Creators | Anime legend Hayao Miyazaki, who announced his retirement just two months ago, is reportedly drawing a samurai manga set during the Warring States Period. Asked on the Japanese television show Sekai-ichi Uketai Jugyō over the weekend how the 72-year-old filmmaker will spend his retirement, Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki replied, "I think he will serialize a manga. From the beginning, he likes drawing about his favorite things. That's his stress relief." He also confirmed the manga's setting before cutting off the line of questioning with, "He'll get angry if I talk too much. Let's stop talking about this." Miyazaki has illustrated several manga over the past four decades, most notably the seven-volume Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. [Anime News Network]
Libraries | Mitch Stacy takes a look at the new Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University, which is scheduled to open this weekend with a gala celebration. [ABC News]
Publishing | Tom Spurgeon interviews Fantagraphics Publisher Gary Groth about the company's $150,000 Kickstarter campaign. [The Comics Reporter]
Webcomics | The Comics Journal re-publishes Dirk Deppey's 2006 interview with Joey Manley, who passed away on Friday. The interview was conducted when Manley's Modern Tales subscription site was at its peak, he had recently launched Webcomics Nation, and he was pondering a new webcomics advertising service. The interview captures a particular moment in webcomics history as well as Manley's own outlook on the business. [The Comics Journal]
Creators | Writer Charles Soule and artist Tony Daniel talk about their new series Superman/Wonder Woman. [USA Today]
Creators | Alexander Aciman profiles political cartoonist Matt Bors, who has broken away from the traditions of editorial cartoons (one panel, black and white, a certain art style) and is embracing a mix of single-panel cartoons and longer-form comics journalism. [Time Magazine]
Creators | Alison Bechdel reacts to the new wave of interest in her "Bechdel test," which was recently picked up by a Swedish art-house movie chain to rate the films it carries. A film passes the test if, as stated by Bechdel, it contains "at least two (named) women characters, who talk to each other, about something besides a man." The test is better known than the comic it appeared in, she notes. [Alison Bechdel]
Collecting | Art dealer Scott Eder, who specializes in original comics art, talks about the investment potential of comics art, whose work is underpriced and whose is overpriced, and how would-be collectors can avoid being fleeced. [13th Dimension]
Conventions | Jody Culkin and Calvin Reid photograph the goings-on at Comic Arts Brooklyn this past weekend. [Publishers Weekly]
Reviews | Dominic Umile takes a long look at The Fifth Beatle, including some of the Brian Epstein story that the creators left out. [The Comics Journal]
Commentary | Ng Suat Tong critiques the critics who say Michael DeForge is the greatest cartoonist of his generation but never say exactly why; he then takes a sharp look at DeForge's work himself. [The Hooded Utilitarian]