Or anything…

So I’m not a huge fan of Wizard by any means — I ocassionally pick up and read an issue just for some comic-related reading, but more often I go to blogs such as this — but isn’t this huge analysis of this issue of Wizard a bit… I don’t know… whiney? Too many of your points are nit-picky, and your constant asking questions to prove your point just makes you sound like you’re full of yourself. I completely understand why you’d want Wizard to cover more indie comics and less superhero stuff… but Wizard has never claimed to be about that. They’ve always been straight-forward about being about pop-culture and very mainstream (usually superhero) comics.

I’m not saying many of your points aren’t valid or even necessary critiques — they are. But his whole look at the problems with Wizard is watered down by the fact that your main problem with them is obviously just that they don’t agree with your vision of what good comics are. A less my-opinion-is-right focused review of Wizard could provide some more important and easier to swallow criticism.

That said, keep up the great work with the blog in general. It’s consistently far more entertaining than anything in Wizard.

-Philip Kollar-

For awhile, they actually had some info that was “unknown” to the rest of the industry. So, I’d buy them and read the articles that I was interested in, and ignore (or later skim) the other stuff.

But, then the Internet really exploded with great sites and insiders began to leak things that way, so there’s really NO reason to buy Wizard for the INFO.

I continued reading up until recently, when I just had enough of the stupidity of some of the “writers”.
Many of these guys can’t be old enough to really KNOW anything, and a LOT of their reporting is erroneous and flat-out dumb.

Each issue I bought I’d hate myself for doing so, but it was always nice to have a comic-related mag to read – wherever and whenever I felt like it, so I’d roll it up and toss it in my bag.

But, then I’d feel dirty for buying it.

I think the final nail in the coffin was the crass opening to an article about Frank Cho’s work on Mighty Avengers.
The “writer” made a horrid comment about a poor man who died in his home (he lived next door to artist Frank Cho), and was left undiscovered for many days.
The comment was something like “if anything stinks near Cho’s work on Avengers, it must be the dead guy”.

That was “classy”.

I’ve since dropped Wizard.

Toyfare I read for cool info on upcoming action figures and toys and such (and Twisted Toyfare Theatre – which I love).

I’ve dropped THAT as well (reluctantly) but will still buy the trade pb’s of T.T.T. when they are released.
That shit is funny!

~P~
P-TOR

I think that it was Crisis that established this whole “it’s a big even, so we’ve got to dig out a bunch of forgotten characters to kill” routine. But Crisis WAS a big event; you can’t just manufacture that. That’s why they got rid of Wally West, even though he was the one post- Silver Age replacement that actually worked, and now they’re stuck with a Flash no one likes.

And why is Mr. Fantastic such a fascist these days?

Moose n Squirrel: I agree with you entirely. I’ve never been able to understand why people keep reading comic books that they don’t enjoy. I remember when I was a kid, I used to watch Full House every week, and get mad at it for not being better. Then it dawned on me thatit wasn’t the show’s problem, it was mine for tuning in each week for a show I knew wasn’t any good.

Yes, I’m probably the only one to compare Civil War to Full House.

Exactly. Thank you Ken.

I’m sure the intelligent posters here at CSBG have varied reasons for not liking 52. But there are some in the greater comics blogosphere who keep looking for all the action! action! action! in a serial covering an entire year in its characters’ lives. That’s a case of false expectations. It’s a soap opera, for crying out loud! Moreso than most comics are soap operas (insofar as they are examples of serial storytelling). It’s not just their next big battle to save the world from the great evil so-and-so.

When I say “soap opera,” I don’t mean it in a negative way. (Though there are more similarities between comics and soaps than some posters here would like to admit to, judging by the [probably perfectly relevant] objections some had to the hilarious Marvel/Guiding Light crossover. [Gotta give 'em points for trying though! Now THAT'S a bold experiment, Greg! Probably doomed to failure, but surely a rare example of two big companies thinking outside of the box.] Of course both formats are serials, involving characters that sometimes have decades of history to them; but beyond that, they’re both looked down upon by the rest of the pop-culture world. “Comics” and “soaps” are often used as perjorative adjectives, for example, by film critics to describe some really lamentable movies. As if movies can’t be bad on their own — they’re bad because they take cues from these juvenile, inferior forms of storytelling.)

