Awards | Jillian Tamaki has won the prestigious Governor General's Literary Prize for children's literature illustration for her work on This One Summer, a graphic novel collaboration with cousin Mariko Tamaki (who was nominated in the text category). Their first book, 2008's Skim, was previously nominated in the text division, further demonstrating a separation of illustration and story that Jillian Tamaki finds "strange." "“I think we are both creators of the book," she tells the Edmonton Journal. "You can’t read a comic without either component, it won’t make sense. It’s something I will always be addressing when talking about the award. But I am completely flattered by the honor and will be sharing the prize with my cousin.” [Edmonton Journal, via The Comics Reporter]

Publishing | John Schork, who joined Oni Press in June 2013 as director of publicity after stints at IDW Publishing and Dark Horse, announced Wednesday that he and the publisher "have decided to part ways mutually and amicably." [Twitter]

Legal | The Malaysian cartoonist Zunar was questioned for about an hour by police about his book Komplot Penjarakan Anwar" (Conspiracy to Jail Anwar), which has not been officially banned in Malaysia. (The book is about the sodomy trial of opposition leader Ibrahim Anwar, which many Malaysians see as an attempt to stifle political dissent; Zunar's assistants were arrested two weeks ago for selling the book outside the court where the trial was taking place.) The police demanded that MOLPay, which manages online sales of the book, turn over information on who had bought it, and Zunar said the company had no choice but to comply, adding, "For them to get the details of buyers who had nothing to do with the case, I see it as an action to scare buyers." [The Malaysian Insider]

Education | Rep. John Lewis' graphic memoir of the Civil Rights movement, March, will be used in junior U.S. history classes at Leflore County High School in Greenwood, Mississippi. The Mississippi Center for Justice donated 500 copies of the book to the school, which will make it available to students in other grades as well. All together, 4,000 copies of the book have been donated to Mississippi schools as well as the Floyd & Bessie Johnson Foundation, which supports youths in at-risk neighborhoods, and the Sunflower County Youth Court. [The Charlotte Observer]

Creators | "Your job is to chase your characters up a tree and then throw rocks at them every day," cartoonist Tom Batiuk says in an interview about his long-running comic strip Funky Winkerbean. He drops a little surprise in at the end: It will cross over with Dick Tracy in January. [Variety]

Creators | Hip Hop Family Tree creator Ed Piskor does a short interview for the City Lights Booksellers blog. [City Lights Blog]

Creators | Moyoco Anno (Sakuran, Flowers & Bees) and Erica Sakurazawa (Between the Sheets, Angel) talk about their friend and fellow manga creator Kyoko Okazaki, whose career ended prematurely when she was seriously injured in an auto accident. Vertical Inc. recently published two of Okazaki's single-volume works, Helter Skelter and Pink. [Ceiling Gallery]

Creators | As part of its ongoing Zap retrospective, The Comics Journal re-runs Gary Groth's 1991 interview with Robert Crumb. [The Comics Journal]

Comics | Tales from the Deep, a collection of 10 short stories by members of the Drawn Chorus Collective, will debut today at the Hackney Pirates' Ship of Adventures, a bookstore/event space shaped like the inside of a ship. Here's the blurb from Guardian cartoonist Stephen Collins: "A spellbinding swirl of lost loves, submerged urges and drowned memories in this brilliant new anthology from some of the most promising new comics talents around." [East London Lines]

Education | The American University of Beirut has launched an academic program to study and archive Arab comics. [Al-Fanar Media]

Conventions | Last year's Grand Rapids Comic Con was unexpectedly popular, so much so that organizers had to turn thousands of people away at the door. This year, they are moving into a larger space and expect a crowd of about 30,000. The eclectic lineup includes Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura from Star Trek), the voice actress who plays Naruto, the producer of Sharknado, one of the actors from Power Rangers, and comics creators James O'Barr, William Messner-Loebs and Tony Isabella. [MLive.com]

Conventions | Henry Barajas reports on Tucson Comic Con, which drew a crowd of more than 15,000. The lines were long, but the vendors were pleased. [The Beat]