Passings | Artist Mike Deodato, Jr. announced on Twitter that colorist Dijjo Lima, whose work included X Deaths of Wolverine, Devil’s Reign: Omega, Amazing Spider-Man and many other titles, passed away. A cause of death was not given. Multiversity Comics has posted an obituary for the 34-year-old Brazilian. You can see more of his work on his website.
Original Art | Frank Miller and Lynn Varley’s original art for the cover of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #1 will go up for auction on June 16, and Bloomberg is reporting it could go for up to $2 million.
Crowdfunding | If Kickstarter’s weird blockchain announcement from late last year left you scratching your head, Erin Ptah writes up a lengthy explanation about what it all means for The Beat.
Webcomics | Writing for Cherwell, Hetta Johnson provides some background on Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper, the webcomic turned hit Netflix adaptation.
Events | Savannah Now previews this weekend’s Mini-Comics Expo, which is put on by Savannah College of Art and Design’s Sequential Art Departmen and returns to an in-person event this year.
“For our students specifically it is an opportunity to showcase the work they’ve been working on and to put it out there in ways that’s not just in the classroom in front of your friends. It’s showing it to the community and connecting with your audience,” said David Allan Duncan, a professor of Sequential Art at the college.
Profiles | Creative Bloom profiles cartoonist Mollie Ray, whose debut graphic novel Giant will be published by Faber and Faber.
Manga | “Manga is booming,” according to Deb Aoki in this feature story for Publisher’s Weekly that checks in with several manga publishers on the surge in the market. It also covers recent supply chain woes, the impact of Webtoon on manga sales and the growth of the adult romance genre.
Stamps | Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts will be available later this year on a set of stamps in the United States. The stamps will feature 10 different characters and will form a frame around a 1987 photograph of Schulz. Art director Greg Breeding designed the stamps from Schulz’s artwork and an existing photograph by Douglas Kirkland. No release date was announced.
Cartoonists | At The Comics Journal, R.C. Harvey has a thorough retrospective of Playboy’s long history of running comics in between all those articles.