Comics Interview: Dissected #21 – Wizard Magazine #119

Up Front with… Me

So, as I teased last time out, I am taking a break from breaking down issues of Comics Interview. From here on out, I will be alternating between random issues of CI and other interview magazines focusing on comics. First up, we have Wizard Magazine #119. You never forget your first Wizard! They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. So this is my way of saying thank you to the brilliant and educational work of Jim Rugg and Ed Piskor on Cartoonist Kayfabe. Obviously, I’m looking at this without their key insider knowledge; it is more a personal response to looking back on this 24-year-old magazine. My origin story for Wizard Magazine comes from, of all the places, the Greek island of Zante. It was the day we were due to fly home, I had previously brought some comics during the holiday from a little old-fashioned fruit and veg shop that also had a newsagent section and crap for tourists. The magazine had caught my eye a few days earlier and I decided to pull the trigger to have something to read on the flight. It might be hyperbole to say it changed my life, but it certainly had a big impact on my comics intake, as you will discover later on. As Wizard has a lot more sections than Comics Interview, I won’t be going in depth on each of them. Instead, it will be more like a page-by-page playing, stopping on anything that catches my eye….

The first page of any meaning is the third page ad for Stan Lee’s Just Imagine series for DC. I have read the Batman one and it is horrendous! When you look at the artistic talent involved: Joe Kubert, Jim Lee, John Buscema, Kevin Maguire and Dave Gibbons! These should have been better; the less said is in the words of Stan himself ’nuff said. Also, I wanted to shout out the advert for the DVD release of Unbreakable. Deserves more credit in my opinion when the subject of comic book movies comes up.

The introduction by Gareb Shamus and the letters page don’t bring up anything of any intellectual meaning. This is something I would learn is the buzz around Wizard magazine in fandom. I have to admit, when I discovered it, I loved it. I had no idea something like this existed and found it pretty informative, being just over a year into reading comics. One letter that bucks the trend is from David Picciotto, who says a statement would have been made if Ultimate Captain America was black. Two years later we would get The Truth story.

The letter art does throw up some more interest after I did some digging. Nicholas Baltra of Brandon, Florida, does a Lizard piece for his letter art. From what I could find online, he is still working as an artist doing commissions (nigelweatherbottom on IG). Chris Walker of Staten Island, New York, gives us Death and Preacher. I did find a colourist working in comics still as a colourist. His biggest credit is a 2005 New Invaders series, also amongst his credits are Wizard #131. Same guy or someone with the same name?

The first real article to sink our teeth into is about the birth of Marvel MAX. Many years after this I would pick up trade paperbacks of the Ennis Punisher series, which isn’t even mentioned here. Alias is the first title under the spotlight. Two things stand out from Bendis talking up the book. First, he can’t mention the sex scene in #1 quick enough. More weight added to the Wizard fan base being all about T ‘n’ A. I was 14 at the time, so I was probably high-fiving Bendis in my head! He then says, “There will be shocking insight into the Marvel Universe in almost every issue.” This goes against what I thought the MAX line was all about. I completely forgot this first Fury MAX series existed. I really enjoyed the quasi-sequel from 2012, which I think got more attention and positive reviews. The last title of the first wave is a character that, to me, doesn’t scream needing a MAX title – and that is War Machine. No mention in the article of it being called U.S War Machine as it was upon release and running 12 issues. Two books that were slated for the second wave that never came out are Deathlok and Night Nurse, the latter a 4 issues series penned by Gail Simone. The big takeaway from all this, though, is the news that Marvel is breaking from The Comics Code. In a little snippet in ‘The Buzz Bin’ in the news section, DC are described as none too happy about Marvel’s exit from the code.

The biggest news from the news section is that Miracleman will be returning in Todd McFarlane’s Hellspawn #13. The quick piece really is just a quick do-over of the feud between McFarlane and Gaiman about who actually owns the rights to the character. There are better, more in-depth pieces about this subject elsewhere online. This synopsis on ComicVine would suggest he did appear in that issue despite the legal wrestling. “The biggest and most anticipated event of the year! A word spoken. A flash of blinding light.”

