This is a flyer I created for Wizard World Chicago to promote […]. Wizard Magazine 1 vs. Hero Illustrated 1 Which comic book fan magazine featured a better cover for the first issue? Please only take poll one […]. A favorite topic at the bar for some. You buy the beers, Buddy, and I know half a dozen people at least that you can interview right now. I still miss the friends that we lost last year. A history of Wizard would probably be whitewashed and sanitized to the point where it would only be valuable to the people it championed.
To tell the real story of Wizard would be a supreme challenge for a skilled and thoughtful journalist. A good, unbiased journalist would be able to write a truthful, interesting story of Wizard. And I bet a lot of people would be interested in reading it, but only if it was written honestly by a third-party journalist.
I discovered Wizard with issue 13 and fell off the readership list somewhere in something, a time when real, substantial content started taking a backseat to silly filler, I feel. I had some art published with a couple different contests and Envelope Art within those issues, which was very cool and remains near and dear.
Being a growing, aspiring artist back then, Wizard Magazine served as one of the very few connections to the industry I wanted to and still do be a part of. I could read about Spider-Man, Batman, Wolverine, etc. Putting faces with the names I knew from the bylines. I looked forward to each new issue because it brought me closer to the industry with news, info, drawing lessons, and creator bios.
I ate it up. Unless the telling of its history holds some significance to our present, those are skeletons maybe better off left to rest. I guess I could compare it to some of the metal mags available in the 80s and early 90s. A bit for the more obsessive fan. While I loved comics mostly for the stories, I was only vaguely informed about creators or how the industry worked. When I bought a Wizard the few times I did, it was more as a casual fan.
While I knew who was in what band, what label they were on, who they were touring with, what equipment they used ect. There was still a bit of a glass ceiling feeling to the hobby back then. The owner of the LCS would stare disapprovingly while I browsed. If I asked a question he would make me feel like I was stupid for asking while the cool books were all behind a counter.
Forget getting much in the way of hot books from him, I think he hoarded them all while putting one up on the wall at max asking price. I had better luck and much more happiness from going to all of the local gas stations, Pharms, and grocery stores and hitting the spinner racks.
Obviously the people there new nothing about comics and just filled the racks. But they were happy to let me browse as long as I wanted as long as I paid for a few on my way out. I gave it up when it became apparent that it was just an advertising platform for the big guys who had enough money to buy an interview or a product puff piece. In the day, Wizard was a powerful force. The chapter on advertising would probably be a fairly long and revealing chapter. I still tell stories from when I interned at Wizard way back in What a great summer!
Thanks for the comment. Those were good times. There are stories like this and lots of photos. We need to capture this and share it somehow. Thanks for posting this belatedly so! In those same years the Wizard crew was flying down to Rosemont to put on Wizard World, I was a pipsqueak kid in high school, then college, riding the EL up from Chicago to don the orange shirt and give it my all as a volunteer.
I started out doing it as a way to get free entry into the convention, but it quickly become more than that.
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I saw just what it took to put on a show of that size and scope, the insanity of coordinating simultaneous events and wrangling celebrities to be at the right place at the right time. I loved feeling like I was part of something bigger, even as my own contribution as a faceless shirt was very small. And truth be told, I continued volunteering not to add to my comic collection or to meet this artist or that writer. I did it because I liked you guys. Guys like you and Vinny and Darren and Patrick and others.
You really did show the volunteers respect, and it made us want to work harder to help you out. All in all, I volunteered seven years until I moved away from Chicago, pulling full-day shifts from before opening to closing every day. And I loved it. You made it interesting. You made it fun. Thanks for putting on kickass show after kickass show, year after year.
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Thanks for letting us be a small part of those times. Wow, thanks for sharing that. We sure did meet a lot of interesting and generous people. You are clearly one of those people. Thanks for sharing your story. I saw an ad that said if I renewed my subscription, I could get a free ticket to a Wizard World show.
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