Comic Strips | The Portland Oregonian pulled three Non Sequitur strips that made fun of the occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge after one of the occupiers was killed. "The strip, which had been making fun of such groups, seemed jarring and in poor taste given that someone now was dead," said Oregonian editor Mark Katches. "That decision has yielded a grand total of two reader complaints." Cartoonist Whitey Miller said he did not know the strips were being pulled and replaced with older ones. "This is the first I've heard about it," he said. "Not controversial to my knowledge." [Willamette Week]

Creators | Set aside some time this weekend to read Robert Ito's in-depth profile of Daniel Clowes, which covers his life and career from his childhood through his most recent work, Patience. The piece is illustrated with drawings by prominent cartoonists such as Seth, Rutu Modan, and Richard Sala, as well as photos by Ian Allen. [California Sunday]



Political Cartoons | Wellington Musapenda, an editorial cartoonist for The Chronicle, a state-owned newspaper covering the Matabeleland region of Zimbabwe, has been suspended for a cartoon that critics say depicts the people of the region as more interested in sex work than education. The cartoon shows two women standing near a sign that says "Mat'land, Midlands post worst school results." One of the women comments to the other, "We excel in other areas, don't we Thembi." The editor of the paper, Mduduzi Mathuthu, posted on Facebook that he wasn't in the office that day, and that Musapenda had bypassed the editor on duty. The paper will post an apology today. Samukeliso Khumalo, a local activist, commented "This guy [Musapenda] comes all the way from Harare with pre-conceived ideas that Matebele people are lazy, lazy men with promiscuous women and this is the making by the political leadership of this country that looks down upon this region. They have destroyed our educational facilities, industries and they turn around and call us names. The cartoonist is a mouthpiece of a big network." [All Africa]

Publishing | Three women who work for Marvel Comics -- director of content and character development Sana Amanat and editors Katie Kubert and Emily Shaw -- discuss their work life, why they chose comics, and what they are reading these days. [Fortune]

Creators | Roz Chast talks about her life and work as a New Yorker cartoonist on the Design Matters podcast. [Design Matters]

Creators Illustrator Sonny Chargualaf, who teaches art at John F. Kennedy High School in Guam, talks about his work as artist on the graphic novel The Dark Reaches: Volume 1, as part of a team led by Rus Wooton, letterer for The Walking Dead. Because he is in Guam and has never met most of the other collaborators, it was important for Chargualaf to be able to draw digitally and collaborate online. "On Guam, it’s especially important because it’s our only connection to anything overseas," he said. [Pacific Daily News]

Comics | How do you get teenagers interested in the Global Precipitation Measurement satellite? NASA's solution was to ask them to design characters to tell the story, and the result is the clearly manga-influenced Raindrop Tales: GPM Meets Mizu-Chan, created with input from Yuki Kiriga and Sabrynne Buchholz. [Smithsonian]

Manga | Dr. Casey Brienza, author of the newly published Manga in America, the first book to cover the American manga industry in depth, talks about the ways manga is transformed from its original state to a product for American readers. [OASG]

Retailing | John Hendrick of Big Bang Comics in Dublin, Ireland, has some fairly detailed advice for creators on how to sell their work. [Sktchd]