Comics | DC Comics' Senior Vice President of Sales Bob Wayne and Vice President of Marketing John Cunningham discuss October sales, the date change for Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and variant covers. Although the company is releasing 52 variants for Justice League of America #1, DC plans to cut back on variants in its other lines. "We’re going to pull back and drop variants from a handful of titles in the next solicitation cycle to pull back that number ourselves, where it didn’t seem the variant was making a substantial difference in the buy-in for the book or the perception of books," Wayne said. "We’ll be looking at the remaining titles that have variants the following month." [ICv2]

Comics | Speaking of variant covers, Tim Beyers of The Motley Fool discusses the dos and don'ts of buying variant covers as an investment. [Daily Finance]



Retailing | Jeet Heer muses about why the Toronto comics shop The Beguiling has survived — and thrived — during the ups and downs of the comics market. [National Post]

Creators | An exhibit of the work of Alex Ross opened recently at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and Ross says he and Rockwell have a common interest: "We both hone in on trying to represent the grit of life in some detail." [Boston.com]

Creators | Radio host Michael Silverblatt interviews Building Stories creator Chris Ware. [KCRW]

Festivals | Tom Spurgeon gives his immediate impressions of this past weekend's Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. [The Comics Reporter]



Creators | The Sixth Gun writer Cullen Bunn discusses his new gig as the writer for The Fearless Defenders: "When I first pitched the book, it wasn’t as 'Defenders'. I went through a number of titles, but none of them really had pizzazz. It was only a few weeks ago that my editor, Ellie Pyle, let me know that this would be the new incarnation of 'The Defenders'… and it just seemed to fit. The oddity of 'The Defenders' has always been appealing to me. The team (or non-team if you prefer) has always worked best when it showcases a roster that you least expect. More than anything, I hope this book defies reader expectations of what a team book represents." [MTV Geek]

Creators | Barry Deutsch talks about Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite, the second volume of his fantasy series about an Orthodox Jewish girl whose ambition is to slay a dragon someday. [The Enchanted Inkpot]

Creators | Eddie Wright interviews Johnny Ryan, the creator of Prison Pit, which is just out from Fantagraphics. [MTV Geek]

Digital comics | I talked to Dark Horse's Director of Digital Publishing Mark Bernardi about the publisher's new Android app, which differs from their iOS app in a few different ways -- it's faster, and it's a bit easier to use on smaller devices such as smartphones. [Good E-Reader]