Batman continued its rise for the fourth consecutive issue, with the Jeph Loeb/Jim Lee creative team powering sell-outs in comic shops.

Christopher Reeve, who played Superman in Superman I-IV, will appear in a Smallville episode set to air on the WB on February 25.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund announced today that Mile High Comics' Chuck Rozanski has donated the oldest CGC 10.0 graded comic in existence, Thor #156, to the Fund to be auctioned to support its work.

The second printing of Batman #608, which was about 30% of the size of the first printing, has sold out at the distributor level less than a week after it hit stores.

Sales rankings obtained by ICv2 for one recent week's sales in U.S. bookstores as compiled by a major industry reporting service showed eighteen of the top twenty graphic novel slots and all of the top ten held by manga titles.

One of the three segments on Sixty Minutes II on Wednesday was titled 'The Superheroes,' and dealt with the current resurgence in the comics business. The movies were the largest area of focus, with Spider-Man the anchor property.

An ICv2 Release. ICv2, with the support of sponsors Tokyopop, Diamond Comic Distributors, Tokyo Mint, and Bandai Entertainment, is bringing you our 'Love Hina's a Hit' promotion, with drawings for cool prizes and information on marketing this surprisingly successful property.

Orders on the top comic titles almost uniformly dropped in October compared to September orders, with only one of the top 25 titles, Daredevil , eking out a gain.

Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane battled in court today, in a dispute that McFarlane's attorney called in his opening statement a case about 'two realities, Neil's reality and Todd's reality.'

Viz Communications has announced its lineup for the American edition of Shonen Jump and there is a strong TV connection evident in the choice of material for the magazine, which makes sense given Viz's goal of attaining mass market success with a circulation of one million in two years.