Legal | Artist Al Plastino has asked a New York judge to order Heritage Auctions to reveal the name of the consignor who put up for sale his original art for the 10-page story "Superman's Mission for President Kennedy." Heritage says the sale has been canceled and the art returned to the consignor, who bought it at a Sotheby's auction a decade ago. The JFK story was originally scheduled to run in a DC comic dated November 1963, but it was quickly pulled when Kennedy was assassinated. The story was published the following year at the request of the Johnson administration. The last panel of the comic stated the artwork was to be donated to the Kennedy Library, and Plastino believed that to be the case until this fall, when he discovered it was being put up for auction. [Reuters]
Crime | Tokyo police say they have security camera footage of a suspicious man in a mask and gloves near a convenience store where a small amount of nicotine was found in a Kuroko's Basketball-themed snack. The snacks were recalled after 7-Eleven and other convenience store chains received threatening letters, part of a barrage of threat letters that have been sent out to venues associated with the Kuroko's Basketball manga and anime. The amount of nicotine found in the Kuroko's Basketball wafers was well under a lethal dose. [Anime News Network]
Creators | Hannah Means-Shannon talks to Mark Waid about his new comic series Shadow Walk, which debuts next week from Legendary. [Bleeding Cool]
Creators | Eva Volin interviews Paul Pope, on video, about his new graphic novel, Battling Boy. [Good Comics for Kids]
Creators | Leela Corman talks about her interest in strong women and superheroes, her graphic novel Unterzakhn, and developing superheroes for children in Afghanistan. [Film Annex]
Creators | Richard Sala discusses his new digital-only comic Violenzia. [ComiXology Unbound]
Creators | Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am and futurist Brian David Johnson are collaborating on a comic, Wizards & Robots, a prequel to the graphic novel trilogy The Hope Algorithm. The two met at Intel, where they both work, and began collaborating on the story, about robots who travel back from the future to do battle with wizards, two years ago. [Fortune]
Creators | Keiko Takemiya, creator of the classic sci-fi manga To Terra, has been named as the president of Kyoto Seika University, which was the first university in Japan to establish a manga program. Takemiya will serve a four-year term. [Anime News Network]
History | Comics historian Mike Madrid, author of Divas, Dames & Daredevils: Lost Heroines of Golden Age Comics, talks about his love of the pre-Code ladies. [SFGate]