Legal | An Illinois mother says a trademark dispute is hampering her attempt to raise money for her 3-year-old son with cerebral palsy. Holly Bueno says while sitting in the hospital with her son Manny, she began writing a book called The Adventures of Supermanny. "My driving force was I wanted to give myself a voice and my son a voice, and I want there to be a story out there where the main character is in a wheelchair, there aren't too many of those," she says. Bueno had hoped to sell the book to raise money for a wheelchair ramp, but when she filed a trademark application last year for "Supermanny," she drew the attention of DC Comics, which said it was too close to Superman. (U.S. Patent & Trademark Office filings show Bueno abandoned the mark in February.) Regardless of what happens with the trademark issue, there is also another fund-raiser for Manny — a superhero-themed 5k race. [ABC7 Chicago]



Passings | British artist Shirley Bellwood, who drew and painted covers for the classic girls' comic Misty, passed away earlier this year at age 84. One of Bellwood's covers from the 1980s was chosen as the cover of the Misty collection to be published later this year by 2000AD. Keith Richardson of Rebellion said on the Get MISTY Back In Print! Facebook page that he tried to contact her to write an introduction for the collection and learned then that she had passed away in January. “Shirley’s covers for Misty were iconic and set the tone for the comic,” said writer and editor Pat Mills. “They conveyed an air of magic, mystery and femininity that was unique and compelling.” [Down the Tubes]

Passings | Belgian artist and colorist René Hausman, known as "The Bard of Ardennes" for his illustrations of animals and fantasy creatures, has died at age 80. His comic Saki et Zunie, written by Yves Delporte, appeared in the magazine Spirou, and he was also the artist for several other series that were later collected into albums, including Laïyna, Les chasseurs de l'aube and La Grande Tambouille des Fées. In 2008 he and his wife Nathalie started a small publishing house, Luzabelle, which specialized in "beautiful pictures." He continued working without interruption until his death. [Le Monde]



Manga | The next installment of Yona of the Dawn won't run the Japanese manga magazine Hana to Yume because the creator, Mizuho Kusanagi, lives in the Kumamoto area, which was hit earlier this month by a series of earthquakes. Kusanagi posted on Twitter that she was unable to work after the second earthquake because of the damage it caused, but she will return to the series as soon as possible. Viz Media will begin publishing Yona of the Dawn in August. [Anime News Network]

Political cartoons | Detroit Free Press cartoonist Mike Thompson talks about the challenges of his job: “How do you come up with something new unique and clever about what is fundamentally the same old story, and it can’t be something you’ve said before or something someone else has said before.” The most important thing: “The idea drives the cartoon. A good drawing is not going to save a bad idea.” [WDET]

Creators | Newspaper reporter Sean Ian Mills discusses his comic Gamer Girl & Vixen, created with artist Kristi McDowell. They are seeking funding on Kickstarter. [WKTV]

Creators | Mike Kingston talks about his wrestling comic, Headlocked. [Wrestling Inc]

Retailing | The Ann Arbor, Michigan, comics shop Vault of Midnight will open a new store in Detroit on May 2. [MLive.com]