Publishing | The cover story of this week's Metro Silicon Valley focuses on San Jose-based SLG Publishing, the state of the comics market and the company's upcoming lineup, including Winchester, Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer and Weird Fishes.
"The sale of a couple of thousand copies of an independent comic book is a great success now," says publisher Dan Vado. "There are fewer comic-book stores around since Amazon; indie comic-book shops are closing everywhere. The Chinese publishers, who used to turn up their noses at a small order of a couple of thousand books, are accepting them now. Comic-book publishers are having the same problem trying to find a digital business model as any other publishers, book or newspaper. Digital advertising doesn't pay like print advertising, and customers are installing ad-blocking software." [Metro Active]
Politics | Two Shanghai-based Iranians continue to defy government authorities with Persepolis 2.0, a webcomic that "remixes" and updates Marjane Satrapi's award-winning graphic novel with captions referring to this year's disputed election. Satrapi isn't involved with the project, but has given her blessing. [AFP]
Publishing | Jacq Cohen, publicity coordinator for Dark Horse, has been hired as a publicist by Fantagraphics Books. [The Comics Reporter]
Conventions | BOOM! Studios, which holds several Disney comics licenses, apparently will have a presence at the big D23 Expo -- "the ultimate Disney fan experience" -- set for Sept. 10-13 in Anaheim, Calif. [press release]
Conventions | This is a pretty good Comiket 101 piece for those why the twice-yearly Tokyo convention is such a big deal. [Akibanana, via Journalista]
Creators | I was happy to see this nice, but brief, profile of cartoonist Kate Beaton in her local newspaper. [The Coast]
Creators | Laura Hudson speaks at length with writer Greg Rucka about his new Oni Press graphic novel Stumptown: "Stumptown is -- I suppose the bluntest way to put it is, if Queen and Country was me using a childhood love of espionage and things like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and James Bond and Ian Mackintosh's Sandbaggers, then Stumptown comes out of the childhood love of The Hardy Boys and The Rockford Files, Simon and Simon and Magnum, P.I. That's what this is." [Comics Alliance]
Creators | Brian Heater wraps up his three-part interview with cartoonist Seth. [The Daily Cross Hatch]
Creators | Writer David Hine talks about his new Radical Comics series FVZA: Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency. [Fangoria]
Creators | Cartoonist John Allison officially pins down Sept. 11 for the end of his popular webcomic Scary Go Round. A new, still-secret series will launch in its place on Sept. 14. [Scary Go Round]
Creators | Cartoonist and editor Shaenon K. Garrity offers self-publishing advice. [Comixology]
Manga | David Welsh lists a handful of DC Comics properties that he'd like to see receive the manga treatment, a la X-Men: Misfits. I'd be all over a Blue Devil book. [Precocious Curmudgeon]
Crime | An Australian man who spent 15 years in prison for handcuffing and torturing a married couple -- the judge said the crime had "shades of A Clockwork Orange" -- is now in trouble for allegedly selling collection of stolen Punisher and Phantom comics. In case we miss the connection, the newspaper poins out that, "The Punisher comics feature a gun-toting, knife-wielding vigilante who tortures and kills the criminals he encounters." [Adelaide Now]
Crime | A comics-themed hooded sweatshirt may hold the key to the identity of the masked man who robbed the (ahem) Ding Dong Dang Dairy outside of Auckland, New Zealand. The suspect discarded his knife, leather jacket and distinctive hoodie as he fled the scene. [North Shore Times]
Crime | Man, the intersection of comics and crime is out of control today. And weird. The investigation of the murder of a hotel heir in Florida has revealed "tales of kinky sex, catfights and Batman." Specifically, a collection of Batman comics and memorabilia. [ABC News]