Conventions | Marking San Francisco's third year without WonderCon, pop-culture critic Peter Hartlaub relates the feelings of "confusion, withdrawal and anger" experienced by local fans, and explains why city leaders should care whether the convention ever returns from Anaheim. [SFGate]

Creators | Gary ODD Edmund combined two things he loved, comics and "marijuana culture," to come up with the comic The Bud. While weed may be the news hook in this story, the numbers are interesting as well, as Edmund claims to have made $10,000 last year selling The Bud at comics conventions, where he typically moves 200 to 300 copies per event. He is now at the point where it's worth his while to drop other projects to make more time for The Bud, and he figures his Bud-related income will at least triple this year. Can't make it to a comic con? There's a digital version as well, available via indie publisher CCP Comics. The digital release of The Bud (on 4/20, of course) drew so much traffic it crashed CCP's website. [AOL Jobs]

Publishing | Going to a comics or zine festival this summer? Robyn Chapman of Paper Rocket Minicomics has some suggestions on what not to say to micropublishers (as well as some insights into what a micropublisher's life is like). [The Tiny Report]



Creators | Box Brown, author of the graphic novel Andre the Giant, writes about pro wrestling as storytelling. [The Kindle Post]

Creators | Carla Gillis interviews Michael DeForge, who's working on the sixth issue of his series Lose; his graphic novel Ant Colony came out earlier this year, and his body-horror comic Very Casual won an Ignatz Award: "I can remember early nightmares where, if I peeled the wallpaper in my room, there would be something scary pulsating be­hind it. That’s the tone a lot of my stories have; normal situations or characters have some buzzing, threatening thing right under the surface." [Quill and Quire]

Creators | Here's a day in the life of Dilbert creator Scott Adams. [The Wall Street Journal]



Creators | Writer Joshua Williamson talks about his new comic series Nailbiter, set in an Oregon town that's home to 16 of America's worst serial killers. [USA Today]

Manga | The wine manga Drops of God, which has been partially translated into English (and has been a big hit in France) will end its run in the June 12 issue of Kodansha's Morning magazine. The collected edition will run to 44 volumes. [Anime News Network]

Comics | Communications professor Jane Chapman looks at the way comics shaped (and reflected) public opinion in the United Kingdom during World War I and World War II. [The Conversation]

Collectors | Glenn Bray talks about his collection of original comics art, some of which can be viewed in a new book from Fantagraphics, The Blighted Eye: Original Comic Art from the Glenn Bray Collection. Unlike a lot of collectors, Bray eschews superheroes and instead collects art by an eclectic array of artists that includes Daniel Clowes, George Herriman and Harvey Kurtzman. [Los Angeles Times]