So, it appears that Gareb Shamus, CEO of Wizard World Inc, has decided to take the comic book magazine in a new direction... and by new direction I mean he is shutting the printed version of the mag down and turning it into a digital magazine in the future. They will also focus on expanding their mega conventions that they throw, which can not be a bad thing (I love comic cons!) This is pretty big news since I kind of grew up reading the magazine. It really pushed Indy companies like Image and Dark Horse to amazing heights. I will never forget the Special Edition: Image Comics issue that had a foldout cover that I bought way back in 1992. I still have it, and I keep it with all my autographed books. I pulled it out to write this post... god, I honestly used to love this magazine! Look at all the Image heroes in their glory... phenomenal. I may have not read every issue of Wizard ever, but I always smiled when I did. Also, Mr. Shamus and the Wizard crew (whatup Jerry Milani!!!) were the first people to ever welcome CCD as a member of the press... and for that I will be forever grateful. I am looking forward to seeing what the Wizard crew has planned for the electronic version. Who knows... maybe they will need a blogger over there. Wink, wink... hint, hint. (I'm available... call me!!!)
Sad news indeed...I grew up reading it too, albeit at a younger age, but still...it kept me up to date with the comics world when I was 7-8 years old. Not to mention any of the inserted word captions never failed to make me crack up...
ReplyDeleteI was there at the very beginning and I never missed an issue until this year when it was evident that it was no longer the magazine I loved so much. I feel that at the end it was just begging to die. There was once a magazine called HERO that competed with WIZARD until the latter book completely took over. I always had my issues with the magazine (like the way it seemed to champion certain artists and writers and not others) but I always found lots to enjoy in it's pages. I am glad it's gone only so I don't need to see it as only a shadow of what it once was. Hopefully the online version will be as great as the magazine was in the beginning. There are lots of fine bloggers out there who write about comics and have a love and passion for the subject. I hope Gareb seeks them out.
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