CBLDF

Organizations | The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has named Alex Cox as its deputy director, responsible for oversight of the organization’s home office and fundraising program. Cox, who came to the CBLDF in 2010, previously served as development manager. [CBLDF]

Publishing | Marvel Talent Coordinator Bon Alimagno is leaving the publisher for a position at San Francisco-based software company The Apollo Group. Previously editor of Harris Comics, Alimagno handled freelance scheduling at Marvel, working with David Bogart, the publisher’s senior vice president of business affairs and talent management. [The Beat]

Graphic novels | The Texas Library Association posts its 2012 Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List of recommendations for tweens and teens. [Texas Library Association]

Conventions | Michael Dooley styles his article about Long Beach Comic Con as a look at The Other Comic Con — the one that caters to, you know, comics readers. [Salon]

Festival International de la Bande Dessinée

Conventions | The 2012 Festival International de la Bande Dessinée in Angouleme, France, will include an Art Spiegelman retrospective, a star-studded list of spotlight panels, and a composer-in-residence who will create a symphony to be performed at the festival. [The Comics Reporter]

Conventions | Kevin Czap has the lowdown on last weekend’s Genghis Con in Cleveland, which featured underground and indy comics. [Comix Cube]

Creators | Eastyn Cazin talks to Elephantmen and Northlanders artist Marian Churchland. [Panel Bound]

Manga | NBM Publishing notes that its first manga, Stargazing Dog, has gone back to press, and the publisher has fixed some of the typos that reviewers (ahem) complained about in the first edition. [NBM Blog]

Cartoons | A 1927 Disney cartoon, previously thought to be lost, has turned up in the U.K. and will go on the auction block in LA later this month. The star of this cartoon is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a precursor to Mickey Mouse. [Reuters]

Americus

Reviews | Johanna Draper Carlson looks at Americus, M.K. Reed and Jonathan Hill’s story of a book controversy in a small town, and finds an uncomfortable tang of reality: “Throughout, there’s an undercurrent of suspicion of the educated. Those who read books are perceived to be thinking themselves superior to those who don’t. The only book they need is the Bible, they claim (not realizing that being able to read the Bible themselves in a translation for the common people required the kind of fight Neil and his friends are waging). Throughout, they’re arguing against something they aren’t even familiar with, and when their ignorance is pointed out to them, it just makes them meaner.” [Comics Worth Reading]

Reviews | Robin Brenner and Esther Keller discuss Barry Deutsch’s Hereville, a graphic novel about an Orthodox Jewish girl, and the larger question of whether a creator can depict a lifestyle outside his own experience. [Good Comics for Kids]

Analysis | Noah Berlatsky reviews Ben Saunders’s book Do the Gods Wear Capes? Spirituality, Fantasy, and Superheroes: “People often argue that superheroes are dumb because they’re simplistic; because they create a bone-headed binary between good and evil. Ben’s argument is that, in fact, Superman stories have traditionally not so much asserted as investigated this binary. In the light of late modernity, as religion has faded, Superman asks ‘how can human beings be good?’” [The Hooded Utilitarian]

Fandom | Heidi MacDonald does her annual purge and reorganization and has some practical tips and deeper thoughts about managing the physical presence of comics in our lives. [The Beat]

Darwyn Cooke is coming to Long Beach Comic Con this weekend to premiere Parker: The Martini Edition, a deluxe, slipcased set of his two graphic novels Parker: The Hunter and Parker: The Outfit. Both are based on the novels of Richard Stark (actually Donald Westlake, writing under a pseudonym), and are drawn in a style reminiscent of the period in which they’re set, the early 1960s (when the 5’0s were just fading a bit and the Swinging Sixties had not yet begun), and Cooke won a fistful of Harvey and Eisner awards this year for Parker: The Outfit. He talked to me about The Martini Edition earlier this year at Boston Comic Con:

That’s a big project too because it’s very important to me — if you’re going to collect something like that, and it’s going to have a price tag like it has, it has to be incredibly special. It has to have a reason to exist, other than to take money from the reader, so I am working very hard. There will be 80 pages of extra material. We are trying to contact some of the greats in other media who have been influenced by Donald Westlake — John Boorman, the director, and Lawrence Block, one of Westlake’s contemporaries — so the book is laced with contemporaries and the whole effect he has had on other writers and film directors.

