Publishing | Israeli creators Rutu Modan (The Property) and Yirmi Pinkus have launched a new publishing house, Noah's Library, to produce graphic novels for children. Modan, who wrote and illustrated Maya Makes a Mess for Toon Books, is creating new illustrations for the 1930s Israeli comics character Uri Kaduri, while Pinkus is illustrating stories about Mr. Gazma’i Habeda’i, another vintage character. They eventually plan to release the work of other creators as well. [Haaretz]

Cartoons | Francoise Mouly presents an array of cartoons by Ad Reinhardt, who eventually made his name as a fine artist with black-on-black paintings that he described as "the last paintings that anyone can make." (For good measure, Mouly throws in a slide show of New Yorker cartoons about those paintings.) Before he reached that artistic pinnacle, Reinhardt drew cartoons for a number of different publications, including the leftist newspaper PM, where his fellow artists included Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and Crockett Johnson, and the trade magazine Ice Cream World, where he was the art director. [The New Yorker]



Creators | Paul Gravett talks to Jaime Hernandez about 30 years of Love and Rockets. [Paul Gravett]

Creators | Dana Jennings reviews the new book The Art of Rube Goldberg and presents a brief introduction to the cartoonist whose specialty was creating complicated machines to accomplish simple tasks — a concept so useful that his name has literally become a household word. [The New York Times]

Creators | Scott Snyder talks about the "Batman: Zero Year" event. [Hero Complex]

Creators | Steve Breen, editorial cartoonist for the San Diego Union-Tribune, is the latest comics creator to sell off film rights in a Hollywood bidding war, but this movie will not be your standard superhero or zombie pic: It's based on his book of wacky single-panel cartoons, titled Unicorn Executions and Other Crazy Stuff My Kids Make Me Draw: A Father’s Pictorial Take on the Hilarious Things His Kids Say, which will present the graphic designers with quite a challenge when it's time to fit that on a movie poster. The book has no plot, per se, so the movie will knit the cartoons together with a framing tale of a cartoonist whose works come to life. [San Diego Union-Tribune]

Creators | Lew Stringer links to a video interview with veteran U.K. artist Mike Noble, who drew adventure comics for TV21 and Look-in, and he shows off a vintage 1970s story to accompany it. [Blimey!]



Creators| Ed Catto shows off a "lost" Nick Cardy work: A physical-fitness guide for which he did the cover and illustrations. [13th Dimension]

Libraries | All Things Considered pays a visit to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University. [NPR]

Retailing | Aaron Solon and Gabe Cooper were so disappointed when the comic shop in their town of East Lansing, Michigan, closed down that they considered buying it themselves. That didn't work out, but they started again from scratch and will be opening Hollow Mountain Comics and Games in January. [capitalgains]

Retailing | The local Patch does a brief profile of Dreamland Comics in Libertyville, Illinois. [Libertyville Patch]