Wizard Magazine #3 (November 1991)
Hindsight glimpses into the comic industry:For the first time this issue, Wizard includes a detailed market report clearly showing Marvel holding 68% of sales for the month of August while DC holds about 20%. Of course, the majority of this is attributed to the "X-Mania!" caused by the release of X-Force #1 (with its five trading card variants).
Of the Top 100 best selling books of September, the top 13 are all Marvel, with only Sandman Special #1, War of the Gods #3, and Legends of the Dark Knight #24 making the Top 20.
Though DC has been completely ignored by Wizard prior to this point, both the new Market Watch section and the "Wizard Comic Watch" discuss the stir surrounding the upcoming release of Robin II: The Joker's Wild. According to the stats for the previous year included in the Market Watch section, Robin #1 was the second best selling book of September 1990, though, sadly, what beat it was McFarlane's Spider-Man #6. Wasn't even a key issue.
Market Watch does go on to state that "The hot picks to look out for are pretty much dominated by DC Comics," and it goes on to talk about Batman vs. Predator, Robin, and Lobo. Of course, the rest of the Magazine doesn't discuss Batman or Robin at all.
Industry news:John Byrne takes over writing the X-Men titles after Claremont's departure
First rumblings of Valiant being a big deal in the Market Watch section, where we learn that the recent Magnus Robot Fighter back issues are selling as well as those of Deathlok, Robin, War of the Gods, Ghost Rider, and even Infinity Gauntlet. No emphasis is given to this fact.
Wizard shaping the comic book market?So I've established after thoroughly examining the first two issues that there's a definite pro-Marvel bias in Wizard, to the extent that DC is entirely ignored, even with a sequel to the blockbuster 1989 Batman film in the works and a major marketing event (complete with those variant covers and holograms Wizard loves so much) in the form of Robin II: The Joker's Wild on the way, but something particularly weird happens in this issue. The lead interview for this issue is with Simon Bisley about Lobo (Yes! A DC property!!), but Wizard didn't do it. It's "reprinted with permission from Blast! Magazine."
Wait...What?
So the bias grows more interesting. All this time, Wizard has had unrestricted access to Marvel's hottest talents, but the same isn't apparently true for DC. Is DC not allowing Wizard to talk to its people, or is Wizard choosing not to work with DC? Is Wizard biased in favor of Marvel because it truly likes Marvel better, because it's in Marvel's pocket, or because DC won't work with them?
Whatever the case, when we talk about Wizard shaping the comic book market, the magazine is quickly becoming the voice of what is cool and what is not, and Wizard is barely talking DC at all. This is partially a reflection of the market, which is gaga over McFarlane, X-Force, and X-Men right now, but Batman is still a hot commodity with a major motion picture and animated series in the works (neither of which have been mentioned even once here), and Robin II should fit in perfectly with the creative marketing strategies Wizard has been worshiping in its pages as of late.
Wizard Comic Watch:Uncanny X-Men #193: 1st Warpath and Firestar
Batman #436: 1st Tim Drake
Wizard Top 10:
1. X-Men (1991) #1E
2. Uncanny X-Men #281
3. New Mutants #87
4. X-Force #1
5. Uncanny X-Men #248
6. Silver Surfer #34
7. X-Factor #63
8. X-Factor #71
9. Infinity Gauntlet #1
10. Silver Surfer #50
Contents:Letter from the Publisher: Though there'd been some minor sprinklings of goofiness in the mag before, this is the first time Shamus seems clearly intent on establishing a comical persona for Wizard. In his letter column, he describes prank calling LCSes across the nation, asking them about Wizard magazine and when the next issue is coming in. He's quick to explain to his impressionable fanbase that there was nothing mean-spirited about this, of course. It hits just the right generically playful tone without possibly coming off as offensive.
Wizard of Cards: In an interesting twist, the column is published far apart from the price guide this time, as the focus is entirely on sports cards and does not address comic book cards at all.
"Filling Big Shoes," by Parick Daniel O'Neill: Interview with Erik Larson about taking over for McFarlane on Spider-Man. At this point, Larson is not yet big news and is still hoping for steady work. He also makes no mention of aspiring to publish his own characters.
"Collecting Comics in the '90s," by Pat McCallum: Are movie adaptations good investments? No.
"Simon Bisley: The Number of the Beast," by Gordon Rennie. Wizard's first ever focus on a DC character, and it's not even their interview. Reprinted with permission from Blast! Magazine.
