Conventions | Ace Parking, which manages parking at the San Diego Convention Center and six other nearby lots, will move to a lottery system this year to assign permits for Comic-Con International (those lots are Hilton Garage, Petco Lots, Padres Parkade, Diamond View Tower, Horton Plaza and Gaslamp City Square). For a shot at one of those spaces, you have to email Ace Parking by April 12. A drawing will be held on April 15, with the winners receiving information about how to purchase permits for their assigned location. See the full details on the Ace Parking website. [SDCC Unofficial Blog]
Manga | As the manga market turns around, the category is improving for Dark Horse, says CEO Mike Richardson. In a two-part interview, Richardson, director of Asia licensing Michael Gombos, and manga editor Carl Horn discuss manga sales in different markets, titles that are popular across different demographics, their omnibus strategy, and the popularity of Hatsune Miku. [ICv2]
Political cartoons | Kanika Mishra, who last year received the Cartoonist Rights Network International's Courage Award, talks about how she became a political cartoonist, the death threats she started receiving after taking on a local religious leader who was sexually abusing young girls, and how she came to create her character Karnika Kahen (who is an "aam ladki," or "common woman," as opposed to the "aam aadami," or "common man" character that is popular in Indian cartoons). While she feels the current Indian scene is rich in material for a political cartoonist, she also acknowledges that she isn't making any money from her cartoons right now and is looking for a sponsor for her work. [The Citizen]
Creators | Chip Zdarsky talks about being Chip Zdarsky, working on Marvel's Howard the Duck, and his favorite humor comics. [Paste Magazine]
Comics | After two years of publishing the all-ages Plants vs. Zombies as a digital comic that is then collected into print graphic novels, Dark Horse is switching to a monthly print comic format, with three-issue story arcs. [IGN]
Graphic novels | Israeli graphic novelists Rutu Modan and Yirmi Pinkus, the founders of the publishing house Actus Tragedus, discuss their work and their struggle to create comics in a society that doesn't have much of a tradition of comic strips or graphic novels. [The Arty Semite]
Conventions | Ruth Suehle explains why she won't be attending Wizard World's Raleigh show — or any other Wizard World convetions. [GeekMom]
Conventions | Graphic novelist Bryan Talbot is working with the Music, Arts, and Culture Trust to curate the U.K. Graphic Novel Expo in Sunderland, England. [Sunderland Echo]
Exhibits | "Ka-Pow! When Comics Imperiled America," which will run at the Flinn Gallery in Greenwich, Connecticut, from March 19 through April 29, will feature original artwork from EC Comics of the 1950s. [Connecticut Post]