Passings | Golden Age creators Marcus "Marc" Swayze, best known for writing and drawing Fawcett's Captain Marvel comics in the early 1940s, died Sunday in Monroe, Louisiana. He was 99. Swayze, who created Mary Marvel with writer Otto Binder, employed a simple style of illustration. "My personal philosophy was to use the art in storytelling so that even a child who couldn't yet read could get a story out of it," he told the Monroe News-Star in 2000. [The News-Star]
Legal | The Indian government has officially dropped sedition charges against cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, but he still faces up to three years in prison if found guilty on the remaining charges under the Prevention of Insult to National Honor Act of 1971. Trivedi was arrested last month and briefly jailed before being released on bail. In an odd twist, Trivedi is currently participating in the reality show Bigg Boss, the Indian counterpart of Big Brother. [UPI.com]
Conventions | Meredith Blake notes the rapid growth of New York Comic Con during the six years of its existence and does a bit of compare-and-contrast with San Diego's Comic-Con International, which is still bigger (but not by much). [Hero Complex]
Creators | Syrian political cartoonist Ali Ferzat emerged from hiding last week to accept the Sakharov Prize and take part in a debate on "Voices for Democracy: Citizenship in the Making" at the European Parliament in Brussels. Syrian security forces abducted Ferzat last year and broke both his hands. [EU Neighbourhood Info]
Creators | Tom Spurgeon has a thorough and fascinating interview with David Lasky and Frank M. Young, the creators of The Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song, in which the authors choose five pages or spreads from the book and discuss the particulars of story and treatment. [The Comics Reporter]
Creators | Stan Lee goes on video to explain his new YouTube channel, which was announced at New York Comic Con. [PC Magazine]
Creators | Tori Marlan, a former staff writer for the Chicago Reader, talks about her new graphic novel Stowaway, the true story of an Ethiopian teenager who traveled from Addis Ababa to Pennsylvania on his own. Josh Neufeld (A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge) is the artist on the project. [Chicago Reader]
Graphic novels | A graphic novel biography of the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein is in the works. [Rolling Stone]
Manga | Manga and anime experts Frederick Schodt, Helen McCarthy and Ada Palmer join Ed Sizemore and Johanna Draper Carlson for a podcast discussion of Osamu Tezuka's Barbara. [Manga Out Loud]
Digital comics | The e-book service Kobo has acquired Aquafadas, a company that specializes in publishing digital comics, in order to add more illustrated books to its platform. [The Bookseller]