Conventions | John Giuffo does a compare-and-contrast between Comic-Con International and New York Comic Con. While San Diego has more Hollywood presence, NYCC has grown with stunning rapidity — it's hard to believe that first event had just 25,000 people and shared the Javits Center with a travel convention; this year attendance was 116,000, gaining hard on San Diego's 125,000. One key difference is that CCI spills out of the San Diego Convention Center into the surrounding neighborhood, which has restaurants and bars and parks, while the area around the Javits is pretty barren, limiting opportunities for parties or even a decent lunch, let alone the sort of outside activities that have sprung up in San Diego. [Forbes]
Legal | A Missouri man has pleaded guilty to federal obscenity charges stemming from comics depicting minors having sex with adults and other minors. The prosecutor has asked that he be sentenced to three years in federal prison without parole. [Anime News Network]
Creators | "I don’t feel like I’m through with these people yet, though I’m not sure what form my future use of them might take": Richard Thompson talks about the end of Cul de Sac, at least as a newspaper comic strip. [Editor and Publisher]
Creators | Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez reflect on 30 years of making comics and the changes that have come to the comics world during that time. The interview is filled with trenchant observations; here's Gilbert's summary of the state of contemporary comics: "We’re the only guys—maybe there’s a couple of others—that put out comics out on a regular basis. Everyone else puts them out five to 10 years [apart] now. It’s just gotten really bad. So that’s why there’s no beachhead, no swell of indie comics that people are making a big deal about. But at the same time, the mainstream seems to be surviving on the fact that there’s great, big Hollywood movies based on the products, and the actual comics aren’t a big deal anymore. That’s what I see. I’m not there. I’m not going to the comics stores and seeing how well they’re selling or how wonderful everything is with mainstream comics, but you hear people are leaving DC in droves." [A.V. Club]
Creators | Rick Remender talks about his work on Uncanny Avengers. [Comics Alliance]
Creators | Brandon Soderberg interviews Josh Simmons, creator of The Furry Trap. [The Comics Journal]
Creators | Stephan Pastis talks about working on Pearls Before Swine and why he enjoys his hate mail. [The San Francisco Chronicle]
Comics | Robot 6 contributor Chris Arrant makes the case for publishing comics in "seasons," like television series, rather than as endless series. [iFanboy]
Manga | Jason Thompson looks at the manga of Junko Mizuno: "Her women, their legs often spread wider than their eyes, look like idols of some sinister religion; shrines to My Little Pony, Sanrio, Strawberry Shortcake, Polly Pocket, lined with flames and blood-dripping hearts and leering skulls." [Anime News Network]
Publishing | First Second's Gina Gagliano sets up a spot-the-differences game, comparing the original edition of Adventures in Cartooning to the Scholastic Book Club edition. [First Second]
Comics | Several Japanese publishers, including Tezuka Publications and the powerhouse Kodansha, have set up offices in China and are publishing locally made comics. [The Daily Yomiuri]