Manga | Continuing its seven-year streak, Eiichiro Oda's pirate adventure One Piece was the bestselling manga in Japan in 2015, according to the market research firm Oricon. The series sold 14.1 million copies between Dec. 1, 2014, and Nov. 30, 2015, an increase of 18 percent from the previous year. It's followed by The Seven Deadly Sins with 10.3 million, Attack on Titan with 8.8 million, Assassination Classroom with 8.6 million and Kingdom with 8.5 million. You can see the full Top 10, as well as breakdowns by volume, at Crunchyroll. [Crunchyroll]

Passings | Manga writer Jinpachi Mori died last week of esophageal cancer. He was 57. Mori's only work to be translated into English is Benkei in New York, illustrated by Jiro Taniguchi, which was published by Viz Media in its Pulp magazine back in the early days of licensed manga and later collected in a single volume. In Japan, he was known for Kasai no Hito, a manga about a juvenile court judge, and Mori himself was an outspoken advocate of rehabilitation rather than strict punishment for juvenile offenders. [Anime News Network]

Political cartoons | Writer Nancy A. Onyango provides some background on the recent politics of Burkina Faso before launching into an interview with political cartoonist Damien Glez, managing editor of the satirical weekly Journal du Jeudi as well as an influential political cartoonist. Glez not only talks about his work and the importance of political cartoons as a medium but explains several of his recent cartoons. [This Is Africa]

Best of the year | Neel Mukherjee presents seven picks for the best graphic novels of the year. [The Independent]

Gift guide | Rob Salkowitz recommends 12 gifts for different categories of comics fans. [Forbes]

Creators | Riad Sattouf, author of the graphic memoir The Arab of the Future, talks about living in France and Syria and feeling like an outsider in both places, as well as his experiences as a staff member at Charlie Hebdo — which he left shortly before the attacks. [Huffington Post]

Digital Ccomics | Matt Weinberger recently ditched print for digital, and he writes about the pros and cons of that decision and the user experience of the two apps he uses, comiXology and Marvel Unlimited. [Business Insider]

Conventions | Comic Con India takes place this week, with an expected attendance of 35,000 to 50,000 and a guest list that includes Cyanide and Happiness co-creator Rob DenBleyker and Batman '66 artist Ty Templeton. [Gadgets 360]

Conventions | Heidi MacDonald files a thorough con report on the first New Jersey Comics Expo: "Crowds weren’t huge and neither were sales, but despite a few bumps, the mood was good and the guests had fun and more importantly, so did fans. During the show, I felt that it was a pretty low-key outing, but as I rode the train home, I realized my memories were all good and I’d had a really nice time, with a few standout memories." [The Beat]