shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Oct 12, 2014 9:21:02 GMT -5
A Guide to Wizard, The Guide to Comics If you were reading comics in the early 1990s, you inevitably have an opinion about Wizard Magazine. Some will recall the publication with fondness -- the covers, the incentive promotions, and the fun tone of the mag that tried so hard to be what Stan Lee and the Marvel bullpen were to the 1960s, and others will remember the hype, speculation, and subjective near-worship of marginal artists and substance-less new comic properties. Depending on who you talk to, Wizard was the best thing about collecting comics in the Nineties, a reflection of all that was wrong with the industry at the time, or possibly even the cause. For me, there's no publication out there for which I have more powerfully conflicted feelings. I loved Wizard as an adolescent and collected it as vehemently as any favorite comic. To this day, it fills me with tremendous nostalgia to hold these books again. And, as an adult, I hold Wizard partially responsible for the bursting of the comic book bubble in the mid 1990s: style over substance, glam costly comic conventions, and over-hyped talentless artists as cults of personality. Wizard had a hand in all of it. So I thought it would be of interest to utilize this space as a means, not just to chart Wizard's progress as a publication and organization, but even moreso as a means of charting the comic book industry and the massive changes it underwent in the early Nineties, as well as finally beginning to answer the question: To what extent did Wizard chronicle those changes, and to what extent did it shape them? Here goes... Links to Key Articles in this thread* A Little Background (or, "Where The Hell Did THAT Come From?")* It Happened That Quickly: A personal anecdote about Wizard's coverage of Image and Valiant* Gareb Shamus: The Mystery Hidden in Plain Sight* Wizard and McFarlane: The Art of Co-InventionLinks to reviews of note in this threadWizard #1: McFarlane first suggests he'd like to go indy, debut of X-Force #1 Wizard #2: Claremont leaves Marvel, X-Men (1991) #1 debuts Wizard #3: First rumblings that Valiant is becoming popular Wizard #4: Only issue of the early run to give any attention to DC, including on the cover; an ad in this issue features Spawn and some Youngblood characters, though the company does not appear to have been officially anounced yet. Wizard #7: First intensive coverage of Valiant, immediately after Valiant became their #1 advertiser in the previous issue. Wizard #8: First mention of Image Comics Wizard #9: First intensive coverage of Image; early promotional images of Marvel's 2099 lineup Wizard #12: Image and Valiant are now legitimate contenders to DC and Marvel; Valiant takes over The Wizard Top 10. Wizard #14: DC launches the Vertigo imprint Wizard #17: DC hits its lowest market share ever (16%) Wizard #18: DC rebounds with the death of Superman; Wizard vehemently pans it Wizard #20: First indication that the booming comic industry is beginning to hit stagnation Wizard #21: Rob Liefeld gets ripped a new one in his interview. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2014 17:24:06 GMT -5
When they say Malibu "improved their product line" I think they mean made everything look like it had been illustrated by Liefeld. I was a Malibu fan for a while, but when the Ultraverse came out, everything went to color, and everyone was trying to clone the Image guys stylisticly, that's when Malibu went down the drain for me. Happened right about then.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2014 19:05:50 GMT -5
I only had a couple issues of Wizard. I bought them for the price guides when I was a kid, rarely because they were like four or five bucks each and I usually went to the LCS with ten bucks in my pocket. So I thought I had a fortune because of the price guide, which turns out wasn't true. I also bought a few of the issues they hyped, but luckily only when I saw them in the bargain bin. So I had that Marvel Team Up with Spiderman and Captain Britain but it only cost me a quarter anyway.
I do remember liking a few articles. They had a "how to draw" section that although featured a Liefeld clone artist, the actual art tutorial matched what I had read in other books, real art books, as far as measuring proportions and all that. I think Wizard may have introduced me to anime, which I never actually got into, but it broadened my horizons anyway. I did rent a few animes from the video store thanks to Wizard in the early 90's. At least gave it a shot.
I don't think Wizard is responsible for speculators hoarding garbage, they may have just guided the speculators hands a few times in exchange for kickbacks. But before Wizard speculators were already hoarding the early gimmick crap. Spiderman and Wolverine were already dominating Marvel the way Deadpool seems to today.
