The American Booksellers Association has settled its lawsuit against Barnes & Noble and Borders for $4.7 million. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of independent bookstore owners who felt that the big chains received illegal discounts and promotional subsidies from publishers. The paltry settlement from Borders and Barnes & Noble does not even begin to pay the legal fees for the suit against the chains.

Marvel's 2000 Annual Report is now available, and there's information on a number of key issues for pop culture retailers , among them the importance of direct sales to pop culture stores to Marvel's publishing operations and business as a whole. Marvel's direct sales are critical to its publishing, but publishing remains a small part of the overall picture for Marvel since it was folded into Toy Biz 1998.

List of the many makers of POTA merchandise in conjunction with the Tim Burton movie.

Entertainment Weekly's influential 'Summer Movie Preview' issue which hit the stands Monday, April 23 features a spectacular fold-out Planet of the Apes cover. The coveted EW cover spot goes to the summer film with the most 'buzz' and Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes fits the bill for this highly competitive summer season.

Debra Streicker-Fine, CEO of Fandom, Inc. announced Thursday, April 19 that the company has given CMI Holding Group the exclusive license to sell Fandom Shop's inventory. Fandom, once the largest pop culture retailer in the US, stopped shipping orders on Friday, April 6th and since then has been attempting to sell its e-commerce and content assets.

Wizard Entertainment is preparing its first totally anime publication, Anime Invasion , which is being solicited in the current (April) edition of Diamond Previews . Retailers will be able to select from two different covers, one featuring an Akira design by Pat Lee ( Warlands ), and one with a DBZ and Sailor Moon 'Toonami' cover. The magazine will carry a $4.99 cover price.

Stan Lee will make a guest appearance on the Home Shopping Network this coming Monday, April 23rd at 11:00 PM (Eastern Time). Dynamic Forces is presenting a 'Marvel 40th Anniversary' program, and highlighting forty years of Marvel art with a series of lithographs. Stan will be signing lithographs during the show.

Broccoli Co. Ltd, the second largest distributor of anime and game merchandise in Japan has invested in California-based Digital Manga. Established in 1994, Broccoli opened its first character goods store 'Gamers' in 1996. Currently Broccoli operates 13 retail stores in Japan, and is the second largest retail chain specializing in anime.

Manga Entertainment has confirmed to ICv2 that the versions of the two Evangelion movies that it will release in November will not be edited specially for the U.S. market. AD Vision had cut out some scenes from its Evangelion releases, but Manga maintains that they will be able to present the Japanese versions in their entirety and still keep a '13+' rating.

Sovereign Stone , a fantasy-roleplaying world created by artist Larry Elmore and fleshed out fictionally by the best-selling novelists Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, is abandoning its current game-playing system in favor of the d20 system, which has been made available to third party creators by Wizards of the Coast.

Canadian card manufacturer Dart Flipcards has landed the license for Shrek, the computer-generated animated comedy from Dreamworks featuring the vocal talents of Mike Meyers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow.

Pojo's Pokemon magazine will soon cease monthly publication. Although sources had earlier told ICv2 that the April issue would be the last, the May issue is currently on newsstands, and the June issue, which will be on the stands in early May, will be the last regular monthly issue.