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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2023 14:35:44 GMT -5
So I found a copy of Wizard I had lying around just to refresh myself, it is from May 1997.
There's some dumb stuff in there along the lines of what folks have mentioned, but a fair amount of good (at least to me) as well. I won't detail out all 184 pages worth of content, but to hit some highlights as I was just thumbing through it:
-Letter art: at the end of the letters column, they have a fan art contest (drawn on the envelopes sent themselves). Those printed got autographed copies of Groo the Wanderer and some Wizard swag, and then the winner actually also got an original piece of art by Aragones (also pictured). -Column on the aftermath of "Heroes Reborn" (calling it out as controversial which of course it was) and then sharing early rumors on plans for "Heroes Return". Includes talking to George Perez who said he was actually interested in pencilling Avengers, and how Busiek was pitching for Iron Man, among other topics. Again, these were still somewhat the early Internet days, this was helpful info on books I cared about. -Alan Moore planned to write a 3-issue mini called Judgement Day. I don't even remember this one, I'm going to pick up an issue just for the heck of it. -OK, this one makes me chuckle in hindsight: Survey on first Star Wars Special Edition coming out, only 3% were "did not meet expectations", and 61% actually said it "exceeded their expectations". And on a related note, which version given the chance would you choose to watch, and 92% said Special Edition and only 8% the original. -Nice 2 page article on Sandman Mystery Theatre which nails how awesome it is. One of the coolest books from the 90's IMO, points to Wizard for having good taste on this one. -Full synopses on all the Amalgam "part 2" titles, several of these I actually like a lot, good stuff highlighted here. -Awesome Alex Ross interview, he was a darling of Wizard of course but he's such a cool guy. This was around when Uncle Sam was comic out so discussion there, but Kingdom Come was still pretty fresh so lots of Q&A on that as well. A couple of studio shots I like as well in addition to the comic book artwork shown. -Tom Grummett does a short drawing tutorial on how to draw teen superheroes versus adult, I remember actually picking up a tip or 2 from this back in the day! -"Junk Drawer" column of just odds and ends, the first item was the publication of the Tick biography book "Mighty Blue Justice!" which is a great book. Great item to highlight. -"Toy Chest" column (this was just a couple of months before ToyFare itself would launch as a monthly), a very helpful column at the time as the Power of the Force action figure line was going strong. Lots of ToyBiz previews and other stuff, I was buying lots of figures during this era so this was always great info on what to look out for. -Action Figure Price Guide: Not so much for the prices, but just to keep up on all the various toy lines and what had actually been produced. -Fan action figure customs, a couple of pages of pictures of customs ranging from hilarious to some nice serious work. -"Picks", over 30 individual issues of stuff they recommended that month with summaries of each, pretty diverse, but some good stuff (to my tastes) like Astro City, Thunderbolts, Power of Shazam, etc. -"Trailer Park", shows and movies info. This month highlighting the Silver Surfer cartoon starting up (which I thought was really good), lots of other rumors (so many planned movies that never say the light of day). -Shows and Conventions listings, VERY helpful back in the day before the Internet became the source of all that.
Tons more not listed here, some good, some not so good. But for $4.55, I think it was worth the money. And back to the original question, I think this issue was overall good for comics if you filtered through whatever left you wanting. Mileage may vary on other issues, but to my recollection this was fairly representative.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 1, 2023 14:59:56 GMT -5
Now pick out an issue from before 1995 and the fallout of the Speculator Bust.
Like I said, they toned it down, after a while; but, it was always geared at a bit younger a reader than CBG or The Comics Journal, which might explain the Star Wars poll.
That or psychedelic drugs.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2023 15:26:43 GMT -5
Now pick out an issue from before 1995 and the fallout of the Speculator Bust. Like I said, they toned it down, after a while; but, it was always geared at a bit younger a reader than CBG or The Comics Journal, which might explain the Star Wars poll. That or psychedelic drugs. Ah, so it was a bit more period specific. That's helpful info.
