Publishing | Viz Media, the largest U.S. publisher of English-language manga, is poised to jump in to a new market: India. Kevin Hamric, the company's director of publishing and marketing, was there this week, and he says the demand is there. “With India’s growing book and reading sector we have identified it as key to our growth," Hamric says. "We receive many, many requests each and every month from fans in India to bring our product here.” [The Hindu Business Line]
Comics | As the Avengers turn 50, Noel Murray recounts their history and explains why they work so well as a super-team. [Hero Complex]
Conventions | The founder of this month's incredibly successful Salt Lake Comic Con -- it drew about 70,000 attendees in its first year -- is planning a spinoff event for Jan. 9-11, the weekend before the Sundance Film Festival. [Salt Lake Tribune]
Creators | Robot 6 contributor J. Caleb Mozzocco talks to Gene Luen Yang about his new two-volume book Boxers & Saints, going in depth about Yang's dual heritage as a Chinese Catholic, his motivation for creating the stories, and the creative decisions he made along the way. [Good Comics for Kids]
Creators | Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios discuss their upcoming Image Comics series Pretty Deadly, which began as an idea for a brutal Sergio Leone-style Western before developing into, well, something else. "We didn't have any progress until I finally threw up my hands and was like, 'Alright, if this is what it wants to be, this is what it wants to be,'" DeConnick recalls. "And now I'm happy with it." [USA Today]
Creators | Chris Sims talks to longtime Batman writer Mike W. Barr, who has returned to the character for the digital-first series Legends of the Dark Knight (part one, part two) [Comics Alliance]
Creators | Julie Maroh discusses her graphic novel Blue Is the Warmest Color, the "banalization of homosexuality," and what she's working on next. [Speakeasy]
Creators | Writer Donny Cates talks about the protagonist of his new Dark Horse miniseries Buzzkill, a superhero who gets his powers from drinking and doing drugs. [The Huffington Post]
Creators | M L Narasimham profiles Ramki, who is sort of an accidental cartoonist: Encouraged by a stranger, who praised the doodles he was drawing to pass the time while waiting in line at his bank, he is developing a second career drawing cartoons for businesses and wedding cartoons for friends and acquaintances. [The Hindu]
Conventions | Reporter Carol Motsinger talks to Allison Gaines of the Asheville, North Carolina, store Comics Envy, which is sponsoring Saturday's Asheville Comic Expo. [Asheville Citizen-Times]
Manga | Jason Thompson unpacks the classic shoujo-action-crime drama Banana Fish. [Anime News Network]
Retailing | Brian Hibbs passes along more bad news from DC Comics: There will be even fewer of those 3D Villains Month than DC promised (and they already told retailers that most would be getting fewer than they ordered). [Savage Critics]
Retailing | The Ball State University student newspaper pays a visit to the local shop Alter Ego Comics, which recently moved to a new location and acquired two new co-owners, Mark Waid and Christina Blanch. [The Daily]