Part Two of an interview with Gonzalo Ferreyra, Viz Media Vice President of Sales and Product Marketing.

Two new announcements of online availability for anime emphasize both the growing availability of such legal content and the array of options for delivering that content.

Michael Tierney of Collector's Edition and The Comic Books Store in North Little Rock , Arkansas has been following the retailer commentary about shipping day earlier and says it takes work to grow a business and meet the order minimums to get Tuesday shipping.

In two signs of the rapidly shifting home video business, mass merchant retailer Best Buy has acquired file downloading site Napster, while NCR has announced plans to put 11,000 DVD kiosks into the marketplace in the next two years.

Jay Bardyla of Happy Harbor Comics in Edmonton , Alberta saw retailer Mark Farace’s comments about Tuesday shipping and wanted to clarify that “learning to deal with the existing infrastructure from distributors is not giving up on improving the business or the industry.”

Matthew Dykes of Kapow! Comics in Sherwood, Arkansas has been following the retailer comments on Tuesday shipping and says his competition has an unfair advantage by getting their shipment on Tuesdays.

Kirby Tardy of Tardy's Collectors Corner in Grand Rapids , Michigan , has been following and contributing to retailer comments on delivery timing and reasserts that he advocates “Tuesday deliveries for all.”

This week, John Riley talks about things for retailers to consider during economically challenging times.

Hurricane Ike, which slammed into Texas last weekend, is still making life difficult for Houston-based businesses and individuals in the pop culture business.

The direct market now accounts for “over 60%” of publishing for Marvel Comics, a significant drop from the 89% of sales that the direct market represented in calendar 2001, and 84% direct market share of publishing in 2002.