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Post by commond on Jan 1, 2023 16:13:54 GMT -5
I like the Palmer's Picks column from Wizard magazine, which I discovered through Cartoonist Kayfabe. You can read the columns here -- www.palmerspicks.com/ Nice little intro to 90s alternative comics by Tom Palmer's son.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 1, 2023 16:48:45 GMT -5
Now pick out an issue from before 1995 and the fallout of the Speculator Bust. Like I said, they toned it down, after a while; but, it was always geared at a bit younger a reader than CBG or The Comics Journal, which might explain the Star Wars poll. That or psychedelic drugs. Ah, so it was a bit more period specific. That's helpful info. Yeah, at the start of the 90s, they were very "Rah, rah...mortgage your future on buying the latest Image comic;" but, once the market crashed, they settled down about that. They still pushed stuff as being "hot," rather than "good;" but, that was pretty much par for the course, by that time in most media. They did send a lot of attention Valiant's way, as they were world building and it was a bit more deserved; but, they were all over every juvenile, violent book with shocking images. Pretty much like the rest of the media. There were pockets of better writing in the magazine and they also did a how to section, with actual usable tips (unlike "Draw like John Buscema!") and the fan contests were good. They also published fan photos that were cool. Once in a while, the non-superhero world got some attention, like when they did an article on Bone or something similar. I'm the first to admit that I wasn't their target audience; so, my view of them is a bit different than their regular readers. I was in my mid-20s when they debuted, a naval officer, and was drifting away from superheroes and the mainstream titles. I was getting deeper and deeper into the indies and alternative comics and that progressed across the 90s. To me, Wizard is a bright, garish and loud magazine, in my memories of it....very much a "90s magazine," and, especially, "90s comics." The 90s material I was drawn to was less represented in their pages, compared to CBG or TCJ (or even Comic Scene). When I would go to my local shop, on delivery day, the owner had the product laid out and would call out the titles and the subscribers would bark out if that was one of their titles or others who wanted to pick up those issues (he knew what people usually got, though, and never shorted a subscriber for someone else). I'd wait patiently while dozens of people sang out about the 4 variants of an Image title or the latest X-book, or whatever and then hear him say "Here's your Negative Burn, Jeff," or call out "Yo!" when he held up Tales From the Bog. I had more company when the latest Starman came out, though, or Hellboy. I didn't totally drop superheroes; just far less, relatively, to the other subscribers. I did take a while to pick up Love & Rockets; but, it wasn't easy to find a copy to sample, to decide if you wanted to subscribe. I also was usually first drawn by indie superhero books or those that looked more like action films or thriller novels; but, I did, eventually, find my way to the really idiosyncratic stuff. CBG and TCJ did a lot to nudge me in that direction. That and boredom with the same old superhero plots, no matter how cool the art.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2023 6:13:50 GMT -5
This was a pretty sophisticated publication, not sure if it was sold outside the UK: It didn’t seem to mock comics, be self-deprecating, or devote issues to Top 10 lists (yawn). Warren Ellis did a column which seemed quite scathing, but with him, I was never sure if he was doing some sort of wrestling-style gimmick, or whether he was an abrasive person. It took comics seriously - not that I bought every issue - and while it did often devote a lot of space to media properties, I never thought badly about it. In a nutshell, when it comes to magazines about comics, I don’t want the publishing equivalent of The Simpsons’ Comic Book Guy.
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Post by MDG on Jan 2, 2023 8:47:54 GMT -5
Magazines, journals, and fanzines are different animals with different goals and for different audiences. There's no simple "good" or "bad."
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Post by DubipR on Jan 2, 2023 10:11:48 GMT -5
I like the Palmer's Picks column from Wizard magazine, which I discovered through Cartoonist Kayfabe. You can read the columns here -- www.palmerspicks.com/ Nice little intro to 90s alternative comics by Tom Palmer's son. Palmer's Picks was the only reason I picked up Wizard, aside the price guide section. If it wasn't for his recommendations, I would've never read half of the small press books in the 90s. That was my introduction to Mike Allred, Jay Stephens, Paul Pope... tons of great creators that I'm still fans of. While Wizard was a bit sophomoric in its articles and content, it was the industry favorite. I too preferred Overstreet Fan. I was collecting baseball cards back then as well so Overstreet was THE price guide for any collector. Their articles were solid, not Comics Journal in depth but a better monthly, in my opinion.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 2, 2023 12:55:21 GMT -5
I never saw Comic World in the US, but it could have been imported, via Diamond, or something. At Barnes & Noble, we got several UK magazines, including Starburst, SFX, Empire and Total Film and got at least one UK comic magazine. I can't recall the title, but it was within the last 10-15 years, or so. Our newsstand, in Springfield, was in the top 10 for the company and we got Wizard, the magazine version of CBG, Back Issue, The Jack Kirby Collector, said British magazine and one or two others; plus, Dragon magazine, Toy Fare (and a few other toy magazines), the Overstreet card magazines and a few more in the collecting realm. Early on in my career, we were getting Love & Rockets, on our newsstand, for the final batch, leading to issue 50. That was where I finally got to read it and started to order the book collections, before picking up the big Locas omnibus.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jan 3, 2023 4:22:38 GMT -5
I much preferred Hero Illustrated. It had a shorter run, but seemed less cynical than Wizard. Also, while it did have a price guide, it seemed to be less about whether Bananaman #1 was near-mint - and more about the fun of comics. It was also where I learnt that there’d been a 1994 FF movie. Oh interesting, I never saw that one! Was Wizard always cynical or did it become more so over time? Wizard didn't really have a singular voice. Patrick Daniel O'Neill was extremely critical of '90s hype, Tom Palmer seemed to feel similarly but instead focused on the good stuff that was being produced off to the side of the mainstream, Gareb Shamus and Patrick McCallum were unapologetic cheerleaders for all things hype, and everyone else on staff fell somewhere in between. The only two biases that seemed to clearly govern Wizard in the early days were: 1. They gave absolutely zero attention to anything DC was doing until The Death of Superman, which they initially slammed quite harshly and then enthusiastically supported several months after everyone else was already over it. 2. Todd McFarlane (and, to a lesser extent, Jim Lee) could do no wrong. If you're looking for more info, I did write a pretty extensive review thread about the first 25 issues.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2023 4:30:10 GMT -5
I guess it all depends on who's writing the article. I came across a few of these back-issues and they were quite insightful about comics 40+ years ago.