"Alternative Collections," by Nat Gertler: A surprisingly substantive article that discusses building collections, not based upon what's currently hot, but instead on things like favorite writers, foreign language editions, and even collecting by month/year of publication. Fun and inspiring to the classic comics collector.
Wizard Comic Watch: Tim Drake actually gets some attention here, and apparently the New Warriors are a big deal, too. I had no idea.
Market Watch: Sales data from both Diamond and Capital City (apparently Wizard is working with them again after their suspicious absence in issue #2) reveal a few interesting trends, the most fascinating of which is the growing interest in Magnus Robot Fighter and the declining interest in McFarlane's early work on Amazing Spider-Man and Hulk. Apparently, the prices haven't dropped, but they have flat-lined.
Price guide: 38 Marvel covers displayed, 23 DC (with an increasing focus on Batman), 9 independent (with an increasing focus on Dark Horse and TMNT)
Trading Cards Price Guide
Toying Around, with Brian Cunningham: Emphasis on the old Mego Figures, and they get included in the price guide as well. I love it. Of course, toys is one place where DC was still dominating at this point. Perhaps, after having already discussed the Marvel and X-Men Series I figures, Cunningham's only options were to go vintage or (gasp) discuss DC's three current toylines. He already discussed 1984's Secret Wars and Super Powers figures last issue, so now he's going even further back.
Number 1 Releases for the Month
Shipping for the Month of October: Harbinger #1 and Solar #5 get a prominent cover displays. Solar has been featured here each month thus far. Apparently, some folks at Wizard were already taking notice of Valiant, though it's still a while away from getting noticed at the front of the book.
Gamepro: So now the video game section has been outsourced to Gamepro Magazine. Sure enough, they focus on comics related games whereas last issue's "Gamesmaster" did not.
Top 10: All ten choices are still Marvel, even though the Market Watch section clearly shows with hard numbers that this was not representative of what was changing hands most often from the back issue bins. It's all X-Men and Silver Surfer here.
Top 100: Marvel does dominate in current issue sales. A lot. The Top 13 are all Marvel.
Picks from the Wizard's Hat: Gasp! Robin II gets first listing here! Sandman Special gets the third. Batman/Judge Dredd gets the fourth. How do you reconcile this with the Top 10 section from two pages earlier that tried to tell us that all anyone was interested in grabbing was X-Men and Silver Surfer comics?
Contest: Win a Rob Liefeld autographed New Mutants #87
Letter Page: Finally, these look like legitimate REAL letters from readers, commenting on the content of the first issue instead of asking insipid questions about comics. As a kid, I always loved seeing the envelope art.
Show and Convention Calendar
"It's Academic," by Henry T. Colonna III: Wizard is still maintaining a small section at the very back of the magazine to cater to mature collectors. This interview is with the author of "Comics Librarianship," which was featured in this space last issue.
"A Bold New Direction," by Vincent Bartilucci, speaks to older readers about the long history of comics being significantly altered/rebranded to attract new audiences. What an appropriate time (and appropriate magazine) for printing such an article!
"John Byrne: Back to the X-House," by Patrick Daniel O'Neill: I can't figure out what this is doing at the back of the book. I guess Byrne was old news at this point, and only older fans (reading this section of the book) would care who was WRITING a comic these days. Byrne comes off as arrogant as ever, and makes no effort to conceal the fact that he intends to change everything from Day One. He even outright says he intends to bring all the characters back to where they were when he left them a decade earlier. Wow.
"Wolverine: The Man Behind the Claws," by Andrew S. Harris: The final article feels inappropriate for the back of the book, as the intended audience is clearly a younger, less well read readership. It's entirely, overly simplistic point is that Wolverine isn't some deranged killing anti-hero anymore; he has a long history of having matured/calmed down. Maybe Shamus and his editors realized younger fans would find little interest in such a message.
Final thoughts:It wasn't until I read the Market Watch section of this issue that I began to realize just
how extreme Wizard's bias towards Marvel was at this point. it's easy to assume that, with the buzz surrounding McFarlane's Spider-Man, X-Force #1, and X-Men #1, DC just wasn't doing anything as comparatively exciting at this point, but there's Robin and the upcoming Robin II, the Batman crossovers with Judge Dredd and Predator, the Batman Returns film and Animated Series in production, Armageddon 2001, and (yes) Lobo. To so thoroughly ignore these things to the extent that they aren't even referenced as afterthoughts in some article towards the back of the book until issue #3 tells you something.
And what do we make of the fact that Wizard's first ever interview about a DC property was reprinted by permission from another magazine? Who's choosing not to have a relationship with whom, here: Wizard or DC?
