Retailing | Naruto topped the May BookScan chart of graphic novels sold in bookstores, followed by two volumes of The Walking Dead, the latest volume of Sailor Moon, and Yen Press' latest Twilight adaptation New Moon. Just three volumes total of The Walking Dead made the Top 20 (down from eight last month), and as usual, DC and Marvel got clobbered: DC had three titles on the list (two volumes of Court of Owls and Watchmen) while Marvel had one (Hawkeye), and none was above No. 15. Or to put it another way: Vol. 14 of Dance in the Vampire Bund, a high-numbered volume in a fairly niche manga series, placed higher than every Big Two book on BookScan last month. [ICv2]
Creators | With the second issue of their digital-only comic The Private Eye recently released, writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Marcos Martin talk about their story, why they decided to do it digitally, and what the response has been so far. [The Verge]
Creators | Writer Nick Spencer discusses his plans for Marvel's Superior Foes of Spider-Man. [Previews World]
Creators | Sean T. Collins talks to Simon Hanselmann, who posts his Megg and Mogg comics on his Tumblr, Girl Mountain, and is about to collect them in a graphic novel of the same name. [The Comics Journal]
Conventions | Craig Fischer and Ben Towle discuss their plans for a mega-panel on comics and music, featuring Peter Bagge, Ed Piskor, the creators of The Fifth Beatle, and a live musical performance, for this weekend's HeroesCon. [The Comics Reporter]
Conventions | Music comes to the Olympia Comics Festival as well this weekend in the form of a stage show celebrating The Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song; creators David Lasky and Frank M. Young are guests of the show, as is artist Carol Lay, who gives an interview about her work. [The Olympian]
Conventions | James Bacon files his con report from the 2D Comics Festival in Derry, Northern Ireland. [Forbidden Planet]
Comics | As Egypt continues to go through political turmoil, the online comic Asa7be Sarcasm Society, which is posted on Facebook, gives people something to laugh about, deals out criticism liberally to all political parties, and also takes on important issues like sexual harassment. And, in the grand tradition of all comics everywhere, gets criticized for using colloquial language, to which co-creator Shady Sedky replies, “The idea came from wanting to express people’s opinion from the street, and we aim to reach the youth through comedy. We have a message and we’re not laughing at the people on the microbus, but we want to express their opinion and what they think around the world. They are the majority of the people in Egypt, so we should express their opinion.” [Al-Monitor]
Political cartoons | Here's an interesting article on the history of satirical comics magazines in Turkey, which have criticizing the government, and getting in trouble for it since the days of the Ottoman Empire. [Freeword]