Conventions | Comiket, the world's largest comics expo, drew 550,000 attendees to its summer edition, which ended Sunday at to the Tokyo Big Sight. That's about the same number of people as the summer 2014 installment. (Note: Those figures account for the number of visits during the three-day convention to the Tokyo Big Sight, rather than individual attendees.) The winter installment of the biannual event will be held in December. [Anime News Network]
Conventions | In an attempt to avoid the sort of bad press they got last year, organizers of Rhode Island Comic Con put a clause in this year's press application requiring news organizations promise to avoid "insulting or disrespectful comments and giving a bad image of the show" in order to get press passes. That worked about as well as you would expect: The convention quickly apologized and reversed course following push-back from not only the Rhode Island Press Association but also the Rhode Island Convention Center and Dunkin' Donuts Center. [GoLocal Providence]
Creators | The late civil rights leader Julian Bond, who died Saturday at age of 75, wrote a comic in 1967 to discuss his response, as a black man, to the Vietnam War. [The Root]
Publishing | Now that Fables is over, what does the future hold for Vertigo? Shaenon Garrity writes about the 2015 lineup, but notes the DC imprint lack a flagship title -- and that Image is giving Vertigo a run for its money: "If Vertigo seems to be struggling for an identity, maybe it’s because Image is the new Vertigo. And somewhere along the way, Vertigo became the old Image, struggling to keep up with the times and establish an identity. If Fables were launching today, it’d be more at home with Image than Vertigo." [io9]
Creators | At Comic-Con International, I had the chance to interview the creators of the Ultraman manga, Tomohiro Shimoguchi and Eiichi Shimizu. [Barnes and Noble Sci-Fi/Fantasy Blog]
Creators | Alitha E. Martinez, Regine L. Sawyer and Juliana "Jewels" Smith talked about doing corporate and creator-owned work in a panel at Dover (Delaware) Comic Con. [The News Journal]
Creators | Matt Arado's coverage of the upcoming Wizard World Comic Con Chicago includes interviews with artist Neal Adams and filmmaker Bruce Campbell. [The Daily Herald]
Creators | Maki Naro explains in comics form why spec work, contests and other attempts to get artists to work for free are bad, and after that he discusses a particular case that he thinks is pretty egregious. [Popular Science]
Manga | An untranslated catchphrase in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure leads Deb Aoki and a group of translators and manga readers into a lively Twitter discussion about authenticity versus accessibility and the influence of scanlations (bootleg translations) on commercial manga. [MangaComicsManga]
Conventions | Comics creator Ash Maczko (Squarriors) is hosting his own comics and pop culture convention, Lake Count-I-Con, which will feature creator appearances, contests, gaming, and a bar that serves craft beers, all for $5 per person, free to active military and children 12 and under. This is the second year for the con, which attracted 2,000 people last year, far more than Maczko had anticipated. [Chicago Tribune]