Creators | The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland has named its first Cartoonist in Residence: Cameron McPhail, who left his job in 2002 as chief executive of wealth management at the Royal Bank of Scotland to become a full-time cartoonist. He and his colleagues in the Kartoon Faktory collective will produce books about the animals in the zoo and possibly a comic strip as well. [Edinburgh News]
Digital comics | Rob Salkowitz surveys the digital-comics landscape, in which comiXology continues to be the market leader, despite shutting down in-app buying — and will probably continue to be the leader because of their exclusive deal with Marvel for single-issue comics. He notes that comiXology quietly has been terminating its publisher-branded apps, which did continue to offer in-app buying (and synced with the main Comics app), and that Madefire has been picking them up — giving consumers the convenience of in-app buying but the inconvenience of having their comics divided among two or more apps. [Publishers Weekly]
Creators | Cousins Jillian and Mariko Tamaki, creators of Skim and This One Summer, talk about how they collaborate on their graphic novels and how it has changed their work. [Room]
Creators | With a new Phonogram series on the way, collaborators Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie discuss how their interest in music plays out in comics. [The Guardian]
Creators | Tom Spurgeon interviews underground comix creator Glenn Head. [The Comics Reporter]
Creators | Ted Quinlan has gone from target to creator of political cartoons; the former treasurer of the Australian Capital Territory, which includes Canberra, used to sketch his colleagues in the Assembly even before he retired from politics in 2001; now he publishes his work on PSNews, a news site for Australian government workers. [The Canberra Times]
Creators | I talked with Gotham Academy co-writer Brenden Fletcher about writing a tween/teen book set in the Batman universe. [Good Comics for Kids]
Manga | Deb Aoki has some advice for Western journalists on interviewing manga creators; the article, which includes comments from journalists and translators on many of the cultural differences that get in the way, is an interesting peek behind the curtain for anyone who follows the manga news. [MangaComicsManga]
Fanzines | Do you miss the days of taping a couple of coins to a card and mailing them off to get a copy of a fanzine? Scraps, a British fanzine about British comics, is bringing it back, but it probably only works in the United Kingdom. Or you can get a free copy if you buy original comics art from the publisher, Blasé Books, which sells original art from the archives of the U.K. publisher IPC Books. [Down the Tubes]
Retailing | Dan Greenfield explains, with many animated GIFs, just why preorders are so important to comic shops. [13th Dimension]
Conventions | Walkin' and Rollin' Costumes, a costume maker that creates costumes for children who use wheelchairs and walkers, had a booth over the weekend at Kansas City Comic Con, as did the Autism Society of the Heartland. “This is a great environment for many of our individuals with Autism or Asperger’s, they’re very into comic books or cosplay and we celebrate those uniqueness’s," said Jennifer Smith, executive director of the society. [KSHB]