Conventions | Jeff Smith, Rick Parker and Raina Telgemeier are the featured guests at this weekend's Maine Comic Arts Festival in Portland. [Portland Press Herald]

Conventions | Britton Peele takes a look at this weekend's Dallas Comic Con, which will include an array of media guests and comics creators. [Pegasus News]

Conventions | Meanwhile, Stan Lee will be at Detroit's Motor City Comic Con, along with Ramon Bachs, Katie Cook and a host of other creators. And some media guests. [The Detroit News]

Conventions | Becky Cloonan (Conan) and Andy Belanger (Kill Shakespeare) are the headliners at the East Coast Comics Expo in Moncton, New Brunswick. [East Coast Comics Expo]

Passings | Helen Fontana Bechdel, the mother of creator Alison Bechdel and a major character in her graphic novel Are You My Mother?, has died. [The Express]

Creators | Robert Crumb talks about the bad trip that kicked his creativity up a notch in a video interview recorded in the Last Gasp warehouse. [BoingBoing]



Creators | Daniel Way and Jon Proctor talk about the Kickstarter campaign to fund a graphic-novel version of Gun Theory, a project initially released during the brief revival of Marvel's Epic imprint, but never finished. Said Way, "I wish it hadn't taken me so long to put on my big-boy pants and just get it out there." With a day left in the campaign, it's well short of its funding goal. [USA Today]

Creators | James Bacon interviews Will Sliney, the creator of Celtic Warrior. [Forbidden Planet]

Fandom | Sean Kleefeld interviews Christopher Wanamaker, who's officially America's Greatest Otaku: He won the competition that CEO Stu Levy ran a few years ago during the dying days of Tokyopop. [MTV Geek]

Events | The Savannah College of Art and Design combined two events this year: Editors Day, when editors from major publishers come to interview the students and view their work, and Mini-Comics Expo, which is just what it sounds like. The event was open to the public as well as editors, and tables were free. [District]