Oh, and I did like that Maxx 1/2 with exclusive content. I was a Maxx fan and having something mail order exclusive was cool to me back when mail order was this scary thing where nameless scammers ripped off kids.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Oct 15, 2014 14:10:42 GMT -5
Wizard Magazine #3 (November 1991)  Hindsight glimpses into the comic industry:For the first time this issue, Wizard includes a detailed market report clearly showing Marvel holding 68% of sales for the month of August while DC holds about 20%. Of course, the majority of this is attributed to the "X-Mania!" caused by the release of X-Force #1 (with its five trading card variants). Of the Top 100 best selling books of September, the top 13 are all Marvel, with only Sandman Special #1, War of the Gods #3, and Legends of the Dark Knight #24 making the Top 20. Though DC has been completely ignored by Wizard prior to this point, both the new Market Watch section and the "Wizard Comic Watch" discuss the stir surrounding the upcoming release of Robin II: The Joker's Wild. According to the stats for the previous year included in the Market Watch section, Robin #1 was the second best selling book of September 1990, though, sadly, what beat it was McFarlane's Spider-Man #6. Wasn't even a key issue. Market Watch does go on to state that "The hot picks to look out for are pretty much dominated by DC Comics," and it goes on to talk about Batman vs. Predator, Robin, and Lobo. Of course, the rest of the Magazine doesn't discuss Batman or Robin at all. Industry news:John Byrne takes over writing the X-Men titles after Claremont's departure First rumblings of Valiant being a big deal in the Market Watch section, where we learn that the recent Magnus Robot Fighter back issues are selling as well as those of Deathlok, Robin, War of the Gods, Ghost Rider, and even Infinity Gauntlet. No emphasis is given to this fact. Wizard shaping the comic book market?So I've established after thoroughly examining the first two issues that there's a definite pro-Marvel bias in Wizard, to the extent that DC is entirely ignored, even with a sequel to the blockbuster 1989 Batman film in the works and a major marketing event (complete with those variant covers and holograms Wizard loves so much) in the form of Robin II: The Joker's Wild on the way, but something particularly weird happens in this issue. The lead interview for this issue is with Simon Bisley about Lobo (Yes! A DC property!!), but Wizard didn't do it. It's "reprinted with permission from Blast! Magazine." Wait...What? So the bias grows more interesting. All this time, Wizard has had unrestricted access to Marvel's hottest talents, but the same isn't apparently true for DC. Is DC not allowing Wizard to talk to its people, or is Wizard choosing not to work with DC? Is Wizard biased in favor of Marvel because it truly likes Marvel better, because it's in Marvel's pocket, or because DC won't work with them? Whatever the case, when we talk about Wizard shaping the comic book market, the magazine is quickly becoming the voice of what is cool and what is not, and Wizard is barely talking DC at all. This is partially a reflection of the market, which is gaga over McFarlane, X-Force, and X-Men right now, but Batman is still a hot commodity with a major motion picture and animated series in the works (neither of which have been mentioned even once here), and Robin II should fit in perfectly with the creative marketing strategies Wizard has been worshiping in its pages as of late. Wizard Comic Watch:Uncanny X-Men #193: 1st Warpath and Firestar Batman #436: 1st Tim Drake Wizard Top 10: 1. X-Men (1991) #1E 2. Uncanny X-Men #281 3. New Mutants #87 4. X-Force #1 5. Uncanny X-Men #248 6. Silver Surfer #34 7. X-Factor #63 8. X-Factor #71 9. Infinity Gauntlet #1 10. Silver Surfer #50 Contents:Letter from the Publisher: Though there'd been some minor sprinklings of goofiness in the mag before, this is the first time Shamus seems clearly intent on establishing a comical persona for Wizard. In his letter column, he describes prank calling LCSes across the nation, asking them about Wizard magazine and when the next issue is coming in. He's quick to explain to his impressionable fanbase that there was nothing mean-spirited about this, of course. It hits just the right generically playful tone without possibly coming off as offensive. Wizard of Cards: In an interesting twist, the column is published far apart from the price guide this time, as the focus is entirely on sports cards and does not address comic book cards at all. "Filling Big Shoes," by Parick Daniel O'Neill: Interview with Erik Larson about taking over for McFarlane on Spider-Man. At this point, Larson is not yet big news and is still hoping for steady work. He also makes no mention of aspiring to publish his own characters. "Collecting Comics in the '90s," by Pat McCallum: Are movie adaptations good investments? No. "Simon Bisley: The Number of the Beast," by Gordon Rennie. Wizard's first ever focus on a DC character, and it's not even their interview. Reprinted with permission from Blast! Magazine. "Alternative Collections," by Nat Gertler: A surprisingly substantive article that discusses building collections, not based upon what's currently hot, but instead on things like favorite writers, foreign language editions, and even collecting by month/year of publication. Fun and inspiring to the classic comics collector. Wizard Comic Watch: Tim Drake actually gets some attention here, and apparently the New Warriors are a big deal, too. I had no idea. Market Watch: Sales data from both Diamond and Capital City (apparently Wizard is working with them again after their suspicious absence in issue #2) reveal a few interesting trends, the most fascinating of which is the growing interest in Magnus Robot Fighter and the declining interest in McFarlane's early work on Amazing Spider-Man and Hulk. Apparently, the prices haven't dropped, but they have flat-lined. Price guide: 38 Marvel covers displayed, 23 DC (with an increasing focus on Batman), 9 independent (with an increasing focus on Dark Horse and TMNT) Trading Cards Price Guide Toying Around, with Brian Cunningham: Emphasis on the old Mego Figures, and they get included in the price guide as well. I love it. Of course, toys is one place where DC was still dominating at this point. Perhaps, after having already discussed the Marvel and X-Men Series I figures, Cunningham's only options were to go vintage or (gasp) discuss DC's