This week on The Watchtower, we break the news and clean it up again in our Comic News Roundup!
Plus, a feature interview with Gareb Shamus, founder and CEO of Wizard Entertainment. Wizard’s first convention outside of the US is about to hit Toronto, and we’ve got all the info!
Also, Motion Comics are once again in the news with the cancellation of Spider-Woman. Are motion comics the future? Really? Really-really?
All this plus a Forecast Mixup and another Questy’s Rant Farm!
3:42 pm on March 18th, 2010
Comics based an existing licensed properties really can help introduce the medium to a new audience. An old flat mate of mine had never picked up a comic in his life until he found himself compelled to by the Modern Warfare Ghost series. Now I’m not saying it’s instantly turned him into a comic nut, but now if I recommend a book I have he’s a hell of a lot more likely to read it. In times of boredom he’s asked to borrow a few books of mine and I’ve even caught him browsing amazon for OGN’s. It really only takes one good book to get you hooked.
9:30 pm on March 18th, 2010
Sorry, but I don’t read Wizards and seriously consider boycotting anyone who still takes them seriously due to the fact that they STILL have never apologized for helping to almost destroy the comics industry in the ’90’s.
10:36 pm on March 18th, 2010
Wizard played a part, but you’d have to boycott all the fans, Marvel, DC, Image, and the shops that sold the books in the 90’s. They contributed too!
11:01 pm on March 18th, 2010
Actually, I do. I stopped reading all Marvel and Image and have actively avoided one of the local shops who went out of their way to promote those horrid activities.
I have voted with my wallet and encourage others to do the same. Already Marvel has proven that they have forgotten what almost sent them into bankruptcy. If we don’t start to withhold our money, the practices will continue to get even worse and maybe this time there will be no recovery to discuss in ten years.
11:45 am on March 19th, 2010
Wow, that’s fair enough and I commend your commitment. I think that the industry could easily slip into old habits, but there are far more checks and balances in place to stop the same kind of collapse that happened in the 90’s. Comics are now so much more than comics (movies, video games, tv shows, etc) that they can do the variant covers and offer incentives, and not take too much of a hit if they don’t work. Now, that said I don’t think it’s any less of a dumb idea, but the industry as a whole (especially with the Disney purchase of Marvel) is much more financially stable than it was in the 90’s.
Just out of curiosity, if you boycott all those things, what do you read?
12:31 pm on March 19th, 2010
It’s true, I used to buy Wizard all the time, then, since I found a few websites that basically substituted the content, bought significantly less Wizard.
I think they’ve been really smart by transitioning into the trade show (convention) market. Their name holds as much weight today in that market as it ever did as a magazine publication.
If they step their game up as an online presence, they could kick a potentially huge amount of ass without even having to charge for subscriptions.
It’ll be cool to see how it all plays out.
Donnie, go read Doom War #1 again.
10:10 pm on March 19th, 2010
I bought Wizard faithfully back in the early nineties. I used to tear out the poster inserts and tape them to my bedroom wall. These day’s the magazine’s a joke, which I seem to recall was an opinion Jeff shared on the podcast a number of shows ago after reading an issue on the train.
Their conventions have also taken a hit, especially with a lot of big name comic creators. It sounds like they haven’t treated some of their guests all that well. A lot of buddies from my LCS believe the T.O. show is going to be junk. Most of the comic guests are local which might be a draw back for comic fans since they can meet them at other, more affordably priced shows.
That being said I was impulsive enough to get a table (#528) with some friends. Call it Con fever after a long winter break. If you guys aren’t going let me know and I can give you the 411 on the show.
1:04 pm on March 20th, 2010
I used to read Wizard cover to cover back in the 90’s. It’s actually helped me become much more of a comics fan than I already was. It was also very helpful in getting me a break in comics as they featured my art in their fan art section, as well as contests. A few people still come up to me today telling me they remember my entry in that Cable cover contest way back 1996. I met a lot of cool people through it and because of it, allowing me to get in touch with other comics fans in other parts of the world, pre Internet.
