Todd McFarlane Productions, the comic book publishing arm of Todd McFarlane's business empire, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

With sales down on an individual basis on a lot of comic titles and weak graphic novel sales, the market struggled to a 2% increase in dollars for November 2003 vs. November 2004.

Sales were soft for most of the top comic titles this month, with five out of the top ten and 16 out of the top 25 dropping in sales. But the top seven piece books were all higher than the current base $2.25 price.

These are estimates of the sales on graphic novels by Diamond U.S. to comic specialty stores during November 2004.

These are estimates of the sales by Diamond U.S. to comic specialty stores during November 2004.

Checker Book Publishing has acquired the rights to publish two volumes of collections of the X-Files comic books, originally published by Topps Comics.

Alias Enterprises, a new publisher founded by Brett Burner and Mike S. Miller, will launch 12 full color comics in April.

David Goyer has inked a deal with Warner Bros. to write, produce and direct a feature film based on the Flash.

El Capitan Books will publish Stray Bullets in a new series of trade paperback collections.

This week, Bates gives us his top gift items this season, in three parts. In Part 2, he looks at the game and DVD categories.