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Looks like that risky relaunch really paid off, as DC had 51% of the comics unit share in October, according to just released Diamond figures. That was a whopping 21 points over Marvel. DC led 42% to 30% in dollars. Justice League #2 topped the comics chart, joined by Green Lantern, Batman, Detective Action, Superman and the Flash in the top 10. Marvel's top seller was Incredible Hulk #1.

The series of fictional tales of Goldmine Studios by former Platinum VP Dan Forcey that we wrote about a few days ago have proven very popular. How popular? They've even inspired some FanFic! Here's one by JD Coughlin, winner of Goldmine’s inaugural “Comic Book Survivor” contest. The scene: Magician's World Los Angeles. The occasion: a very odd dinner.

Diamond has signed with Rovio, maker of the game sensation Angry Birds, to distribute their growing line of books -- presumably by launching them from a slingshot through the windows of comics shops, bookstores and mass market retailers around the world. A worldwide sensation, the Angry Birds game has been downloaded over 400 million times. Angry Birds costumes were the top pick for this Halloween, and their merch is showing up everywhere. The book line thus far includes doodle books, and a cookbook for -- what else? -- eggs. There's been a lot of talk over when Angry Birds would enter the comics market -- one of the creators of the game is a former webcartoonist -- so far they have a webcomic based on the recent Harvest Moon game online.

One of the great mysteries of comics which we enjoy exploring here at Stately Beat Manor is Platinum Studios. This long running "publisher" has been the recipient of glowing profiles over the years, its business model hailed as "genius", despite the fact Platinum never actually published anything for nearly a decade of its existence. Getting the he Cowboys and Aliens movie -- based on a Platinum property -- produced was the holy grail for owner Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, (above, far left) and now that it's finally come out, to middling box office, he'll probably spend the next decade spinning out its success, just as he did with MEN IN BLACK in the 90s. Before Platinum, you seem Rosenberg was the head of Malibu Comics and before that Sunrise Distributors, both businesses which had "interesting" histories. HOwrver, getting a producer credit on the MEN IN BLACK film after finding an obscure comic to sell to Hollywood, made Rosenberg a "MAde" man in Hollywood terms. In addition, there has been much outcry over the years over creators who signed away all the rights to their work to Platinum, only to see it all go into a dark hole of development. Yet, over the last few years, despite many pactings, partnerings and acquisitions, Platinum's finances have not been not so great -- you can see them in their public filings as a penny stock -- until COWBOYS & ALIENS got made. At any rate, Platinum seems to have mastered the "comics to movies" model while hardly producing any comics, such an efficient, waste-free model that we're surprised more people haven't adopted it. With the actual existence of the C&A movie, the publishing arm of Platinum seems to have come to a close as well. In June of this year, VP of Development Dan Forcey left the company, prompting one ex-Platinum creator to tweet that the company was dead.

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.