* The big news in comics circles is that Diamond, the monopoly distributor of comic books to comic shops, is raising its minimum order cutoff from $1500 to $2500. Tom Spurgeon and Heidi MacDonald have both rounded up reactions and posted thoughts on the potentially chilling effect this move will have on the small press. I was particularly troubled by PictureBox Inc. publisher Dan Nadel’s comment to Tom that titles like Travel, Powr Mastrs, Cold Heat, and Goddess of War would not have made the cut. Admittedly, there are a lot of issues at work here that complicate Diamond’s decision beyond the black-hatted “aiding the powerful and popular at the expense of the independent and idiosyncratic” interpretation of this move: the cataclysmic overall economic picture; the legions of small-press companies that put out comics of dubious quality using methods of dubious reliability; the fact that it doesn’t sound like that cutoff is automatic, et cetera. Still, it’s most likely very bad news for some very good comics.

* Jim Woodring has announced the creation of a new 96-page Frank book. Everyone’s happy about it except Manhog.

* Tim O’Shea interviews John Arcudi, co-writer of the excellent BPRD.

* Marc-Oliver Frisch really goes to bat in favor of Final Crisis #6. This bit made me laugh:

One of the features of a good work of fiction is that you can pick out pretty much any element in it and find that it’s somehow plugged into the work’s larger theme. And here, indeed, the theme is everywhere. It’s in the “God-Weapon” Brainiac 5 shows Superman, “a machine that turns thoughts into things” (Hey, kids: comics?).

* Bruce Baugh‘s post about how ruins-based World of Warcraft settings make him feel like his place needs cleaning made me chuckle.

* My Bloody Valentine 3D? Sure, I’ll eat it.

* Whoa man: Kent Williams’s Wolverine: Meltdown Covered by Renee French.

* God I love the rainbow of Lanterns. Now in toy form! (Look out for a Blackest Night spoiler at the link, though.)

* Sorry, Tilda: Bowie does it better.

* Speaking of Bowie, here he is with a little fat man who sold his soul.

* Finally:

—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mephis, Tennessee, April 3, 1968.

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