Manga | Tezuka Productions, which handles the works of Osamu Tezuka, has signed a deal for Diamond Comic Distributors to distribute its comics, toys, T-shirts and other products outside of Japan. [Previews World]

Comics | Sean Howe, author of Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, discusses the clash between the creative drive and the corporate interest, as it played out at the House of Ideas: "There’s certainly a cautionary tale in there, but I think it’s inevitable — because Marvel Comics is a really rich example of the way that pop culture works and that the Marvel story really gets to the way that art and commerce are always going to be battling it out in pop culture. If you’re trying to have mass appeal and artistic expression at the same time, there are going to be compromises. And when you bring powerful corporate interests into the equation, it’s pretty predictable what will happen." [The Phoenix]

Creators | Aline Kaminsky-Crumb discusses her collaboration with husband Robert Crumb on the comics collected in Drawn Together. [ICv2]



Creators | In the conclusion of a two-part interview, J.H. Williams III discusses his work on DC Comics' Batwoman, including his page layouts: "When people talk about my work in that regard, I feel like I’m cheating. In all honesty, some of the things I’m doing aren’t all that new! People like Jim Sterenko and Jim Starlin to name a couple were doing this in the '60s and '70s, to name a couple who pushed the boundaries of what a page can do. I feel like all I’m really doing is trying to expand on that. I gravitated to that stuff when I saw it." [Dig Boston]

Creators | Tails creator Ethan Young addresses the persistent question: "Wait, Ethan is supposed to be Asian?" and concludes, "I’m not the first creator who’s tried to craft a post-racial comic, and I won’t be the last. But with my own little webcomic, I think I’ve managed to talk about race without actually talking about race." [Booklife Now]



Creators | In a podcast interview, Derf Backderf, author of My Friend Dahmer, talks about his high school brush with a future mass murderer, finding a publisher and what he's reading now. [The comiXology Blog]

Comics | Steve Morris interviews Woodrow Phoenix, the editor of the award-winning U.K. anthology Nelson. [The Beat]

Digital comics | Symbolia co-editor Erin Polgreen talks about how she and her contributors plan to do journalism differently: "Comics journalism represents not only this opportunity to be playful, fun and have a cozy hand-crafted feel to your product, but it's also this way to bring more people in. You bring in more visual learners -- people who think about things or interact in different ways than someone who might read 10,000 words of text." [Discovery News]

Workspaces | Colleen Doran shows off her new treadmill desk. [A Distant Soil]