This week, Steve Bennett talks about his travels to Vegas and Chicago.

Ethan Peacock of Elfsar Comics & Toys in Vancouver, British Columbia shares his experience with Free Comic Book Day 2008 and says it exceeded their expectations.

Dan Barnett of Walt's Cards in Baltimore, Maryland saw retailer Stephen Armstrong’s comments about deep discounting of Dungeons and Dragons product and observes that not only is there still discounting of Magic: The Gathering product, the new rarity scheme is unnecessary.

Stephen Armstrong of Mad City Comics in Moncton, New Brunswick saw retailer Derek Garrison’s comments about deep discounting of Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition products and says Wizards of the Coast should establish a Magic discounting policy for 4E .

Mary Alice Wilson of Dark Star Books and Comics in Yellow Springs , Ohio saw responses to Steve Bennett’s recent column on low-selling titles and believes readers may be missing the point of the column.

Dara Hannon of Pyrimid Comics & Games in Sierra Vista, Arizona saw Steve Bennett’s recent column on low-selling titles and retailer comments, and says the Top 300 list should not dictate ordering in comic shops.

Writers Vlas and Charles Parlapanides are scripting a live action American version of Death Note.

Given the devoted following that DC’s Vertigo imprint has developed, DK’s The Vertigo Encyclopedia looks like a winner.

Alexa Kitchen, the world’s youngest professional cartoonist, has signed with Hyperion.

Manga giant Tokyopop announced this morning that it is spinning off its comics-to-film and digital units into a new company, Tokyopop Media LLC; publishing operations will remain in Tokyopop Inc. Publishing production will be reduced by roughly 50% through the rest of the year.