No, 52 is a soap because sometimes it’s showing us the smaller, perhaps even more mundane moments in these characters lives, or the funny ones. Not always the big drama and not always the big brawls. Of course other superhero comics sometimes do this too, but with a monthly title, the creators have far less space to explore the rest of these things.

And it’s not a crossover event. That’s the line some people use that most makes me roll my eyes. Civil War this is not.* It ain’t Infinite Crisis either (thank god) and those who skipped out on even trying 52 because they hated IC so much, well, they’ve missed out on a unique event that I think delivers very entertainingly on its premise. I, for one, am delighted to know that, no matter what else arrives at my friendly neighborhood comic shop each week (or, more likely these days, what doesn’t arrive because it’s weeks or months late), I have one title I look forward to reading no matter what. Because I’m a comics junkie, I guess, and I like to buy something that I’ll enjoy reading … but too often in the past I’ve left empty-handed because I don’t blindly support books I don’t like. For one year, at least, I have found something that I look forward to each and every week. Kudos to DC for delivering a reason to consistently look forward to Wednesdays.

* Which reminds me of another line of reasoning against 52 I’ve found flawed: Those who say it costs too much — a new book every week! — yet they’re buying all the Civil War tie-ins. Sheesh. I’d bet my Mac that there have easily been more than 52 ancillary Civil War books. Some of them, I’m sure, are bigger crap than the main title. And some of them, as with some IC events, contained key story points that should’ve been in the miniseries itself. THOSE are the books people should be flipping off for costing them too much money. I’ve heard of glancing references to 52 in other titles that I don’t buy, but I don’t feel compelled to seek them out because 52 feels completely self-contained to me. And I hope DC doesn’t f*ck that up before the 52 year is done.

Yeah, well I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about the people who’ve been complaining about 52 and Civil War since the beginning, and were complaining about them a couple months ago, and are complaining about them now, and lo and behold will be complaining about them next month and still buying the goddamn comics. Now I don’t expect those people to make up the majority of the sales of those comics, but I do think they make up a nontrivial percentage of those sales, and if those sales went away – and stayed away, and didn’t come back for similar “events” – Marvel and DC would notice. But that isn’t going to happen, because god forbid you don’t find out what happens to Elongated Man next week!

Amen, Greg. Amen.

http://fraggmented.blogspot.com/2006/04/state-of-comics.html

sums up my thoughts on the matter, in particular the third-to-last paragraph.

This IS the magazine. According to our Dread Lord and Master, the number of unique visitors to the site is well over the circulation of several of the actual print magazines I’ve written and worked for.

As far as ‘putting our money where our mouth is’ I was involved for a while with several cartoonist friends of mine to try and put out a Disney Adventures monthly of American comics for kids and teens printed in the Shonen Jump! style of comics magazine– a big, squarebound, anthology of adventure and humor that would compete on magazine racks in grocery stores and whatnot. Lots of talent — you wouldn’t BELIEVE how many amazing artists and writers jump on board when you tell them, “Hey, we want something fun for young people. No superheroes.” Half the time they already have something in the trunk– Kathleen Webb had this amazing fantasy princess thing called Yume Dream. All sorts of folks, working industry pros my friend Jim was pitching it to at cons and stuff. Twice we had it pulled together and twice the financing fell through. Jim tells me it’s not dead, he’s still trying, and he’s got the L.A. connections — but I think most of us that were in the original group have moved on.

The thing about Wizard the nobody notices, and that is a great frustration to me personally, is the shining example they are of FORMAT and DISTRIBUTION. They are a big squarebound splash of superhero color available through TRADITIONAL MAGAZINE RETAILERS. I see Wizard in grocery stores, drugstores, etc. They have lots of extra little lures and they are out where kids can see them. Why has no one in direct-market publishing noticed their numbers? Or Archie’s? Why stay shackled to Diamond when there’s obvious successful alternatives?

Grrgh. I have classrooms full of kids that WOULD buy comics. Tokyopop owns them body and soul simply because they’re the only publishers visible in the places they go.

I liked how Fun Home was mentioned as, like, “Sixteenth Best Indy Book of the Year” or something.

On a MUCH nerdier note, I now want to buy a video game thingy (Whatever they’re called now-a-days) just to play the Marvel and Justice League games.