Conventions | More than 30,000 people descended upon the 24th annual Motor City Comic Con over the weekend, with attendees reportedly waiting for up to two hours just to get into the parking lot, and then another one to four hours to get in the doors of Novi, Michigan's Suburban Collection Showplace. Comics legend Stan Lee and The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus apparently contributed to the long lines, but the site was also hosting two other events and undergoing construction of a hotel, leading to a parking shortage. According to The Oakland Press, some fans parked as much as a mile away; traffic was backed up for miles. For the first time, the convention offered advance tickets, allowing attendees to pay extra in exchange for not having to wait in line. However, because of a mess-up, even those who pre-ordered had to wait in line. Related: Lee talks to USA Today during the convention. [The Oakland Press]
Legal | A German man who was arrested in the Christchurch, New Zealand, airport after customs officers found manga-style drawings of child sexual abuse on his laptop has pleaded guilty to importation charges and has been sentenced to 10 months in prison. New Zealand law prohibits possession of drawn images of children being exploited. "Whether it is an actual child or a cartoon, every image depicts a child being sexually abused, degraded, exploited and tortured and nothing excuses this offense," said Shane Panettiere of New Zealand customs. "The reality of child sexual exploitation imagery is grim enough, but undertaking a commercial enterprise around this activity is horrific." [Anime News Network]
Events | Tim Hodler posts an insider-y account of the demise of the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. [The Comics Journal]
Events | Taking a look at the bigger picture, Heidi MacDonald chronicles the troubles that seem to be afflicting a lot of indie comics festivals of late. [The Beat]
Digital comics | I talked to Valiant's marketing and communications manager, Hunter Gorinson, about the company's approach to digital — why it doesn't have a branded app, how it's approaching older properties, and whether it is considering digital-first comics. [Good E-Reader]
Creators | Michael Cavna talks to Craig Yoe about his latest anthology, Comics About Cartoonists: Stories About the World's Oddest Profession. [Comic Riffs]
Creators | Candorville creator Darren Bell reminisces about his grandfather, Emmett Roscoe Bell Sr., who died at the age of 94 and whom he memorialized in a recent strip. [Comic Riffs]
Manga | Shaenon Garrity writes about Moto Hagio's classic sci-fi manga A, A': "Hagio was always the unfrilliest of the Year 24 Group, the classic shojo artist least interested in making her art cute. In A, A’, her characters have sharp faces and intense eyes, and her settings are mostly austere space colonies and washes of starry sky. But she composes each page with the hand of a master, leading the eye and the heart exactly where she wants them to go. The path she lays out in A, A’ is less harrowing than in some of her longer, more ambitious manga, but through the sci-fi action and romance runs a shudder of loss." [Anime News Network]
Review | Stuart Kelly reviews the first volume of China Mieville's Dial H. [The Scotsman]