Legal | Kevin Lim and Evaline Danubrata add some context to the story of Singaporean cartoonist Leslie Chew, who was charged Thursday with contempt of court for several cartoons critical of the Singapore courts that appeared on his Facebook page Demon-cratic Singapore. This isn't the first time Chew has run afoul of authorities; he was charged with sedition earlier this year for alleging official discrimination against the Malay population. Singapore recently enacted a law requiring licenses for news sites that report regularly on the country, a move that critics of the ruling People's Action Party see as an attempt to silence dissent. [Reuters]

Retailing | Comic-store owners in the Tampa Bay area agree that sales are up, but they differ on the reasons why. [The Tampa Tribune]

Retailing | Sphinx Comics, which opened last week in Riverside, California, is part of the 1 percent — the 1 percent of businesses owned by deaf people, that is. Co-owners Mikey Marts and Craig Herman talk about their longtime love of comics, their frustration at shows that don't provide interpreters, and how they plan to communicate with their customers. [The Press-Enterprise]

Retailing | A new comic shop, Supernova Comics, is set to open this week in the Neonopolis complex in downtown Las Vegas. [KVVU TV]



Creators | In a brief interview at Comic-Con International, Neil Gaiman talks about his return to The Sandman. [San Jose Mercury News]

Creators | Tiziana Lo Porto discusses her graphic novel SuperZelda, the story of Zelda Fitzgerald. [AL.com]

Creators | Artist John Tyler Christopher, who has done a number of Marvel covers, among other things, talks about the joys of drawing Spider-Man. [SFGate]

Creators | When the phone company phased out pay phones, pay phone technician Terry Ebelt retired and started drawing comics instead. [Grand Traverse Insider]

Comics | Elias Groll takes a look at a comic produced by the "online jihadi" Mustafa Hamdi that urges Western youths to wage join al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate group Jabhat al-Nusra. [Passport]

Comics | A group of academics in the United Kingdom have put together a comic that uses Marvel-inspired superheroes to help children understand chronic pain. [Health Canal]