“These envious wanna-be writers provide coverage for executives who don’t read much. And get this, they’re proud of not reading. One TV guy I met, full of hyperactive disdain, he sniped at me, “I don’t read comic books. I read scripts.” You’re lost pal. They don’t read comic books, they read Wizard Magazine! Or at least the publishers think they do. Either way the result is the same. For all the disgust you’ll hear about Wizard and its shoddy practices when you talk to publishers and marketing folks—and I have yet to hear a single good word from anybody about this thing that ought to come on a roll—for all of that, the publishers kow-tow.
Even though this tree killer here regularly cheapens and poisons our field. Aesthetically and ethically, they grovel. Even though this monthly vulgarity reinforces all the prejudice people hold about comics they cry to all the world that we’re as cheap and stupid and trashy as they think we are, we sponsor this assault. We pay for the @#%$ privilege. But really, when will we finally get around to flushing this thing, this load of crap, once and for all.” – Frank Miller on Wizard Magazine
One of my favorite contests I’ve ever entered was the re-design Superman’s costume contest for Wizard magazine. I’m not sure I can remember why they raised the contest. I think it was to explore the fact that Superman has had so many unique costume changes over the years, or maybe because of the infamous electric Blue Superman re-invention.
In either case, I had fun with this contest mainly because I had the chance to re-invent Superman and it was the first time I’d ever submitted anything to Wizard magazine.
I re-worked Superman to look like one of the Kryptonian natives with a head band, Kryptonian themed costume and all. I considered it the best my best most original work. Hey, I was a kid, I had no idea that it had been done a million times over by a dozen comic book artists and writers at DC before I was even born. Give me a break, here. In either case, I spent hours drawing him and working on the costume and sent it in in a special envelope and back board with my father unfortunately footing the bill for it.
It didn’t win or even get mentioned.
But you know what? It was fun. Years later there was also a create your own X-Men character contest and this was much more polished except I never actually submitted it.
The reason for this droning self-indulgent anecdote is unfortunately Wizard Magazine has folded like a cheap lawn chair from a ninety nine cent store. And sadly it’s an indicator of the times we live in. With progress comes heart ache. With evolution of technology comes the obsoletion of certain functions, and with the internet essentially demolishing any and all mediums, the magazine world has basically experienced a decline that could mean the imminent destruction of magazines and the traditional newsstand as we know it.
The days of the kiosk holding tons of new issues of People and Time with a crusty teller in the middle of Times Square are over, and with the passing of Wizard Magazine comes the loss of hundreds of jobs and with it comes the passing of sister magazine Toyfare, another popular rag for toy collectors around the country.
Sadly, a lot of readers and comic book aficionados saw this coming from miles away. For years now Wizard has slowly phased out any and all coverage involving the comic book format and the artistic element of the medium and have induced the coverage of comic book related properties and sometimes elements that don’t exactly involve comic books at all. Factor that in with the immense amount of ads and it was only a matter of waiting for the announcement. The last issue I read revolved around nothing but coverage of Marvel movies Thor and Captain America, and the Spider-Man video game. That was about it for the majority of the issue.
But in spite of the groan inducing end to the magazine, Wizard has a lot of importance and nostalgic value to many comic book and pop culture nerds out there just like me.
At one time in my life before the internet ever introduced itself, Wizard Magazine was like my own little trip to the comic shop. It was a fun and just all around exciting magazine that served as the inspiration for many of my life’s goals. Before I became a writer, I spent most of my time aiming for the comic book industry. My goal for many years was to be a comic book artists and Wizard Magazine had that element of “You can be a comic book artist too!” that often led me to find issues from its early days and even rush to the news stands to buy the new issues. And there was always something fun and exciting for an aspiring comic book artist like me.
There were action panel tutorials from the biggest artists around, there were how-to sections for shading and lighting and action poses, there were lessons on telling a story in comic books, pacing in comedy comics, building the perfect superhero costume, there was a fan art section where people could submit their own pictures of comic book art, there was a make your own hero section for people to submit their own specially created superheroes or villains, an action figure section for folks to submit their own specially customized action figure, a letter section where people could submit their special art on the envelopes for display, and so on and so on!
At one time before Wizard bowed out, it was a mecca for comic book fandom and a bible for aspiring artists like yours truly. And even when the magazine devolved in the early millennium and completely clipped away most of the art sections on the magazine and turned in to just a magazine about comic book movies, it was still a fun source to copy the amazing art on the cover and the articles. There was always a guarantee one of your favorite artists were going to create a cover for an issue that month, and even if you didn’t love it every single month, it was an interesting perspective.
And it was often you’d see some incredible works of art and splashes that indicated what you’d read about in the issue. True Wizard is bashed and continues to be bashed for being a magazine that allegedly pushed the comic book medium for fans and were very biased in their coverage. For a long time most of the Wizard fan letters harped on the same question over and over: Is there any other label beyond DC and Marvel?
