Passings | Dave Thorne, sometimes called the father of Hawaiian cartooning, has died at the age of 82. His most recent strip was Thorney's Zoo, which ran in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Mark Evanier has a personal appreciation of Thorne and his love of Hawaii. [Honolulu Star-Advertiser]

Creators | Carl Barks once wrote, “Ninety-nine readers out of 100 think Walt Disney writes and draws all those movies and comic books between stints with his hammer and saw building Disneyland,” but for much of his career he was happy to remain anonymous and avoid the hassles that come with fame. Jim Korkis writes the fascinating story of how two fans got through the Disney wall of anonymity — and Barks' own reticence — to figure out who Barks was and bring him into contact with his admirers. [USA Today]



Creators | Darwyn Cooke goes in depth about his adaptation of Donald Westlake's Parker: The Score and the other Parker novels in an interview that covers everything from his relationship with Westlake to the cameos of other creators he slid into the graphic novel. It's long but very interesting. [Violent World of Parker]

Creators | Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin talk about their Monkeybrain comic Bandette. "I’d been writing Spider-Girl and Spider-Man and a lot of other Marvel books, and thinking of how many places I could take the characters if the usual restrictions were removed, and then Monkeybrain approached us with an offer to create stories with no restrictions," Tobin said. "So we did." [SFX]

Creators | Dave Sim is answering a question a day, at length, from retailer Stephen Holland and editors Eric Hoffman (Cerebus The Barbarian Messiah) and Dominick Grace (Dave Sim: Conversations). [A Moment of Cerebus]

Creators | In a video made at Comic-Con International, Valiant editor Warren Simons and writer Robert Venditti discuss X-O Manowar and the return of the Valiant universe. [Stumptown Trade Review]



Creators | Here's another Comic-Con video: Nathan Edmondson on his current books and the followup to Who Is Jake Ellis?, which is due out this fall. [Previews World]

Graphic novels | Following up on the Comics and Medicine conference in Toronto last week, Stephanie Findlay takes a look at the place of graphic novels in helping medical students understand how patients experience disease. [The Toronto Star]

Comics | Homestuck is a phenomenon that leaves a lot of folks puzzled; subdee explains where it is coming from and why some folks find it so appealing. [The Hooded Utilitarian]

Cartoons | Remember the Seinfeld episode in which Elaine complained about how New Yorker cartoons make so little sense? No? Maybe that's because it ran 14 years ago. But The New Yorker has finally decided to use Elaine's cartoon in its caption contest, and there's a highlights reel of that show at the link as well. [The Daily Cartoonist]

Conventions | Business analyst Rob Salkowitz indulges in quite a few stereotypes and sweeping generalizations while talking about the Twilight phenomenon — and female fans in general — at Comic-Con in an excerpt from his book Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture, but some of it rings true. The comments to this article are like a microcosm of the comics commentariat, with a heady mix of trollery and insight. [Geek Out!]