Marvel released its first quarter financials for 2004 today, revealing a solid growth in net sales for the period, to $122.3 million from $87.4 million in Q1 2003.

As usual, Marvel's Man in Hollywood Avi Arad provided an overview of Marvel's many Hollywood projects.

The outreach for this year's Free Comic Book Day, which will be held on July 3, has gained some major marketing support from Marvel, Del Rey, & AOL.

According to the Hollywood Reporter , screenwriter David Hayter will write and direct Black Widow (Natasha Romanov) for Lions Gate.

MV Creations, the comic book studio best known for Masters of the Universe and Tales of the Realm, will return to Image Comics starting in August.

Nominations for the Seventeenth Annual Harvey Awards, named for famed comics creator Harvey Kurtzman, include books published by a record 23 different publishers.

Ilan Strasser of Fat Moose Comics and Games in Whippany, New Jersey saw our article on Tokyopop's upcoming TV advertising and wonders why it's the first publisher to do so.

The box office reign of the revenge-seeking vigilante continued over the weekend as Man on Fire , which stars Denzel Washington, took the top spot with an estimated $23 million.

Diamond's sales of comics were up a solid 15% in March 2004 over March 2003, reflecting both increases in circulation and in average cover price.

David Hayter, who wrote both X-Men and X2 , has been hired to rewrite Marvel's Iron Man movie, which is planned for release next year.