Cooke previews a few drawings on his blog, along with a limited-edition Parker print (above) that he will be signing all week long to benefit the Hero Initiative.

Supreme Court

Legal | The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today on a California law banning the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. The statute, which was struck down in February 2009 by a federal appeals court, is opposed by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, among other organizations. [CNET]

Awards | The Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards will move next year from Toronto Comicon to the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. The seventh annual awards will be presented on June 18, 2011. [Joe Shuster Awards]

Conventions | Exhibitor tables have gone on sale for MoCCA Festival 2011, set for April 9-10 at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City. [MoCCA Festival]

Conventions | The student newspaper at California State University Long Beach reports on last weekend’s Long Beach Comic Con. [Daily 49er]

Retailing | Peter Hartlaub profiles James Sime, owner of Isotope comic book lounge in San Francisco: “Nobody made a comic store for women. They just didn’t exist. I think women love comics just as much as men do, maybe even more. And there’s so many great comics out there for everybody that I had to try. Isn’t San Francisco the city that’s all about just trying new things?” [San Francisco Chronicle]

American Vampire #8

Creators | Scott Snyder talks about American Vampire, Detective Comics and pitching Marvel and Vertigo: “Getting to pitch to Marvel was really fun, but much more limited, doing a Human Torch story or any other that was already conceived. Going to Vertigo, I mean, they’ve played such a huge part in my collection of books. Everything from Swamp Thing to Sandman to 100 Bullets … over the years it’s been one after the other. I was really, really intimidated going in there, and then I met Mark, the editor, at a pizza parlor near the DC office. I think he expected me to pitch something much more quiet or memoir-ish or literary in the conventional sense, and I just came [out] with [American Vampire]. I had actually started thinking about writing to Image or whoever and saying ‘Hey, I’m a writer,’ so when this [opportunity] came along I knew that this was it, so I just came out with, ‘This is what I want to do and here’s the outline.’ And Mark really liked it!” [Playback]

Creators | Christos Gage discusses Marvel’s Avengers Academy. [iFanboy]

Creators | Cartoonist Phil Yeh answers questions about his process, tools and more. [David-Wasting-Paper]

Multiplex: Enjoy Your Show

Creators | Multiplex creator Gordon McAlpin chats about the webcomic’s first print collection, his audience, and where he gets his ideas: “Some of the characters in the strip are basically walking movie clichés, too. Or they are when they first appear, anyway. But it’s a comic strip about movies. Having seemingly stereotypical characters (like Whitey, the rich white kid who acts ghetto) is just another way to make fun of movies. Of course, you have to eventually either deepen them or subvert the cliché somehow — but not right away, because where’s the fun in that?” [Chicago Now]

Craft | Ten lessons for better coloring. [Brian McLachlan, via Drawn]

Blogosphere | Robot 6 contributor Sean T. Collins has moved his personal blog. [Attentiondeficitdisorderly]

Comics | David Harper counts down the Top 10 moments from Invincible. [Multiversity Comics]

Comics | The secret origin of Dr. Occult. [Big Shiny Robot]

Wolverine #1, the top seller in September

Publishing | John Jackson Miller delves into September’s grim direct-market sales figures and discovers a (relative) bright spot: Sales of lower-tier titles — those that don’t crack Diamond’s Top 300 — appear to be increasing, to record levels. “How do we know?” Miller writes. “Believe it or not, a record for high sales was actually set in September. The 300th place comic book, Boom’s Farscape #11, sold more copies to retailers in September than in any month since November 1996: 4,702 copies. That’s a record for the period following Marvel’s return to Diamond. This bellwether tells us about the shape of the market, and how prolific the major and middle-tier publishers are; when many of their titles are being released and reordered, higher-volume titles tend to push farther into the list.”

However, the higher you go on the list, the worse things look: “The average comic book in the Top 25 is selling more poorly in 2010 than in 2003. At the very top of the chart, 2010′s average top-sellers are about 25% off what the best-sellers of 2003 were doing.” [The Comichron]

Comic-Con International

Comic-Con | A last-minute reminder: Four-day and single-day passes for Comic-Con International go on sale today at 9 a.m. PT. [Comic-Con International]

Creators | AdHouse Books Publisher Chris Pitzer puts out the call to help cartoonist Joshua Cotter, whose apartment was damaged last week by fire. The publisher is donating all money from sales of Skyscrapers of the Midwest, Driven by Lemons and AdHouse Sticker Pack #2 over the next three weeks to Cotter. [AdHouse Books]

