Legal | Prosecutors in Macomb County, Michigan, rested their case Friday in the second trial of Michael George, a former retailer and convention organizer accused of the 1990 murder of his first wife Barbara in the back room of their Clinton Township comic store. The judge this morning will hear a defense motion for a directed verdict, seeking dismissal due to lack of evidence, before testimony resumes.

George, now 51, was arrested in August 2007, after a detective reopened the cold case, and convicted seven months later of first-degree murder and insurance fraud, among other counts, and sentenced to life in prison. However, the judge later set aside the verdict, citing prosecutorial misconduct -- George’s mug shot was shown to the jury -- and the release of new evidence that could lead the jury to believe another person was responsible for the murder. His retrial began Sept. 14, and should conclude this week. Prosecutors contend that George staged the killing to look like a robbery so he could collect money from an insurance policy and a shared estate, and start over with another woman. George insists he was asleep at the time of the shooting, and that his wife was the victim of a robbery gone wrong. [Daily Tribune]

Publishing | Chip Mosher, marketing and sales director for BOOM! Studios, left the publisher on Friday after four years. Marketing coordinator Emily McGuiness will take over his duties. [BOOM! Studios]

Publishing | Papercutz has acquired the license for the Three Stooges, allowing the company to reprint classic comics and adapt the 2012 Farrelly brothers movie. [ICv2.com]



Awards | Prism Comics awarded its 2011 Queer Press Grant to veteran cartoonist and publisher Robert Kirby for his anthology Three. "I’m slightly overwhelmed, humbly grateful and excited, and full of renewed energy for proceeding with Three -- which is now more than ever my magic number," Kirby wrote on his blog. [Prism Comics]

Awards | Katie Longua has won the 2011 Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics, presented over the weekend by San Francisco's Isotope: The Comic Book Lounge. Previous winners include Joshua M. Cotter, Danica Novgorodoff, Will Dinski, Max Riffner and Daniel Merlin Goodbrey. [Twitter]

Awards | The entries have been posted for the 2011 SPACE Prize, which will be presented April 21, 2012, at SPACE 2012 in Columbus, Ohio. [SPACE Prize]

Publishing | Geek Out looks at recent moves at Archie Comics, primarily the introduction of gay character Kevin Keller. [CNN.com]



Publishing | Geek Out also stumbles across comic-book adaptations of classic, and contemporary, novels, and seeks out artists Janet Lee and R. Sikoryak, and writer Nancy Butler. [CNN.com]

Creators | The New York Times spotlights the Sunday routine of Joe Quesada: "I am pretty much working all the time. I don’t have a set schedule, per se — it’s just a matter of what comes across my e-mail first. I’ll be reading an animation script, working on an animatic for one of our shows, or drawing covers for our books. I have an iPad that’s set to ping whenever I get an e-mail from work. On weekends, there’s very little pinging, so it’s a good time to sit and draw. I listen to music when I draw — a majority of it is the Beatles." [The New York Times]

Creators | Dave Gibbons discusses the state of the comics industry, digital comics, and the long shadow of Watchmen. [The Huffington Post UK]



Creators | A profile of Grant Morrison is pegged to his Action Comics relaunch and an announced adaptation of his forthcoming graphic novel Dominion: Dinosaur vs. Aliens. [Daily Record]

Creators | J.H. Williams III is profiled by his local newspaper, which focuses, of course, on the newly launched Batwoman. [Merced Sun-Star]

Creators | Mike Carey talks about creating the story for the X-Men: Destiny video game, and touches upon his tenure on Vertigo's Hellblazer. [God Is a Geek]

Comics | Darryl Ayo explains Frank Miller's Holy Terror this way: It's cartooning, using the full power of the medium and eschewing an "adult" subtlety: "What makes Frank Miller special isn’t that he’s a great writer (he’s not) or that he’s an expert draftsman (he is, though) … what makes Miller special is that he can make things look heavy and light at the same time. That he can have 'Batman' vault through the great expanse of the hazy, scratchy page and land roughly, awkwardly and gracefully at the same time." [Comix Cube]

Craft | Kevin Czap admires the way that both James Kochalka and Ron Rege Jr. compose their comics with the whole page in mind, ensuring that all the elements are perfectly balanced. [Comix Cube]