Next up, we have an advert that solidifies what I alluded to in my intro. I had been reading comics since the release of the first X-Men film. I had a handful of bag issues after going to a Forbidden Planet and my LCS once at this point, I think. Like I said, this ad changed my reading/collecting habits. The ad in question is for Origin: The True Story of Wolverine. The ad is so perfectly mysterious for the character; it is just the image that would be #1, and the date of release. Upon seeing this, it led me to set up a pull box at my LCS, and the rest is history.

The Ultimate Marvel Universe is still in its infancy at this time. X-Men hasn’t yet hit double figures, and Ultimates drops the following March. A title often forgotten from this time is Ultimate Marvel Team-Up. The premise of the series, much like its 616 counterpart, was to have Spider-Man teaming with multiple characters. The twist for this outing was as described in this article to have “a ragtag team of the industry’s hippest artists.” Looking back, there are some hidden gems in these 16 issues; these so-called hippiest artists are a breath of fresh air, the Ultimate line always seemed like a closed circle from its conception till way into its run. The six-page article is a collection of sketches of early designs for characters yet to debut in the universe. It is strange looking back on this and seeing how many characters appeared in this series before going on to bigger things in the Ultimate line. Iron Man and Hulk were in early issues, nearly a year before Ultimates #1. The standout has to be Jim Mahfood, who showcases his take on the FF and Ghostrider. The former appeared in Ultimate Marvel Team Up #9. Issues worth looking out for are #6-8 with art by Bill Sienkiewicz and #12-13 by Ted McKeever.

The Image vs Image article is something I knew nothing about at the time. For some reason, I have a memory of really digging into this interview a few years after actually purchasing said magazine. All I knew of Image at the time was Spawn because of the movie. At the time of this piece, we are heading into the ten-year anniversary of the start of Image Comics. The article comes with a little sidebar outlining the publisher’s history. I remember from my deep dive really getting into these guy’s story and having a respect for it. When Wizard launched the ‘Image Seven’ were the indy darlings. News of their books and their artwork must have made up 90% of the early days of Wizard. The article pitches Image ‘Then’ against Image ‘Now’ on a number of topics: Art, Writing, Power Players and Diversity. It is pretty much as you would expect with Image ‘them’ taking victories in Art and Power Players and rightfully so. The Image Seven had honed their skills and garnered a fan base from their work at Marvel. Some of their Image creations would go on to spawn movies, live-action TV shows and animated series. Image wouldn’t see anything like this till The Walking Dead. Perhaps it is more surprising that Image ‘Now’ takes the overall victory in the final verdict. Yes, the writing is way better, although they only really cite two good writers. Those being Bendis and Straczynski. The image that stuck with me from this interview is that of Citizen Pain from Violent Messiahs. When the trade paperback showed up in my local library I was very happy indeed!

I want you to remember that Wizard #119 came out in August 2001. I only remind you of this fact because the next article is all about trade paperbacks, as described on the contents page as “comics’ hottest trend.” We are now in an era where writers “write for the trade” and stories old and new are collected in editions ranging from affordable to the ridiculous. Some stand-out facts from the introduction are the fact DC sells more reprints than anyone. Watchmen having 10 printings in 14 years could be a big part of this. Jim Steranko’s Nick Fury series has had three printings in 6 months due to TPBs being available in the mainstream. Next, the article goes a bit paint-by-numbers as it makes some reading suggestions by doing the best trade paperback for… The suggestions are a little obvious, but maybe that is just hindsight. For example,e you have the best TPB for an action movie buff: The Punisher: Welcome Home Frank. The best TPB for a manga fan: Akira, and the best TPB for a Goth: Death: The High Cost of Living. Like I said, a little on the nose with the choices. Next, we just get an even more generic rundown of available TPBs by publisher and a small price guide. There is a sidebar as there so often is in Wizard by Brian Cunningham. He is throwing out suggestions for TPBs he would like to see in print. I couldn’t believe that Claremont and Byrne’s X-Men hadn’t been collected before 2001. I do like his idea of there being a collection of all the Snake Eyes stuff from the Marvel era.

