Crime | Artist and collector Jim Wheelock talks about the loss of his comics collection, which was stolen from a storage unit in Brattleboro, Vermont: "I remember where I was and what I was doing when I bought or read many of [the comic books]. Later, when I worked in the financially rickety world of a freelance artist, knowing the books were in Vermont gave me a sense of security, a retirement nest egg. This is what the culprit robbed me of." Vermont-based cartoonists James Kochalka and Harry Bliss weigh in on what such a loss would mean. Wheelock's thousands of comics included extensive runs of The Incredible Hulk, The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil and The Fantastic Four, in some cases beginning from the first issues. [Seven Days]

Political cartoons | A judge of the Supreme Court of India commented during a bench conversation that cartooning is no longer a safe profession in that country. When a lawyer mentioned he had once drawn cartoons and triggered the wrath of a High Court judge whom he caricatured, the bench remarked, "It is not a safe profession now. You would have gone behind bars if you had put the caricature on Facebook." [Times of India]

Political cartoons | Cartoonist Kyaw Thu Yein discusses editorial cartoons and freedom of the press in Myanmar: "In our country, it’s still difficult to draw they way they do in France. Sometimes we want to draw them, but it’s inappropriate from our country's cultural standpoint. Local cartoonists have to opt for voluntary self-censorship. We need to be very careful when we draw a cartoon about religion because it could be misinterpreted even though we want to draw from a constructive point of view. As press cartoons are still gathering momentum, we need to exercise a bit of self-censorship for self-development." [The Nation]

Publishing | Beth Scorzato interviews BOOM! Studios co-founder and CEO Ross Richie about the publisher's first 10 years. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | Chew artist Rob Guillory explains how he became a full-time comics artist. [Shreveport Times]

Creators | Joshua Dysart, the writer of Harbinger, says being part of Valiant's 2012 relaunch was a good preparation for his work on Imperium, part of the "Valiant Next" wave of six new titles. [Comic Riffs]

Creators | Tony Wolf, writer of Suffrajitsu, explains about the real-life suffragette Amazons of Edwardian England. [Kindle Post]

Scene | Jeffrey Lee Puckett surveys the Louisville, Kentucky, comics scene, with interviews with creators and a local retailer. [The Courier-Journal]

Academia | Steven Benna covers a symposium about Charlie Hebdo and freedom of speech at the University of Missouri. [Columbia Tribune]

Conventions | Sheldon cartoonist Dave Kellett and filmmaker Frederick Schroeder, who made the documentary Stripped, talk about the new inspiration they drew from this year's Angoulême International Comics Festival: "Comics aren’t just entertainment, there: It’s Art with a capital A. You could see them studying lines, brushstrokes, techniques, and approaches… Fred and I would sit for a coffee two to three times a day, and every time, there were 10 to 20 people sketching around us in coffee shops. Fans, students, and masters themselves…all trying out techniques they’d just seen, up close, in the exhibitions." [Comic Riffs]

Conventions | Louisiana Comic Con, in Shreveport, will feature creators Jacob Robison, Josh Carter and Jeff Wellborn, who are compiling an anthology of work by local comics creators. [Shreveport Times]