Conventions | The organizers of Asbury Park Comic Con emphasize they are getting back to basics, with a comics event that eschews movies and other media to focus solely on comics. The headline guests for the Saturday event are Michael Uslan, Al Jaffee and Herb Trimpe. [The New York Times]

Conventions | In Pennsylvania, the first-ever Nittany-Con drew about 400 people to enjoy the three c's of comics conventions: Creators, cheap comics, and cosplay. [Centre Daily Times]

Conventions | And in New Jersey, the Hasbrouck Heights Comics Expo drew an equally enthusiastic, if somewhat smaller, crowd. [NorthJersey.com]

Retailing | Retailer Danny Radovic, owner of Outer Planes Comic & Games Shop in Santa Rosa, California, explains how he keeps a fairly large (1,000 new comics a week) shop open and thriving: The weekly Magic tournament is a good start, and the welcoming atmosphere has a lot to do with it as well. [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]

Creators | Artist David T. Wenzel discusses his work on The Hobbit: The Graphic Novel, which was first published in 1989 and has been through a couple of editions since then: "Tolkien was pretty adroit at giving descriptions. Pretty much anything he described, I drew." [The Day]

Creators | Michael Moreci and Steve and Tim Seeley talk about their Mini Comics Included Kickstarter, which is raising funds to create a set of mini-comics like the ones that used to come packaged with toys. [USA Today]

Creators | Dr. Michael Green explains how a missed symptom led to a patient's death—and, 20 years later, to a the first comic ever to be printed in a medical journal, a "graphic narrative" designed to teach medical students how to avoid making the same mistake. [Lebanon Daily News]

Creators | Eric Gignac discusses his Kickstarter project to fund a graphic adaptation of Robert Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy. [The Morton Report]

Digital comics | I talked to Papercutz Marketing Director Jesse Post about children and digital comics — what sets them apart, what the barriers are, and what the future may hold. [Good E-Reader]

Collecting | A certified financial planner looks at comics as an asset and discusses why some comics are doing so well at auction right now—and why some aren't. [Advisor One]

History | Jason Thompson presents a short course in the history of manga in the U.S., from anime's theatrical debut in 1961 through the demise of JManga and the recent indie-manga boomlet. [Anime News Network]