three current toylines. He already discussed 1984's Secret Wars and Super Powers figures last issue, so now he's going even further back. Number 1 Releases for the Month Shipping for the Month of October: Harbinger #1 and Solar #5 get a prominent cover displays. Solar has been featured here each month thus far. Apparently, some folks at Wizard were already taking notice of Valiant, though it's still a while away from getting noticed at the front of the book. Gamepro: So now the video game section has been outsourced to Gamepro Magazine. Sure enough, they focus on comics related games whereas last issue's "Gamesmaster" did not. Top 10: All ten choices are still Marvel, even though the Market Watch section clearly shows with hard numbers that this was not representative of what was changing hands most often from the back issue bins. It's all X-Men and Silver Surfer here. Top 100: Marvel does dominate in current issue sales. A lot. The Top 13 are all Marvel. Picks from the Wizard's Hat: Gasp! Robin II gets first listing here! Sandman Special gets the third. Batman/Judge Dredd gets the fourth. How do you reconcile this with the Top 10 section from two pages earlier that tried to tell us that all anyone was interested in grabbing was X-Men and Silver Surfer comics? Contest: Win a Rob Liefeld autographed New Mutants #87 Letter Page: Finally, these look like legitimate REAL letters from readers, commenting on the content of the first issue instead of asking insipid questions about comics. As a kid, I always loved seeing the envelope art. Show and Convention Calendar "It's Academic," by Henry T. Colonna III: Wizard is still maintaining a small section at the very back of the magazine to cater to mature collectors. This interview is with the author of "Comics Librarianship," which was featured in this space last issue. "A Bold New Direction," by Vincent Bartilucci, speaks to older readers about the long history of comics being significantly altered/rebranded to attract new audiences. What an appropriate time (and appropriate magazine) for printing such an article! "John Byrne: Back to the X-House," by Patrick Daniel O'Neill: I can't figure out what this is doing at the back of the book. I guess Byrne was old news at this point, and only older fans (reading this section of the book) would care who was WRITING a comic these days. Byrne comes off as arrogant as ever, and makes no effort to conceal the fact that he intends to change everything from Day One. He even outright says he intends to bring all the characters back to where they were when he left them a decade earlier. Wow. "Wolverine: The Man Behind the Claws," by Andrew S. Harris: The final article feels inappropriate for the back of the book, as the intended audience is clearly a younger, less well read readership. It's entirely, overly simplistic point is that Wolverine isn't some deranged killing anti-hero anymore; he has a long history of having matured/calmed down. Maybe Shamus and his editors realized younger fans would find little interest in such a message. Final thoughts:It wasn't until I read the Market Watch section of this issue that I began to realize just how extreme Wizard's bias towards Marvel was at this point. it's easy to assume that, with the buzz surrounding McFarlane's Spider-Man, X-Force #1, and X-Men #1, DC just wasn't doing anything as comparatively exciting at this point, but there's Robin and the upcoming Robin II, the Batman crossovers with Judge Dredd and Predator, the Batman Returns film and Animated Series in production, Armageddon 2001, and (yes) Lobo. To so thoroughly ignore these things to the extent that they aren't even referenced as afterthoughts in some article towards the back of the book until issue #3 tells you something. And what do we make of the fact that Wizard's first ever interview about a DC property was reprinted by permission from another magazine? Who's choosing not to have a relationship with whom, here: Wizard or DC? |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2014 22:55:11 GMT -5
With the rise of the "kewl" characters of the 90s like Ghosts Rider, Punisher, etc... suddenly even the cool kids and jocks got in on it (for a brief period anyway). It's funny, actually. Check out any online comics community devoted to the '90s today, and most of the members are still those cool kids we grew up with in the '90s who loved the mainstream stuff but never delved deeper and never broadened their horizons. I have two bodybuilder friends who loved the 90's stuff. They don't read comics any more but when they found out I did, no joke, one of them said Liefeld was his favorite artist. The other one thinks The Pitt was the best comic ever. I sold him some Pitt ashcans I found in a 50 cent bin. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Nov 5, 2014 21:51:06 GMT -5
Wizard # 8 (April 1992)  Issue #6 marked a big shake-up in format, as the book suddenly came full color, glossy, and with better coloring and page arrangements. This issue, it's the content that has changed. Patrick Daniel O'Neill, formerly the guy who did pretty much all the featured content, has been promoted to Editor, and a whole slew of new folk have taken over for him on the lead features. It's led to a lot more diversity of content, from an interview with little known writer Sarah Byam about feminism and Black Canary, to an interview with Jack Larson about The Adventures of Superman TV show from the 1950s. Additionally, this marks the issue where Wizard officially becomes aware of Image Comics. Though it only gets mentioned once in an interview with Whilce Portacio (just before he decided to sign on to Image), Shamus mentions that issue #10 will feature a Liefeld cover and a collectible Youngblood #0 trading card. Still, I'm mystified by this. Shamus knew Image's big debut was coming three months ago, yet is only now making plans to start making a big deal about it two months down the line? Perhaps he was waiting to see what fan reaction to Youngblood #1 (just released) would be before making his move. Interestingly enough, the writer(s) of Market Watch still weren't clued in to what was happening, as they still talk up Youngblood as being from Malibu Comics with no mention of Image nor of the other titles and creators involved. For what it's worth, here's what's said about Image in the Portacio interview (it isn't much): What are your plans with Image Press? There's Rob Liefeld's Youngblood; Todd McFarlane's Spawn; Jim Lee's Wild Cats. What about you? Note, by