Creators | Art Spiegelman, Neil Gaiman and Alison Bechdel are stepping in as table hosts tonight at the PEN American Center gala, after a number of writers dropped out of the event to protest the organization's decision to give a posthumous freedom of expression award to the staff of Charlie Hebdo. [The New York Times]

Collectors | Scottish collector Alec Whitelaw owns every issue of the Oor Wullie annual ever published, but he was stunned to learn his collection was worth nearly $38,000 when it was appraised on the BBC's version of Antiques Roadshow. Whitelaw had come to the event by train, but organizers arranged for a chauffeured car for the return trip, as he had brought the books with him. “After they told me the value of the books they wouldn’t let me go home with them," he said. "They got me transport home in a nice car and I felt like Lady Muck." [Daily Record]



Creators | Calvin Reid interviews Sydney Padua about The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, which has just been published in book form. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | Cartoonist Felipe Galindo talks about growing up in Mexico, coming to New York in the 1980s, and his thoughts on Charlie Hebdo. His latest work is a gallery show that chronicles Frieda Kahlo's (imaginary) visit to New York. [Latin Post]

Creators | Collector James Haick crosses over to creator with the publication of Solar Flare, which is set in his hometown of Fort Myers, Florida; Haick wrote the comic, and funded it through Kickstarter. [News-Press]



Comics | Matthew Meylikhov lists his 10 favorite alternate versions of Batman. [Paste]

History | Doug Furhman unearths some clippings from the 1950s about an attempt to ban the sale of "objectionable" comics in Vineland, New Jersey. The Vineland Times Journal sent a reporter to local retailers to investigate what they had on offer, and concluded that it was all pretty tame. "Members of the so-called Vineland Committee for Decent Literature who may have been discouraged by the report filed by a Times Journal staff reporter in yesterday's edition should reappraise their work and their goals," the paper editorialized. [The Daily Journal]

Events | André Carrington, assistant professor of English at Drexel University and one of the organizers of this coming weekend's Queers & Comics conference, talks about the event and about minority and LGBT representation in comics. [Drexel Now]

Retailing | Alexa Armstrong covers the Free Comic Book Day activities at Tony's Kingdom of Comics & Collectibles in Portland, Oregon. [Statesman Journal]