Conventions | Greg Mellen reports on this weekend’s Long Beach Comic Con. [Contra Costa Times]

Conventions | Wizard Entertainment will add Miami to its expanding convention stable, debuting with an event scheduled for Feb. 26-27 at the Miami Airport Convention Center. [press release]

Publishing | Viz Media announced in the December issue of Shonen Jump that it’s launching a digital manga supplement for magazine subscribers. Andre Paploo has the sparse details and speculation. [Kuriosity, via MangaBlog]

Publishing | Deb Aoki rounds up recent title acquisitions by Digital Manga Publishing. [About.com]

Publishing | DC Comics is hiring an editorial scheduling coordinator for the New York City office. [Comix411]

Jerry Robinson

Creators | Robot 6 contributor Chris Maunter interviews legendary artist Jerry Robinson who discusses, among other things, the creation and legacy of the Joker: “… Every great hero had a counterpart as a protagonist. That’s what I wanted to give [Batman]. At the time in the ’30s, he fought all these gangsters and embezzlers, bank robbers, occasionally there was a mad scientist. But mostly they were prohibition-era villains. That’s who Batman was fighting. There was no mind behind the opposition. Strangely enough there was a feeling at the time that a stronger villain would detract from the hero. Now from our standpoint, that’s not true. The great villains provided a platform for the hero. So what if he was stronger, the hero had to win in the end. On the other hand the heroes had to be heroic. Villains could be bastards and they’re always more interesting to write about. More provocative. I think that was part of it.” [TCJ.com]

Charlie Adlard, in zombie form

Creators | The Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard is profiled by his local newspaper, and talks about the comic and playing a zombie in the AMC adaptation. [Shropshire Star]

Creators | Cartoonist Garry Trudeau is the subject of a brief article about the 40th anniversary of Doonesbury. [Vanity Fair]

Creators | Tom Horgen spotlights Death-Day, by Sam Hiti, describing the cartoonist as “like H.R. Giger with a softer brush stroke and a sense of humor.” [Star-Tribune]

Creators | Faith Erin Hicks answers questions about her work process. [Livejournal]

Creators | Stumptown Trade Review posts an audio interview with Drinking at the Movies cartoonist Julia Wertz. [Stumptown Trade Review]

Wonder Woman #122

Passings | Veteran inker Mike Esposito, who teamed with childhood friend and frequent collaborator Ross Andru on such DC Comics titles as Action Comics, Wonder Woman and Metal Men, passed away Sunday at age 83. To conceal his Marvel work from DC, Esposito used the pseudonym Mickey Demeo, inking John Romita Sr. on The Amazing Spider-Man and Jack Kirby on The Hulk. Andru later joined him at Marvel on Spider-Man. [Mark Evanier]

Publishing | Kuwaiti entrepreneur Naif al-Mutawa, whose Muslim-superhero comic The 99 recently met with absurd, manufactured controversy, is profiled just as DC Comics prepares to debut a crossover with the Justice League: “It seems likely that a media firestorm is brewing. On forums last week, DC comics faced accusations of ‘Muslim pandering’ and ‘treachery,’ but that’s the salient feature of The 99, not just that they’re superheroes from four continents fighting crime wherever they find it, but that they – and Mutawa – have to fight enemies and overcome resistance from both the east and the west. ‘One of the tough things is that people always think I’m working for someone else. In America, it’s like, “Sure, they’re private investors.” Back home, they think I’m working for the Americans and here they think I’m working for some sort of Islamic agenda’.” [The Observer]

Publishing | Calvin Reid looks at upcoming changes at long-troubled e-book publisher Wowio.com. [Publishers Weekly]

Disney DigiComics

Publishing | Dario Di Zanni of Disney Publishing Worldwide discusses Disney DigiComics. [ICv2.com]

Conventions | Robert Meeks previews the second Long Beach Comic Con, which kicks off Friday at the Long Beach Convention Center. [Press-Telegram]

Retailing | Chris Randazzo, owner of Galaxy Comics Games and More in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, is profiled. [Wausau Daily Herald]

