Manga | Kodansha Comics will publish a "Master's Edition" of Hiro Mashima's fantasy-adventure manga Fairy Tail, collecting the first five volumes in a deluxe oversize format, similar to its Attack on Titan: Colossal Edition. Priced at $39.99, the first volume will go on sale in October. [Kodansha Comics]

Political cartoons | Christiane Gruber looks at Muslim cartoonists who are critiquing ISIS: "Over the past year, cartoonists across the Middle East have critiqued ISIS with equal amounts of ferocity and fearlessness. From Jordan to Iran, they frequently lambast ISIS — referring to it through its acronym Daesh, which is related to the pejorative Arabic term meaning 'to tread under foot' — as destructive of Islam and the world’s cultural heritage, as the growling lapdog of various superpowers, as the ultimate devil and grim reaper of Iraq and as an Oscar-winning sensation obsessed with bloody forms of self-promotion." [Newsweek]

Political cartoons | And here's an example: Cartoonists react on Twitter to former president Mohamed Morsi's death sentence. [Al Bawaba]



Political cartoons | The Wall Street Journal has a brief profile of Chinese cartoonist Wang Liming, who's living in Japan because he fears arrest if he returns to China, and is destitute because he has been cut off from Chinese social media. [Wall Street Journal]

Creators | Mike Smith is best known as the editorial cartoonist for the Las Vegas Sun, but this interview focuses on a different part of his work: his NASCAR cartoons. [Sporting News]

Conventions | Did you miss Toronto Comic Arts Festival? Or maybe you couldn't make it to a panel? Jamie Coville has posted audio of a number of panels, plus the kick-off event (featuring Chris Oliveros of Drawn and Quarterly and a panel of their artists: Jillian Tamaki, Jason Lutes, Seth, Adrian Tomine, and Lynda Barry) and the Doug Wright Awards. [The Comic Books]



Conventions | The local news posts a video report on this past weekend's Maine Comics Arts Festival, which featured Box Brown, James Kochalka and Chip Zdarsky, among the guests. [WCSH6]

Scene | Kevin Phelan looks at the local comics shops and conventions in Rockland and Westchester counties, New York. [The Journal News]

Retailing | Emil J. Novak Sr., owner of Queen City Comics in Buffalo, New York, reflects on 40 years in the business: "I’ve learned to be a professional businessman over time but in the earlier days I was feistier and didn’t deal well with stupid questions. You learn from working in the business you have to entertain. I’m basically an actor at the counter. I put on a show." [The Buffalo News]