Comics strips | An original 1986 Sunday installment of Calvin and Hobbes, drawn and hand-colored by Bill Watterson, has sold at auction for $203,150. The piece had been owned by Adam@Home and Red and Rover cartoonist Brian Basset, who exchanged original comics with Watterson in 1986. [The Daily Cartoonist]
Best of the year | The Top Ten lists are coming thick and fast now. Michael Cavna counts down his favorites of the year, which include Chris Ware's Building Stories, Raina Telgemeier's Drama, and Matt Dembicki's Washington, D.C.-focused anthology, District Comics. [The Washington Post]
Best of the year | ... and George Gene Gustines weighs in with his list. [The New York Times]
Creators | Brian Azzarello confesses he wasn't much of a superhero fan in his younger days, and he explains how he got the gig as writer of Wonder Woman: DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio was explaining the new direction he had planned for Wonder Woman in the New 52, and Azzarello was "appalled": "I came up with something different right there at dinner. I thought the direction was going to be a mistake for that character, right at her core. And I knew nothing about her!" DiDio bit, and the rest is history. [Time Out Chicago]
Creators | Howard Cruse talks about his new book from BOOM! Studios, The Other Side of Howard Cruse, a compilation of his comics that aren't about gay life: "The whole point of the book is that everyone is used to all the gay stuff. This is the other sides of my interests. I made sure it was plural, you know? The idea is that there is a bunch of different sides. Parts of the book are different from each other as well." [The Comics Reporter]
Creators | Muscular dystrophy may have robbed David Leal of the use of his arms, but it hasn't prevented him from writing his own graphic novel, with the help of an editor. [The Miami Hurricane]
Creators | Novelist Anne Rice talks about graphic novel adaptations of her work, including Interview With the Vampire: Claudia's Story and The Wolf's Gift. [MTV Geek]
Creators | Steve Niles talks to Dark Horse Editor-in-Chief Scott Allie about 30 Days of Night and the evolution of horror comics. [Dread Central]
Creators | Sarah Mason encounters Conor McCreery at the Miami Book Fair and gets the 411 on Kill Shakespeare, the graphic novel he co-authored with Anthony Del Col. [WLRN]
Creators | Dominic Umile traces the influence of horror comics on the work of novelist Stephen King. [Pop Matters]
Comics | U.K. publisher Egmont is making classic comics from the now-defunct weeklies Roy of the Rovers, Battle Picture Weekly, and the girls' comic Misty, which was known for its ghost stories. [Blimey!]
Webcomics | Sean Kleefeld explains why so many webcomics are formatted the way they are—basically, because that's how print comics and newspaper comics are formatted. [MTV Geek]