Creators | Alex Robinson talks about the upcoming re-release of his 2005 graphic novel Tricked: “It’s interesting to me because I feel like Tricked has always kind of been the overlooked child of the three graphic novels I’ve done. I mean, it’s going to a third printing, so it’s not as if it bombed or anything, but with Too Cool being the most recent book and Box Office Poison kind of being the one that everyone knows, Tricked is kind of the Jan Brady of the set.” [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Creators | Inker Ray Snyder is profiled as part of a series about Macon, Georgia, as a hub for comic artists. [Macon Telegraph]

Comics | Dareh Gregorian spotlights the debut this week of Superman: Earth One, the graphic novel by J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis: “In Superman: Earth One, the Man of Steel is a conflicted 20-year-old who’s trying to find his way in the world, bearing more of a resemblance to Robert Pattinson from the Twilight movies than Christopher Reeve from the Superman films.” [New York Post]

Comics | Grey Scherl looks at 10 Marvel and DC series that haven’t been collected. [Inside Pulse]

Comics | Ben Morse recommends superhero comics for beginners. [The Faster Times]

Jimmy Palmiotti (photo by Seth Kushner)

If you’re attending Long Beach Comic Con next weekend, here’s a fine way to support a good cause while getting to hang out with some industry notables: Tickets are available on eBay for a meet and greet with writer Jimmy Palmiotti, artists Tim Bradstreet, Amanda Connor and Dave Johnson, and actor Thomas Jane from 5 to 7 p.m. Oct. 29 at Gladstone’s Restaurant.

Your $65 benefits The Hero Initiative, and gains you access to the private party — only 20 people can attend — with the five, who will be available for conversation and autographs (tickets include appetizers and two drinks). Sales close on Friday. Ticket buyers should bring a photo ID to the Hero Initiative booth at Long Beach Comic Con at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 29, where they will be escorted to Gladstone’s.

Akira, Vol. 1

Publishing | Kodansha confirms what virtually everyone has known for quite a while now: that the publisher — Japan’s largest — is setting up shop in the United States, establishing an office in New York City. Kodansha USA Publishing will launch Kodansha Comics with Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira and Shirow Masamune’s Ghost in the Shell, two titles that had been licensed in North America by Dark Horse. The company will focus on translating its sizable backlist, but views original publishing as one of its “eventual ambitions.” David Welsh provides a little commentary. [Publishers Weekly]

Publishing | BOOM! Studios has signed a deal with Haven Distributors to distribute second printings of all of the publisher’s monthly titles to direct-market retailers. [BOOM! Studios]

Peepo Choo, Vol. 1

Publishing | David Welsh talks with Ed Chavez, marketing manager of Vertical, Inc., about the publisher’s latest license acquisitions. [The Comics Reporter]

Conventions | Four-day memberships are available for the 2010 Comic-Con International, but it looks like the Preview Night option already has sold out. With more than nine months to go. [Comic-Con]

Conventions | Richard Bruton files a report from last weekend’s British International Comics Show in Birmingham. [Forbidden Planet International]

Conventions | A bit of a dust-up has developed after organizers of Octocon, the Irish science-fiction convention, banned fan and comics journalist Pádraig Ó Méalóid from this weekend’s event. They cite his “behaviour at the convention some time ago” and his “online behaviour earlier this year,” but refuse to discuss their reasons further. [Forbidden Planet International]

Conventions | Martha Donato, director of Long Beach Comic Con, talks about what went into organizing the event. [Long Beach Post]

Events | The Indiana University student newspaper covers a lecture given on Monday by Scott McCloud. [Indiana Daily Student]

Creators | The Berkeley Breathed/Bloom County Library promotional tour continues. [San Antonio Express-News]

Creators | Cartoonist Jim Davis discusses more than three decades of Garfield, which now appears in 2,500 newspapers. [Telegraph]

The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks

Creators | World War Z author Max Brooks chats about his graphic novel The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks, which hits stores this week. [Fangoria]

Creators | Artist Tony Harris looks back at his 20 years in comics as chronicled in the upcoming collection Tony Harris: Art & Skulduggery: “It took years, but I think I found my voice as an illustrator. I truly think that when you see my work, it is singular. And I have tried very hard to be original. Of course I had my missteps early on like all young artists. But I am fairly comfortable as an illustrator now. I am nowhere near where I want to be, but I keep working at it. And I have never worked in one style. I try and let the job dictate to me what it needs to look like.” [PopCultureShock]

Creators | Brian Heater wraps up his three-part interview with Jason Lutes. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Archie #603

Comics | The New York Times finally catches on that Archie is marrying Veronica and Betty in a pair of What If? stories. [The New York Times]

