Publishing | Tom Spurgeon writes the definitive obituary of PictureBox, which announced Monday it will stop publishing at the end of the year. He also polls other small-press comics publishers for their reactions. [The Comics Reporter]

Digital comics | Yen Press is bringing its digital manga magazine Yen Plus to an end; the December issue will be the final one. The magazine was launched as a print anthology in August 2008 and switched to digital-only format in 2010. When it began serializing Soul Eater NOT, Yen Plus became the first magazine to publish manga chapters worldwide at the same time they came out in Japan (Shonen Jump does simultaneous release, but only to a restricted region). [Anime News Network]



Political cartoons | Ted Rall recently had a cartoon rejected by Daily Kos on the grounds that it was an offensive caricature of President Obama. Noah Berlatsky examines the evidence and concludes that Rall isn't racist, just tone-deaf and not a very good draftsman. In this case, Berlatsky concludes, the history of racist caricature is too significant to ignore, even when the creator doesn't intend to evoke it. [The Atlantic]

Benefits | Montreal collector Morgan Wolman is selling about 1,000 comics from his collection to benefit the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. He's working with a local comics shop, and rather than collecting the money and then donating it, he's asking buyers to make the donation themselves and then show him a receipt before he will give them the comic. [Montreal Gazette]



Comics | Stan Lee's newest creation is an Indian superhero, Chakra the Invincible, whose animated cartoon debuted over the weekend on the Indian Cartoon Network. A print comic is on the way for both India and the United States. [Metro UK]

Comics | Herb Scribner takes a look at religion in comics, not just explicitly religious comics but superhero and other mainstream comics as well. He interviews several scholars and industry types, and there's a handy chart giving the religion of well known characters (Batman is a Methodist? Who knew?). [The Deseret News]

Comics | Bangladesh is experiencing a comics boom of sorts, as imported comics have become more readily available and two local publishers have set up shop and are now publishing a combined total of 10 titles. This well-rounded article includes interviews with a retailer, a creator and the organizers of the Dhaka Comicon.[Al Jazeera]

Creators | Dan Greenberg interviews artist Des Taylor, who works in a breezy, animation-influenced style. [13th Dimension]

Creators | Vincent Kamp's claim that the simultaneous release of his graphic novel Robotslayer and a related animated comics iOS app is some sort of a first is a bit dubious, but the rest of this story is quite charming; Kamp is part owner of a company that designs and manufactures scientific instruments, and he not only wrote Robotslayer (based on the stories he told his two children), he built a couple of giant robots in his garden shed to help promote it. [Redhill and Reigate Life]