Filing down the filing: Publishers Weekly (subscription required) boils down Marvel's year-end SEC filing to four paragraphs, noting that publishing sales rose 13.5 percent in 2003, to $73.2 million, while operating income increased 30.2 percent, to $25.4 million:

"Marvel said it intends to expand its line of products aimed specifically at the mass market, and cited the release last year of its first young adult prose novel, Mary Jane, as an example of the product extensions it is planning. Those efforts, however, are not expected to have a significant impact on revenue in 2004. Growth will come from expansion of its core comic book and trade paperback lines."