Blogosphere | The gang at The Cool Kids Table continues its anniversary celebration by looking at some of the comic-book characters we’ve lost in the past year. Sniff. [The Cool Kids Table]

Legal | Let’s say you’re a hip-hop artist-turned-actor being arraigned on tax-evasion charges. What would you bring with you to court? Well, if you’re Method Man (aka Clifford Smith) you take … an Ultimate X-Men trade paperback. And then you make sure don’t lose your place while you’re actually being arraigned. [Staten Island Advance]

Long Beach Comic Con

Conventions | The local newspapers were all over the inaugural Long Beach Comic Con, held over the weekend in Long Beach, California. The Long Beach Post reported on the ribbon-cutting by Stan Lee — “Some Stan Lee Day,” he joked. “They’re still delivering mail, and the banks are still open.” — and some of the other convention highlights. The Contra Costa Times also has a wrap-up.

Gelatometti, the Wildstorm Studios blog, has a nice photo set from the convention, including a great shot of Jim Lee and Stan Lee having a laugh. [Long Beach Comic Con]

Conventions | The fourth annual British International Comics Show, held Saturday and Sunday in Birmingham, reportedly drew more than 3,000 creators, publishers, dealers and fans. [Birmingham Mail]

Events | A handful of news outlets have coverage of local 24-Hour Comics Day events: Columbia Missourian, KTUU (Alaska), Minneapolis Comic Books Examiner and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. [24-Hour Comics Day]

Publishing | BOOM! Studios CEO Ross Richie discusses the format and distribution for the publisher’s Disney Standards comics. [ICv2.com]

Opus, from "Bloom County"

Creators | Cartoonist Berkeley Breathed receives a pair of spotlights focusing on the release of Bloom County: The Complete Library from IDW Publishing, and the 30th anniversary of the influential comic. Does Breathed embrace the impact of his strip? “An understandable but unfair question for any writer. If you say yes, you’re an arrogant d—-head. If you say no, you’re a clueless dolt. Interestingly, if you ignore the question entirely, you’re seen as both, my specialty. I can tell you this: There was a woman in 1989 that was committed by her family to an Ohio mental health facility largely because she thought she was pregnant by Bill the Cat. If this is what you meant, I’m happy to say yes, I recognize Bloom County‘s influence but I’ll stop short of embracing it, as I do a porcupine.” [USA Today, Los Angeles Times]

Creators | Adrian Humphreys profiles Kurt Westergaard, whose cartoon depiction of the prophet Muhammad with a lit bomb wrapped in his turban ignited international protests in which more than 100 people died, attacks on Danish embassies, and an assassination plot against the cartoonist.  “I don’t regret anything,” Westergaard says. [National Post]

Grant Morrison

Creators | Grant Morrison has signed with the International Creative Management talent agency. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Creators | This profile of Molly Crabapple touches on everything from her ever-growing Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School to her graphic novel Scarlett Takes Manhattan to her international travels. [The New York Times]

Creators | Keith Higginbotham catches up with Mark Waid at Long Beach Comic Con to talk briefly about the state of comics writing. [Long Beach Post]

Creators | Novelist and comics writer Frank Beddor discusses Hatter M, the Looking Glass Trilogy and more. [Orange County Register]

High Moon

Creators | Collaborators David Gallaher and Steve Ellis chat briefly about High Moon. [Comics Alliance]

Creators | Sequential Tart interviews Shaenon Garrity and Andrew Farago. [Sequential Tart]

Blogosphere | Alan David Doane has five questions for Tom Spurgeon about The Comics Reporter and comics journalism. [Trouble With Comics]

Comics | Thriller devotee Johnny Bacardi pens an ode to the short-lived DC Comics series created by Robert Loren Fleming and Trevor Von Eeden: “… it was such a huge pile of odd ideas and characters, and I suppose many who tried to embrace what it had to offer were simply overwhelmed by all the…stuff…that Fleming had cooked up. I would imagine that sometimes it seemed like just too much. Indeed, that was my reaction, as I recall, after I had finished issue #1. But I was more intrigued than off-put. I think I was in the minority.” [Trouble With Comics]

Art and design: Todd Klein kicks off a multipart study of the Legion of Super-Heroes logos. [Todd's Blog]

Long Beach Comic Con

Okay, that’s grabbier than “Strangeways in Long Beach,” ya gotta admit.  It’s even more accurate, since this week’s guest blogger, David Gallaher, will be there as well.

