Wizard: Implied Facepalm

I guess the real issue for me is that Wizard is obviously trying to go the Maxim route with the tone of their magazine – yet these "Laddie" magazines are bleeding readers left and right, whereas less racy mags like Men's Health are posting gains. Do you know why these Maxim-type magazines are losing readers? Because you can get all the boobies you want for free on teh internets.

I repeat: you can get all the boobies you want for free on teh internets. You don't need a magazine about comic books to get boobies. Do you think the average guy looking for a porn fix says to himself: "gotta get that latest issue of Wizard! They're going to print content from other comics accompanied by the ribald commentary I've come to expect from those slap-happy jokesters! And when I'm finished, I'll just wipe myself with the price-guide section!"

So really, that's what concerns me about all this – that Wizard is basing their editorial slant on a print strategy that is hemorrhaging readership across the board. If anything, Wizard should start an online soft-core comics site with nothing but boobies, thus snagging the all-important "free porn" online community (which is huge). <---the sad thing is, that's actually a viable business idea.

(goes back to reading newspaper)

Unhappy Customers: Wizard's Online Store

Wizard's online store on Amazon.com is still racking up unhappy customers, according to their feedback page:

6/24: "LESS THAN AWFUL! DO NOT BUY!!! Got some horrible crap as a "free gift" because order was "delayed" NEVER got a response from them as to if I would ever get what I ordered. HORRIBLE MERCHANT! Saw feedback after purchase - this seems to be thier M.O. sending CRAPPY crap instead of actual order - then they have a tracking number so order looks complete."

6/23: "I have contacted the seller but not heard a response as yet. The order has not arrived so the child did not receive their gift for this birthday or next birthday by the looks of things. A token gift was sent out by Wizard once it was aware the item ordered was to be delayed and once recieved it was immediately trashed."

6/22: "still have not received book but have been charged"

6/20: "I did not recieve my order, and when I attempted to contact them I did not recieve a reply."

6/18: "sent me a product that was not and when I wrote to explain the problem has not received any response, SWINDLERS ARE BUYERS BEWARE OF THIS SELLER"

Why does Wizard continue to send crappy little toys in the place of awesome statues and other high-end ordered items? Someone I talked to recently offered not so much a suggestion why, as pointing out a general fact regarding online stores through Amazon. He said, "As long as you send something in response to the order, Amazon processes it as the order fulfilled – and the payment gets processed."

This holds water with my experience using PayPal through eBay, which has a similar system.

If Wizard can't process the items that are being ordered, or do not have them available for ship in the appropriate timeframe, why are they shipping these token "gifts" in their place and accepting payment? Isn't there a name for that sort of business practice? And how can I have faith in things like the recent purchase of the Toronto Comicon by Gareb Shamus if his company continues to engage in these sorts of practices? Unless he is going to end up completely disassociating himself from the company, which I wouldn't doubt.

Jesus, man – JUST DON'T ACCEPT THE PAYMENT IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE ITEM!!! That's like eBay 101.

I'm not saying the Wizard online store is consciously defrauding the public, but they need to take control of this situation and temporarily shut the store down if there is a problem. The $300 they get for a Deadpool statue is not worth this sort of bad press.

/worked for a summer at the Better Business Bureau, saw it all. Their staff of volunteer senior citizens will follow someone to the ends of the earth like Javert did to Jean Valjean.

CF: "Suck It, Wizard!"

Economy Sad Bear: Wizard Edition

Getting reports on Twitter that there are possibly more firings at Wizard Magazine.

I know a few people there, this sucks.

...

Not Wizard-specific, but an observation. With all these paper magazines and newspapers laying off people and transferring more and more content to the Web, don't they have some sort of protocol for transferring jobs as well for one medium to another? Job training, etc.? Surely, not everybody is ideal for the transition from paper to digital. But surely some of these companies are at least attempting this?

UPDATE: According to unconfirmed reports, the Wizard layoffs, if true, are one of the biggest single-day purges for the company.

...

With the massive layoffs and door-closings in the traditional media over the last six months, we cannot expect things will be any different for comics. I hear sometimes that "comics are recession-proof," and that "the paper comic will never die." Maybe that is true -- but there is absolutely going to be reshufflings and rearrangement and different schemata set up, and that is inevitably going to mean a loss of jobs.

The landscape for comics -- and those media sources that report on comics -- is going to look completely different within five years. Not like, five years ago, we had this comic trend or that, and we called it "change." I'm talking about complete and total revolution in content, format, and delivery. That's why, when some person or another asks me why I am not worked up over this or that DC Comics thing, I say: "in five years everything is going to be completely different anyhow. what does it matter?"

