Publishing | DC Comics may no longer hold the rights to create new stories about The Spirit and other pulp heroes like Doc Savage and The Avenger, but it does retain the license to publish The Spirit Archives for "the foreseeable future," according to Denis Kitchen, agent for the Will Eisner estate. Most of the hardcover collections are out of print. [The Beat]

Digital comics | Third time's the charm for retailer Steve Bennett, as he goes through three different tablets (one was stolen, one malfunctioned) on his way to the ideal digital comics experience. [ICv2]

Creators | Tom Spurgeon kicks off his annual round of holiday interviews with a lengthy conversation with Alison Bechdel, creator of Fun Home and Are You My Mother? [The Comics Reporter]



Creators | Tank Girl artist Jamie Hewlett looks back with disdain: "My wife [actress Emma de Caunes] had never read the story, So she went and bought all the books. Then she then forgot about them, and I started looking at them and realised that, apart from the last three or four strips I drew in that 10 year period, pretty much 90% of it was shit. Really, it was. I spoke to [Tank Girl writer] Alan Martin, and he remarked on how it had been so successful, yet the execution on our part was so bad. I said that "now we're in our forties, and I can draw much better, and you're a much better writer, wouldn't it be great to revisit Tank Girl, do a one-off graphic novel, but do a really good one, and really knock it out of the ball park?' So we might do that next year." [Phaidon Club]

Creators | James Sturm talks about Adventures in Cartooning: Christmas Special and shows off some of the comics that readers have sent in to Santa. [MTV Geek]



Creators | Cliff Chiang discusses reintroducing Orion, one of the Jack Kirby-created New Gods, in this week's Wonder Woman #15: "We've got him in this motorcycle-racing jacket and these tight black pants and boots, and the Astro-Harness now resembles more of an Italian racing bike. It has a more modern context to it, and because of those design cues, you read into it a little bit more. You know who this guy is immediately just by looking at him." [USA Today]

Creators | Sean T. Collins interviews Aidan Koch, creator of Field Studies and Red Sands. [The Comics Journal]

Creators | Paul Gravett talks to 12-year-old comics phenomenon Zoom Rockman. [Dazed Digital]

Creators | China has long been a consumer, not a producer, of manga, but the Chinese artist Xiada has started to turn the current a bit; she has two series in the Japanese magazine Ultra Jump, which is a sister publication to Shonen Jump. [Japan Times]

Best of the year | Derik Badman lists his favorite comics from 2012, and as his taste runs toward more artistic and literary choices, there are some interesting discoveries to be made here. [Madinkbeard]