Marvel released it’s Q2 financials today and publishing seems to be holding its own:

Marvel’s Publishing Segment net sales increased $7.8 million or 31% to $32.9 million in Q2 2007 principally due to continued strength in Civil War and the Dark Tower publications in the Direct and Mass Market channels. Operating income in the publishing segment rose to $14.7 million with an operating margin of 45% in Q2 2007, compared to operating income of $10.4 million with an operating margin of 41% in the prior-year period. The improvement in operating margin principally reflects the benefit of operating leverage resulting from sales of high margin trade books.

The toy division did not and profits slipped sending stock down a bit

Marvel Entertainment Inc. which licenses comic book characters, reported lower-than-expected quarterly profit and cut its toy sales forecast for the second half of the year due to possible lower reorders from toy maker Hasbro Inc. (HAS.N: Quote, Profile, Research). Shares of New York-based Marvel, which has a stable of more 5000 characters including Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk and X-Men, dropped almost 8 percent in morning trade. They had slipped about 11 percent since the beginning of the year before Tuesday’s losses.

Hasbro’s line of Marvel toys has widely been considered a disaster by toy insiders — instead of sticking with the industry standard size, they went smaller size, pleasing neither collectors nor the children who allegedly play with the figures.