Diamond Select has released more information about its license with Marvel comics (see 'Marvel Inks Agreement With Diamond Select'). In addition to the already announced calendars, posters, and lithographs, Diamond Select will also create statues, busts, bookends, and snowglobes. The first wave of the new products will be a series of busts and statues featuring heroes from Marvel's Ultimate line, while the second wave will include the Green Goblin, Cyclops and Wolverine.
Diamond Select has engaged a number of first rate sculptors to work on the new Marvel statues, busts and bookends--Rudy Garcia, Same Greenwell, Gabriel Marquez, and David Carlos. The agreement with Diamond Select will provide Marvel with a line of specific collector-oriented products that are clearly designed to duplicate what DC has done with DC Direct, which has become a very strong line for both DC Comics and a wide range of pop culture retailers (see 'DC Direct Has a Full Slate').