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Steve Niles, who has been very much in the forefront of the renewed emphasis on creator controlled comics, looks at what recent events mean:

Good news! Turns out DC isn't trying to destroy the direct sales market with their "Flashboot" -- or whatever it's called -- relaunch after all! And it is a relaunch, not a reboot, according to a letter sent by SVP of Sales Bob Wayne to retailers, announcing a pricing strategy that will see digital comics at the SAME price as print comics for their first four weeks of release. Wayne calls this "price parity" -- " No DC digital comic will be cheaper than its physical counterpart at launch." The Johns/Lee JLA #1 will be available with a digital download for $4.99, in print and digital only for $3.99 each.

Via PR and an interview with CBR, the much-argued over Valiant comics characters are coming back, this time under a group led by former Marvel CEO Peter Cuneo, his brother, Gavin, CEO Jason Kothari and director Dinesh Shamdasani.

While there will be plenty of PR spinning about DC's big news as a great jumping on point for new readers and all that other doublespeak, let's look at the other side of the coin.

Why is it that the biggest news always happens right after a holiday weekend? 18 months ago, it was Disney buying Marvel after Labor Day; this time, it's the biggest editorial readjustment at a superhero comics company EVER: DC's just announced plan to launch 52 new #1 issues in September, with changed or adjusted characters, costumes and and origins. Here's what you need to know, the confirmed and the speculation. First, what we know: The whole new line up will be announced on Monday, June 13th, when the Previews for that month is released. Until then, expect to see breaking news in national news outlets and on The Source.

Industry analysis site ICv2 has just released a new industry report card for Q1 '11, and while sales were a bit patchy, it wasn't a disaster. This article contains links to a bunch of category analyses, but perhaps the most interesting is that non-Big Two, non-superhero titles are beginning to take up a bigger part of the market share:

Day 2 of BEA produced more sore feet and shoulders as books were schlepped everywhere. but also books, authors, talks, and even a few comics. The Beat's day started with an Author's Stage interview with Bill Willingham on the subject of his new YA prose novel, Down the Mysterly River. Author's Stage interviews are kind of like Inside the Actors Studio -- they take place on a stage ...in front of people...sitting in a chair. No place to hide! They are not meant to engage a sense of comfort in the interviewer! Luckily Bill is such a great raconteur and talker, I had no worries. Publisher Tor has written up the talk:

There was some floor chatter at BEA about Barnes & Noble yesterday -- although we all know Borders is not long for this world, some are suggesting that all the book chains are going to be bye-bye within two years. This despite the recent $1 billion purchase bid for Barnes &Noble by John Malone's Liberty Media. But is Malone's bid really about brick and mortar stores?

The first day of exhibits at this year's BEA kicked off with a smaller floor space, and, as opposed to years past when the Diamond booth was the place to be for comics, found comics publishers scattered all over the floor -- Archaia being the latest to move out, over to PGW. But wherever they were, comics seemed comfortable to be there.

Archaia is making some moves, both with a new distributor -- PGW -- and its first illustrated novel, strong>Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes. Buried in a PR on the Ape book is the news that Archaia is leaving Diamond for PGW, which already distributes Cartoon Books. PGW distributes over 100 independent publishers, so picking up a few GN publishers makes sense. And Archaia's new books-only plan is also a good bit for a books-only distributor.

Borders' woes continued in April as their losses mounted, PW reports.

With no buyer found, creditors unwilling to float more cash, and a $24.3 million loss posted in March, Borders is struggling to find a way out of its troubles, according to a story in the Detroit Free Press, which quotes numerous shadowy insiders. No one has stepped forward to buy the chain outright.