Retailing | The manager of Dragon's Lair Comics & Games in Omaha, Nebraska, estimates 50 to 60 percent of their inventory was ruined by smoke and water after a fire broke out Sunday in the building that's housed the store's main location since 1976. Employees have been sorting through tens of thousands of comics to determine what can be salvaged while directing customers to the Dragon's Lair store in the city's Millard neighborhood. The hope is to use a store room next to the damaged building to begin offering limited services to customers -- pull lists and special orders -- as the retailer plans for what comes next. “We have every intention of reopening, here or elsewhere,” manager Craig Patterson said. "More than likely it will be elsewhere. And hopefully bigger and better than before.” [World-Herald]
Passings | Bill Pearson remembers Bhob Stewart, who died this week: "It’s hard to evaluate how much the casually delivered opinions and insights of an individual can affect the judgments and consensus of a wider population, but Bhob was one of those unique people who come along every generation or so who examines everything, comments on much of what he sees and hears, and challenges a good deal of it. He was never smug or condescending to anyone, always asking questions, expecting answers, relishing every interaction that came along." [The Comics Journal]
Crowdfunding | Todd Allen discusses the crowdfunding platform Patreon, explains how it differs from Kickstarter and Indiegogo, and takes a closer look at how it's working for webcomics creators, including Zack Wienersmith (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) and Erica Moen (Oh Joy Sex Toy). [Publishers Weekly]
Creators | Nancy Goldstein profiles Jackie Ormes, billed as the first female African-American cartoonist. [Marketplace]
Creators | Mother Goose and Grimm artist Mike Peters will be the grand marshal of this year's St. Patrick's Day parade in St. Louis, Missouri. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
Creators | Writers Martin Brennan and Michael B. Jackson discuss their digital comic 13 Coins, which is illustrated by Simon Bisley and available as a standalone app for Android and iOS devices. [13th Dimension]
Comics | In a two-part podcast interview, Christopher Butcher talks about the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (which he organizes), the Toronto comics shop The Beguiling (which he manages) and Udon Entertainment (which he is the marketing guy for). [Guys With Pencils, Guys With Pencils]
Manga | Shaenon Garrity gives the rundown on a great and somewhat under-appreciated manga Saturn Apartments. [Anime News Network]
History | If you're interested in the comics censorship efforts of the 1950s, this brief story links to a PDF of a 1954 article about the Knights of Columbus "cleaning up" local newsstands by pressuring them to remove comics that had "sex and sadism and glorified crime." [Hartford Courant]
Conventions | Hannah Means-Shannon files her con report from Comic Con India in New Delhi. [Bleeding Cool]
Conventions | Lauren Rapciak reports in on the first Northwest Indiana Comic Con. Attendance was about 2,000, and Rapciak would like to see it in a bigger space this year. And there was this: "Apparently, some folks outside were not happy that concealed carry wasn't allowed." [Chicago Now]