Palisades Marketing, a Maryland-based company that specializes in creating toys for collectors, has acquired licenses to create a line of Micronauts toys, as well as minibusts for G.I. Joe , Alien, and Predator .

LPC Group, which distributes comic and manga trade paperbacks and hardcovers to the book trade,has outsourced its logistics to Client Distribution Services (CDS) and is closing its Chicago warehouse.

Comic and graphic novel orders to Diamond U.S. (dollars) were up 18% for January 2002 vs. January 2001.

Batman: The 10-Cent Adventure topped the comic charts for January 2002, with over 650,000 copies ordered from Diamond U.S. prior to any late orders or reorders.

The December 29th New York Times carried an article on the various 9-11 comic benefit/tribute books, noting the 'crossover interest' they were generating.

Here are ICv2's Top Five Comic Stories of 2001. These rankings are based on the business impact of these events on pop culture retailers. 1.Comics bottom? The first three quarters of 2001 were rough in the comics industry. Orders on comics hit new lows

Here are ICv2's Top Five Anime Stories of 2001. These rankings are based on the business impact of these events on pop culture retailers. 1.Anime spreads out. A nime is reaching more deeply into America pop culture in a variety of ways, and seems stronger than ever.

Strange Stories for Strange Kids , the second Little Lit comics anthology, was featured twice on the Today Show recently.

Alternative Comics has announced that 9-11 Emergency Relief , its benefit book for the American Red Cross, is the #1 graphic novel on Diamond Comic Distributors' bestseller list for January.

Variety is reporting that a director has been signed to direct an all-CGI Astro Boy feature film for release in 2004.