Publishing | The Penguin Group plans to wade into the market for children's graphic novels with a new line aimed at middle-grade and young-adult readers. "Clearly it’s a huge, growing market, the kid’s graphic novel market," Penguin's Rich Johnson told ICv2 at New York Comic Con. "You see those titles making the bestsellers list all the time. So we are looking to do work in that area to get more kids reading comics." [ICv2]
Creators | Feisty as ever, Stan Lee talks about his World of Heroes YouTube channel and breaks up the camera crew a couple of times in an interview shot New York Comic Con. [MTV Geek]
Creators | Mike Mignola talks about his movies, books, and comics in a wide-ranging podcast interview (which is also transcribed for those who don't have time to listen). [Underwire]
Creators | Kieron Gillen talks about writing the relaunched Young Avengers and why teenagers make for interesting characters: "They're transitional people, and since they are, they can f**k up in a way that Captain America can't. He can't f**k up in a way that a teenage character can, because they're growing and learning to be themselves." [Comics Alliance]
Creators | Paul Allor discusses his new graphic novel Orc Girl, which will debut this weekend at Kokomo Comic Con. [iFanboy]
Comics | Matthew May attends Scott McCloud's seminar "Making Comics" and comes away with some tools to apply to the broader world. [Fast Company]
Comics | Sean Kleefeld takes a look at the world of children's comics and graphic novels and notes that it exists almost entirely outside the direct market. [Kleefeld on Comics]
Conventions | The original San Diego Comic Con, held 40 years ago this year, was a small event in a hotel, where creators and fans could rub shoulders in an informal atmosphere, according to Mike Towry, chairman of that first con: "You could sit down next to Ray Bradbury or (comic artist) Jack Kirby or the other great professionals and talk to them. You could interrupt a conversation, just join in, it was very relaxed and wonderful.” Towry is now spearheading a new event in that same spirit, San Diego Comic Fest, and this time he hopes it doesn't grow beyond the "magic number" of 1,000 attendees. [North County Times]
Conventions | The second Mumbai Film and Comics Convention is this weekend, and organizer Jatin Varma promises it will be bigger and better than the first one, with ten new books making their debut, panels every half hour, and appearances by Bollywood actors. [DNA India]