Most, but not all, of the retro art books will be deluxe 'coffee table' type books that should have a strong appeal to the visually oriented customers who shop at pop culture stores. Part II of our coverage of the category.

Art books featuring classic illustrations from pulp magazines, comic strips, comic books, men's magazines, and even toy catalogs from the golden age of American pop culture 1930-1960 were prevalent at this year's Book Expo America. Part I of our coverage.

Jerry Robinson is participating in a unique international collaboration with Ken-ichi Oishi (Hotel ) and Shojin Tanaka to create a science fiction manga.

Inside.com, the media-watching website, has reported that Radio Disney, a children's-oriented radio network has told its affiliates not to 'align ourselves promotionally with this new release' ( Shrek ). Shrek is a computer-animated comedy film produced by Dreamworks, which features the vocal talents of Mike Meyers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz.

At today's Marvel news conference, Marvel President Bill Jemas announced the renewal of Marvel's agreement with Diamond Comic Distributors to continue Diamond's exclusive distribution of Marvel titles in the direct market. In addition, the two companies agreed that Diamond would also represent Marvel's trade paperbacks in the traditional bookstore marketplace.

On Wednesday April 18, 2001, the Washington Post printed a lengthy article by Hank Stuever that focused on DC artist Phil Jimenez and his obsession with Wonder Woman . Stuever's essay covers the entire history of the character, who first appeared some sixty years ago just one month before Pearl Harbor.

Here's a typical example of the kind of reactions we received. 'After reading Mr. Jemas's comments on the overshipping, I must say that I can count the number of digits in his IQ by his 'I know better than you do' attitude (zero).

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Scott Rosenberg's Platinum Studios has signed with AMG (Artists Management Group) to oversee the packaging of Rosenberg's catalog of comic book characters for television, film, and new media projects. In addition. Rosenberg will return to comic publishing indirectly at least by packaging some twenty-odd titles under the editorship of Lee Nordling.

Several events that occurred over the past week demonstrated an increasing tendency to blame the entertainment industry for society's ills.

It certainly appears that the newly formed AOL/Time Warner is determined to achieve corporate synergy among its many disparate elements.