Comics | Writing for The Advocate, Jase Peeples takes note of the diversity of DC Comics' extended Batman family -- from Batwoman to Batwing to Barbara Gordon's roommate Alysia Yeoh -- and talks with writers Gail Simone, Grant Morrison, Marc Andreyko, Tom Taylor and Chip Kidd. “I would like to think that people can pick up books like Batman Incorporated or The Multiversity and see their own lives reflected,” Morrison says. “But I’d always caveat that with the need for us to see more diverse writers and artists, because that’s when I think the walls will really come down. As a straight [white guy from Scotland] I can only do so much, and I find even sometimes when you do this, you do get accused of tokenism or pandering. I don’t mind it. I can put up with that, but I’d rather see a genuine spread of writers and artists creating this material.” [Advocate.com]



Webcomics | Mark Waid talks about Everstar, the new webcomic by Becky Tinker and Joie Brown on Thrillbent, the importance of supporting comics for young readers — and the difficulty of finding good ones: "I'd been wanting desperately to do more kid-friendly comics on Thrillbent, but you'd be stunned at how clumsy and transparent those efforts can be if they're calculated rather than spontaneous and sincere." [The Huffington Post]

Creators | Eleanor Davis discusses her short-story collection How to Be Happy and the thread that links the stories: "I'm looking at this very humorous urge we have to search for these magic bullets, an instinct that is sad but understandable." [Los Angeles Times]



Creators | Farel Dalrymple talks about his graphic novel The Wrenchies and the inspiration for the magical world in which it's set: "Anything could really happen in that world, but most of the ideas are based from memories of sitting in church youth group listening to sermons about Satanism and the occult and “demonic” rock and roll music. So I tried to incorporate those weird ghostly memories of magic into the story. There was even a story my very religious mother told me about astral projection that fascinated me for years that I had to put in there." [Kindle Post]

Creators | Everyone in Hollywood told Nathan Graham his idea for a Christmas-themed horror film Malice and Mistletoe would be box-office poison, so he teamed with artist Jack Purcell and made it into a graphic novel, which they're now crowdfunding on Kickstarter. [MassLive.com]

Graphic novels | A psychiatrist reports on her experiences at the Graphic Medicine conference — and finds new common ground with her patients as well. [Psychiatric Times]



Digital comics | Shaun Huston discusses both the practical aspects and the larger significance of comiXology's new DRM-free My Backups feature, which allows readers to download some of their comics DRM-free. Huston notes that several of the publishers that allow the feature also sell comics DRM-free outside of comiXology, but that he bought them on comiXology anyway, and he explains why it's important to be able to share comics with his mother—and why he thinks the ready availability of DRM-free comics will reduce piracy. [PopMatters]

Conventions | Michael Dooley files his report on Comic-Con International, talking to Peter Kuper, Scott Gandell and J.J. Sedelmaier about what they get from the experience — Sedelmaier offers some good tips for how to enjoy the con — and showing off lots of photos of creators and their work. [Print]

Conventions | Michael Cavna talks to the organizers of Intervention, which just completed its fifth show. [Comic Riffs]

Conventions | Indian publisher Diamond Comics produced a new reprint edition of the late Pran Kumar Sharma's Chacha Chaudhary comics for the Delhi Book Fair and sold them for the original price, which greatly increased traffic to the company's booth. Thanks to nostalgia and the recent death of the creator, Chacha Chaudhary seems to be making a comeback. [Firstpost]