Some of the news that's fit to link.

DC OWNS THE COMIC NEWS. Well, maybe not completely, but this past week, they've taken the lead in terms of market share both in dollar and unit categories for October "floppy" sales, mostly due to Infinite Crisis #1 bringing in almost one million dollars all by itself (Although All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder outsold it in terms of actual number of copies sold). News of what the company does next started leaking out from their RRP in Canada last week, including the cancellation of Flash, Wonder Woman and Gotham Central, the repositioning of some titles (Hawkman becomes Hawkgirl, with Walt Simonson writing and Howard Chaykin drawing, for example), and Sandman being reissued in new editions again, so it doesn't look like DC are resting on their laurels anytime soon, either.

In comparison, Marvel announced that the Hulk will do a rehash of that whole "Superman goes into space and gets stuck in an intergalactic gladiator arena" plot from twenty years ago. Okay, that's not entirely fair - someone must have done that plot before Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern and someone else that was probably Dan Jurgens, right? - but the House of Idea has mostly spent the week relatively quiet in the wake of bad Q3 results and stock falling, although Birthday Girl Heidi MacDonald is paying attention to what stock watchers the Motley Fool are saying about the company.

Getting away from the mainstream for a second, FirstSecond's Mark Siegel (who was in the Bay Area this weekend, with Matt Madden and Jessica Abel and I missed all of them. Dammit) reveals secrets of corporate publishing and Fantagraphics' Gregory Zura considers what advances in search technology mean for comics. For fans of the Manga, Seven Seas have changed their contract terms to allow for creator ownership as a result of the uproar over Tokyopop's less pleasant contracts. But, as the kids say, fuck that noise. Because none of that is nearly as exciting as the news that 50 Cent's Getting Rich or Dying Trying plans include publishing graphic novels. Yes, dear reader - that does mean that he's obviously leaning more towards the "die trying" part of the equation right now.

And now you know what's happening on this, my jaunty world o' comics, today.