In a move destined to arouse controversy, Marvel is bypassing Diamond and selling an 'error' edition of Elektra #3 directly to a handful of retailers across the country.

Magazine orders from pop culture stores dropped substantially between November 2000 and November 2001, by percentages ranging from 7% to 19% on the seven titles for which we were able to compare orders.

Strong month-over-month trends as well as the anecdotal evidence from retailers are confirmed by an 8% year-over-year improvement between November 2000 and November 2001 dollar orders to Diamond North America from pop culture stores.

Comic and graphic novel orders were up month-to-month again in November, continuing a strong second half for North American comic sales with the largest dollar orders of the year to date.

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

Hasbro announced its third quarter earnings this week, and the news was better than expected. On sales that were down to $893 million from $1.1 billion a year ago, the company earned $50.6 million, compared to $13.8 million in 2000.

9-11 Emergency Relief , a comic trade paperback featuring work by dozens of comic creators, ships January 2002 from Alternative Comics.

Diamond Comics VP Operations Cindy Fournier has announced that new comic release day will remain Wednesday for the foreseeable future.

The second printing of 150,000 books will be identical to the first printing with the exception of a 'second printing' notation in the indicia.

Neil Gaiman took part in today's Marvel press conference, at which Editor-in-chief Joe Quesada announced that Marvel would publish a six-issue mini-series written by Gaiman.