Political cartoons | "I think it might be pretty risky to go back home," says Chinese cartoonist Wang Liming, who's on Japan in a business trip and is thinking about staying there. "If I go back, they might use my cartoons as an excuse to detain me." Liming, whose pen name is Biantai Lajiao (Perverted Chili Pepper), was arrested and briefly detained in 2013 on charges of "rumor-mongering," stemming from a post on the microblog site Weibo. This time, an anonymous commenter on a state-owned discussion board called Liming a "traitor" because of a cartoon he posted online that showed mainland Chinese being sent to Hong Kong to oppose the Occupy Central pro-democracy campaign and demonstrate how to kowtow to the government. "That post is written like something out of the Cultural Revolution," Liming said, calling it a "smear campaign." He has 500,000 followers on Weibo and another 340,000 on Sina Weibo, and he says he is losing income because his accounts have been shut down. [Radio Free Asia]



Creators | Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander novels, began scripting Disney comics after sending a "very rude" letter to editor Del Connell: "I wrote: 'Dear Sir, I've been reading your comic books for the last 25 years and they've been getting worse and worse. I don't know that I could do better myself, but I'd like to try'." He rejected her first script but hired her after that. Later, she turned down an offer from Marvel, but she has written a original graphic novel, The Exile, based on the characters in the Outlander books. [BBC]

Creators | Patrick Lohier interviews Charles Burns, whose new graphic novel Sugar Skull completes the trilogy that started with X'ed Out; they also discuss the possibility of a film based on his Black Hole. [BoingBoing]

Creators | Elena Casagrande talks about her work on Suicide Risk, Ghost Whisperer: Haunted, and licensed Doctor Who and Star Trek comics, as well as the banners she does monthly for the Blastoff Comics website, featuring the characters the retailer will be blogging about. [13th Dimension]



Creators | Hawkeye artist David Aja discusses his work. [Pop Mythology]

Comics | Using the release of the film Sin City: A Dame to Kill For as his news hook, Matthew Price writes about early crime comics, from Dick Tracy to Crime Does Not Pay, and the factors that shut them down in the mid-1950s. [The Oklahoman]

Comics | Larry Greenemeier delves into the neuroscience of the Avengers, spinning off the Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. Exhibition on display in Times Square. [Scientific American]

Retailing | Maria Agreda profiles Las Vegas store Cheese Boy Comics, whose success rests largely on its friendly, welcoming atmosphere — but also on the fact that owner Colby Williams had a comic shop in the early 2000s and learned from that experience. [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

Retailing | Jessica Holbrook pays a visit to two Canton, Ohio, comics shops, Bill's Books and More and Hazel's Heroes. [The CantonRep]