Conventions | Thousands of fans were locked out of the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo after the local fire marshal declared that the building had reached capacity. The big draw was not actually comics but a reunion of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. [Calgary Herald]

Awards | The Thrill Electric, an online comic created by Leah Moore and John Reppion, Emma Vieceli, Windflower Studio and LittleLoud for the U.K.’s Channel 4, has been nominated for best website in the 2012 Broadcast Digital Awards. [Broadcast]

Creators | Jay Faerber talks about his early ambitions, his current comic Near Death, and what is so special about being published by Image: "The thing about Image is you have absolute creative freedom. Once Near Death was approved, I just wrote it. There were no notes from Eric or anyone else at Image telling me what they think I should do, which is awesome. But it can also be a burden, because if a book sucks, I can't say, 'Well, if I had been able to do it my way...' – because I did do it my way. So working at Image has made me become my own editor. The buck stops here, you know?" [Broken Frontier]



Creators | Tom Spurgeon talks with Nick Abadzis about the reissue of Hugo Tate, Laika and much more. [The Comics Reporter]

Creators | Gavin Lees interviews James Stokoe, the creator of Wonton Soup and, more recently, Orc Stain. [Graphic Eye]

Creators | Tom Brow discusses some of the details of Hopeless, Maine, the setting for his eponymous graphic novel, due out in June from Archaia. [Suvudu.com]

Creators | Comics writer and novelist Neil Gaiman posts the "raw" version of an interview he did with novelist Stephen King for the U.K. Sunday Times Magazine. [Neil Gaiman's Journal]



Comics | The Waverly, Iowa, newspaper spotlights "hometown hero" Hawkeye, who hits the big screen later this week in The Avengers. Executive Editor Tom Brevoort tells them that late Marvel writer and editor Mark Gruenwald added an Iowa hometown to Hawkeye's origins while writing The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. "He may also have been familiar with its nickname — the Hawkeye State — and with the University of Iowa Hawkeyes," the paper speculates. [WCF Courier]

Comics | You probably know a good majority of them, but the Telegraph presents a fun list of "99 things you didn't know about superheroes." [Telegraph]

Publishing | Freelance manga editor Daniela Orihuela-Gruber speaks a sad truth: "Viz Signature titles, while very, vocally loved by their small fan-base, do not sell gangbusters." And she has a bold solution: Market them to comics stores. [All About Manga]