Conventions | Rob Salkowitz, author of Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture, looks at the uptick in comics conventions — he pegs ticket sales at $600 million, which is 80 percent of the dollar value of the whole comics market — and discusses some recent events and trends, including the new cons that are popping up all over and the increased international interest in connvetions outside the United States. [ICv2]

Publishing | Marvel CEO Isaac Perlmutter makes the list of "10 Inspirational Leaders Who Turned Around Their Companies." [Entrepreneur]

Creators | Colleen Coover posts the full transcript of her recent interview with Paste magazine about sexism in the comics industry. [Colleen Coover]



Creators | Paul Tumey profiles Rube Goldberg and discusses some modern misconceptions. [The Comics Journal]

Creators | Rob Kelly, creator of the webcomic Ace Kilroy, talks about his book Hey Kids, Comics!, a collection of first-person stories about loving comics as a kid: "I wanted to concentrate on people's emotional reactions to comics, not on the minutiae of comics themselves. I think the book will appeal to anyone who's ever had a passion. For anything." [The Philadelphia Inquirer]

Creators | Andrew Fitzsimmons, who died of bone cancer in October, was a comics fan who wanted to create a comic about his own struggle to help other cancer sufferers. The Northern Ireland native was working with a local comics studio and had almost finished the script at the time of his death; now his family is raising funds to complete the comic and send it to hospitals throughout the UK. [The Belfast Telegraph]



Comics | Robert Hunter looks at the role of comics in civil rights, from The Montgomery Story, the comic guided activists in the 1950s and was one of the inspirations for Rep. John Lewis' March, to the new Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan. [ACLU Blog of Rights]

Manga | Why do the pages of some manga turn yellow so quickly? The Answerman turns to Vertical Inc., marketing director Ed Chavez, who gives an amazingly detailed mini-lecture on manga paper (this should be of interest to readers of other graphic novels as well). [Anime News Network]

Conventions | Fort Lauderdale will get a new comic con in May; as readers point out in the comments, the headline on this story is incorrect, as this is not Fort Lauderdale's first comic con. [Broward/Palm Beach New Times]