Osmosis Jones is this summer's big-budget animated film that you have heard the least about.

Along with the great Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishinomori was one of the founding fathers of Japanese manga. Ishinomori created the Kamen Rider ( Masked Rider in the U.S.) as well as Cyborg 009 and literally hundreds of other manga and anime series including The Skull Man , a dark anti-hero who lives for revenge.

Many retailers have noticed (and encouraged) a steady increase of female customers at their stores over the past few years as pop culture offerings have diversified -- and many of these retailers have moved well beyond the basic, 'have a clean, well-lit store' approach.

James Marsters, who plays 'Spike' on the popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series drew huge crowds of teenage girls for his signing session and Q & A at Gen Con on Sunday.

While it is true that as in the United States, boys' comics outsell girls' comics in Japan, comics aimed at girls (or shojo manga) represent up to 30% of the huge Japanese market for comics that dwarfs comic publishing efforts here in the States.

ICv2 is launching its 'Grow with Shojo' promotion today, which includes free point of purchase materials for retailers, a display contest with major prizes, and information on how to market the fastest-growing products.

ICv2's 'Grow with Shojo' Display Contest is a great way for retailers to expand merchandising to female consumers--a rapidly growing consumer segment in pop culture stores.

This is a listing of all of the great stuff available to the store that wins our Shojo Display Contest. The total value of these prizes is over $3,100, and it could all be yours.

WizKids, the company that created Mage Knight, the first collectible miniatures game announced at GenCon in Milwaukee that it would be producing a Battletech collectible miniatures game for release in the summer of 2002.

WizKids has revealed more details about Mage Knight: Dungeons , a major expansion to the Mage Knight collectible miniatures game which will help bolster first quarter sales when it ships in January of 2002. The Dungeons Starter Set includes pre-painted treasure chests as well as new Mage Knight figures.