The Topps Company has signed a three-year deal with PSA, a Division of Collectors Universe. Under terms of the agreement PSA will provide Topps with graded cards, which will be sealed in clear plastic, tamper-evident cases and included in product sent to retail.

Not every retailer has the same opportunity to succeed with 'kids comics' as the three profiled in this story, but many can utilize at least some of the stratagems employed so effectively by these storeowners. One theme that is consistent with all three retailers is that they provide one area of their store as an enclave for younger readers.

An official ICv2 release. Milton Griepp, owner of ICv2, has announced that the company has kicked off its initial ad sales campaign. 'Our retailer audience is growing every week,' said Griepp, 'and it's time to open the site to outside advertisers that want to reach this group.'

Master comic scribe Dennis O'Neil, whose work as a writer and editor is legendary, has written a 'how-to' book for aspiring comic book writers. Using examples from his own career as well as samples from the works of other top comic writers, O'Neil examines some of the many different approaches to writing four-color adventures.

Since 1990, newsstand sales of the hundred top selling magazines in the U.S. have declined by 40%. Certainly the proliferation of new titles is partially responsible for the decline in the sales of individual magazines, but doesn't completely explain the fact that the average sell-through for all magazines has plummeted to just 36%.

Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth, a central figure in the development of California car culture has died of a heart attack at the age of 69. To finance his car creations Roth sold t-shirts featuring a gallery of anti-heroic characters including the counterculture's answer to Mickey Mouse, the red-eyed, razor-toothed Ratfink.

Orders for the top comics took an upward tick in April, reflecting the typical seasonal direction now that the doldrums of first quarter are behind us. Ultimate X-Men #5 even came in above 100,000 in estimated comic store orders, the only title to do so in the last two months.

This article contains a chart showing the top 300 comic titles ordered from Diamond North America based on Diamond's reported title indexes and external title data, and interpolation of the remaining numbers.

Maybe it's because the specialty market is counter-cyclical, or maybe it's because it is product driven and there are lots of good products in the offing, but according to retailers ICv2 heard from, the pulse of the industry is strong right now, at least judging from the talk at the DC RRP.

Fox's X-Men grabbed the most nominations for the 27th annual Saturn Awards presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films. The first motion picture featuring Marvel's mutant supergroup earned over $150 million at the box office and a whopping ten Saturn nominations.