Legal | Hirofumi Watanabe admitted Thursday in Tokyo District Court to sending hundreds of threatening letters to bookstores, convenience stores and convention centers associated with Tadatoshi Fujimaki's manga Kuroko's Basketball. The motive, the 35-year-old man said, was jealousy of Fujimaki's success; Watanabe reasoned that, "If I somehow managed to harass and depress him, I could drag him into my suicide journey.” Watanabe added that he had been abused by his parents and bullied as a child, and had "homosexual tendencies." He attempted suicide before he sent the threat letters and would do so again after he was freed, he told the court: "That way, society can rest assured that I won't do anything stupid again." [Anime News Network]
Legal | Attorney Marc H. Greenberg revisits the lawsuit brought by musicians Johnny and Edgar Winter against DC Comics over a 1995 storyline in Jonah Hex that portrayed two evil brothers, Johnny and Edgar Autumn. [Print]
Creators | John Cheves profiles Jim Steranko, discussing the importance of his work and talking to the artist himself about his first meeting with Stan Lee, how he chose to work on Nick Fury rather than a better-known comic where he would be following in the footsteps of Steve Ditko or Jack Kirby, and why he quit drawing comics: "I felt I'd achieved a certain measure of my vision and found new areas to challenge my imagination. I've always been driven by the tyranny of my visions and never being satisfied with anything. I'm like a shark which must swim or die; I have no choice in the matter, but to keep creating compulsively almost every waking minute. It's a curse and a gift, at the same time." [Lexington Herald-Leader]
Comics | Scott Marsden talks about the meaning of color in comics (specifically, superhero comics), not just the significance of specific color choices but also what our expectations are (he shows a blond Superman to make his point). [Graphixia]
Comics | Top Cow President Matt Hawkins makes the argument for more diversity in comics. [The Beat]
Comics | Depictions of male and female superheroes and the use of rape as a plot device were among the topics of discussion at a panel titled "Representations of Women in Comics: How Women are Drawn, Dressed, Desired and Discarded" at the University of Northern Iowa. [WCF Courier]
Retailing | Aaron Kraut profiles the Bethesda, Maryland, comic shop Big Planet, which opened in 1986. Co-owner Greg Bennett talks about how things have changed over the years, including the rise of the graphic novel and the broadening of the comics audience. [Bethesda Now]
Conventions | With a little help from the Power Rangers, who are among the guests of honor, attendance at Lexington Comic Con this weekend is expected to top 15,000. That marks rapid growth for the show, which attracted 4,000 visitors in 2012, its first year. Since then the show has expanded in time and space, going from one to two to three days and doubling its floor space since last year. [Kentucky.com]