Comics | Scottish publisher DC Thomson has asked Dundee City Council to rename a street in the city's west end to honor the Bash Street Kids, stars of the long-running comic strip in The Beano. An unnamed street adjacent to 142/144 West Marketgait would be called Bash Street as part of the celebration of the magazine's 75th anniversary. [LocalGov]
Retailing | North Hollywood will get a new comics shop on Nov. 10, when Blastoff Comics opens its doors. Owner Jud Meyers seems to think it is an essential part of a hip neighborhood: "They want restaurants, they want bars, they want supermarkets, they want gyms. What didn't they have? They don't have a comic book store, every neighborhood has got to have a comic book store." The opening will feature an assortment of comics guests, including Mark Waid, Greg Hurwitz, and Jim Kreuger, whose The High Cost of Happily Ever After will premiere at the event. [Patch.com]
Publishing | Robert McGuire of GEN Manga explains the company's publishing program, which includes a downloadable digital magazine and one-shot print manga; the publisher will triple its print output next year. [ICv2]
Creators | As he winds up his run on Captain America, Ed Brubaker does an "exit interview" with David Brothers and drops the news that his horror comic Fatale is going from limited to ongoing series: "More than anything, it was that each issue kept wanting to be longer or I kept feeling like I had more ideas and wanted to spend more time with the characters, and realized I was stopping myself from doing that with an arbitrary structure I'd imposed on myself." [Comics Alliance]
Creators | Marc Sobel talks to Theo Ellsworth, whose latest graphic novel The Understanding Monster launched at Small Press Expo. [The Comics Journal]
Creators | This profile of Richard Fairgray is a good discussion of not only his work but the New Zealand comics scene in general. [Nelson Mail]
Analysis | Robert Stanley Martin argues that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were well rewarded for their creation, Superman. He calculates that DC Comics paid the creators about $11 million in today's dollars: "If that kind of compensation is what it means to be victimized by DC Comics, please let me know where to sign up." And then he goes deeper and examines why so many people regard perceive the court decision as unfair. [The Hooded Utilitarian]
Comics | New York City is an important center for the comics industry, and Hurricane Sandy is impacting a number of publishers. Alex Zalben suggests three ways that comics fans can help out a bit. [MTV Geek]
Publishing | First Second marketing director Gina Gagliano discusses target audiences — why publishers target a certain age group, how that affects the editing process, and what creators should be thinking about. [First Second]
Advice | "The best way to get better at drawing, is to just keep drawing": Jamie Smart has some advice for a young would-be cartoonist. [fumboo]
Advice | In response to a question about finding time to make comics, and keeping a healthy balance, Faith Erin Hicks talks about how she gave up video games in order to focus on her work. "Your life, of course, is different from mine, and if you are interested in making comics your life’s work, and need to carve the hours from your life to make it so, you might give up something completely different. But unless you’re a lottery winner and don’t need to worry about the financial end of things, something must be given up. There are just not enough hours in the day." [Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong]
Conventions | Jeremy Briggs files a photo report on Dundee Comics Day, which featured Grant Morrison, Rian Hughes, Frazer Irving and Frank Quitely, among others. [downthetubes.net]