In the lead article in the Arts Section of the April 4, 2001 N.Y. Times , Neil Strauss celebrates the sad and brilliant art of cartoonist Chris Ware ( Acme Library , Jimmy Corrigan ). Strauss's lengthy article is headlined 'Creating Literature, One Comic Book at a Time.'

April 4, 2001. In a conference call with the press today, Marvel President Bill Jemas didn't mince words when defending his 'no overprint policy' In response to a question on the topic from ICv2, he responded, 'It's sort of an IQ test for comic retailers. You can count the digits in their IQ based on their enthusiastic reaction to the 'no overprints policy.''

Several events that occurred over the past week demonstrated an increasing tendency to blame the entertainment industry for society's ills.

Fandom.com, one of the largest U.S. retailers of comics, collectible toys, and other pop culture products is shedding staff and preparing for a sale. The company had downsized by 20% in January.

Company profile for Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc., the leading U.S. comic book distributor providing comic book specialty retailers with wholesale, non-returnable comic books and related pop culture merchandise.

Company profile for Alliance Game Distributor, the leading gaming distributor in the U.S.

Company profile for Slave Labor Graphics.

In our article about the debut of Jhonen Vasquez's Invader Zim we neglected to mention that Slave Labor also has two toys based on Jhonen Vasquez properties.

Only about a half a dozen dealer tables remain for this year's WonderCon, which will be held at the Oakland Convention Center from April 20 to April 22.

Paul Jenkins, writer of Spider-Man, Hulk, Inhumans, Sentry , and Witchblade has taken a position at Top Cow as lead story editor. His primary responsibility will be working with all the Top Cow writers in an editorial capacity to ensure a uniform strategic direction in storylines.