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.

New products dominated the Top 10 Cool lists this month, as strong new releases timed for the holidays pushed aside older ones.

This is a sidebar article to our coverage of how Wizards of the Coast handles release dates for its two main product categories and various distribution channels.

Fox recently dropped its daytime cartoon block, and today Variety reports that the network is considering a number of scenarios for Saturday morning, most of which will spell the end for the four-hour, anime-laden Fox Kids Saturday lineup.

The venerable Simpsons top two categories in our Top 10 Cool lists for October, compiled from reports submitted by retailers across the country.

We've continued to receive comments on Marvel's Walmart program from pop culture stores. This is the fourth such series of comments we've published.

Viz is preparing to publish The Big O manga series, which is written and drawn by Hitoshi Ariga ( Rockman ).

A mixture of new and old products make up our Top 10 Cool lists for September, 2001, both in the sense of new and retro properties and creative material, and in the sense of products new to the list and those that have previously appeared.

The biggest surprises at the top of the lists in August are the #1 toys product -- Clive Barker's Tortured Souls from Mcfarlane -- and the #1 anime -- the El Hazard OVA DVD box set.