Wizard #16 (December 1992)




Comicdom's new love affair with Image appears to be sputtering out. According to the Market Watch section, the constant delays have begun and are turning folks off. While Market Watch claims that sales have not been affected, it's remarkable to see how little Image suddenly gets mentioned in this issue, even with Image characters on the cover and a feature interview with an Image comics creator.

Instead, Wizard is making a conscious effort in this issue to find the NEXT Image Comics, whether it be in plugging Valiant more vigorously than they have since issue #8, or spending most of the news section (now the lead section in the book), discussing events at Adhesive Comics, Eclipse Comics, Zen Comics, Personality Comics, Malibu, Topps, One Shot Press, Adventure Comics, Viz Comics, AC Comics, and Mulehide, with only one article each at the front and back of the section allocated to Image, and Valiant, two for Marvel, and none for DC (Wizard is working hard to diminish its lag time, but two full months after the announcement, less than half the features in this issue seem aware that the Death of Superman is coming). So clearly, Wizard is pulling back from riding Image's coattails a bit and is trying to offer a more comprehensive look at independent publishing for once. Pretty exciting to see.

More than that, though, Wizard is really trying to diversify itself beyond comics and into a general Entertainment magazine, now offering two features on video gaming, one on role playing, one on movies and television that is focusing less and less on comic book adaptations, the old standard toy and trading card sections, and even the features focused on comics are now directed almost as much at helping you make your own comic book (three features) as they are on what's actually going on in comics (four features).

Also interesting to note in this issue is that Gareb Shamus is finally dropping the nerd act. While he's still naturally nerdy to some extent (just look at his photo in issue #19), it's no longer forced. He wears a variety of clothing that usually isn't too geeky, the dialogue bubbles are less often disparaging after this point (this time around, HE's insulting Stimpy of Ren & Stimpy) and, when a fan writes in to comment on his nerdiness in the letter column, he jokingly threatens to drive to the kid's house and beat him up. While you could easily chalk this sudden change to insecurity or, perhaps, a growing ego as a result of the growing success of Wizard, I think it's more likely a realization that Shamus was dressing and performing for a demographic that was no longer there. Adolescents reading comics in the '90s weren't the nerds anymore. Comics had become mainstream and cool, and a nerd being the face of Wizard made a lot less sense in this light.


Hindsight glimpses into the comic industry:

Image's sales have not declined, but there's a growing dissatisfaction with their endless delays. Wizard picks Bloodshot #1 as their pick of the month over the Death of Superman (ouch!), and the surviving b&w indy comics of the 1980s bubble are facing a new threat as the new breed of independent comics (Image, Valiant, and Dark Horse) appears to be stealing sales away from titles like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Cerebus. Meanwhile, Valiant continues to dominate back issue sales.

Marvel: 56.52% (back where it was 2 months ago before Image started taking a significant amount out of their sales)
DC: 17.25% (still gradually falling)
Malibu (including Image): 10.78% (that's almost a 50% decline, likely due to less Image Comics being on sale because most are delayed)
Dark Horse: 3.27%
Valiant: 3.1% (up slightly)
other: 9.08%



Industry news:

Seemingly a very slow news month for Marvel and Image, but DC's got the Death of Superman coming, as well as an ad in this issue for Robin III, while Valiant has Bloodshot #1 on the way, the Malev Invasion shaking up the Magnus title, and speculators already scurrying to buy up the first appearance of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter with the soliciting of his upcoming series. Investors are also hunting down the first appearances of Bloodshot, HARD Corps, and the new Rai ahead of their upcoming titles.


Wizard shaping the comic book market?

In addition to the obvious point in the News section that Wizard has been too reactionary with fan response to Image and, thus, is doing anything but taking the lead there, and still has no idea where to shine the spotlight in looking at other independent publishers who might be the next big one (because, of course, none of them will be), there's a few interesting tidbits to be learned in Patrick McCallum's Collecting in the '90s column which, ever since he was promoted to assistant editor, spends more time discussing Wizard than it does on, ya know, collecting comics in the '90s.

Here he mentions that there was a newsstand variant cover for Wizard #7 with the Flash on it, as well as a planned Newsstand cover for #8 with Superman on it that was abandoned. All this time, it's appeared that Wizard was purposefully excluding DC, but these covers shed a new light on that. Maybe they had nothing against DC and just felt nothing interesting was happening there. Or maybe it's also telling that DC was only getting picked for newsstand variant covers for two issues while Marvel was otherwise dominating the covers of each issue. Again, it's possible and likely this was all just a reflection of the current market and its general disinterest in DC, but prior to this point, there'd been several clues to suggest that DC and Wizard had no actual working relationship for at least the first three issues, and very little relationship after that for quite some time. Remember that interview in issue #3 that they reprinted from another magazine rather than interviewing Simon Bisley about Lobo themselves?


Finally, McCallum mentions that there was a Gray Hulk dealer incentive variant to issue #6 that fans have been writing in to ask about ever since. Prior to this, the ONLY dealer incentive cover I'm aware of was Platinum Spider-Man #1, released almost three years ago by this point. But four months after Wizard #6, Valiant brought back the dealer incentive with Unity #0, followed by Eternal Warrior #1 and Archer and Armstrong #1, and it eventually built to become a standard industry practice. We KNOW that issue #6 was the time-frame during which Wizard first seriously sat down with Valiant to begin discussing promoting the company for issue #8. Did Wizard give Valiant the idea to bring back dealer incentive variant covers??


Wizard's Comic Watch:

Magnus Robot Fighter #5: 1st appearance of Valiant's first original superhero (Rai), and David Lapham's first published work.

Megaton #3: 1st appearance of Savage Dragon



Wizard's Top 10:



1. Rai #0 (1st new Rai)
2. Magnus: Robot Fighter #12 (1st Turok)
3. Eternal Warrior #5 (1st full appearance of Bloodshot)
4. Amazing Spider-Man #101 (1st Morbius)
5. Harbinger #10 (1st HARD Corps)
6. Amazing Spider-Man #361 (1st Carnage)
7. Shadowman #8 (1st Master Darque)
8. Harbinger #1 (1st Harbinger)
9. Uncanny X-Men #201 (1st Nathan Summers)
10. Shadowhawk #1 (1st Shadowhawk)

So much of this is fueled by speculation about upcoming Valiant titles. Clearly, attention is moving away from Image for the moment (only one book on the list this month), and Marvel is still struggling to stay in the race as well.



Final Thoughts:

Wizard is beginning to lessen its lag time on breaking news (though it's still more than a month behind Previews and Advance Comics), the magazine is diversifying away from a comic book focus towards a more multi-media approach, Image is beginning to lose headway with its constant delays, Valiant is taking the opportunity to steal the limelight with a barrage of upcoming titles (Bloodshot, Turok, HARD Corps), and Gareb Shamus has stopped trying so hard to be a nerd.