Politics | The controversy in Minnesota continues over Neil Gaiman's speaking fee, with a state House Republican committee chairman now recommending a $45,000 cut to the Twin Cites' regional library system budget to make up for the Legacy Fund money paid to the author and comics writer in May 2010. "I simply subtracted out $45,000 -- just making a point," Rep. Dean Urdahl said. Gaiman responded that the move "seems like a sad way to make a point." He talks at length with CityPages about the controversy. [Star-Tribune]
Passings | Prolific Argentine comics writer Carlos Trillo, co-creator of CyberSix, passed away over the weekend while on vacation in London. He was 68. Trillo, whose career spanned five decades, collaborated with such artists as Eduardo Risso, Jordi Bernet, Juan Bobillo, Carlos Meglia and Domingo Roberto Mandrafina. [TN.com, via The Beat]
Retailing | Peter Panepinto turns a Free Comic Book Day preview into one of those perennial articles about the potential effects of superhero movies on comic-book sales. [Carroll County Times]
Conventions | Deb Aoki wraps up the first day of last weekend's Toronto Comic Arts Festival. [About.com]
Publishing | Brian Truitt continues his preview of DC Comics' Flashpoint event, which puts The Flash in the spotlight. "He's not about a hundred guys who run fast," Geoff Johns says. "He's not Green Lantern where Green Lantern is about this intergalactic space corps. The Flash's huge canvas is time. I've always said when I was redoing both these characters, it's time and space. Batman's the ultimate crime vigilante superhero. You will never ever top Batman, and for time travel and crossing all these different planes of reality, you'll never top the Flash. The Flash owns time." [USA Today]
Creators | Mike Huddleston chats, not entirely seriously, about Butcher Baker, Righteous Maker, his new Image Comics collaboration with Joe Casey: "Joe and I had both been on the professional arm wrestling circuit for several years and kind of knew each other from competitions. It just happened that we were both sidelined last year with injuries, so being out of competition for a season we had time to kill and started talking about other jobs we could have. I had heard you could get really rich making independent comics, so I convinced Joe to give writing a shot and the rest is history. Joe has had these characters in his head since he was like 6 years old, so I'm not sure how many issues he has planned. We'll see if he can keep his schedule once he's back in competition." [Bloody Disgusting]
Crime | Police in Fukuoka City, Japan, arrested three 17-year-old males on charges of shoplifting the first 57 volumes of One Piece, the insanely popular manga series by Eiichiro Oda. [Anime News Network]
Comics | J. Caleb Mozzocco writes at length about the 2010 Marvel miniseries Doomwar. [Every Day Is Like Wednesday]
Comics | Jeffery Klaehn posts a gallery of Thor art, and posts his list of the Top 10 Thor covers by Jack Kirby and Walter Simonson. [Pop]