Legal | Two Iowa men suspected of plotting an armed attack in August against the Pokemon World Championships will stand trial on May 9 in Boston. A pretrial hearing is set for Dec. 30. Kevin Norton, 18, and James Stumbo, 27, have been held since their Aug. 22 arrest on charges of possession of a large-capacity weapon and other crimes. Prosecutors say the two, who allegedly made multiple online threats against the event, drove to Boston with guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in their car. [Ames Tribune]
Events | Jay Bardyla, owner of Happy Harbor Comics in Edmonton, Alberta, has rounded up 25 local comics creators to collaborate on the world's largest comic book. They will be writing, drawing, and inking the 5-foot comic over a period of 48 hours to commemorate the closing of the Royal Alberta Museum. [CBC]
Comics | Jennifer de Guzman looks at the way guns are portrayed on the covers of the most recent comics releases on comiXology — who is holding them and what they signify. "I am not saying that the glamorization of guns in comics causes violence," she writes. "What I am saying is that writers and artists have control over how the use of guns is portrayed. They are part of our cultural narrative. What stories are they choosing to tell? And what ingrained cultural stereotypes and myths do these stories play upon and perpetuate?" [Unloveable]
Creators | On the eve of a new documentary about the British comic 2000AD, Emma Beeby, the first woman to write a Judge Dredd comic, talks about her experiences reading the comic and then writing for it: "I expected to get abuse and I got none at all really. It’s a very strong fan base and, though they reflect the creators in having strong views and a great sense of ownership, if you manage to meet their criteria for writing the right kind of Dredd then you’re accepted. And I’ve felt really accepted. So none of my fears turned into anything at all. I’ve seen just one sexist review and it was both unsurprising and unimaginative." [HeraldScotland]
Creators | Niklas Eriksson creates his newspaper comic Carpe Diem in his home in Sweden, drinking strong Swedish coffee and dreaming of "driving a big, environmentally friendly Jeep in the woods while listening to Bruce Springsteen." [The Bergen County Record]
Digital comics | Kodansha Comics will offer its manga, including Attack on Titan and Fairy Tail, via the digital library service OverDrive. [Anime News Network]
History | John Kelly does a fascinating dive into the story of the obscure (and, be warned, racist) one-panel strip Ching Chow. The title character started out in The Gumps, then got his own strip in the 1920s, but apparently the strip survived, on the sports pages, because folks who played the horses believed there were clues to the winners hidden in the comic in some sort of secret code. [The Comics Journal]
History | A Canadian animation empire began with two entrepreneurs buying up a collection of the World War II-era comic Nelvana of the Northern Lights and making a documentary about it; they later formed a film company, Nelvana, which went on to make some of the Star Wars cartoons. [The Star]
Retailing | New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall chooses a small business to highlight every Small Business Saturday, and this year's pick was Santa Fe's Big Adventure Comics. "This is a guy with real courage. He bought a business during the recession," Udall said of owner Kevin Drennan. It seems to have worked out, though, as Drennan says he has a strong base of regular customers. [Santa Fe New Mexican]