Publishing | Dave Itzkoff profiles Karen Berger, who stepped down in March after 20 years as executive editor of DC Comics' Vertigo imprint (she still consults on a few projects). The story has a wistful tone, with Berger suggesting that DC is more interested in its company-owned characters and Co-Publisher Dan DiDio basically agreeing, but noting it's an industry-wide trend. He said it would be “myopic” to believe “that servicing a very small slice of our audience is the way to go ahead," adding, "That’s not what we’re in the business for. We have to shoot for the stars with whatever we’re doing. Because what we’re trying to do is reach the biggest audience and be as successful as possible.” [The New York Times]

Passings | Belgian artist Fred Funcken, a contributor to Tintin and Spirou magazines and creator, with his wife Lillian, of many historical comics, has died at the age of 92. [Forbidden Planet]



Creators | Noah Van Sciver, who will be one of the featured artists at this weekend's Denver Comic Con, talks about how he got the idea for The Hypo, his historical comic about the twentysomething Abraham Lincoln, and how he has honed his craft simply by working at it for years and years. [The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle]

Creators | Max Freeman interviews Gengoroh Tagame, a Japanese creator of gay erotic manga, about his work and The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame, a collection of his manga that debuted at Toronto Comic Arts Festival. [The Huffington Post]

Digital comics | Dynamite Entertainment is publishing Amanda Hocking's The Hollows: A Hollowland Graphic Novel as a digital-first series of chapters before collecting them in a print graphic novel. Hocking was one of the first authors to build a substantial audience via the Kindle; she sold more than 2 million of her self-published graphic novels as e-books. [Publishers Weekly]



Conventions | Javier Hernandez, co-founder of the third annual Latino Comics Expo, which takes place this weekend at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, talks about his love of comics and his plans for more and bigger events in other locations. [NBC Latino]

Comics | As part of his paper's coverage of geek culture in Alabama, Greg Phillips talks to comics fans young and old, including someone who actually did start reading comics because of DC's New 52. [The Dothan Eagle]

Retailing | Phoenix Comics opened its doors on Seattle's Capitol Hill recently, bringing comics and gaming nights to a neighborhood that has lacked a comics shop for some time. [The Capitol Hill Times]