Part of writing my regular column for Multiversity, “Ghosts of Comics’ Past”, involves research to uncover forgotten moments in comic history. One of my trusted sources is “Wizard: The Guide to Comics”, and I’ve been on a journey through back issues for the last two and a half years. Each one has been like a time capsule for both the industry and culture as a whole. For our summer binge series, I thought it’d be fun to share observations that wouldn’t otherwise make it into a regular column.
I’m starting with issue 53 because that’s where I happened to be when summer began, but it turns out to be a fine starting point. This issue is cover dated January 1996, and a good chunk of it is dedicated to reviewing 1995. The main article broke down ten big events from the year (in no particular order).
Number one was titled “Comics Go Hollywood”, and it’s proof that people who talk today about “Hollywood’s recent fascination with comic properties” are clueless. In 1995, Batman Forever was setting box office records. Dark Horse was following successes like The Mask and TimeCop with Barbwire and had started work on a sequel to The Crow. Tank Girl and Judge Dredd may have flopped, but Spawn and Men in Black were gearing up. Meanwhile, Lois and Clark was a prime time hit for ABC and comic-based cartoons like X-Men, Spider-Man, WildC.A.T.S, Savage Dragon, and The Maxx were filling the airwaves. If you include cartoons based on film adaptions of The Mask and Men in Black, the comic influence was even bigger.
The fourth item was about Magic The Gathering, which had just debuted and been such a stellar hit that some stores reported it already made up 30% of their business. People were on the fence about its staying power, and apparently there were distribution woes that threatened to kill it early. By year end, most stores saw sales drop to 10-15% of overall business. One retailer worried MTG might “go the way of POGs.” This seems almost silly in hindsight, and is a reminder that POGs briefly existed.
The tenth item was about Marvel’s exclusive distribution through its subsidiary, Heroes World, and the chain reaction that led nearly everyone else to flock to Diamond. The permanent-until-it-was-temporary arrangement raised fears of fewer comics being stocked, release dates varying by publisher, and an overall reduction in the number of comic shops. Two out of three actually came to pass, but the kerfuffle that arose from trying to make a regional distributor into a national one overnight led to Heroes World collapsing. Diamond became a de facto monopoly, practically guaranteeing that all your books will be on the shelf at the same time, providing Diamond doesn’t screw up an order somehow.
Other top stories for the year included cover price increases due to a shortage of newsprint, the Spider-Clone saga being critically panned but a sales success, the Bad Girl trend popularized by Lady Death and Shi, growth in the small press sector, the “Age of Apocalypse” event, and the increased interest in manga and anime (which was attributed to the success of Might Morphin Power Rangers). There was also a section on all four places where fans could discuss comics on the World Wide Web (the article helpfully let you know that the in-crowd just called it “the Web” for short).
Advertising
This ad for Tekno Comics’ “Neil Gaiman’s Lady Justice” featuring big hooters ran on page five. On page seven, an ad for the Vertigo series “Vamps: Hollywood and Vein” uses the tagline “She’d suck your blood for a starring role.” Both of these are 100% serious. Personally, I can’t imagine the internet rage if a publisher tried something like these today. Knowing this used to be the norm, sometimes I have a hard time understanding the “controversies” that arise now when someone sends out a tweet that isn’t worded in the best way.
News
Across twelve pages of news blurbs, not a single item is worth going into detail about. It’s mostly minor bits about changes in creators and/or status quos for various titles. Is this because it was just an off month? Because all the good stuff was given feature treatment later? Because even a monthly news cycle is too long for and industry on a monthly schedule? There was one item about Harris Comics picking up “Cyberfrog”, an indie comic by 21 year old newcomer Ethan Van Sciver. Van Sciver’s quoted as saying the character is based on himself, a mouthpiece to preach his views, and that his main power is “sarcastic wit and sense of humor. [Cyberfrog will] approach the biggest, most powerful foe and just make him feel like crap.” I wonder what became of this guy?
Features
A quick recap of the feature articles, and my take away:
Caught in a Web – the troubles in making a Spider-Man film. Jim Carrey was mentioned as a possible Peter Parker pre-Batman Forever. I can’t imagine what that would have been like.