the way, the awkwardness of asking that question as Jim Lee was right there, in the same room, penciling at the time of the interview. This helps to explain why Portacio's answer isn't much of an answer. Also worth noting is that Valiant is about to release Unity #0. So here it is: the issue where the two big Independent publishers of the '90s were on the verge of hitting it big time. Hindsight glimpses into the comic industry: Even with a Marvel cover, the attention has moved away from Marvel at this point in favor of a more diverse exploration of all things comic-related, from Jack Larson, to feminism and Black Canary, to the upcoming Alien 3 film. Was this because the hot artists had all left Marvel, because Marvel had overplayed its hyped events, because O'Neill, now in the position of editor, wanted to diversify the magazine's scope, or because Marvel wasn't taking out ads in Wizard anymore? Industry news:Image is getting warmed up, and Valiant is about to hit it big with Unity. Market Watch also indicates that the back issues of Harbinger and X-O Manowar are starting to become scarce and expensive. Wizard shaping the comic book market? Not so much. I'm very surprised how slow they are to react to the rise of Image, and they're still giving Valiant plenty of attention, but with Unity about to launch, THIS should be the issue where they're conducting interviews and focusing on what the company had planned next. I just don't get it. Conversely, as this was the first issue of Wizard I ever owned (it's fun seeing all the puzzles filled in by 12 year old me), I'm reminded that my primary reason for purchasing it every four months (at $2.95 an issue, I was only buying every other issue) was to get an up-to-date price guide. I remember many others thinking along the same lines, and Wizard has emphasized its price guide numerous times as well (even though we now know the prices were waaaay off the mark in many cases). This leaves me wondering to what extent a monthly price guide existed because prices were changing so erratically, and to what extent having a widely read monthly price guide encouraged prices to change so erratically. Wizard Comic Watch:Strange Tales #178: Adam Warlock feature begins, 1st: Magus Classic X-Men #39: 2nd Jim Lee on X-Men Wizard Top 10: 1. Uncanny X-Men #201 2. New Mutants #87 3. Uncanny X-Men #248 4. Uncanny X-Men #266 5. X-Factor #24 6. Uncanny X-Men #268 7. Uncanny X-Men #282 8. Uncanny X-Men #281 9. Ghost Rider (1990) #1 10. Darkhawk #1 Final thoughts:The book looks and feels far more professional at this point, but beyond the monthly price guide, I'm still at a loss as to what the focus of this publication was, and with Publisher Gareb Shamus toting all that's hyped and cool while newly promoted editor Patrick Daniel O'Neill champions the cause of avoiding the hype in favor of intelligent writing, I'm not even sure what demographic this magazine is attempting to appeal to. I still don't understand how Wizard got the financial backing and industry connections to get started the way they did, I still have no idea why anyone put trust in this completely inexperienced staff, and sixteen months later, I still have no idea what the appeal or purpose of this magazine even is. Eight issues of intense examination, thorough online research, and extensive reviews, and I understand the phenomenon that was Wizard Magazine even less than when I started. |
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Post by shaxper on Nov 11, 2014 9:02:51 GMT -5
Wizard #9 (May 1992)  By far, the most interesting issue of Wizard I've read yet, in that it actually contains (gasp!) news, the most significant of which is the duel interviews with the Image and Valiant staffs, published one after the other. The duel interviews are extraordinarily telling. In the Valiant interview, they're articulating their long-term plans (at least as far as the end of Unity, the Magnus/Predator crossover, and trading cards), whereas the Image staff is literally hearing about each other's projects for the first time during the interview, asking each other questions about them. The only one they know anything about is Youngblood because it's already had two issues published. More telling still, for Image, is that Todd McFarlane simply will not stop talking (at one point, the interviewer even jokes about trying to get McFarlane to let go of the tape recorder) and is adamant about not working for Marvel or DC again and about sending a message, whereas the other creators clearly go on record as saying they've had no complaints with how they were treated but simply want to champion creator owned comics, as well as create their own characters. They then take turns assuring Wizard that their comics will come out on time each month  . There's also a joke made during the interview (and I can't tell if they're serious or not) that one of them was the anonymous artist who sent the infamous letter to the Comics Buyers Guide arguing that writing a book was far easier than penciling one, and that readers didn't care about the writing. For Valiant, the most telling detail is the absence of Jim Shooter. This was right around the time he was unceremoniously fired from Valiant, and that's clearly either just happened or is about to. All the other big idea men of the company are there, and Shooter gets mentioned often, but only in the past tense. Also, Valiant fans might be curious to know that the one detail they weren't set on yet was whether they were going to be killing one of the title characters during Unity. They had clearly decided on which, but hadn't clearly decided that they were going to go through with it yet. And Image fans might be curious to know that the original planned lineup included, " The Spawn by McFarlane, Youngblood by Liefeld, Wildcats by Lee, The Pact and Klone by Valentino, Cyberforce by Silvestri, and The Dragon by Larson." A few title tweaks aside, The Pact wouldn't be released for two more years, and whatever happened to "Klone"? Also, in a classy move, Patrick Daniel O'Neill, now an editor who doesn't have to write any features unless he wants to, provides a five page write-up on Gaiman's Sandman, a nice contrast to the hype surrounding Image and Valiant on the earlier pages. This is now the second time Gaiman and Sandman have gotten focal attention in Wizard. It's become clear to me over the past few issues that O'Neill was the wisest, most respectable person on staff at Wizard...possibly the ONLY wise and respectable person on