I also quite liked new issues of WIZARD but the price-guide was rubbish....
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2023 8:54:12 GMT -5
Oh interesting, I never saw that one! Was Wizard always cynical or did it become more so over time? Wizard didn't really have a singular voice. Patrick Daniel O'Neill was extremely critical of '90s hype, Tom Palmer seemed to feel similarly but instead focused on the good stuff that was being produced off to the side of the mainstream, Gareb Shamus and Patrick McCallum were unapologetic cheerleaders for all things hype, and everyone else on staff fell somewhere in between. The only two biases that seemed to clearly govern Wizard in the early days were: 1. They gave absolutely zero attention to anything DC was doing until The Death of Superman, which they initially slammed quite harshly and then enthusiastically supported several months after everyone else was already over it. 2. Todd McFarlane (and, to a lesser extent, Jim Lee) could do no wrong. If you're looking for more info, I did write a pretty extensive review thread about the first 25 issues. Thanks shaxper , I'll definitely take a look at that review thread as well. I actually did read the magazine during the 90's, I just don't remember all these nuances so much. I probably didn't pay much attention even to the lack of DC early on because post-Crisis I hardly read anything they published (stuff like Elseworlds started to pull me back in eventually). And I liked the McFarlane Spider-Man stuff (even though he really couldn't write on that self-titled series) so him and Jim Lee were ok in my book back then. And the speculator hype I probably filtered out completely because I had already lived through the 80's B&W boom and bust and knew that stuff was nonsense. Not to overly defend it either, even back in the day I never thought it was the height of journalism. It might even just be association with a really good time in my life, Wizard came out as I was finishing up high school and then in college I met my future wife early on, and the 90's were really cool to me. Video games were awesome, animation was awesome, and the colorful tone of Wizard just hit the fun factor of the times with me. Amateur in every way compared to the Comic Buyer's Guide I grew up on earlier, but young and fun during a time when I was in a similar place in life. Which reminds me, Nintendo Power and Guitar for the Practicing Musician were the other main magazines I used to grab back then (and sometimes Astronomy). I miss the excitement of magazines, just that little surprise factor of what you might be served up that month.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jan 3, 2023 11:46:13 GMT -5
Wizard didn't really have a singular voice. Patrick Daniel O'Neill was extremely critical of '90s hype, Tom Palmer seemed to feel similarly but instead focused on the good stuff that was being produced off to the side of the mainstream, Gareb Shamus and Patrick McCallum were unapologetic cheerleaders for all things hype, and everyone else on staff fell somewhere in between. The only two biases that seemed to clearly govern Wizard in the early days were: 1. They gave absolutely zero attention to anything DC was doing until The Death of Superman, which they initially slammed quite harshly and then enthusiastically supported several months after everyone else was already over it. 2. Todd McFarlane (and, to a lesser extent, Jim Lee) could do no wrong. If you're looking for more info, I did write a pretty extensive review thread about the first 25 issues. Thanks shaxper , I'll definitely take a look at that review thread as well. I actually did read the magazine during the 90's, I just don't remember all these nuances so much. I probably didn't pay much attention even to the lack of DC early on because post-Crisis I hardly read anything they published (stuff like Elseworlds started to pull me back in eventually). And I liked the McFarlane Spider-Man stuff (even though he really couldn't write on that self-titled series) so him and Jim Lee were ok in my book back then. And the speculator hype I probably filtered out completely because I had already lived through the 80's B&W boom and bust and knew that stuff was nonsense. Not to overly defend it either, even back in the day I never thought it was the height of journalism. It might even just be association with a really good time in my life, Wizard came out as I was finishing up high school and then in college I met my future wife early on, and the 90's were really cool to me. Video games were awesome, animation was awesome, and the colorful tone of Wizard just hit the fun factor of the times with me. Amateur in every way compared to the Comic Buyer's Guide I grew up on earlier, but young and fun during a time when I was in a similar place in life. Which reminds me, Nintendo Power and Guitar for the Practicing Musician were the other main magazines I used to grab back then (and sometimes Astronomy). I miss the excitement of magazines, just that little surprise factor of what you might be served up that month. Oh, you'll get no argument from me that it was fun. I adored Wizard and collected it with fervor as an adolescent.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2023 11:53:05 GMT -5
shaxper, you should have been buying Hero Illustrated instead.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jan 3, 2023 12:04:37 GMT -5
shaxper, you should have been buying Hero Illustrated instead. In hindsight, I think I would have adored Amazing Heroes the most, but by the time I was collecting, Wizard was the only one on the spinner racks (at least in my neck of the woods).
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