October
15 Musical Chairs

Ike Perlmutter, the Marvel vice chairman who along with Avi Arad led the effort to merge Toy Biz with Marvel and bring the company out of a near-disastrous bankruptcy, has been named CEO of the company. Perlmutter, who is Marvel's single largest shareholder, replaces Allen Lipson, who is retiring. The change takes effect Jan. 1.

Marvel also has hired John Dokes as marketing director for its publishing division. Dokes helped launch the Marvel Knights line in the late 1990s and returns to Marvel from Graphography Consultants and after a stint at MTV Networks.

Over at DC Comics, Dan Didio has been promoted to executive editor of the DC Universe titles, putting him in charge of the company's classic superheroes such as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.

Hot on the heels of Identity Crisis, DC's back in the news with Green Arrow #43, in which the hero's sidekick, Mia, is revealed to have HIV. The story, written by former MTV Real World star Judd Winick, has had coverage from the Associated Press and the New York Times. Green Arrow's sidekicks have had a bit of a rough time throughout the character's history: the emerald archer's former associate, Speedy, was revealed as a junkie in a classic early 1970s story by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams. Winick talks about the current storyline in an interview at Comic Book Resources.

The top 300 comicbook rankings for sales in September to the direct market are out. DC took the top spot with Superman/Batman #12 while Identity Crisis #4 and Superman #290 took the third and fourth spots respectively. Marvel took No. 2 with Astonishing X-Men #5, and then dominated the rest of the top 20 with the usual assortment of Ultimate books, X-Men books and Spider-Man books. The ranking for the top 100 graphic novels in the direct market was more diverse at the top, with Dark Horse's "Chronicles of Conan" and "Hellsing" having strong showings. Cartoon Books' "Bone One Volume Edition" was the top money book of the month, with its $39.95 pricetag for the 1,300-page story. "Hellsing" was the top manga volume with Viz and TOKYOPOP being the most dominant publishers in the top 50.

Manga creator Santa Inoue, whose "Tokyo Tribes" is published by TOKYOPOP, will appear on this Sunday's edition of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" on ABC.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund broke its fund-raising record at the Small Press Expo, raising $22,000. The org is dedicating to protecting the free-speech rights of the comicbook industry.

CBR is reporting that Image Comics will move its offices from Orange County north to Berkeley, Calif. The move places the company's offices closer to the home of publisher Erik Larsen.