staff at Wizard. Additionally, Patrick McCallum previously offering such sagely advice as to collect comics with gimmick covers, especially second printings, is now sanely cautioning in his Collecting Comics in the '90s feature about investing in overly hyped comics, particularly emphasizing Alpha Flight #106 (the issue where Northstar announces that he's gay). Hindsight glimpses into the comic industry: Image, Valiant, and Dark Horse were all mutually exchanging ad space to help promote one another. DC's Impact line was on the way out. Patrick Daniel O'Neill impresses me once again as his editorial warns about comics no longer playing to pre-adolescents nor to the indirect market. Batman: The Animated Series is first mentioned in passing in an article reporting from the 1992 Toy Fair. Toy collecting was clearly on the rise. This issue features two different articles about the news from Toy Fair, with even a second staff member writing in addition to Brian Cunningham. In fact, they even give Toying Around its own letter column as of this issue because Wizard was receiving so many letters about the column and about toy collecting in general. It's a bit surprising, in hindsight, that it would take Wizard five more years to launch Toyfare as a separate sister publication. Marvel is still holding 57.1% of the market, DC has 17.6%, Dark Horse has 5.6%, Malibu now has 2.7%, Valiant has 1.6%, and 12.2% is "Other" Industry news:Ghost Rider is getting a second title: Spirits of Vengeance Alpha Flight #106 is getting national attention over Northstar coming out. DC is expanding the Green Lantern franchise to three titles: Green Lantern, Mosaic, and Corps Quarterly The Marvel 2099 line is first announced, but it's 2093. The early conceptual art looks VERY different:  John Byrne is in talks to write a Superman reboot film. Considering his relationship with DC at this point, I find this to have been extremely unlikely. Rumors are circulating that Sam Hamm's black Robin has been cut from Batman Returns because Warner was uncomfortable with the idea. Marvel Universe Series III trading cards are about to come out. Additionally, Marvel has just announced a significant expansion of their action figure line with X-Men Series II, X-Force, and more Marvel Universe figures as well. According to Brian Cunningham, there are a lot of fans demanding more (and better) female action figures. My personal favorite piece of news in this issue: Now being sold to local television stations around the country is Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This series will take place 100 years after The Next Generation (the same way TNG takes place 78 years after the original show) and will feature the crew of a space station that sits near a wormhole, instead of following the crew of a starship. There's also mention of the first Next Generation film beginning production. The Marvel UK imprint is being launched in the US. In fact, while Marvel hasn't taken out an ad in Wizard for several issues now, Marvel UK does have a one page ad featuring their product line. Marvel has removed Liefeld from Cable and X-Force, allegedly in reaction to the release of Youngblood and his involvement with Image (this proved not to be true). Fan response to Robin II: The Joker's Wild was very negative Wizard shaping the comic book market?Though Wizard was late, very late, in addressing Image at all, putting their interview right next to Valiant's (and, in fact, in front of Valiant's) clearly sends a message that these are equal companies. You like all that's been happening with Valiant? Well here's their sister company. In fact, it's abundantly clear in the interview that Image had absolutely no idea what it was doing yet and was flying by the seat of its pants. Youngblood was already getting plenty of attention, but Wizard is certainly helping to elevate the company and offer it a stature in this issue that it wasn't ready to deserve. Even the creators in the interview (well, all but McFarlane) articulate repeatedly that Image is an experiment that could easily fail. It's even worth noting that, while the Valiant folks provide countless reasons in their interviews why their universe is special and different, all the Image guys are able to keep falling back on is that they're creating their own characters. Liefeld even laments that Marvel won't let you create a new character who too closely resembles an existing character of theirs. Of course, let's also be clear that Wizard and Gareb Shamus had a very clear personal interest in promoting both companies. Valiant was taking out a minimum of four full page color ads each issue (Wizard's biggest advertiser by far), and McFarlane and Liefeld had now flown Shamus out to LA at least twice by this point. Clearly, if Wizard could help these two companies succeed, Wizard would benefit from their success. Meanwhile, Marvel hadn't taken out a single ad in Wizard since issue #3, and DC and Wizard had never shown evidence of a working relationship beyond Denny O'Neil doing a single interview for the magazine. Wizard had every incentive to promote the heck out of these new companies in contrast. Wizard Comic Watch:Uncanny X-Men #184: 1st Forge (I find that pick surprising. Yeah, he just got a cover where he was kissing Storm, but...) Amazing Spider-Man #265 1st Silver Sable (well she was about to her her own ongoing) Wizard Top 101. Uncanny X-Men #201 2. New Mutants #87 3. Uncanny X-Men #248 4. Uncanny X-Men #266 5. Uncanny X-Men #268 6. X-Factor #24 7. Uncanny X-Men #282 8. Ghost Rider (1990) #1 9. Amazing Spider-Man #361 10. Darkhawk #1 Final Thoughts: I feel like I learned more about what was happening with comics in the 1990s in this issue than in the first eight combined. |
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Post by shaxper on Nov 11, 2014 23:47:57 GMT -5
