Wayne Markley

by Wayne Markley

It was announced this week that both Wizard Magazine and ToyFare would be shutting down. I cannot not say I am surprised, given the current market for magazines and publishing. Wizard will continue online as a “web-mag”, but as for what we have known over the years as the fanboy’s version of Playboy, it will not be the same. I must say though that I am impressed it has lasted as long as it has in print form. I thought it would close up shop at least a year ago, and I was stunned it out lasted AVN (Adult Video News magazine) which went to an online only version almost a year ago. Why compare Wizard to AVN? Because both magazines catered to a very specific audience that had disposable income and both magazines were dramatically hurt by the internet. The difference is at its peak, AVN would be as thick as Vogue with over 200 pages of ads. As advertising from both comics publishers and adult entertainment manufactures dropped off due to decreasing sales, I would argue due to the internet and an aging fan base, both industries stopped spending ads on print thus leading to the demise of both magazines.

I want to be honest; I was never a very big fan of Wizard. I really liked the people that worked there from Gareb Shamus to all those who worked with him that I have met over the years. But to me, the magazine represented what is worst with the comic market. It made creators, writers and artists the center of attention, and it focused on the collectable aspects of comics and what was “hot”. While it was nice that all of the creators got attention, I always thought it was a driving problem in the 90s/2000s. The creators became the draw, and not the character in the book. Throughout comics history there have been ups and downs for books depending on the creative team, but up to the 1990s most people still bought a book because of the characters. When Alan Moore first took over Swamp Thing, most people had no idea who he was. But the people who bought Swamp Thing continued to buy Swamp Thing and over time word of mouth and more exposure to Alan’s writing drew attention to him as a writer and slowly his name came to mean something to a book’s sales. Same with Frank Miller. Jim Lee. Todd McFarlane. But Wizard changed all this.

Wizard

Wizard took the comic creator and pushed the creator over the character and they pushed the collectible aspect of comic collecting. What was the value? What will be the next hot book or storyline? To be fair, a lot of Wizard’s success was due to the fact that they were at the right place at the right time. They started in 1991 at the height of the speculator boom of the 90’s when the best selling comics were selling over a million copies (now it is not unusual for the bestselling book for a month to be LESS than 100,000, one tenth of the peak). Wizard pushed Valiant and Image when they first launched as they were speculators darlings in those days. Wizard had its own price guide that was mostly higher priced than the traditional Overstreet Price Guide. And Wizard updated their prices every month, with all sorts of tips of what was going to be hot. They were a lot like what Billboard was to music. They also added all sorts of gimmicks as time went on, such as posters, trading card, limited edition comics, and other incentives to get the collector to buy the magazine.

As time went on they went to newsstand distribution, went to magazine size, went to multiple covers, dropped the price guide, and made other changes to try and find their one time glory. None of these tricks worked, so with the passing of time they have come to an end. As I said before, I think this was inevitable. The collector fan base who bought comics hoping to become rich have moved onto other things (mind you having seen the reaction to Fantastic Four #587 today, I could be wrong). I always thought that if magazines like the Comics Journal and Comic Book Marketplace, which targeted the true hard core comic fan could not survive, it was only a matter of time for Wizard. I am thrilled that Alter Ego and Back Issue survive to this day, as both are excellent reads for comic history, but I worry about how long they can keep it up.

A few side notes about this history of Wizard and their passing. Gareb has always tried to move onto other things to expand beyond Wizard, such as conventions, which do very well, and it shows there is some life still on the comic market. But it once again caters to the older fan with money looking for bargains on that elusive back issue. And Wizard’s conventions have focused more and more on entertainment guests to try and expand the base of fans to draw from. (Wise idea that.) Gareb also tried to start his own mixed-martial arts fight league, the IFL. It was a nice idea, with television and some good talent, but it became nothing but a huge money loser. (This was due to MMA selling on one brand, the UFC, not MMA as a sport. But that is for a different column someday on brand loyalty.) And in the mid 1990s, Wizard contributed to what I consider a major turning point in the downturn of the comic industry, as they went exclusive for distribution with a single distributer.

As with Adult Video News, Wizard will now be available only online and like AVN, they will do conventions. And to think both publications/conventions core audiences are middle aged males. Well, I guess it is not such a surprise. I do feel bad for all the employees that lost their jobs and I will never forget Stewart, Marty, and many other friends I had that worked at Wizard one time or another. I wish everyone that worked their all the best.

Simpsons Comics #176

And since you do not have to buy Wizard or ToyFare anymore, you might want to take that extra money and try a new book. Might I suggest Bongo Comics line. Every month these guys put out some of the best and funniest comics around. You can choose from Simpsons Comics, Bart Simpson Comics, any number of special editions and coming soon, SpongeBob. These comics feature stand alone stories and are just a lot of fun to read. As always, everything written here is my opinion and not that of Westfield or its staff. Any comments or hate mail can be sent to MFBWAY@AOL.COM. Thank you.