Neil Gaiman took part in today's Marvel press conference, at which Editor-in-chief Joe Quesada announced that Marvel would publish a six-issue mini-series written by Gaiman.

Diamond Comic Distributors' comic market share figures for September show DC closing the gap between it and leader Marvel by about 4% of share when reorders and other shipment impacts are included.

When Diamond and Alliance opened the floor for questions from retailers during a luncheon event at the Retailer Summit in Las Vegas this week, it only took a few minutes before the topic of Diamond's proposed change to a Thursday release day for new comic shipments was raised, and once it was raised little else was discussed for the remainder of the Q&A session.

Comic orders were up again in October, kicking off the fourth quarter with the best dollar month this year to date. Total dollars for October were up over 11% compared to September, which was an unusually strong month when compared to normal seasonal trends.

Retailers have been debating the proposed change with some vigor.

As was the case last month, DC was the greatest percentage gainer after reorder dollars were included. There was one shift in ranks -- Viz topped CrossGen for the #6 slot--after reorders were included.

DC, which was #2 in market share for July based on advance orders was #1 in market share based on shipments.

ICv2 drilled down on the comic release date issue with DC VP Sales and Marketing Bob Wayne and Executive Vice President Paul Levitz.

After remaining silent for months in the face of chiding from Marvel's Bill Jemas, DC Comics spokesman Bob Wayne fired off a flurry of verbal jabs at Marvel.

Jemas explained: 'The short answer is there is no change in policy from our no overprints policy. DC has taken a hard and fast position that they are the house of reorders, and we've sort of taken the house of ideas positioning and we're just going to see how those positions play out in the marketplace.'