Wizard #10 (June 1992)  Well, if last issue seemed like a refreshing change of pace with the depth of comic book news it provided, I'm sorry to say that doesn't continue here. In fact, aside from Patrick Daniel O'Neill returning to the role of interviewer (and really putting the heat on Liefeld -- though Liefeld handles himself well), this issue essentially does two things: 1. It proves, once and for all, that Wizard is about two months behind comic book news. Even with the early warning Shamus was given about Image Comics, this issue is just now reacting to the sensation Youngblood #1 has caused, lining up feature after feature about the team, and treating the property like it's just about to hit shelves. 2. It also proves that, in the struggle between Publisher Gareb Shamus to celebrate the hype and Editor Patrick Daniel O'Neill to refute the hype, Shamus has won. This issue comes polybagged with a Youngblood trading card and solicits the next issue as coming with two trading cards and having a gold dealer incentive edition. Additionally, while Shamus provides his forecast for the industry (everything is sunny and prosperous), O'Neil is relegated to sounding like a cranky old curmudgeon in his letter from the editor, arguing that superheroes of today are bad role models. He's right, of course, but he's not going to change any minds with his Andy Rooney inspired tirade. The interview with Liefeld truly is classic though. O'Neill outright calls Liefeld out on ripping off Marvel with his characters, even dredging up an incident in which Liefeld was going to produce a title called the Executioners for DC until Marvel threatened to sue for his characters too closely resembling Cable and some other X-characters. O'Neill also calls him out on creative differences with Louise Simonson and essentially running her off the New Mutants title. Liefeld handles himself surprisingly well through all of this, but it's the first truly quality interview I've seen conducted in these pages. Also worth noting: Wizard truly seems to have arrived as of this issue. Suddenly, they've got Marvel taking out ad space in their magazine again (and, instead of just taking out the back cover as they did for the first three issues, they take the inside front cover ad as well), along with Mirage. The publication has also expanded out with nearly 30% more pages, and the dealer incentive offer for the next issue is either absurdly gutsy or suggests a company that's on the rise. Hindsight glimpses into the comic industry:Very little beyond the obvious. Wizard is hyping Image out the wazoo. This may be a preference in favor of Image over Valiant, but it's more likely the fact that Wizard is still working on a two issue delay with their reaction to big news. Youngblood #1 launched two months ago. They're trying to think ahead and anticipate Spawn #1 for next issue, as well as Wildcats for the issue after, but it will probably be two issues before they start taking note of the explosion of attention Valiant's Unity event is causing at the time of this issue's publication. Also, Topps Comics receives its first mention in this issue as a company that Shamus sees having the same potential as Valiant and Image to become a full time competitor with Marvel and DC down the line. Industry news:Marvel and DC are raising cover prices (to $1.25, I believe?) Marvel is pushing the Rise of the Midnight Sons event, as well as the Spider-Man 30th Anniversary (though only the Market Watch section mentions the hologram covers). Star Wars: Dark Empires has put Dark Horse back on the map. Unity is a massive hit, and Valiant back issues are now officially in serious demand. Spawn is coming next month Mark Bagley is the new hot artist at Marvel, and he's bringing attention back to Spider-Man. James Cameron's Spider-Man film is still on the table. Wizard shaping the comic book market?They're still too slow in their reaction to comic book news to do this for those in the know in comics, but they're certainly pumping up the delayed hype for impressionable kids, telling them what others have already decided is hot. It's particularly telling that Wizard debuts a new feature this month where they interview their own readers and end up talking to a bunch of 14 year olds. It's been decided. Patrick Daniel O'Neill and Tom Palmer are writing to an audience that's never going to come. Wizard's target demographic is officially adolescents. Wizard's Comic Watch:Amazing Spider-Man #274: Guest appearance of the original Ghost Rider (well, not the original original). X-Factor #68: Nathan Summers sent into the future to presumably become Cable Wizard's Top 10:It's worth noting this time that the Market Watch section provides hard data supporting what the three hottest back issues are right now, and it does not match the Wizard Top 10. Market Watch picked Fantastic Four #66, Fantastic Four #67, and Harbinger #1 as the Top 3. Additionally, they outright say that X-Men #248 has fallen out of demand with Jim Lee's departure from Marvel, but it's still ranking at Wizard's #5. 1. Uncanny X-Men #201 2. New Mutants #87 3. Amazing Spider-Man #361 4. Uncanny X-Men #266 5. Uncanny X-Men #248 6. Uncanny X-Men #268 7. Ghost Rider (1990) #1 8. Amazing Spider-Man #362 9. Harbinger #1 10. Darkhawk #1 Final Thoughts:It would seem this is the point where Wizard trades any semblance of a soul that it might have possessed for full scale sell-out potential. At the same time, it proves with this issue that it is utterly terrible as a timely news source AND as an accurate reflection of the back issue market. A quality interview by Patrick Daniel O'Neill aside, this issue's only worth is in its hype, speculation, and freebie trading card. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Nov 13, 2014 11:18:54 GMT -5
Wizard #11 (July 1992)  Three things worth noting about this issue's cover: 1. It's the second Todd McFarlane cover Wizard has done in only 11 issues 2. Sadly, this and the cover to #1 are the only two decent looking covers Wizard has done thus far (sadder still, both are by McFarlane. Did I just compliment the guy??) 3. Also, both McFarlane covers feature Spider-man. Oh, wait. That's not Spider-Man. Spider-man isn't a double amputee, and this guy clearly lost his legs somewhere in that enormous cape of his. Sigh. Comic art of the '90s. Anyway, there are few surprises in this issue. Wizard, aware that it was caught with its pants down over Youngblood #1, is promoting the heck out of Spawn #1 with feature after feature in this issue AS it hits stands, though, ironically enough, completely fails to discuss Savage Dragon #1 (coming out next month) nor Valiant's first major company crossover (happening right now). And they're clearly still on a two month delay with their news, just now toting the sales figures from Youngblood #1 (released three months ago). Wizard is still thoroughly incapable of being a reliable news source, but they make up for it in hype. And the business practices are getting shadier, as well. All those comic dealers who clearly helped Shamus with the initial investment for Wizard, those small comic shops inexplicably getting ad space each issue since #1? They're