangajin which has little clips of manga with translations. The notes are really good, as you get to see the kana with corresponding romanization. They also include cultural and grammatic notes which I find quite charming. On retrospect, maybe I only bought it because one of the strips was from Crayon Shin-chan, which I knew would annoy Jerry. Annoying Jerry is another fun thing I do to procrastinate.

Keep in mind though, that the manga you see in American comic book shops is not a very good representation of what's out there in Japan (the same goes for anime). The only ones that make it to the shelves in America are the ones that certain publishers think will sell well (gripe: with all that money, I don't know why at least 50% of VIZ's stock is Takahashi...not that I have anything against Rumiko, but they could try for a little more variety).

Keiko Nishi

VIZ's shojo banner girl. Keiko Nishi's stories are both eerie and wistful, sometimes edging on the slightly horrific with O'Henry-type irony. I love her delicate style; some call it "minimalist". The finely drawn lines are clean and concise, and characters' hair is beautifully stranded, not just chunks like a lot of other manga. The faces she draws are very striking. So far in the U.S. Promise and Love Story are available. The first vignette in Promise is what sold me on this artist -- not even the story, but the beautiful character design that describes loneliness so well.

Ryoichi Ikegami

Speaking of striking faces, how about that pretty boy Hojo? Ryoichi Ikegami is of Crying Freeman and Sanctuary fame. Both are somehwat hentai manga about yakuza and the Asian gangster underground. I think he's usually illustrating for some other writer, rather than writing his own story. His art style is a lot more realistic than other manga artists, and he obviously spends a lot of time on faces. Something's weird with the proportions when he draws a whole body though. Anyway, I like his character design too (those guys are awfully good-looking). Currently VIZ is publishing Strain in Pulp, their adult manga serial. It's about, well, the Asian gangster underground.

Naoki Yamamoto

Speaking of Pulp, I must admit to hesitantly flipping through and then absolutely loving one of those series, namely Dance til Tomorrow. Hilarious and outrageous, some may be shocked at the graphic depictions of frog masks, yakuza, and poor Suekichi's bald spot, but really it's all in good fun!
Rather than going far out of his way to depict the type of unrealistic (and usually distasteful) sexual fantasies that I imagine describes most of the porn industry, Yamamoto manages to make sex between two young people just what it is -- normal. Except for the frog mask. The style is faintly reminiscent of Rumiko Takahashi and I believe I once read somewhere that they both studied under the same person for a while.

Rumiko Takahashi

Extremely prolific artist/author of Maison Ikkoku (yay!) and Ranma 1/2 and much, much more. Maison Ikkoku is one of my all-time favorites, in both the manga and anime categories. The story-telling pace of that series is so dead-on that you never even notice the TV series is a whopping 96 episodes long. More often than not, you'll wish she had kept going.
Rumiko's best talent is portraying life in a touchingly realistic (and funny) way. While we laugh at the funny situations her characters get into, we also think "hey, haven't I been here before?" She can be poignant enough to bring you to tears, and on the flipside you can show her anime to any auditorium filled with people and be guaranteed that they'll be rolling in the aisles from laughing too hard.
Am I talking too much about anime on my manga page? Well, another thing you should know is that all of these series started out as manga before becoming anime.

Kenichi Sonoda

Of BubbleGum Crisis fame (still one of my favorite anime series, even after all these years). Gunsmith Cats is his latest venture into the manga scene. Cool, hip, totally awesome character design. Those cars, too! On top of that Sonoda is some kinda firearms frea--er...afficionado, so each issue is filled with incredibly detailed and authentic drawings of muscle cars from the 70's and every kind of firearm you could imagine. The current volume hot off the presses of Studio Proteus: Rally vs Bean Bandit! Those of you who saw the anime Riding Bean will be pleased to hear that Bean is even more mysteriously bad-ass than usual. Needless to say, he's met his match in Rally Vincent.

Hiroaki Samura

Another worthy departure from the straight path. An artist who produces such beautiful brushwork and characters who are tougher than Dirty Harry has to be seen to be believed. Blade of the Immortal became an instant classic when it hit North American shelves; now back issues are hot and nearly impossible to find. The story is set in a slightly off-kilter version of old Japan when samurai and kenshin roamed the country killing each other. The artwork is amazing and each monthly cover illustration is worthy of framing (except the ones where the artist got lazy).