Manga | Tadatoshi Fujimaki is bringing his manga Kuroko's Basketball to an end. The final chapter will run in the Sept. 1 issue of Shonen Jump, followed in October by the release of the 29th and final collection. The manga isn't licensed in North America (although the anime is), but it became famous worldwide after more than 400 threat letters were sent to venues in Japan hosting Kuroko's Basketball events and to retailers selling the series. The perpetrator confessed to the crimes, and was sentenced last week to four and half years in prison. [Anime News Network]

Creators | Brian Truitt interviews two creators of Cloaks: actor David Henrie, who created the main character Adam, a street magician in New York who is recruited by a black-ops group, and Caleb Monroe, who wrote the comic. Says Monroe, "As a magician, Adam looks for underlying realities, those things many of us have forgotten or deceived ourselves about. Then he develops ways to slip those back into people's lives disguised as entertainment." The first issue is due out next week from BOOM! Studios. [USA Today]

Creators | Ruben Bolling talks about life as a newspaper comic strip creator at a time when that field is "absolutely disappearing." Nonetheless, he has some solid advice for those who want to make it a career. [TechCrunch]

Creators | I spoke with Luke Pearson (creator of the Hilda graphic novels) about his adaptation of Thomas Hardy's poem "Channel Firing" for First Second's Above the Dreamless Dead, an anthology of World War I poems. [Good Comics for Kids]

Creators | Chip Reece wanted his son Ollie, who has Down syndrome, to be able to read a comic with characters like himself -- and when he couldn't find one, Reece made his own comic, Metaphase, which was crowdfunded on Kickstarter. [KWCH News]

Creators | The city of Carmel, California, dedicated a bench to the late cartoonist Bill Bates, who was apparently a well-loved local figure: Not only are his cartoons about daily life in Carmel still being published weekly, five years after his death, in the Carmel Pine Cone newspaper, but the city honored him in 1998 by creating a special zoning designation, the Bill Bates Humor Overlay District, subject to the following regulation: "Individuals entering the District are prohibited from having a bad day, are required to smile, and most importantly, are required to understand the punch line." [The Monterey Herald]

Digital comics | Amazon India has made an exclusive deal with the Indian publisher Diamond Toons to release previously unpublished comics by the late Pran Kumar Sharma. The e-books will be published in five languages, including English, and will include a mix of unreleased and previously published material, featuring Pran's creations Chacha Chaudhary, Pinki, and Billoo. As we reported Wednesday, a new set of bargain-priced reprints caused a run on Diamond's booth at the Delhi Book Fair. [Business Standard]

Conventions | Des Moines, Iowa, is getting its own Wizard World Comic Con next year, and the locals couldn't be happier. [KCCI News]

Retailing | Salem, Massachusetts, gets its second comics specialty store with the opening of Silver Moon Comics in the Museum Place Mall. Reporter Ethan Forman pulls together the latest comics sales statistics to show that the market is growing for shops such as this. [Salem News]