Censorship | During a panel at Comic-Con International, members of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund criticized a student's attempt to have four graphic novels banned from her college campus. Crafton Hills College student Tara Shultz and her father, Craig Shultz, have called for Fun Home, Persepolis, the first volume of Y: The Last Man, and the second volume of The Sandman, all of which were included in a course on the graphic novel as literature, to be removed not only from the course but also from the college bookstore. The school has refused. CBLDF director Charles Brownstein noted that this is part of a troubling new trend: Graphic novel challenges at the college level. The CBLDF has been involved in 18 college cases so far this year, up from 10 in all of 2014. [Redlands Daily Facts]

Creators | "Opus’s [voice] came screaming back at me — true— when I faced those four empty panels that I hadn’t done since 1989," cartoonist Berkeley Breathed told Michael Cavna, explaining why he is returning to his comic strip Bloom County after a lengthy absence. He also discusses the possibility of self-publishing rather than going with a newspaper syndicate: "Dead-tree media requires constancy and deadlines and guarantees. This flattens the joy. It also presents a huge income. It’s an interesting trade-off, isn’t it?" [Comic Riffs]

Commentary | David Brothers critiques Marvel's plans to publish hip-hop themed variant covers, given that none of the newly announced creators for Marvel titles are black. [i am davidbrothers dotcom]

Creators | Kate Beaton talks about her family, webcomics, princesses, and her pony character's guest appearance on Adventure Time. [Time]

Political Cartoons | The San Diego Union-Tribune profiles their own political cartoonist, Steve Breen. [San Diego Union-Tribune]



Comics | Muslim cartoonist Adam Elrashidi has created a series of cartoons explaining about Islam and the holy month of Ramadan, from A to Z. "I think that the introspective part about Ramadan gets lost," he said. "It's really supposed to be a time when you take stock of things, where you are with your faith, your community, your family. I wanted to highlight what I saw as some other elements of the month." [Huffington Post]

Graphic Novels | Fear Factory frontman Burton C. Bell has written a graphic novel, The Industrialist, based on the album of the same name. “That album is the soundtrack to this novel, and it follows the story within these pages," said Bell. Noel Guard has accurately rendered the characters and scenes, and he captured the images as I saw them in my own mind." The book will be published in September, about a month after the band's newest album, Genexus, is released. [Loudwire]

Manga | Deb Aoki rounds up all the manga news and announcements from Comic-Con in one handy article. [Publishers Weekly]

Conventions | Mark Voger interviews Dave DeVries, Bob Petrecca, and Eric M. Cooper, who will be guests at two upcoming comics conventions in New Jersey. [NJ.com]

Retailing | Garry and Pauline Fay are retiring as the owners of Heroes HQ, the Ballarat, Australia, comics shop that was nominated for a Will Eisner Spirit of Retailing Award last year, although they will stay on and do workshops for the new owners. The couple opened the store at just the right time, Garry said, catching the rise in comics' popularity, and their clientele are a diverse group: "We get families and a lot of uni students, but what I don't think we expected were a lot of tradespeople through, a handful of customers from the police force, paramedics, and accountants," he said. "Our customer base is now roughly 50-50 male and female. Despite what people think there is no one size fits all. Anyone who likes a good story, a bit of action and colour in their lives likes comics." [ABC Ballarat]