Manga | While at the Angouleme International Comics Festival, I had a chance to study the French manga market and talk to some of the publishers. Manga represents more than one-third of the French comics market (last year, there were more new manga releases than BDs), and sales and production dipped for the first time last year. [Publishers Weekly]
Comics | Gary Cox rounds up reactions from refugees to the Australian government's online comic that warns them not to try to enter the country without a visa. "The people who are coming here are not economic migrants, they're coming to have a safer, peaceful life here," says Ibrar Hassani. And an advocate for refugees pointed out that the images of refugees suffering in detention centers were evidence that the government is deliberately mistreating them. [SBS]
Publishing | Rich Shivener profiles Action Lab Entertainment, publisher of Princeless, Molly Danger and a varied line of children's and adult comics. Fun fact: Company president Kevin Freeman, leads a double life as comics publisher and university professor. [Publishers Weekly]
Publishing | Beth Scorzato takes a look at Humanoids, the English-language branch of the French publisher Les Humanoïdes, which has taken a prominent role since the head office moved from Paris to Hollywood. [Publishers Weekly]
Publishing | Annie Koyama of Koyama Press is the guest on the Artist As Entrepreneur podcast. [Artist as Entrepreneur]
Creators | Dan Greenfield interviews veteran writer Chuck Dixon. [13th Dimension]
Creators | Just in time for Valentine's Day, Noelene Clark interviews Liz Prince about her graphic novel Alone Forever: The Singles Collection. [Hero Complex]
Retailing | Chris McIntosh gives a two-sentence pitch for her comic shop, SuperVillain comics in Cocoa Beach, Florida: "I’ve got comics, products and anime (Japanese animation) you can’t get anywhere else. We travel every year to comic and anime conventions, so if there’s something we can’t get, I will hunt it down." [Florida Today]
Conventions | More than 2,000 people came to the Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California, for the first-ever Salinas Valley Comic Con. (There's a photo album on the center's Facebook page.) [The Californian]
Exhibits | Students in Prof. Heather Cox Richardson's Making History Public class at Boston College have put together an exhibit showing how comics have reflected American culture over the years, drawing on the Burns Library's collection of Marvel and DC comics. [The Boston College Chronicle]