As of Friday, October 12th, U.S. Playing Cards laid off four of the five remaining employees in its Journeyman division.

Apparently responding to concerns that its industry discussion boards allowed public access, GAMA has taken steps to resolve this issue by requiring users to identify a business with which they are associated.

Here are a few of the tidbits from presentations of major comic publishers at the Diamond/Alliance Retailer Summit held in Las Vegas last week.

Wizard's Stewart Morales gave his Tony Robbins impression at the Diamond/Alliance Retailer Summit in Las Vegas, roaming the crowd with his headset mike touting upcoming and current Image releases.

We just returned from Las Vegas, where we attended the Diamond/Alliance Retailer Summit over the last two days.

In Part III of this far-ranging interview, the person in charge of DC's business operation talks about its option to buy Diamond, the public dialogue with Marvel, circulation estimates, media tie-ins, the prospect for radical change at DC, and DC's growing toy and statue business.

In Part II of this far-ranging interview, the person in charge of DC's business operation talks about the future of direct market retailing, the growing importance of the bookstore channel, the original graphic novel format, overprinting, the future of newsstand distribution and the periodical format of comics, and the potential impact of Japanese pop culture on American.

In Part I of this far-ranging interview, the person in charge of DC's business operation talks about how his background in the business, the organization of DC's top management, the comic market size and trends, the state of DC, and the comics code.

Retailers have been debating the proposed change with some vigor.

Mochizuki published 48 trade paperback volumes of this series in the decade following the debut of Wild 7 in 1969.