Conventions | Declaring this weekend's inaugural Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Kendal, Cumbria, England, a success, organizers have already announced the dates for next year's event: Oct. 17-19. "Our first year has been everything we could have wished for," said festival director Julie Tait. "There was a huge buzz right through Kendal - from The Brewery Arts Centre right to The Box on Wildman Street, as well as at the shopping centre and the library. The town has really got involved and there has been art work on every street. It feels like the weekend has involved everyone - from adults following their passion for Viz humour to kids learning how Peppa Pig was created." This year's festival featured guests ranging from Charlie Adlard and Ed Brubaker to David Lloyd and Trina Robbins. [Cumbria Live]
Crime | Someone broke into the Outer Limits comic shop in Pueblo, Colorado, early Oct. 15 and made off with comics that owner Rodney Matlack estimates were worth $86,000. They went for the good stuff: "[The suspect or suspects] cleaned out both my display cases. That one [case] they couldn't get into so they went someplace got a big old framing hammer came back and knocked a big whole in that one," Matlack said. The shrewd thieves also put the "Open" sign in the door so passers-by wouldn't get suspicious, but something must have scared them off, as they left a pile of books in the store. [KKTV]
Awards | Hazel Newlevant has been awarded Prism Comics' 2013 Queer Press Grant for her works Dance the Blues and If This Be Sin. [Prism Comics]
Creators | Writer, and Image Comics publisher, Eric Stephenson discusses his series Nowhere Men. [CraveOnline]
Creators | Peter Bagge talks about his latest work, Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story. [The Gazette]
Creators | James Tynion IV talks about collaborating with Scott Snyder, and his work on DC Comics' Talon and Red Hood & The Outlaws. [CraveOnline]
Creators | Collaborators Jason Stevens and Rashad Doucet discuss their new Arch Enemy Entertainment series RagTag, which mixes superheroics and sibling rivalry. [USA Today]
Kickstarter | Jonathan Hop, a math and science teacher in Farmington Hills, Michigan, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund his original graphic novel Journey to the Middle Kingdom, which depicts Chinese mythology as seen by three American teenagers. [Patch.com]
Reviews | Jody Arlington takes a look at the first issue of Afterlife with Archie, the new Archie zombie comic. [NPR]