New products dominated the Top 10 Cool lists this month, as strong new releases timed for the holidays pushed aside older ones.

Despite three very strong graphic novel/trade paperback quarters and one very strong comic quarter, combined comic and graphic novel orders from North American pop culture stores declined 3% in 2001 vs. 2000.

Blue Line Pro, the company that manufactures blue line pages for comic artists and also publishes Sketch, a 'how-to' magazine for comic artists, is set to publish Comics Continuum , a 64-page quarterly magazine based on the comic news website maintained by veteran comics journalist Rob Allstetter.

Dan DeCarlo, who worked at Archie Comics for over 40 years before he was fired as a result of a dispute over the ownership of the rights to Josie & the Pussycats, died at the age of 82.

NBM is publishing Ted Rall's To Afghanistan And Back , the world's first 'instant graphic novel.'

The year-end report for The Lycos 50, which totals the number of searches for particular topics through the Lycos search engine, finds Dragonball firmly ensconced in first place with more than twice as many searches as second place finisher Britney Spears.

Today's Variety reports that Fox is going full steam ahead with a film adaptation of Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .

Video Business reports that Senators Joe Leiberman and Herb Kohl have sent a strongly worded letter to 34 retail chains, which comprise the bulk of the videogame sales and rental business.

Image Comics has announced that in spite of overprinting, G.I. Joe # 2 has sold out.

The Confessions of Robert Crumb DVD, due out from Home Vision Entertainment in February with a retail price of $19.95, is based on a documentary done for the BBC and was shot from a script prepared by Crumb himself.