Initial March comic orders from US pop culture retailers were up 7% over March 2001, powered by strong performances from Marvel and Dark Horse.

The best-selling comic title for March 2002, New X-Men , has initial raw orders to Diamond US of only around 104,000 copies, the lowest quantity for a #1 comic title since April of last year.

Marvel Comics announced today that it will be reducing its retail prices on new trade paperbacks by $2 to $3, depending on page count, beginning in July 2002.

Ilan Strasser of Fat Moose Comics and Games wrote in to say that he doesn't like Marvel's recently announced plan to bump prices on three of its lower-selling titles.

January is a transition month in the pop culture products business, with the first week or two typically showing strong post-Christmas sales, followed by slowing traffic as the winter doldrums set in. But there was a lot of activity in pop culture stores this January, with especially strong releases in the comic category.

The good news is that ToyBiz action figures are getting better and better thanks to new high tech imaging equipment and an increasing willingness to hire top sculptors, but the bad news is that the first wave of Spider-Man Movie Action Figures showed up in Wal-Mart (and reportedly, in Toys R Us) a month before other channels.

Diamond Select showed off a growing collection of licensed products and cool Japanese imports at its showroom at the New York Toy Fair this year.

Checker Book Publishing of Centerville, Ohio announced the May publication of its second collection of comic stories, Clive Barker's Hellraiser -- Collected Best .

Rather than cancel three titles with lagging circulation, Marvel COO Bill Jemas has decided to raise the cover price of Spider-Girl , Black Panther , and Captain Marvel by 25 cents.

In Marvel's press conference today, Marketing Manager Bill Rosemann ran down an impressive list of Spider-Man projects scheduled for the spring in order to feed off the heat generated by the Spider-Man movie, which opens May 3.