Passings | Underground comics writer Dennis Eichhorn passed away on Oct. 8 at age 70. He's best known for his autobiographical comic series Real Stuff, which often involved tales of alcohol, sex and drugs. Published from 1990 to 1995 by Fantagraphics, the multiple Eisner-nominated Real Stuff was illustrated by the likes of Lynda Barry, Chester Brown, Peter Kuper, Joe Sacco, Roberta Gregory and Ed Brubaker. [The Stranger]
Legal | Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani, already serving a 12-year sentence for a cartoon depicting members of the Iranian parliament with animal heads, and under investigation for shaking hands with her male lawyer, had to endure yet another indignity in August: She was forced to undergo a "forced virginity and pregnancy test" as part of the investigation of the latter charge. "In doing so, the Iranian judicial authorities have truly reached an outrageous low, seeking to exploit the stigma attached to sexual and gender-based violence in order to intimidate, punish or harass her," said Said Boumedouha of Amnesty International, which is calling for her release. [Amnesty International]
Censorship | An exhibit of art from a graphic novel has been removed from the Nabokov Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, because of concerns about the nude figures in the images. The artists, Dominique Goblet and Kai Pfeiffer, first pointed out that "The Hermitage is full of naked people," then offered to put pink and green panties or black dots on the male nudes. This wasn't enough for the museum, which has been attacked several times by Orthodox Christian extremists, and they ordered the exhibit taken down on Sept. 30, almost two weeks before the scheduled end date of Oct. 11. [The Moscow Times]
Political cartoons | While we were all distracted by New York Comic Con, Matt Bors was mixing it up on Twitter over a cartoon with some guy who claims to be Martin Shkreli, the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals who became infamous for acquiring an anti-toxoplasmosis drug and hiking the price by 500 percent. The upshot of the Twitter throwdown is that Shkreli (or someone who claims to be him) has paid Bors $10,000 for his cartoon, with 90 percent of the money to be donated to charity. [Comic Riffs]
Creators | Kashmiri artist Malik Sajad started making cartoons when he was 14, and they started getting him in trouble with the Indian government when he was 16. His graphic memoir Munnu: A Boy from Kashmir depicts the Kashmiri people as hangul, an endangered species of deer that is native to the region; it was released in the United Kingdom earlier this year, and to the author's surprise will be published in India later this month. [Catch News]
Creators | Photojournalist Marc Ellison talks about his online graphic novel, which tells the stories of four Ugandan women trying to return to normal life after being kidnapped as teenagers and forced to serve in the Lord's Resistance Army. The work combines photographs, videos, and drawings to depict the women's current world and the memories that still haunt them. [Journalism.co.uk]
Comics culture | Jeff Treppel looks at the longtime affinity of comics and heavy metal music. [Noisey]
Education | Japan's Nippon Foundation is encouraging the use of manga as educational material with the release of 100 manga they feel will work well alongside more traditional materials. The list includes such diverse titles as Makoto Yukimura's Vinland Saga and Takako Shimura's Wandering Son, as well as plenty of Osamu Tezuka manga. [Anime News Network]