Wizard Magazine: Reflections

My workplace is the last place I expect to be offered a copy of Wizard Magazine. But so it happened -- with issue #200 yet! (It's like I can't escape comics no matter where I go)

To be honest, I haven't sat down and really read a copy of Wizard for a long, long time. This is the anniversary issue -- filled to the brim with the sort of lists and sidebars that would be considered "link bait" if it was online -- so I guess it would be hard to judge the magazine on this issue alone.

That said, it's an entertaining enough issue -- and pretty "Entertainment Weekly" in terms of design and tone.


I remember when Wizard first hit. I was working at a comic book store, and that issue of Wizard itself was considered "collectible." So we had Wizard #1 in the "special case" at the shop.

A magazine about collectibles that became collectible?

Wizard fanned the flames in terms of the speculative market, there is no doubt about that. But I don't think it created that market -- only reflected and magnified it. It filled a niche. It took all that craziness about multiple covers, "hot" artists, and "instant classics" and gave it a home.

I always saw Image Comics (at least in the beginning) as being the spiritual sibling of Wizard. They came from the same zeitgeist. Image, obviously, has developed quite a bit since then. Has Wizard?


I see Wizard's trajectory as starting from "Fanboy Wet Dream Publication" to "Mass Market Pop Culture Magazine." No, not quite like "EW." But along those lines. At least, I think that's what they want. I know there has been the whole "is Wizard aping Maxim" debate. I think it would be a losing strategy even if that was what they wanted. Or rather, it would be too narrow. If a guy wants real titillation they'll go read Playboy or Penthouse. Or Maxim itself, who can afford to pay actresses to strip to their underwear. Or tons of free porn online. Or Witchblade.


Let's take a look inside the issue, shall we?

The "200 Greatest Comics In Wizard's History" list is admirable. Here is the top 10:
1. Y the Last Man #1
2. Marvels #1
3. All Star Superman #1
4. Sandman #50
5. Superman #75
6. Preacher #1
7. Bone #1
8. Identity Crisis #1
9. Daredevil #1 Vol 2.
10. Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special

Now, obviously this list is really the 200 greatest superhero comics in Wizard's history plus some indies. Nobody would mistake this for a Comics Journal list. But it tries. We got Acme Novelty Library #1 at 60. We got Ganges #1 at 136. I mean, frickin' Ganges. You'd never see a comic like Ganges in a Wizard mag ten years ago.

But Identity Crisis at #8? Really?

I guess part of it is assessing the relative impact these comics have had on the greater comics community. That's why you have a lot of #1s. Number ones are valuable. At the old comics shop we had a list of just the #1s that were coming out. Some people collected all the #1s, regardless of title.


Then there is the fan-orgasm "commisioned art" segment, where we see all our favorite characters interacting with each other. That's always kind of fun. Strawberry Shortcake running around with Thundercats. When I was a kid there was this T-shirt that had ET and a Smurf playing Pac-Man on it. I always wanted that one.

I mean, they were on the floor with the Atari playing Pac-Man.

Next we have the "50 Clusterf**ks To Hit Comics," or something like that.

Highlights:

#50: T&A in comics. Gasp!

#42: Liefeld leaves Image. Yes, I think the poor company has never recovered from that blow.

#25: Wolverine's origin revealed. Actually, this is the first time I've read this. I never picked up that "Origin" book. (...) Really? Logan was the hero of his own gothic novel? Was Charlotte Bronte the co-writer on that?

#11: "The Internet Cometh." And the paper goeth.

#4: The comics market, it implodeth.

#1: Image Comics. Did it really revolutionize things? I mean, we got a decent indie company and a really great line of hockey action figures out of this collaboration. But as somebody who tried in vain to sell a friend's complete run of early Image on eBay...let me tell ya.


All-in-all, Wizard #200 is a good magazine to just sit around and sentimentalize with. At least, if you were a comic-collecting teen/twentysomething when the publication first came out. I realize that this issue has infuriated a few online critics. But I dunno. Sure, I hate the fact that their top tens on writing and artists each month feature mostly bald white men with or without goatees. But, is that really their fault? They are reporting mostly on what's out there in mainstream comics. They are a mirror. I don't buy that they created this. I don't buy that they created the comics implosion of the nineties.


Wizard bills itself (at least this month) as "The Magazine Of Comics, Entertainment, and Pop Culture."

Pop Culture. Popular culture.

I think they will change as we do. They have to.