Awards | Slate Book Review and the Center for Cartoon Studies have awarded the Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Graphic Novel of 2012 to Chris Ware for Building Stories, and the prize for Best Web Comic to Noelle Stevenson for Nimona. Each winner receives $1,000. [Salon.com]

Comics | Tom Spurgeon talks at length to Gary Groth, co-founder of Fantagraphics and editor-in-chief of The Comics Journal, about the prospects for young creators today versus years ago, changes at The Comics Journal, and Groth's own interview with Maurice Sendak, which runs in the latest issue of TCJ. [The Comics Reporter]

Manga | Manga publisher Vertical Inc. announced two new manga licenses at Genericon this past weekend Kyoko Okazaki's Pink and Tōru Oikawa's From the New World.[Anime News Network]



Conventions | Exhibitor space for this year's Thought Bubble convention sold out in two hours. [Forbidden Planet]

Conventions | A Seattle TV news station takes a look at the effect of Emerald City Comicon on local businesses. [King5.com]

Creators | Gene Luen Yang discusses his books and the changing comics world as well as his award-winning American Born Chinese and his upcoming two-volume graphic novel Boxers and Saints. [KnoxNews.com]

Creators | Chris Rosenblum profiles artist Jason Lenox, who gathered together a group of creators to form Ugli Studios; this article, which includes interviews with Lenox and others, draws a nice picture of a creator who came back to comics after being away for a while and juggles his art with his day job at a construction company—and uses his sales skills at venues like New York Comic Con. [Centre Daily Times]



Comics | Writer Max Allan Collins talks about the suppression of comics in the 1950s and how it affected him as a child, and he counts down the 11 most controversial comics. [The Huffington Post]

Retailing | Acme Comics of Greensboro, North Carolina, has expanded to a second store; as manager Stephen Mayer says, “While most retailers have struggled in this economy, we’ve seen growth and excitement about our products.” [The Business Journal]

Museums | Eve Britton pays a visit to the Barker Character and Cartoon Museum in Cheshire, Connecticut. [The Cheshire Citizen]