Academia | The Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont, is adding a masters of fine arts degree in applied cartooning that will allow students to focus on using the comics medium for journalism, medicine, business and other fields. [Valley News, press release]
Creators | With the arrival of the second issue of The Sandman: Overture, Neil Gaiman talks about the joy of writing the first series and returning for this one, why he chooses to pen a story as a comic rather than a novel, and how his process differs as well: "When I'm outlining a comic, I write down the numbers 1 to 24, and I jot down what's happening on each page, because I have to think of things in terms of pages, and double-page spreads. In a novel, if I want to move a scene, I just cut and paste. In a novel, it's a completely different conversation." [CNN]
Fandom | Carl Smith is a huge fan of Jim Zubkavich's Skullkickers and of his local comic shop, Legend Comics & Coffee in Omaha, Nebraska, so he did something sort of amazing: He bought a copy of Skullkickers #25 for every pullbox customer of the store; that's 440 copies. "My hope is to draw attention to both; for Legend Comics & Coffee to become a part of the lingua franca of Skullkickers’ readers and for loyal customers at Legend to be exposed to the thousand joys within an issue of my favorite comic," he said. [Bleeding Cool]
Retailing | The 10th Planet comic shop in Lockport, New York, which was voted Business of the Year last year, is closing due to owner Henry Brasher's health problems. [Lockport Union-Sun & Journal]
Comics | Sana Amanat grew up reading comics and stories about "individuals who were nothing like me and could never really be like me." So as a Marvel editor, she created the character of Kamala Khan, a Muslim teenager: "[It’s a way] of representing a portion of the population doesn’t really have representation in pop culture. I think what’s really important about these stories is that you’re not saying, “Hi, I’m [a] Muslim character, and this is all I’m about.” It’s sort of about the up and down, and the comical events of the day. Then, you start caring about the character [because] you normalize “the other." [School Library Journal]
Creators | Jim Zubkavich discusses Figment, the comic he is writing that's based on a Disney Epcot mascot. [Newsarama]
Creators | Erika Greco talks about her comic Mixtape, which uses an Ani DiFranco mixtape as a framework for her personal coming-out story. [Autostraddle]
Comics culture | Stuti Agarwal takes a look at the popularity of comics couture in India, where you can now get Garfield bangles and a kurti (traditional long-sleeved top) with an Archies print. [Times of India]