Just ten years ago it appeared that Marvel couldn't get a movie made to save its life. How times have changed. This week the second Blade film topped the box office, and everyone expects that Sony/Columbia's Spider-Man movie is going to be one of this summer's biggest hits.

Blade II strolled into 2,707 theaters on Oscar weekend and promptly cut the competition down to size by earning over $33.1 million, the second largest March opening ever.

Dark Horse Comics and laser-mavens Gentle Giant have announced an agreement for Dark Horse to act as the exclusive sales agent for Gentle Giant's consumer products.

There's now another way to dress a store for Free Comic Book Day on May 4--

Serious USA has announced that it has acquired the licenses to produce CD Cardz, rectangular CD-ROMs in trading card size, based on a number of 2002 movie properties.

Initial March comic orders from US pop culture retailers were up 7% over March 2001, powered by strong performances from Marvel and Dark Horse.

The best-selling comic title for March 2002, New X-Men , has initial raw orders to Diamond US of only around 104,000 copies, the lowest quantity for a #1 comic title since April of last year.

Estimated quantities for initial orders on comics shipping in March 2002 from pop culture stores ordering from Diamond US.

The good news is that ToyBiz action figures are getting better and better thanks to new high tech imaging equipment and an increasing willingness to hire top sculptors, but the bad news is that the first wave of Spider-Man Movie Action Figures showed up in Wal-Mart (and reportedly, in Toys R Us) a month before other channels.

Diamond Select showed off a growing collection of licensed products and cool Japanese imports at its showroom at the New York Toy Fair this year.