significantly cut back as of this issue, relegated to three pages instead of most of the interior ad space in the publication. Wizard has newer and more popular friends to hang out with now. In fact, Shamus' column marks the second month in a row (third time total) that he's photographed hanging with Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld, and when it comes time to give McFarlane his second featured interview in this magazine, Patrick Daniel O'Neill, the lead interviewer who gave that awesomely hard-hitting, no-holds-barred interview with Liefeld last issue, is conveniently not the one interviewing McFarlane this time around. Whoever the uncredited interviewer is, he/she spends the entire interview stroking McFarlane's ego instead. It's simply embarrassing. Meanwhile, as I pointed out last issue, Wizard is now big enough that Marvel has felt the need to resume working with the publication. No ads this time around, but they do grant Wizard an interview with their sales staff. Hilariously enough though, they spend most of the interview making jabs at Wizard for it's hype-first approach. The little information they finally give is little more than a free advertisement for the next big X-Men crossover. And even DC, after pretty much not talking to Wizard at all since its genesis, takes out an ad in this issue! Yep. Wizard knows where the money is at this point, and that's where they're going. In fact, Shamus' letter no longer addresses things like content or the industry at all. All he does is list the promotional trading cards that will be included in upcoming issues, as well as the artists who will be doing the covers. So I begin to wonder if I'll learn anything more from doing these reviews beyond being reminded of what was at the center of the hype two months earlier each issue. Still, I'm getting a perverse enjoyment from all of this. Hindsight glimpses into the comic industry:The end of the indirect market feels apparent in this issue. Patrick Daniel O'Neill laments that the end of Impact Comics is essentially a decision by DC to put all their money into the older direct market fanbase and to turn away from the less profitable younger audience they were originally trying to tap, buying from the newsstand. Additionally, when Marvel brings its sales team to the interview, they bring their Director of Direct Sales. Whoever's running the newsstand end of things wasn't invited. Adventure Comics exists. I'd completely forgotten. It gets mentioned once in passing. PC Comix pioneers the first ever digital comics. It had a "Choose your own adventure" component to it, cost $20, and required 640k of RAM, VGA graphics, and 2 megs of hard disk space. It also featured sound. Trading cards continue to be a big deal. While even Todd McFarlane is talking about the Sports Cards bust, the second featured interview in this issue is with the president of Skybox International about how their trading cards (sports and otherwise) are being retooled for 1993. Marvel holds 58.25% of sales, DC has 22.1%, Dark Horse has 4.2%, Malibu has 2.65%, Valiant has 1.85%, and 10.95% are "other". Industry news:Valiant's Unity event is going strong, and back issue prices continue to go through the roof. Spawn #1 is about to be released, followed by Savage Dragon and Wildcats. Youngblood #1 sold over 600,000 copies and has just gone to second print. Spawn #1 preorders are already over 800,000, but McFarlane has promised that there will not be a second print. Batman Returns is about to hit theaters. Any Mangels still can't be bothered to visit the set or talk to anyone at Warner. Instead, months later, he's still just discussing the script. Nextmen has recently hit stands and, while Wizard isn't talking about it much, it has diversified Dark Horse's offering noticeably, as they were previously only being discussed for their licensed film characters (Star Wars, Alien, Predator). Nightwing limited series has just been announced Eastman and Laird are reuniting for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: City at War There are rumors that Tony Stark is going to die Wizard shaping the comic book market?Marvel appears to think so, as is evident both in their resuming relations with Wizard and in their relatively sarcastic interview with Wizard. They tease savagely about rumors started in the pages of Wizard, as well as whether Wizard can possibly publish an issue that doesn't use the word "hot" in it. But Wizard seems to see it otherwise at this point. Shamus appears to be clinging to Image for dear life, convinced Wizard needs them more than they need Wizard. Who's to say? And Valiant appears to be doing just fine without any further notice from Wizard beyond the extensive coverage they received in #7 and Harbinger #1's presence on the Top 10. They're still Wizard's #1 advertiser at this point, by the way, having taken out 3 to 4 full page color ads each issue since #6. Wizard's Comic Watch:Captain America Annual #9: Nomad changes his costume. You've got to be kidding me. Secret Wars #8: Explanation of how Spidey got the alien costume. I'm honestly surprised this wasn't already a big issue at this point. Does Wizard understand that finding out how Spidey got his most iconic costume, which would also become his most popular nemsis of the 1990s, is not the same as some flash in the pan hero changing his appearance for no good reason? Wizard's Top 10:Once again, the Market Watch section (the one feature in Wizard that I actually trust because it's based on genuine sales figures) provides its own Top 3 that in no way matches The Top 10. They identified the Top 3 back issue sellers from the previous month as being Amazing Spider-Man #274, Amazing Spider-Man Special #5, and Dark Horse Presents #24. 1. Uncanny X-Men #201 2. New Mutants #87 3. Uncanny X-Men #266 4. Amazing Spider-Man #361 5. Ghost Rider (1990) #1 6. Amazing Spider-Man #362 7. Spectacular Spider-Man #189 8. Unity #0 (apparently they haven't figured out there's a red variant yet) 9. Harbinger #1 10. Darkhawk #1 Final Thoughts:You shouldn't be surprised by anything here. Wizard never claimed to have any sort of integrity or purpose. From day one, they were touting McFarlane as much as they could because, twelve months earlier, Spider-Man #1 had been a record breaking seller. In 11 months, all they've done is gotten better at generating hype and sales, at buttering up the big players, and at slimming that twelve month delayed reaction to comic news down to a speedy two. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Nov 15, 2014 18:19:17 GMT -5
