I wanted to chime in on the death of Wizard Magazine which, if haven’t heard, closed their doors Monday morning. I feel sorry for all the people (and their families) of both Wizard and Toyfare magazines losing their jobs.
I used to read Wizard when it first came out in 1991, but preferred another magazine called Comic Scene (anybody who was reading comics back then remember that mag?). When that folded, I moved over to Wizard. They had some cool stuff – free posters, trading cards, and ashcans comics. The “casting the (fill in the comic book title) movie” articles were cool as well as some of their dream battles (don’t remember what they called it). Where else could you see an image of Darth Vader versus Doctor Doom?
I haven’t read the magazine a lot in the last four or five years, but when I didn’t really enjoy it. The “news” was already outdated thanks to the internet, the articles were ok, but the price of the mag went up and the page count went down. Wizard was a shadow of itself, so the news was shocking, but not surprising.
Reading some of the responses on the internet is surprising, but people can be cruel. However, other people have responded way to the other end. I’ve read that this foretells the death of comic books in print. WOW! That’s a big leap there isn’t it? The guy said it was to Wizard’s credit that comics were in Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc. That’s another leap – I’m starting to get tired. The Barnes & Noble that is near me has cut down their trade paperback stock by a ton in the last year. It was one of the few sections that had to sacrifice space so the store can promote the Nook. I’m sure my store isn’t the only one that did this. So where was Wizard when this was happening? Trying to save its own ass probably.
The sad thing is now there is a big void. The comic book magazines that are still publishing are Comic Buyers Guide and the magazines by Twomorrows Publishing – which focuses on comic’s history and art (Back Issue, Alter Ego, and Jack Kirby Collector for example). For better or worse, this is truly an end of an era.