Where in Long Beach?  Why, Long Beach Comic Con, of course.

It’s been a long time since the LA area had a bigger show to go to.  The last show there was in 2008, and while it made for an interesting debut and and a great place to see friends over the weekend, it wasn’t a barn-burner of an event.  I always felt that the shows put on in Long Beach far overshadowed the LA shows in terms of quality and location, and I’ve no doubt that this new show will live up to that.  Apparently Stan Lee himself will be cutting the opening ribbon, which might be fun to see.  I would love to have him sign my copy of ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS some day (indeed the book that made me a Marvel zombie so many years ago, also forming an impression of comics as books that I’ve yet to shake.)

I’ll be down at booth 63, Mr. Gallaher at booth 62 (I wonder if I can get him to swap booths with me — sentimental reasons).  I’m sure he’ll have plenty of copies of HIGH MOON to sell, as I will have plenty of copies of MURDER MOON and the limited-edition red cover chapter #1 collection of THE THIRSTY.  And don’t forget, those fabulous five minute stories will also be available for the asking.

See you there!

Disney and Marvel

Retailing | Could Disney’s planned $4-billion purchase of Marvel signal the return comic books to the mass market? “I see the Marvel acquisition by Disney helping to expand the genre of comic books and remove it from the dusty basement of the world,” says direct-market retailer Creswell. “I do see Disney stepping in and offering retailers outside of the direct comic book market incentives for selling Marvel products,” Creswell said. [Reuters]

Publishing | Long-struggling e-book site Wowio reportedly has informed publishers that payments for the second quarter of 2008 will be made by Nov. 15. Wowio, which was purchased last year by Platinum Studios, was sold in July to a holding company formed by Platinum President and COO Brian Altounian. [Bleeding Cool]

Long Beach Comic Con

Conventions | The inaugural Long Beach Comic Con kicks off today at the Long Beach Convention Center in California. Guests include Berkeley Breathed, Stan Lee, Tim Bradstreet, J. Scott Campbell, Amanda Conner, Geoff Johns, Dave Johnson, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Scott Lobdell, Dustin Nguyen, Darick Robertson and Mark Waid. The Long Beach Post and Gazettes Town-News have previews. [Long Beach Comic Con]

Events | 24-Hour Comics Day will be held Saturday at locations around the world. [24-Hour Comics Day]

Conventions | Heidi MacDonald posts her Small Press Expo round-up/wrap-up/photo parade. [The Beat]

Yotsuba&!, Vol. 6

Sales charts | Well, huh. The collection of Kevin Smith and Walter Flanagan’s Batman: Cacophany debuts as the No. 1 hardcover on The New York Times Graphic Books Best Seller List. Elsewhere on the chart, Yen Press should be pleased that the sixth volume Yotsuba&! — the first new installment under the publisher’s banner — premieres as the No. 3 manga. [The New York Times]

Publishing | Diamond Book Distributors has signed an exclusive agreement with Tokyopop to distribute the publisher’s titles in the United Kingdom and Ireland beginning next year. PanMacmillan has handled distribution since 2006. [ICv2.com]

Publishing | SLG Publishing has reopened submissions after a two-month hiatus. [SLG Publishing]

Publishing | Eric Reynolds of Fantagraphics Books answers five questions about the publisher’s output and the comics market. [Trouble With Comics]

Diesel Sweeties

Webcomics | I’m not sure this article delivers on its title — “What Newspaper Cartoonists Can Learn from Web Comics” — but it does spotlight how creators Richard Stevens and Howard Taylor make a living through their webcomics. [MediaShift, via Fleen]

Comic strips | Cartoonist Karen Montague-Reyes reflects on the unsuccessful newspaper syndication of her strip Clear Blue Water: “It got to the point where I dreaded getting my checks in the mail because it would tell you what papers dropped you or added you (the syndicate never told me beforehand).  I made my husband open them; I couldn’t even face them.  He’d just say, ‘Holding steady.’ Or, ‘Two drops this month.’ People would ask me what papers I was in and I didn’t know anymore because I chose not to know.” [Clear Blue Water, via The Daily Cartoonist]