Gareb Shamus: The Mystery Hidden in Plain Sight By 1992, Gareb Shamus was one of the most well known forces in comic books, and folks like Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld were repeatedly flying the guy out to to visit them, while Valiant's offices opened their doors for him on a regular basis. Everyone knew the guy. Nearly synonymous with his publication, he had maximum visibility and brand name recognition among both creators and fans when comics were at their all time height in sales and popularity. For someone once that high profile, Shamus is a pretty accessible guy today. Virtually all of his facebook posts are set to public, with images of his house and children readily present. You don't need to friend Gareb to know what he had for dinner last night. And he walks around on his own at conventions, completely accessible, sans entourage (as White Lando once proved). He's right out there, in plain sight. And yet no one knows his story. Take your time. Scour the web. There is absolutely no information available on how a recent college graduate started Wizard and so quickly rose to the level of prominence in the industry that he did. So here's my paltry efforts to assemble the little we do know into some kind of a working theory. What we know:We know that Shamus had the early support of a variety of mid to large size comic book dealers in the New York/New Jersey area. This much is evident by the fact that these dealers continued to get premium interior ad space in the book once Wizard was selling full page ads to the likes of Valiant, Image, and Marvel. It's further supported by the fact that, after Wizard cut back on these ads in issue #11 (the point at which they really started to get big and were suddenly garnering more attention from both Marvel and DC), they took an about face and made up for it so much in issue #12 as to return all the old ad space to those dealers AND make a separate ad listing each as part of the new official Wizard Cool Corps, promising exclusives and incentives to those who shopped from those businesses. What we think we know:mrp provided us with second or third hand rumors that Shamus' family were themselves mid to large size dealers. This would certainly explain how Shamus gained these investor connections. But that isn't enough by itself. Sure, those dealers could have given Shamus the start up capital to run a small time monthly magazine that effectively set the prices they wanted for the business, and maybe that would have provided enough revenue to get a fancy glossy cover and enough initial copies to get on Diamond and Capital City's lists, and maybe some of those dealers were powerful enough to persuade the CEOs of both distribution companies to actually write articles for the first issue, but it still doesn't explain how the heck Shamus got the hottest artist in the business at the time to draw the cover AND provide the feature interview for the premiere issue. It just doesn't add up. And this brings us to the last piece of information we think we know. According to Buddy Scalera, a person who claims to have worked for Wizard on a freelance basis, there were investors behind Shamus who actually ran the whole affair and chose to stay out of the spotlight. Even Scalera refrains from naming them, but he invites others to explore the issue more deeply. It makes sense, really. Even if high profile comic book dealers were looking for a way to fix prices on comics, and even if they had allegiance of some kind to Shamus' family, how in the world would they have access to Todd McFarlane and, more importantly, why would they put their faith in a recent college graduate with absolutely nothing on his resume, let alone a similarly untried staff of kids including Shamus' brother who (I believe) was still in high school? This leads me to What we can conjecture:I've talked repeatedly about Shamus himself being a brand. He was purposefully kept high profile -- the first article you'd read in the book, always led by a picture of him in some ridiculous shirt, with a nerdy smile, and some celebrity standing with him who was so thoroughly unimpressed by Shamus as to appear to be posing. That Shamus mocked himself in these photos indicates he was no clueness nerd; he knew what he was doing. Plus, images from before Wizard got big AND after its initial era of success show a far less (though admittedly somewhat) geeky Shamus.  A more recent picture of Shamus it was an act; a means of better appealing to the target demographic of nerdy white kids reading comic books. And I think this explains how Shamus and his staff got their secret investors to back them. They were the kids next door. They looked, wrote like, joked like, and thought like the target demographic. That's why someone put some heavy funding behind Wizard and made it their investment of choice. Someone with significant access to Marvel and to Todd McFarlane. One possibility is that it was Marvel itself. They took out the back cover (the most critical ad space in the publication) for the first three issues, and it helps to explain why all Wizard talked about in those first six issues was Marvel. In fact, even as of issue #12, they've given exactly one interview with a DC employee (Denny O'Neil), even republished an interview from another magazine instead of interviewing Simon Bisely about Lobo himself, and only gave that interview with Denny O'Neil and provided their only DC cover of the first 20 issues, as well as their only featured articles on a DC character in at least the first 12 issues, in order to address the hype being generated by the upcoming Batman Returns film. There was very clearly an anti-DC bias at Wizard, as well as a pro-Marvel one. But I don't purport to know for sure. These are only theories. It just seems so strange to me that, even two decades later and in the age of the internet, no one knows ANYTHING about Gareb Shamus nor the origin of Wizard Magazine, and I think having that story would help to explain a lot of Wizard's agenda and biases as we continue exploring the history of this publication.
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. There's also a joke made during the interview (and I can't tell if they're serious or not) that one of them was the anonymous artist who sent the infamous letter to the Comics Buyers Guide arguing that writing a book was far easier than penciling one, and that readers didn't care about the writing.