Even someone like me who just wanted to read about Superman and Daredevil would stop and think “Is there any chance you can boast about something other than Marvel and DC for once?” Sure, I loved the big two, but I also wanted to know about the more obscure and interesting comic book titles out there. When Wizard actually decided to spotlight the lesser known titles and series, they were creative material I really wanted to check out. But indie labels don’t churn out the big bucks, I guess. Like Entertainment Weekly, they owed a great debt to these gigantic companies and how Entertainment Weekly is reduced to primarily covering series from Time Warner and Disney, Wizard was mainly prone to covering just Marvel and just DC.
The images of the big icons got people to buy these issues, and Wizard sadly never took this opportunity to sneak in large coverage of some of the more underground labels.
Hell, they had Spider-Man on more of their covers than anyone else. He even ushered in the first issue. Wizard loves Marvel, and even with their magazine now becoming a digital fixture, it’s still so firmly ensconced in the Marvel fetishizing, that it can be irritating most times than not. Beyond that, the magazine pretty much bent to the will of the blooming comic book movie industry by just covering comic book movies time and time again ad nauseum.
In the mid-nineties, there was only a three or four page column that covered the cinematic and television industry and their delvings in the comic book world. Here you could find out about the upcoming “Steel” movie and the see the new design for Mr. Freeze in the sure to be amazing “Batman & Robin.” And do you remember the exclusive peek at the upcoming Captain America animated series? Remember how that panned out? It didn’t. And from thereon in, the magazine just went on to comic book coverage.
But factoring in the dying of the print medium and the dwindling comic book industry outweighed by the fact that comic book movies were a booming industry putting butts in seats, it was only a matter of time until Wizard had to conform and appeal to people who were only watching “Iron Man” the movie and had no idea what Iron Man was on the printed page. But that being said, Wizard gave me so many childhood memories it’s hard to snicker at their downfall. I just can’t. Maybe their whole celebration of comic book fandom was a facade, but who cares? Wizard gave me so many amazing memories that has stood with me for years. Wizard helped me commune with my big cousin and discuss comic books.
Wizard helped me find other comic book geeks like myself. Wizard was the internet for me before I could come online and log on to fine websites like Digital Webbing, Comics Continuum or Comic Book Resources.
It was a place before the internet where I could open a page and see other people like me out there who loved to draw, who loved the medium, and who loved to write letters in to the company questioning their articles and testing their trivia. And did I mention it almost always came with some excellent prize you couldn’t find on the internet? To this day I have my Xavier Institute Diploma explaining I have officially graduated as one of the X-Men! To this day I have my official Avengers Membership card that I have with my George Perez Avengers issue one relaunch! To this day I have “Slingers issue 1/2” that I ordered specially, and “Witchblade/Tomb Raider issue 1/2” that I went out of my way to order and anxiously waited for every single day like Ralphie in “A Christmas Story.”
There were excellent posters from Alex Ross and Bruce Timm, RPG fantasy cards, hologram and holofoil trading cards, I still have my Kiss Stickers, My comic book gift tags, the Iron Man Chromium standee trading card, and so much more that I collected and cherished for almost a decade! I can still fondly remember the fantasy versus battles between two comic book characters that would have comic book experts deliberating on who’d win and who’d lose.
I still fondly remember the Casting Call column that I loved so much based solely on some of the radical suggestions. I can still fondly remember ogling the gorgeous women of the comic book world during the magazine’s big 1998 Summer Spectacular list of comic books sexiest women, and I always loved features like a look in to comic book artists lives, the comic strips from Toyfare, and the comic book price guide.
And yes, I shelled out ten bucks for “The Dark Book.” Now say what you want about Wizard Magazine, but come on “The Dark Book” was incredible. Not only did they feature some of the most vicious and infamous villains of all time, but they had a clear definition on who they were appealing toward. And yes, they even managed to manipulate people in to spending an extra five bucks on a glorified special issue of their magazine. In either case, I still have it, and the hoarder in me refuses to let it go, even in its current mangled state where pages are held together by tape.
The closing of “Wizard” Magazine” is a solemn occasion (you know, hate on the magazine all you want but hundreds of people are unemployed, consider that much at least), and one that will cause many comic book geeks to reflect on their childhood and their love for the medium. Wizard Magazine is not the lifeline of the medium as they wanted us to believe since their first issue in 1991; no, sir.
The comic book medium and art form survived for decades before Wizard, and it will manage to survive in one state or the other after Wizard has come and gone. Right now there are dozens of online comics reaching new heights of popularity without the help of a magazine’s promotion. Right now a bunch of incredible comics are thriving with their large fan bases. At this moment, a bunch of great websites are reporting day in and day out on comic book news without the Wizard emblem.
We simply don’t need it. And we never did. But hey, we had a good time with it while it lasted, you have to admit that much. Call this article a puff piece, call it a love letter, call it whatever you want, but for better or for worse, Wizard used to be one hell of an entertaining magazine for folks like me. They’ve now sadly become just a faceless corporate entity exploiting comic books, but the magazine is the end of an era, a time where the printed word was valued. And it was valued by comic book collectors like myself.
Wizard Magazine will be missed in all of its dubious intrinsic worth.