I can understand how people may look unkindly at Wizard today, as I’ve heard many similar rumblings from many people over the years. But in spite of that, Wizard also did a lot of good for the industry by inspiring and encouraging fandom to check out more comics, not only mainstream comics but independent ones. Wizard also helped usher in many professionals working in the industry today. Check it out… Leinil Francis Yu, myself, Jeff Matsuda, Tim Townsend, Ken Lashley, etc….. we all started out sending fan art to Wizard.
6:42 am on March 21st, 2010
Actually, I read mostly independent publishers such as Slave Labor Graphics, Dynamite Entertainment and others.
Out of fairness I will admit that one of my favorite shows, Robot Chicken, traces its lineage to ToyFare, a Wizard off-shoot.
That being stated, I just do not agree that the safety net is there when the variants and the foils and all the other tchotchkes, so transparently there just to sponge off more money, start to turn off more and more consumers.
Now, my view of this is based on my location, central Oklahoma, but these sorts of money making techniques require a level of disposable income that I just cannot imagine is that much higher in other parts of the continent.
1:04 pm on March 21st, 2010
Yeah, I have had that opinion on Wizard, and still remain to be convinced that it’ll be around much longer as a print magazine. That’s why I was curious what they were doing to adapt to a digital format. I think the “Wizard Shows Suck” thing comes more from people who have been exhibitors/guests at previous shows that were very poorly organized, and not fans who attend the shows. Knowing how things are behind the scenes gives a very different perspective than the guys walking in off the street. With Peter and Doug from Paradise having a hand in the organization of the event, I expect it to go off much better than average. If I had more time with Gareb though, I would have loved to get into the Big Apple Con/NYCC thing.
I’m hoping to be in town to swing by at least one day, so we’ll see ya there!!
1:09 pm on March 21st, 2010
That’s fair enough, I just think that it’s more of a collector vs reader argument. As long as there are comic “collectors” there will be variants and foils and so on. Keep in mind too, for the most part it’s the retailer that decides that those variants cost more. Marvel/DC/Whomever only gets the cover price (There are exceptions to this, but generally that’s how it goes). It’s designed to encourage the retailer to order, for example, 200 copies of SEIGE to get that Quesada variant that then can then sell at whatever price they choose, or whatever price their client base of collectors will pay for it. If more people took your stance, then they would disappear (which wouldn’t be a bad thing), but as long as people want to collect them, they’ll make ‘em!
2:02 pm on March 21st, 2010
I guess I do agree that it all comes down to whom will economically control the direction in which the industry moves; reader or collector. My main problem is that Wizard was one of the largest and most vocal of the creators of the rabid collection market, and now as the economy sinks the only ones who have enough money to make an impact seem to me to be the collectors. If the current trend continues, basic economics, as you pointed out, will mean that there will be a drift towards catering to them and, I fear, them alone.
In any case, I’m thinking that, for the purposes of this thread, this dead horse has been well and truly beaten. I will now officially stop swinging.
On a completely different note, I would like to state that I have enjoyed your podcast for several months now since discovering it on iTunes. While I don’t always agree with you or Coulter on everything (as we have well established here, heh) I always welcome a different view of one of my favorite hobbies and look forward to the weekly take from our northern brethren. In short, keep up the good work!
6:44 pm on March 23rd, 2010
I’m selling all my comics. Buying an iPad.
1:42 am on March 24th, 2010
I must say that the store has no class if that’s how they manager their customers. I work part time at a comic book store myself and I love talking to the customers about comics and reccomend what ot read. My manager is like that and regulars constantly come in when they can for his opinion. I on the other hand is more in the manga profession in store because I started there then into american comics. Anyway Comic stores are Stakeholders not stockholders, they must be nice to the consumers and show that their service is the best. By listening to what happened in that store the workers are either caring about their friends or just think he’s a rando customer not to care about. bawww… I’m glad Moss talks at the 4th wall
and I saw Sohmer too! Lucky! Now all i need is to see Questy and I basically met all of the canadians I wanted to meet! Also.. dude.. its korean art for Twilight.. thats like.. SUPER SUPER glitter bishie art there.. OTL I think my eyes would burn from looking at it @__@.