Conventions | The local newspapers were all over the inaugural Long Beach Comic Con, held over the weekend in Long Beach, California. The Long Beach Post reported on the ribbon-cutting by Stan Lee -- "Some Stan Lee Day," he joked. "They're still delivering mail, and the banks are still open." -- and some of the other convention highlights. The Contra Costa Times also has a wrap-up.
Gelatometti, the Wildstorm Studios blog, has a nice photo set from the convention, including a great shot of Jim Lee and Stan Lee having a laugh. [Long Beach Comic Con]
Conventions | The fourth annual British International Comics Show, held Saturday and Sunday in Birmingham, reportedly drew more than 3,000 creators, publishers, dealers and fans. [Birmingham Mail]
Events | A handful of news outlets have coverage of local 24-Hour Comics Day events: Columbia Missourian, KTUU (Alaska), Minneapolis Comic Books Examiner and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. [24-Hour Comics Day]
Publishing | BOOM! Studios CEO Ross Richie discusses the format and distribution for the publisher's Disney Standards comics. [ICv2.com]
Creators | Cartoonist Berkeley Breathed receives a pair of spotlights focusing on the release of Bloom County: The Complete Library from IDW Publishing, and the 30th anniversary of the influential comic. Does Breathed embrace the impact of his strip? "An understandable but unfair question for any writer. If you say yes, you're an arrogant d—-head. If you say no, you're a clueless dolt. Interestingly, if you ignore the question entirely, you're seen as both, my specialty. I can tell you this: There was a woman in 1989 that was committed by her family to an Ohio mental health facility largely because she thought she was pregnant by Bill the Cat. If this is what you meant, I'm happy to say yes, I recognize Bloom County's influence but I'll stop short of embracing it, as I do a porcupine." [USA Today, Los Angeles Times]
Creators | Adrian Humphreys profiles Kurt Westergaard, whose cartoon depiction of the prophet Muhammad with a lit bomb wrapped in his turban ignited international protests in which more than 100 people died, attacks on Danish embassies, and an assassination plot against the cartoonist. "I don't regret anything," Westergaard says. [National Post]
Creators | Grant Morrison has signed with the International Creative Management talent agency. [The Hollywood Reporter]
Creators | This profile of Molly Crabapple touches on everything from her ever-growing Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School to her graphic novel Scarlett Takes Manhattan to her international travels. [The New York Times]
Creators | Keith Higginbotham catches up with Mark Waid at Long Beach Comic Con to talk briefly about the state of comics writing. [Long Beach Post]
Creators | Novelist and comics writer Frank Beddor discusses Hatter M, the Looking Glass Trilogy and more. [Orange County Register]
Creators | Collaborators David Gallaher and Steve Ellis chat briefly about High Moon. [Comics Alliance]
Creators | Sequential Tart interviews Shaenon Garrity and Andrew Farago. [Sequential Tart]
Blogosphere | Alan David Doane has five questions for Tom Spurgeon about The Comics Reporter and comics journalism. [Trouble With Comics]
Comics | Thriller devotee Johnny Bacardi pens an ode to the short-lived DC Comics series created by Robert Loren Fleming and Trevor Von Eeden: "... it was such a huge pile of odd ideas and characters, and I suppose many who tried to embrace what it had to offer were simply overwhelmed by all the...stuff...that Fleming had cooked up. I would imagine that sometimes it seemed like just too much. Indeed, that was my reaction, as I recall, after I had finished issue #1. But I was more intrigued than off-put. I think I was in the minority." [Trouble With Comics]
Art and design: Todd Klein kicks off a multipart study of the Legion of Super-Heroes logos. [Todd's Blog]