Carnival of souls

* Kevin Melrose notes that Alaskan legislators are making moves in the direction of labeling cartoons and computer-generated images that depict minors in sexual situations as child pornography. Gross, loathsome art is still just art, not a criminal act.

* Lots of news-of-note for superhero comics fans came out during last night’s Diamond Retailer Summit–Kiel Phegley has a full report. The Invincible developments sound particularly intriguing, and I’m as curious as anyone to see how Marvel wraps up its years-long meta-plot with their upcoming Siege miniseries.

* Hey, my occasional collaborator Matt Rota has a blog! This cat can draw, man. (Via Tom Spurgeon.)

* Fantagraphics says Johnny Ryan has drawn 30 pages of Prison Pit Vol. 2 for a projected Summer 2010 release. Hot damn. Meanwhile Chris Mautner reviews Prison Pit Vol. 1, along with Hans Rickheit’s The Squirrel Machine.

* And while I’m linking to Fanta’s twitter, looks like they’re working on a collection of Megan Kelso’s Artichoke Tales. Man, talk about years in the making!

* Here’s a loooooong interview with Mike Mignola about the state of the Hellboy and B.P.R.D. universe. You don’t often see Mignola sounding off about his franchise the way, say, Brian Bendis gets interviewed about Marvel or Geoff Johns gets interviewed about Blackest Night. (Via Kevin Melrose.)

* Go check out PictureBox’s new stuff, including Cold Heat Special #6.

* A new ToyFare comes out Wednesday, and with it a new installment of Twisted ToyFare Theater, which I co-write. Be there.