Separation Anxiety – an inside look at a computer coloring group and the process behind coloring this issue’s cover. One of the first steps was to create a color guide with traditional coloring media. Gotta be honest, the guide looks better than the final product.
In Your Face – an interview with Rob Liefeld. I had no idea he got a job in comics to support his family because his dad got sick. He also noted “there’s just something about me that bothers people.”
Urban Renewal – Marvel editors talk about reducing their monthly output from 120 to 75. This was when they got the idea to make Iron Man a bad guy and replace him with a younger version. Reminds me of Bendis’ time on “X-Men”, with the caveat that I haven’t actually read either. Also, finding out some of my favorite titles from the era were canceled for being redundant is a let down.
The Stan Lee Interview – exactly what it sounds like. It’s surprisingly dull. It may have been better at the time it was written, but aside from a question about Image, it seems like a rehash of every other Stan Lee interview I’ve ever seen. It didn’t help that Lee refused to say something less than positive about anything.
Krash Course – how to draw. Greg Capullo, the artist from “Quasar” and “Spawn”, give tips on how to create powerful panels. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but as a reviewer I find articles like this one helpful to build my vocabulary, and as a reader they help me to appreciate when an artist tries something outside the box.
Eight to the Fore ’96 – eight up and coming creators. The stars for 1996 were Charles Adlard, Edvin Biukovic, Darko Macan, Gene Ha, Ron Garney, Kevin Lau, Warren Ellis, and Humberto Ramos. I recognize four of those names immediately for work they did after 1996, so I figure Marc Shapiro did a pretty good job picking his list.
Spinning a New Web – a recap of the clone saga. This article makes the whole thing seemed planned and coherent instead of the marketing driven sales grab it really was.
Star Search – a think piece on why no superstar artists had appeared recently. Although “which artist will be hot next?” seems like a very “Wizard” thing to consider, this article has some interesting insight and takes a long view on the qualities an artist needs to sustain success.
Top 10 and Picks
The criteria for Wizard’s top 10 back issues was always kind of murky to me, but I believe it was based on a combination of how the value was changing, how sales were changing, what retailers said people were asking for, and inertia after a title made the list. This month “X-Men Prime” (the finale to the ‘Age of Apocalypse’) was the top seed. There were three bad girl books (“Shi”, “Lady Death”, and “Vampirella”), two more X books, and two “Gen13” books, which were new-ish at the time.
The two issues that are most unexpected with hindsight are “The X-Files” from Topps and “Ash” from Event Comics. The X-Files had just started its third season and had grown from a cult following to a cultural phenomenon and fans were looking for more story anywhere they could get it. A five page preview in “TV Guide” helped this one get attention outside of the normal comic outlets. “Ash” was the first release from Event Comics, the small publisher founded by a couple guys named Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti. They had become stars on Valiant’s “Ninjak” and their fans followed them to this under-ordered item. The heat from this one led directly to the duo heading Marvel Knights, and then to Quesada as Marvel’s EIC. Historically, it’s the most important comic on this list.
The top pick for new releases was “DC vs Marvel” #1, the first of a four-part miniseries that included the introduction of the Amalgam universe. It was a huge event that inexplicably included then-current fads like Ben Reilly instead of Peter Parker, Namor in a ponytail, and Thor in a truly awful looking get up. Other top picks were “Logan” #1, “Gen13/Maxx” #1, “The Phoenix Resurrection” (a last try to make the Malibu acquisition work at Marvel), and “Star Wars: Boba Fett – B.O.B”. These ended up being blips on the radar, nothing more.
Continued belowAside from the regular summaries of what’s hot and what’s not in the Market Watch column, it included a five paragraph refutation to the claim that “Wizard” affected the market. Jon Warren explained how “Wizard” used input from retailers to create their prices and pick lists, then argued there was no room for “Wizard” to influence anything. He sidesteps the idea that by reporting a book was popular, that readers of “Wizard” might then ask for it at their local comic shop, thereby leading that retailer to tell “Wizard” that interest was increasing.
Final Thoughts
“Wizard” wasn’t perfect, but at this point in its run it was probably at the top of its game. It openly mocked publishers and storylines for stupidity, and its track record for predicting things wasn’t bad. The non-comic content was limited to a couple pages of capsule reviews for video games and some updates on genre films that comic readers were likely to be interested in seeing. Not bad.