Creators | Garry Trudeau discusses Doonesbury, deadlines, and the decline of newspapers: “Short-term, we’re probably OK. What’s not commonly known is that most print newspapers are getting by. It’s just the big, debt-loaded metros that are sinking fast. There will probably be enough paper clients to keep me going for the foreseeable future. I feel extraordinarily fortunate that I’ve been given the long run I have — if newspapers vanish tomorrow, I’ll have no grounds for complaint.” [News-Record]

Brother Voodoo, by Jim Rugg

Creators | Sean T. Collins talks with Jim Rugg about his Brother Voodoo story for Marvel’s Strange Tales anthology miniseries: “I like the weird ’70s Marvel characters like Brother Voodoo, Satanna, Morbius, ROM, Power Man and Iron Fist. Those characters are so transparently a marketing grab, yet the creators seem earnest in their effort and execution, for the most part. There’s a sense of anything might happen. You can almost see the duct tape holding these concepts together. They’re the second generation of Marvel characters, and they are so different than the Jack Kirby/Stan Lee model. It’s almost Marvel’s awkward teenage rebellion period.” [Marvel.com]

Creators | Abby Denson chats about her new graphic novel Dolltopia. [New York Daily News]

Creators | Steve Ditko: “Spider-Man’s Forgotten Father.” [Examiner]

Pop culture | Tor.com has launched its first “Steampunk Month.” [Tor.com]

The Avengers #4

Creators | Using the copyright-reclamation bid by Jack Kirby’s children as a news hook, Geoff Boucher takes a look at the artist’s legacy, his creative partnership with Stan Lee, and his bitter feud with Marvel. “A lot more people know the name Stan Lee than the name Jack Kirby,” says daughter Lisa Kirby. “I’m not putting down Stan Lee’s talents but it’s difficult for us to see that he does dominate the credit. That doesn’t reflect the work or the reality. To see Jack Kirby in small letters and Stan Lee in big letters, that’s hard for us.” [Los Angeles Times]

Publishing | Jim Shelley considers what effect the recession may be having on the illegal downloading of comic books. He finds there are more downloads, but they’ve become more difficult to track. [Flashback Universe, via Kleefeld on Comics]

2009 Shuster Awards art by Francis Manapul

Awards | Following comments posted last week by Alex Hoffman lamenting that webcomics creators are limited to one category in the Joe Shuster Awards, organizers are revisiting the issue and requesting feedback on eligibility. [Joe Shuster Awards]

Conventions | New York Anime Festival drew a reported 21,388 attendees to the Javits Center over the weekend — up 16 percent from last year — where publishers like Del Rey Manga, Tokyopop, Vertical and Viz Media announced new license acquisitions. [New York Anime Festival]

Conventions | Johanna Draper Carlson, Scott Edelman and Justin Kownacki are among the first out of the gate with their reports from the Small Press Expo. [SPX]

Long Beach Comic Con

Conventions | The local newspaper previews the inaugural Long Beach Comic Con, which debuts Friday at the Long Beach Convention Center. Guests will include Stan Lee, Marc Andreyko, Simone Bianchi, Tim Bradstreet, Amanda Conner, Sandra Hope, Geoff Johns, Rob Liefeld, Jeph Loeb, Dustin Nguyen, David Peterson, Darick Robertson and Mark Waid. [Press-Telegram]

Creators | It turns out artists are authors, after all: As a result of an email exchange with artist George O’Connor, Amazon.com has reversed its policy and apparently will allow comic illustrators to add books to their author’s page. [ACT-I-VATE]

Creators | On what would’ve been the 100th birthday of Li’l Abner creator Al Capp, an editorial in the Newburyport, Massachusetts, newspaper argues for the creation of “a prominent memorial” to the cartoonist in nearby Amesbury, where he’s buried. [The Daily News]

Stitches

Creators | Terri Finch Hamilton presents a longish profile of award-winning illustrator David Small, whose memoir Stitches has been receiving a good amount of praise. [Grand Rapids Living]

Creators | Brett Williams chats with artist Joe Quinones about his background, and working with Kurt Busiek on the Green Lantern strip for DC’s Wednesday Comics. [Surfing the Bleed]

Creators | The Surrogates promotional tour continues as Graeme McMillan interviews writer Robert Venditti about the comic-turned-motion picture. [io9.com]

Creators | J. Caleb Mozzocco talks to Erie, Pennsylvania, native Ryan Dunlavey about writing and illustrating M.O.D.O.K.: Reign Delay for Marvel. [Erie Times-News]