Retailing | A federal judge has lifted a temporary restraining order blocking the $21.4 million sale of retail chain Hastings Entertainment to Joel Weinshanker, president and sole shareholder of Wizkids parent National Entertainment Collectibles Association. Two Hastings shareholders had sued to stop the sale, insisting the price paid for the retailer is too low; however, U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson found, in part, that they failed to prove they would be irreparably harmed if the sale were completed before they could have their day in court (Texas law permits dissenting stockholders to seek monetary damages after a merger). Hastings, which operates 149 stores that sell books, comics, video games and more, has called a special shareholder meeting for July 15, during which the sale is expected to be approved. [Amarillo Globe-News, ICv2.com]

Passings | Jim Bamber, the longtime cartoonist for the U.K. magazine Autosport, has died at age 66. Het got his start drawing a strip titled Yumping Yarns, about World Championship Rallying, for Car & Car Conversions magazine, and then shifted to Autosport, where his cartoons about Formula One racing have run weekly since 1994. The next issue of Autosport will include a tribute to Bamber and a selection of his classic cartoons. [Autosport]



Creators | Gene Luen Yang talks about his new book, The Shadow Hero (illustrated by Sonny Liew), based on the 1940s comics character The Green Turtle, by Chu Hing: "The reason the original Green Turtle character was so fascinating to me is that the superhero genre is very America: it’s most popular in America; it was invented in America; it’s embedded with the experience of the child of an American immigrant. All the creators of all the major superheroes were all children of immigrants. I feel the immigrant experience is just embedded in the conventions of the genre. When I found The Green Turtle and found out that there was an Asian American working in the very early days of comics, when I found out there was this character from the very beginning of the genre that could possibly be Asian American, there’s something really affirming about that." [ICv2]

Creators | Physician Ian Williams discusses his struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder and how it informs his new graphic novel The Bad Doctor. [The Independent]

Creators | In an audio interview, Joel Christian Gill discusses his new book Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History, an anthology of true stories about African-Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries. [Radio Boston]



Creators | David Dwonch, creative director for Action Lab Comics, explains how a near-death experience in a cab gave him the idea for his new comic, Cyrus Perkins and the Haunted Taxi Cab! [Sequential Tart]

Creators | Artist Fritz Casas discusses his work on the new Dynamite Entertainment series The Blood Queen. Female leads seem to be a specialty for Casas, who has also drawn Miss Fury and Queen Sonja. [The Philippine Star]

Creators | Professional banjo player Charles Butler talks about his comic 1X, the first he has created from start to finish, which he is hoping to fund through Kickstarter. [The Outhousers]

Creators | Don O'Mahony talks to several of the creators behind I'm Awake, I'm Alive, an anthology of work by writers and artists based in Cork, Ireland. [Irish Examiner]

Creators | It's unusual for a creator to make a living solely from self-published comics, but Theodore Raymond Riddle figures he earns about $30,000 a year from sales of his comic Compu-M.E.C.H. Riddle will be a guest of honor this weekend at ToyConNJ. [Daily Record]

Comics | The American Physical Society kicks back for summer with a look at seven public domain comics about physics. [Physics Central]