Auctions | A page of original artwork from 1971's Asterix and the Laurel Wreath sold at auction Sunday for more than $158,000, with proceeds going to benefit the families of those killed in the attack on Charlie Hebdo's offices. The art included a special dedication by Asterix co-creator Albert Uderzo, who came out of retirement in the days after the attack to draw tributes to the victims. The auction house Christie's waived its commission for Sunday's sale. [BBC News]

Political cartoons | Ecuadorean cartoonist Xavier Bonilla, who has been sued, threatened and reprimanded by his own government because of his political cartoons, revealed last week that he has also received threats from an Ecuadorean member of ISIS over a cartoon making fun of the extremist group. While he ultimately decided the threat wasn't credible, Bonilla said, "It has to be understood within this climate of hostility and harassment that’s been created within the country. It’s gotten to the point where even humor is being persecuted and oppressed by the president." Reporter Jim Wyss also looks at some other cases of government suppression of political cartoons in Latin America [Miami Herald]



Libraries | Fantagraphics Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds discusses the recent challenge to Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar in a Rio Rancho, New Mexico, high school library: "My response as the publisher is that anyone who would attempt to characterize Palomar as child pornography is inherently stacking the deck, and I’m disappointed that this market’s local media was all too willing to eschew its responsibility to report the truth if it makes for a more controversial story." [Multiversity Comics]

Awards | Lars Vilks, whose drawings of the Prophet Muhammad led a gunman to try to assassinate him last month, on Saturday made his first public appearance since the attempted shooting to accept the Sappho Award from the Danish Free Press Society in Copenhagen. [BBC News]

Publishing | Shaun Clancy interviews Michael Gross, the former art director of National Lampoon, which was ahead of the curve in publishing the work of many alternative cartoonists in the 1970s. [The Comics Journal]



Creators | James Kochalka talks about how he creates memorable characters and visuals, why he likes making comics that kids can appreciate, and what he learned while creating the Glorkian Warrior video game. [Broken Frontier]

Creators | Football player Israel Idonije talks about his childhood love of comics, and the series he's been developing, The Protectors. Idonije has brought in writer Ron Marz and artist Bart Sears to work on the project, and there's a motion comic in the works as well. [The Huffington Post]

Manhwa | A collection of 15,000 volumes of manhwa (Korean comics) that was abandoned in a storage locker has been donated to the University of Washington, which now has the biggest manhwa collection in North America. This is particularly significant at a time when digital comics (webtoons) are edging out print comics in Korea. Korean studies librarian Yi Hyo-kyoung, herself a manhwa reader since childhood, is organizing a symposium that will include a talk by manhwa creator Yoon Tae-ho (Misaeng). [Korea JoonAng Daily]

Collectors | Milwaukee man buys 1,307 Bazooka Joe comics. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

Conventions | A PR person from Indiana Comic Con responds to some questions about problems at last year's con and what they plan to do differently this year. [Kotaku]

Retailing | 3Alarm Comics, the newest comic shop in Pensacola, Florida, is an extension of a store in Biloxi, Mississippi. The owner was a vendor at several Pensacola events and was so taken by the warm welcome he got that he decided to open his next store there. Manager Grant Comeaux welcomes all comics fans, saying, "I don't believe there are any fake nerds. Everyone's a nerd at heart." [The Pensacola News Journal]