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What is a day in the life of Stan Lee like? Judging by the PR wire, as soon as he gets out of bed he asks himself "Whom shall I pact with today, True Believer?" and his people call some other people, and POW! a pact is born! How many times has Stan Lee pacted with another entertainment company? The answer may SHOCK you.

Yesterday was a gloomy day for the comics industry, as 15 Marvel staffers -- including several popular editors and a couple of legendary Bullpenners -- were laid off. This followed the recent layoff of COO Jim "Ski" Sokolowski. We all know the economy sucks, and that comics sales are down this year. But was that the reason for the cost cutting? Or was it Disney? The Mouse purchased Marvel for $5 billion two years, two months ago and they are well known for being very budget conscious. Did some Disney suit look at revenue, say it wasn't enough and order some budget cuts? While both these scenarios sound plausible, according to Marvel insiders contacted by The Beat, neither seems to be the case. The budget slashing is the work of Marvel's CEO, Isaac Perlmutter, an executive of legendary stinginess whose fanatical devotion to saving money —an increased interest in being hands on at Marvel — has led to the layoffs and other draconian measures inside the company.

Does the Society pay any of its staff? Does it rent office space? Does it buy office supplies? If the answer to any of these questions is "yes," please consider paying cartoonists and other creators. Cartooning is hard work, and it deserves recompense.

DC sold a lot of comics — so many that they actually sent out a press release about it; even Diane Nelson, previously silent on the relaunch, now thinks it was a great idea. Selling five million comics in 6 weeks is indeed a sizable number; however what augurs the best for the comics industry is that sales across the board were up. Marvel had its best September in a while, as did Image. We're not talking a return to 1993 -- as some retailers thinks -- but more like a return to 2003. Which is still great. It's fairly obvious that customers were waiting for something exciting to happen in order to go back into stores; these disenchanted readers -- Dan DiDio's much loved "lapsed readers" -- have now discovered that comics are still fun. But will they stay that way?

PW reports that Books-a-Million, the OTHER book chain remaining, has also ordered DC's top 100 GNs removed from their shelves in retaliation for DC's signing a digital four-month exclusive with Amazon.

Yesterday, ICv2 ran a three-part interview with DC co-publishers Dan DiDio and JIm Lee which is, if not the most substantial comics business site run interview with the duo ever then the most comprehensive since the reboot. Brigid runs down all the high points but in case anyone missed it, here's Part 1, Part 2 andPart 3. It covers everything from the obvious "Why ARE you doing this?" -- to questions on mass market, digital, and so on. The net effect, as seen in mainstream interviews of late, is that things weren't working -- the price decrease didn't bring in enough new readers, stories were flat and piracy is hurting. But there are some familiar themes as well. Asked about The Way Forward, they respond:

We're not savvy enough on the West Coast operations of Marvel to know what was behind this, but it's fairly safe to say that Disney cares much more about Marvel Studios than Marvel Comics. Implementation of the Disney-Marvel relationship has been an odd one -- on the one side, you have a corporate juggernaut who wants to reach the boy market for toys and toons. On the other, you have a company that is very much still led by chairman Ike Perlmutter, who, by some accounts, is Disney's second biggest shareholder after Steve Jobs. Marvel Studios is known for knowing the value of a penny -- something Disney also knows. But whereas Disney has controlling costs down to an art, Perlmutter has it down to a science. The relationship is still evolving.

Initial orders for The New 52 are in and JLA #1 has more than 200,000 pre-orders, and six other #1s have more than 100,000 pre-orders.

Many reports tonight via Twitter that the Atomic Comics chain in Arizona is shutting down, and confirmed on an employee's Facebook page. The four store chain, owned by Mike Malve, was one of Diamond's biggest accounts and a huge, progressive retailer known nationwide for its signings and aggressive, innovative promotions. Atomic and its logo were included prominently in the KICK-ASS movie, after Mark Millar became a fan following a signing. The four stores were located in Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler, and Paradise Valley.

Remember manga? It's still around, even if it isn't the juggernaut it was in the olden days. The big, big news in manga this week was the launch of Jmanga.com, best described as what if Marvel, DC, Random House, Dynamite, and Fantagraphics all teamed up to create their own comiXology. After years of sitting around anxiously watching piracy take a toll, the top Japanese publishers have finally banded together to create their own LEGAL online portal. The site just launched this week, and there been a ton of talk. J.K. Parkin has a great round-up of much of the reaction but it hasn't been universally loved:

Is the comics shop a typewriter or a ball point pen?

Despite a lukewarm (or "dismal" as the LA Times put it) box office reception which is blamed with helping Disney get cold feet over The Lone Ranger *, COWBOYS & ALIENS will live on via licensing, if Platinum Studios has anything to say about it. A new press release has announced a deal with KKM Global Brand Strategies which will license all aspects of the property. Oh, except the movie.