In spite of the obvious success that comic book-based films have had in Hollywood over the past year, and despite the fact that fellow AOL/Time Warner company DC Comics has an enormous roster of characters, Warner Brothers has been unable to pull the trigger and squeeze off another round in the battle of cinematic superheroes.

Big Blast Entertainment, which holds media rights for Oni Press, and Circle of Confusion, a management company (Wachowski Brothers, Brian Michael Bendis, others) announced a cross-development and management deal.

Warner Brothers Consumer Products Division announced that McFarlane Toys has received the master toy license for the second and third installments of The Matrix Trilogy --- The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions -- as well as rights to the original Matrix film.

For 2003 Dark Horse has lined up a number of exciting licensed projects that are going to be much more than mere comic book versions of screen stories.

N2 Toys, the company that was largely staffed with ex-employees of the Cincinnati-based Kenner (after Hasbro acquired Kenner and eliminated 'redundancies'), is no longer in the business of manufacturing toys.

In comics, Spidey still holds three of the Top 10 Cool Comics in June, with the Kevin Smith-penned Spider-Man/Black Cat #1 in the top slot.

Circuit City, the national electronics chain, is the first nationwide mass-market retailer to announce publicly that it is eliminating VHS product from its stores.

The number of the anime/ Matrix prequels produced by the top animation houses in Japan has reached ten, and it is likely that all the Animatrix shorts will be collected on one DVD that will be released before the end of the year.

Guardians of Order has announced four new anime fan guides for release in the coming months, in addition to previously announced titles.

Tim Davis, owner of Alternate Reality in Chicago, Illinois, said of FCBD in his store, 'I saw 3 to 4 times the number of bodies that I normally see on a Saturday.'