We've now had some time to fill in our year-over-year numbers for initial U.S. comic orders to Diamond Comic Distributors from pop culture stores, and the results show a blah third quarter followed by robust growth in the first two months of the fourth.

Marvel and DC are pulling out all the stops for December in a contest to see which publisher will gain the most customers from an expected wave of new consumers surging into comic stores that month.

We continue to get comments from retailers on Marvel's reprint and overprint policies. This one is from Gail Burt of Metropolis Comics, Cards, and Collectibles in Downey, California. ' While I basically like the no over print policy, what I would like to see is a RE-print.'

Estimated quantities for initial orders on graphic novels shipping in November, 2001 from pop culture stores ordering from Diamond U.S.

Estimated quantities for initial orders for comics shipping in November from pop culture stores ordering from Diamond U.S.

A mixture of new and old products make up our Top 10 Cool lists for September, 2001, both in the sense of new and retro properties and creative material, and in the sense of products new to the list and those that have previously appeared.

Mark Bergman, age 54, died on Tuesday, October 16, 2001, at his home in Madison, Wisconsin with his wife Ronee and his canine companions, Hershey and Willie Nelson, at his side.

Over the past year, there's been a lot of controversy surrounding Marvel's no-overprint/no reprint policy. Origin has been the Marvel title around which this discussion has swirled most recently.

Over the past few weeks, we've done two major articles on Diamond's poll regarding the release day for new comics that produced some retailer response.

When Diamond and Alliance opened the floor for questions from retailers during a luncheon event at the Retailer Summit in Las Vegas this week, it only took a few minutes before the topic of Diamond's proposed change to a Thursday release day for new comic shipments was raised, and once it was raised little else was discussed for the remainder of the Q&A session.

Comic orders were up again in October, kicking off the fourth quarter with the best dollar month this year to date. Total dollars for October were up over 11% compared to September, which was an unusually strong month when compared to normal seasonal trends.

Estimated quantities for initial orders for comics shipping in October from pop culture stores ordering from Diamond U.S.