Elektra, the new series under the Marvel Knights banner, gets a 22-page preview. This is advertised as a big deal in the contents and introduction. I don’t know if the 22 pages are the actual #1. Funnily enough, I did pick up a few of these on the cheap at the last FCBD. As expected, I got a few sideways glances from the comic shop clerk. But it is Bendis and Rucka for the first twelve issues. It is solid without being spectacular. Something you can digest over a weekend.

We then move into the movie, TV, games and toys section of the magazine. I had heard that, this is all Wizard covered in later years. But the movies and TV are nothing like they are now, so I dread to think what Wizard Magazine would look like now. The only thing of note from this are six photos from the first Spider-Man movie, and Bruce Timm’s JLA cartoon is nearing its debut.

Following that, we have four pages of Manga, which meant nothing to me at the time, and to be honest, is something I have still only barely scratched the surface of. Next up on a two-page spread, Robin by Chuck Dixon gets the prestigious honour of being the book of the month. Robin is a character near and dear to my heart. My thinking was that I could never be Batman, but a teen sidekick was doable! I also love the fact that he is a character who has grown up, evolved and had others take the mantle. We then have a rundown of that month’s releases. I always used to flick through this and think what sounds like a good series to dive into and maybe even start collecting. Based on my previous statement that months ago Nightwing always sounded appealing, as did the upcoming one-shot Nightwing: The Target. Very timely for today, as it deals with police brutality. 100 Bullets was just a cool title and Ultimate X-Men was into its Weapon X story arc, which of course piqued my interest.

The last portion of the magazine is then dedicated to what made Wizard famous. The Top Ten lists and the price guide. The Top 50 sales rank is very Marvel-heavy, with four of the top five being Marvel titles. Morrison and Quitely take top spot with New X-Men #114. The fifty is divided up entirely of Marvel, DC and Image books. The only exception being Just A Pilgrim #3 by Wizard’s very own comics publisher, Black Bull Entertainment. The Hot 10 comics paints a different picture with Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow reigning supreme, taking two of the top three spots. Ultimate X-Men #1 with a Dynamic Forces concept cover seems a bit of a cheat way to make the cut. And there are no surprises as Just A Pilgrim #1 makes the cut at number 10. When it comes to the Top Ten writers, again it is Marvel-heavy. Kevin Smith takes the number one slot and I would make the argument if he is in the Top Ten for Green Arrow, Phil Hester should make the artist list. Andy Kubert takes the top spot for the artists for his work on Ultimate X-Men and the upcoming Origin. Yes, he makes the list for a book that isn’t even out yet! Oh Wizard, never change. When Jim Rugg and Ed Piskor used to do their Wizard commentaries, they would always check the price of New Mutants #86 (First Cable). To my surprise, New Mutants wasn’t even deemed worthy of having a section in the price guide. So I am going to wrap things up by doing a little Wolverine Wednesday/eBuying Comics crossover. Wolverine’s first appearance in Incredible Hulk #181 is valued at $600, cheap by today’s standards and probably going to get a shot in the arm once the X-Men hit the MCU. Wolverine #1 from the first mini series comes in at a respectable $47, and the first issue of the following ongoing is $29. A lot of the Wolverine series is highlighted in green, which means the price went up. #88 and #89 come in as ‘Hot’, as does the variant cover for #133.
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I hope you have all enjoyed this little diversion away from Comics Interview. Like I said in the intro, you never forget your first Wizard Magazine. I am probably going to keep thumbing through this in the next few days and probably pick out some stuff I wish I’d mentioned here. At this point, I don’t know if I am going to do more Wizard Magazines. I do have some fun stuff planned though, as this column is going to have an evolution in 2026.