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Cartoonist Susie Cagle -- who was previously teargassed during another confrontation -- was arrested as part of the Occupy Oakland protest on Wednesday night. Cagle was not there as a protester, but as a reporter, covering the scene for Spot.us. According to Cagle's father, Cagle was arrested despite having a prominent press pass and the arresting officer actually knowing her and her work. After being held overnight at Santa Rita Jail, Cagle was released, and charged with the misdemeanor of "present at raid." On her twitter stream she mentions she's currently trying to retrieve her wallet and housekeys from the Oakland police.

Following up news of Monday's arrest of Steve "The Dude" Rude on charges of assault and violating a restraining order, Tom Spurgeon got further details of the night in question from Rude's wife Jaynelle. It seems that on Halloween evening, Steve was outside, in costume, giving out Halloween candy, when barking dogs in a neighbor's yard distracted the Dude, which led him to throw rocks at the fence in front of the dogs. The owners of the dogs -- who had previously obtained the restraining order against Rude -- came out and an argument ensued, which ended with Rude physically shoving one of the neighbors and ripping his shirt off. Rude then returned to handing out his Halloween candy until the police showed up and arrested him.

Looks like that risky relaunch really paid off, as DC had 51% of the comics unit share in October, according to just released Diamond figures. That was a whopping 21 points over Marvel. DC led 42% to 30% in dollars. Justice League #2 topped the comics chart, joined by Green Lantern, Batman, Detective Action, Superman and the Flash in the top 10. Marvel's top seller was Incredible Hulk #1.

Since his death last summer, there's been much talk about honoring the late Harvey Pekar in his native Cleveland with a statue. Pekar's widow Joyce Brabner, was uncomfortable with the idea of a heroic monument, so in conjuction with some local artists they've come up with a more populist memorial: a statue at the Cleveland Heights library that would also serve as a place where people can read and make comics.

Tintin isn't racist. He's just drawn that way. So ruled a Belgian judge yesterday in a long running attempt to get TINTIN IN THE CONGO, the second book in the popular series, banned on account of racism. The book -- like many of its era -- uses typical racial "blackface" caricatures for the natives and portrays them as childish buffoons. Originally drawn in 1931, Tintin creator Hergé revised it in 1946 and redrew a few panels in 1975 -- but only to tone down a scene where a rhino is stuffed with dynamite, not because of any racial overtones.

Well, you won't need to help bail him out, but on his Facebook page, artist Steve Rude's wife, Jaynellle reports that the artist was arrested over a dispute with neighbors.

Golden/Silver age artist Joe Giella who worked for Fawcett in the Golden Age and inked things like Gil Kane's Green Lantern in the Silver age, has had some artwork stolen. Jim Amash reports that "A certain person Joe Giella trusted apparently stole a few pieces of original comic art from his house, mostly likely on Sept. 7 and Oct. 13 of this year.  We want to get the word out so that anyone who may have already purchased this work or may be contacted about it will know it's considered stolen property, and hopefully will help get Joe's artwork back to him. A police report has been filed in the case, but spreading the word to the comics art community is absolutely vital."

Ruwan Jayatilleke has been promoted to SVP Associate Publisher at Marvel, where he previously held the title of SVP, development and planning. Jayatilleke started has new job yesterday, tweeting: Over the years, Jayatilleke has spearheaded a number of important initiatives at Marvel, including the Stephen King partnership, the Halo GN and tie-ins, and a number of digital and "motion comics" projects, including "N", the Stephen King-based digital comic.

The series of fictional tales of Goldmine Studios by former Platinum VP Dan Forcey that we wrote about a few days ago have proven very popular. How popular? They've even inspired some FanFic! Here's one by JD Coughlin, winner of Goldmine’s inaugural “Comic Book Survivor” contest. The scene: Magician's World Los Angeles. The occasion: a very odd dinner.

Diamond has signed with Rovio, maker of the game sensation Angry Birds, to distribute their growing line of books -- presumably by launching them from a slingshot through the windows of comics shops, bookstores and mass market retailers around the world. A worldwide sensation, the Angry Birds game has been downloaded over 400 million times. Angry Birds costumes were the top pick for this Halloween, and their merch is showing up everywhere. The book line thus far includes doodle books, and a cookbook for -- what else? -- eggs. There's been a lot of talk over when Angry Birds would enter the comics market -- one of the creators of the game is a former webcartoonist -- so far they have a webcomic based on the recent Harvest Moon game online.

Charles Brownstein notes that the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's October fundraising goal of $100,000 is 77% there -- they have today to raise the last $25,000 and lots of great premiums still available. Check out the list below and see if there's something on your wishlist.

One of the great mysteries of comics which we enjoy exploring here at Stately Beat Manor is Platinum Studios. This long running "publisher" has been the recipient of glowing profiles over the years, its business model hailed as "genius", despite the fact Platinum never actually published anything for nearly a decade of its existence. Getting the he Cowboys and Aliens movie -- based on a Platinum property -- produced was the holy grail for owner Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, (above, far left) and now that it's finally come out, to middling box office, he'll probably spend the next decade spinning out its success, just as he did with MEN IN BLACK in the 90s. Before Platinum, you seem Rosenberg was the head of Malibu Comics and before that Sunrise Distributors, both businesses which had "interesting" histories. HOwrver, getting a producer credit on the MEN IN BLACK film after finding an obscure comic to sell to Hollywood, made Rosenberg a "MAde" man in Hollywood terms. In addition, there has been much outcry over the years over creators who signed away all the rights to their work to Platinum, only to see it all go into a dark hole of development. Yet, over the last few years, despite many pactings, partnerings and acquisitions, Platinum's finances have not been not so great -- you can see them in their public filings as a penny stock -- until COWBOYS & ALIENS got made. At any rate, Platinum seems to have mastered the "comics to movies" model while hardly producing any comics, such an efficient, waste-free model that we're surprised more people haven't adopted it. With the actual existence of the C&A movie, the publishing arm of Platinum seems to have come to a close as well. In June of this year, VP of Development Dan Forcey left the company, prompting one ex-Platinum creator to tweet that the company was dead.