Legal | A 54-year-old man was sentenced this week in a Quebec court to 60 days in jail for watching pornographic anime featuring characters that appeared to be minors, a violation of Canadian law. A former private security guard, Regis Tremblay admitted he watched the cartoons several times in January 2012 out of "curiosity" while working at Canadian Force Base Valcartier, north of Quebec City. Investigators say they discovered 210 "hentai" files from a hard drive, and 501 "incriminating" web addresses from Tremblay's browser history. Following his jail sentence, Tremblay will have to register as a sex offender. [Canoe]
Conventions | Richard Bruton notes that the Dublin International Comic Expo (DICE) has taken the unusual step of posting a link to its harassment policy at the top of its home page. "Having a quick look around it’s the only comic event/festival/expo/con site to feature it so prominently," he writes. "Some make mention of their policies in FAQ or About sections, but as far as I know DICE is the first to do so this way." He does take issue with one vaguely worded item in the policy, though: "In particular, exhibitors should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material." [Forbidden Planet]
Retailing | Annie Bulloch used to get the cold shoulder when she went to her local comic shop, so now that she is a comics retailer herself, she offers Ladies Nights that draw more than 100 customers to her store, 8th Dimension in Houston. Other local retailers have started doing the same. Says Bulloch, "No one should ever have to feel like they're brave for going to a comic shop." [Houston Press]
Conventions | Heidi MacDonald reports on last weekend's Baltimore Comic-Con, which expanded to three days and a bigger venue but kept its friendly atmosphere. [Publishers Weekly]
Conventions | Calvin Reid looks forward to this weekend's Small Press Expo (SPX), which celebrates its 20th birthday this year. [Publishers Weekly]
Comics | Francoise Mouly, founder of TOON Books, talks about publishing an American edition of her childhood favorite, Cast Away on the Letter A. [The Comics Reporter]
Creators | Lucy Knisley discusses food, family, her memoir Relish, and her new book, An Age of License. [Kindle Post]
Creators | In an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Girls creator Lena Dunham talks about her plans for the Archie miniseries she's writing: "I'm going to try to figure out a way to be true to the world of Riverdale while also inserting some of my politics and beliefs and trying not to show breasts." [Los Angeles Times]
Academia | Mark Turner talks with Dr. Sheena Howard, author and editor of the Eisner Award-winning Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation. [Comics Creator News]
Digital comics | Roger Langridge (Snarked, The Muppet Show) gives Mark Waid's Thrillbent a try, which leads to some thoughts on digital comics in general. Overall, Langridge wasn't impressed with the digital trickery but sees digital comics as an important alternative to Diamond Comic Distributors and the direct market: "A lot of people, and I'm definitely among them, despair at Diamond's stranglehold on the comics industry, seeing the constant relaunches of long-running titles and the variant covers and all that destructive bullshit killing the industry by degrees, because those approaches are the only ones that Diamond's market responds to in the short-term – and I think Thrillbent and Monkeybrain and the rest are examples of people thinking long-term, thinking in terms of sustainable publishing models and broader markets, and that this kind of thinking is absolutely necessary." [The Hotel Fred]
Retailing | Claude Solnik interviews several Long Island retailers about the effect the surge in comics sales has had on them—and why customers are loyal to print in this digital age. [Long Island Business News]