Creators | Writer Hidenori Kusaka and artist Satoshi Yamamoto discuss their series "Pokemon Adventures" and address the fan theories of how Red (from the manga) is related to Ash (from the anime). "The two worlds and the two mediums are different," Kusaka explains. "But if there were to be a link between them, Red and Ash, maybe. But I think for the fans to go with their creativity and have fun with that is one way of appreciating it." [Huffington Post]
Legal | Jordanian authorities issued an arrest warrant for political satirist Nahed Hattar on Friday, charging him with causing "sectarian strife and racism" and "insulting religion" by posting a cartoon he shared on his Facebook page. Hattar turned himself in to police on Saturday and is currently in custody. The cartoon, by an anonymous artist, is titled "God of Daesh [ISIS]" and depicts an ISIS fighter in bed with two women, ordering God to bring him more wine and "put a door on the tent so that you knock before you enter next time." Hattar, a nonbeliever, said his intention in posting it was not to insult religion but to satirize ISIS's view of religion, and in a response on Facebook, he said he did respect "the believers who did not understand the satire behind the cartoon." Hattar's lawyer, Faisal al-Batayneh, who successfully defended him on charges of insulting the king in several earlier cases, has withdrawn from this case, saying "Once I found out about the details of the case and about the offensive cartoon, I decided that my conscience and my commitment to the noble Islamic Sharia would not allow me to continue to represent Mr Hattar in this case." However, he also said the state's case is weak and should be dropped. Yesterday, the Jordanian prosecutor issued a gag order forbidding any further news coverage of the case. [Al Jazeera]
Political Cartoons | Sarah Hucal profiles the Malaysian cartoonist Zunar, who is scheduled to go to court in September on nine counts of sedition but has yet to lose his enthusiasm for critiquing his country's prime minister. [US News]
Creators | When Gene Luen Yang was making his own comics, photocopying them, and selling them at local cons, he never expected to be a professional comics creator, let alone a writer for DC. "People were predicting that Marvel was going to go out of business completely and it would take most of the comic book stores in America with it," he said. "So that was the industry I was entering... I just did it because I love it." But the market rallied, and his "American Born Chinese" was a game-changer: "That book is about the experience of being an outsider and wanting to fit in, and I think those are pretty universal things." Yang's current work includes a new DC series, "New Super-Man," a superhero story set in China. [East Bay Express]
Publishing | IDW CEO Ted Adams talks about the sales slump of early 2016 and why he thinks comics are rallying again, as well as the digital market, variant covers, and how the mini-comic Fun Packs based on "Skylanders" and "My Little Pony" are doing in mass-market stores such as Target. [ICv2]
Comics | A British NGO has commissioned a comic about the Nigerian team's triumphs at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. [Sahara Reporters]
Secret Identities | Former "Superman" writer Elliot Maggin discusses the question of whether Superman becomes Clark Kent or Clark Kent becomes Superman. [Slate]
Conventions | Business writer Cambpell Loeber looks at New York Comic-Con's process for validating the identities of ticket buyers, which some feel is overly invasive, and discusses how it might work for banks. [American Banker]