Events | The driver who plowed through the crowd last month at the annual SDCC ZombieWalk: San Diego, injuring a 64-year-old passersby, has given an interview providing his version of the event, saying he had turned off the engine to wait for the parade to pass when participants began surrounding his car. The situation quickly escalated, he says, when a spectator sat on the hood and hit the windshield, shattering it, and another person opened the back door. “I got scared. That’s when I plowed my car through the crowd,” says the unidentified 48-year-old. “I had to do this to save my family because of the crowd. I couldn’t tell if the parade was done.” He adds, “I felt awful about it. I just couldn’t believe that I actually hit the old lady.” [iDeafNews, Times of San Diego]
Publishing | Comics sales soared in the direct market in July after an anemic first half of 2014, reaching $53 million, which John Jackson Miller reckons is the highest dollar sales of any month in what he terms the Diamond Exclusive Era (which started in 1997). This is almost entirely sales to comic shops but also includes a large order of Rocket Raccoon #1 by Loot Crate, which has a Diamond account, so its purchase shows up as direct market sales. This helped propel Rocket Raccoon to the number one spot in comics sales; the top-selling graphic novel was the 21st volume of The Walking Dead. [Comichron]
Publishing | Rich Shivener looks behind the scenes at the deals some comics publishers have struck with bestselling novelists such as George R.R. Martin and Chuck Palahniuk. [Publishers Weekly]
Legal | Lawyer Jeff Trexler discusses the problem of sexual harassment of cosplayers, starting with a discussion of whether it is a problem and how conventions can be "designed" to reduce it. [The Beat]
Creators | Reporter Ethan Sacks talks to Paul O'Connor, whose 14.8-second pitch for his comic was chosen by Mark Waid during his Comic-Con International panel for publication by Thrillbent. Here's why Waid limited pitches in the panel to 15 seconds: "But a story is about someone who wants something and someone or something is in their way. That's what a story is. If you can't do that in 15 seconds, then I don't think you can do a story in 30 or 40 pages." [New York Daily News]
Creators | Zainab Akhtar talks to Mexican creator Inés Estrada, who does comics for Vice Mexico and other outlets and also distributes her work, and that of others, via her online store Gatosaurio. [Comics and Cola]
Digital comics | In a panel at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, graphic novelist Katie Green started a bit of a controversy by saying that e-books are not a good format for graphic novels, tweeting, "The format of a physical book gives you a sense of rhythm and pacing that you just don’t get in other formats." [Teleread]
History | Filmmaker Robert Emmons talks about Diagram for Delinquents, his documentary about Fredric Wertham, the anti-comics crusader of the 1950s, and brings up a point that is seldom made: Wertham didn't want comics completely banned, just restricted to readers over the age of 16: "Wertham believed in free speech, but he also believed that children were a special class of citizen that deserved protections and shouldn’t have access to the same kinds of speech that an adult has. That’s the missing piece that people often leave out." [Rutgers-Camden News Now]
Retailing | Robert Young, owner of Borderlands Comics (formerly part of Heroes Aren't Hard to Find) in Greenville, South Carolina, talks about how he came to own his own comics shop, recent trends in the business, and comics in popular culture. [The Greenville News]
Retailing | Michael Yong profiles Ben Fardon, owner of Proud Lion Comics in Cheltenham, Eng. [Gloucestershire Echo]