Superheroes | Dave Itzkoff looks at the growing interest in female superheroes in comics as well as in TV and movies. The article includes interviews with writers Gail Simone and G. Willow Wilson, and Wilson speaks poignantly about Ms. Marvel: "If you wanted to work in the business, you kept your head down – you did not want to be seen as having an agenda. I would never have pitched that, because I frankly would have worried that it would have prevented me from getting other work." [The New York Times]
Creators | Brian K. Vaughan briefly discusses his work, and quickly credits his collaborators when the interview refers to him as "one of the most visionary artists in comics": "Well, I’m just riding my artists’ coattails. Comics is an artist medium and I am lucky enough to work with some of the best artists who’ve ever worked in comics. With that, it is easy to sit down and get new pages from Fiona Staples, Cliff Chiang, or Steve Skroce. It is inspiring and fun. My job is easy—they are the visionaries." [The Daily Beast]
Creators | Writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and artist Robert Hack, the creative team on The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, discuss their influences and inspirations. [Women Write About Comics]
Creators | Gene Luen Yang, creator of American Born Chinese and Boxers and Saints, discusses his multicultural marriage. [KQED]
Creators | In an interview conducted just ahead of last weekend's Mass Independent Comics Expo (MICE), Mitra Farmand talks about getting serious about becoming a cartoonist at age 40: "I was working at a bank on financial data and I had been drawing cartoons for 10 years, maybe 8 years, something like that. It’s like a midlife crisis. What am I doing? And where am I going? It’s like I have this paycheck and I'm OK going into an office for 20 years. I’ve been doing that thing. Maybe I should do this thing I loved." Farmand was the recipient of a MICE grant, and one of her cartoons was published in the New Yorker last July. [The Artery]
Creators | Mark Newgarden brings Ambrose Bierce to a new audience with his choice of a tale for First Second's Fable Comics. [Cherry Blossoms & Maple Syrup]
Comics | Four new newsstand comics were launched last week in the United Kingdom; Lew Stringer counts them off and offers a review of Cartoon Network Magazine #1. [Blimey!]
Piracy | Zach Logan presents some compelling arguments against reading scanlations, especially where One Piece is concerned. [The One Piece Podcast]
Conventions | Frank Santoro and John Kelly discuss their experiences at the first Cartoon Comics Crossroads in Columbus, Ohio. [The Comics Journal]
Retailing | Sarah Taddeo talks to local retailers in Rochester, New York, about the resurgence of comics and how that has helped their business. [Democrat & Chronicle]