Conventions | Organizer Christopher Butcher has announced the Toronto Comic Arts Festival will depart from its biennial schedule next year to hold the well-regarded event on May 8-9, 2010, at the Toronto Reference Library.
"This is something of an experiment for us," Butcher writes, "and I can’t say for sure that we’re 'going annual' with the event, but we feel that a 2010 event is the best course of action to ensure that TCAF stays a fun, vital, and prominent festival both within the city of Toronto and in the larger comics community."
This year's festival drew 10,500 attendees, more than double that of the 2007 event. [Comics212]
Conventions | Local newspapers preview this weekend's two big comic conventions: The Winston-Salem Journal and Charlotte Observer look at HeroesCon in Charlotte, N.C., while the Philadelphia Daily News and the Bucks County Courier Times tackle Wizard World Philadelphia. And don't miss Robot 6's previews of HeroesCon and Wizard World. [Heroes Con, Wizard World Philadelphia]
Creators | The Savannah College of Art and Design alumni association has established a scholarship fund in memory of Jeremy Mullins, the cartoonist and SCAD alumnus and instructor who died Saturday from injuries sustained in a hiking accident. [alumni association blog, via Tom Spurgeon]
Sales charts | Marvel's video-game adaptation Halo: Uprising tops the hardcover category of The New York Times' Graphic Books Best Seller List. Meanwhile, Watchmen and the 27th volume of Bleach retain the No. 1 positions in paperbacks and manga.
Two things worth noting: The first volume of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series, originally released in 2004, bounds onto the paperback chart at No. 4. And eight of the 20 titles on the hardcover and paperback lists are based on properties from other media. [ArtsBeat]
Retailing | Renton, Washington's The Comic Den, which lost most of its back stock last week when a fire gutted the historic Western Hotel Annex Building, reopened Wednesday at a nearby location with a shipment of new comics. [Renton Reporter]
Events | The Musée de la bande dessinée, which opens Saturday in Angoulème, France, claims to have the largest collection of comic books and original comic art in Europe -- and possibly the world. [The Independent]
Creators | Writer A. David Lewis discusses his influences, collaborator mpMann, flood myths and Some New Kind of Slaughter. [Graphic Novel Reporter]
Legal | A man who, dressed as Batman, caused a 55-mile traffic jam last summer in West London could be jailed for up to seven years. A jury took just 10 minutes to convict Geoffrey Hibbert of public nuisance and endangering motorists after he climbed a sign and unfurled banners to protest for fathers' rights. [Telegraph]
Books | Robot 6 contributor Michael May wrote the introduction for the book Lancelot: Poems About the Man and Legend, due out next month. [Michael May's Adventureblog]