Graphic novels | Marvel and DC Comics may dominate the direct market but the bookstore channel is another story: As ICv2 points out, neither publisher landed a title on Nielsen BookScan's list of the 20 top-selling graphic novels in February. Instead, here's what it looked like: six volumes of The Walking Dead, six volumes of Attack on Titan, two volumes of Saga, and single volumes of some well-established titles Locke & Key, Bleach, Naruto, Adventure Time and Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the adaptation of the novel Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. That makes Image Comics the winner of the month, followed by Kodansha Comics, and the list is heavy on books with tween and teen appeal. [ICv2]
Publishing | Dark Horse Editor-in-Chief Scott Allie discusses women in comics in a two-part interview. [The Mary Sue]
Retailing | Diamond Comic Distributors ships comics to participating retailers the day before they're supposed to go on sale, and uses a "secret shopper" program to check that store aren't jumping the gun on the street date. Just 50 violations were detected last year, which means the compliance rate is probably about 98 percent. [ICv2]
Auctions | The auction house Christies will hold its first auction dedicated solely to classic comics, with an array of 370 comics and original drawings that is expected to bring in more than £2.5 million ($4.17 million U.S.). [The Telegraph]
Creators | Samantha Meier profiles Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli's underground comic Tits & Clits, putting it into historical context and talking to both creators about their work. [The Hooded Utilitarian]
Creators | Writer Nathan Edmondson and artist Aileen Sampson talk about their graphic novella Genesis, due out in April from Image Comics. [Bloody Disgusting]
Creators | Neill Cameron, whose work is frequently featured in the children's comic The Phoenix, is the cartoonist in residence at the Story Museum in Oxford, England. [Oxford Times]
Webcomics | Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, Shaenon Garrity looks at two webcomics based on the Irish epic The Cattle Raid of Cooley (Táin Bó Cúailnge), Patrick Brown’s The Cattle Raid of Cooley and M.K. Reed’s About a Bull. [The Comics Journal]
Retailing | Tom Spurgeon makes a field trip to a comics shop that didn't have any of the comics he planned on buying (Hawkeye, Saga), didn't have a lot of new comics, and couldn't explain why the comics were displayed the way they were. Also, he found Marvel's multiple lines confusing. "I think you have to be in a really specific and practiced mindset to negotiate a comics shop right now, maybe more than ever to have a deep buying experience there. It's fascinating that elements of the shopping experience have become more baroque even as so many comics are now selling legitimately and well to an audience of people that will never be hardcore buyers." [The Comics Reporter]
Fandom | Add One Direction's Zayn Malik to the list of celebrities who dream of creating a graphic novel: Although there's nothing concrete in the works, Malik likes to doodle backstage, and he recently served (apparently unknowingly) as a model for the newest iteration of Ghost Rider, although it takes more than chiseled cheekbones to make the leap from character to creator. [People]