All three of the largest US manga publishers told ICv2 that sales are booming for manga trade paperbacks.

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.

A visit to the Wizards of the Coast section of the Hasbro Building at this year's New York Toy Fair leaves no doubt that WotC will be very busy in 2002.

U.S. sales for mid-sized comic publishers were a mixed bag in 2002, with big increases and decreases the norm according to our analysis of circulation and dollar data from the last two years.

4Kids Entertainment, the company that packages Pokemon , Yu-Gi-Oh , and Cubix, outbid both DIC Entertainment ( Sailor Moon ) and Nickelodeon for the four-hour Saturday morning block.

Nelvana, the Canadian-based distributor of children's programming and products, has acquired the rights to the latest Japanese toy craze, Beyblades , as well as to the anime series the toy tops have inspired.

In the midst of a recession and in the wake of the economic turmoil created by the 9-11 attacks, the pop culture retailers surveyed by ICv2 reported strong sales in December. Let's take a look at some of the categories...

Upper Deck has announced that it has acquired the license to produce and market the English language version of the Yu Gi Oh CCG , the game that took off when Pokemon declined in Japan.

Wizards of the Coast has announced that it has acquired an exclusive, multi-year, worldwide license for trading card games based on the entire Star Wars saga.

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.