The initial advance orders to Diamond Comic Distributors for comics shipping in September showed surprising strength this year, with an increase of around 6% vs. August.

Estimated quantities for the top 300 comics ordered by pop culture stores for shipping in August, 2001.

Comic orders from specialty stores were generally down for August, with an 8% dollar drop from July.

Estimated quantities for the top 300 comics ordered by pop culture stores for shipping in August, 2001.

The CMAA contacted Marvel and the publisher admitted that putting the Code Seal of Approval on Wolverine #165 was 'a mistake' on the company's part. ICv2 has learned that Marvel has not been submitting books to the CMAA recently and other current issues that carry the code (e.g., Tangled Web #3) are also 'mistakes.'

North American comic shop orders increased in the aggregate again for July, with the total dollars up around 10% from June.

Orders by comic shops (Diamond U.S. customers) for the Top 300 Comics shipping in July.

Comic orders from North American comic shops strengthened in June, with increased sales at all levels of the chart reflecting the retailer confidence associated with the kick-off of the summer selling season and a seemingly strong underlying sales trend.

Marvel Comics has signed an 'expansive' three-year licensing agreement with Diamond Select Toys, a sister company of Diamond Comic Distributors.

This article contains a chart showing the top 300 comic titles ordered from Diamond North America based on Diamond's reported title indexes and external title data, and interpolation of the remaining numbers.