Three promising new series debut this month: An Animal Crossing gag manga, a new time-travel story from Rumiko Takahashi, and a slice-of-life comedy about a very capable cat.

ICv2 has built a running release calendar for Pokemon TCG as a retailer resource to help keep tabs on the new products and production schedule changes announced by The Pokemon Company International.

Hobby game sales were up strongly overall in the Spring (January through April) season of 2021, although there were substantial variations from region to region and store to store depending on the fury of the global Covid pandemic and the accompanying restrictions on retail.

These charts of the Top 10 Hobby Channel Collectible Games, Top 3 Mass Market Channel Collectible Games and Top 5 Collectible Games Over-all reflect sales in Spring 2021.

Despite the many challenges of doing business during a global pandemic, hobby game sales in the U.S. and Canada grew 21% to $2.035 billion in 2020, up from $1.675 billion in 2019.

The new manga licenses include a Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba spinoff, a collection of short manga by Rumiko Takahashi; plus a Star Wars art book and a cover and date for the Marvel/VIZ crossover: Deadpool: Samurai.

This week, Scott Thorne continues his discussion of distributor magazines, and asks whether the current Pokemon craze has crested.

The Pokemon Company International unveiled three new Pokemon TCG: Pokemon V-UNION Special Collections.

TCGplayer unveiled their June data for sealed product price changes and sales, revealing trends that have developed in the TCG collectibles market over the course of that month.

Pokemon TCG was back on top, with the Sword & Shield – Chilling Reign Booster Box seeing the most aftermarket sales.