Wizard Magazine is Dead; Long Live Wizard World

[Scott Bullock]

Wizard Magazine is Dead; Long Live Wizard World

Wizard Magazine, one of the leading publications on comics and comic-related news, is ditching its physical format to become an online magazine.

Wizard Magazine, that ever-flowing font of comics reviews and industry news, is getting the axe after nearly 20 years in print.

In a press release, founder and CEO of Wizard Entertainment, Gareb Shamus, announced that both Wizard Magazine and its partner publication Toyfare Magazine will be shut down. They will be replaced with an online publication, Wizard World.

Shamus believes that this is a step forward for the magazine. "This is a very exciting day for Wizard World and the industries it serves," he said. "The new digital magazine Wizard World will give consumers the content they want in a magazine format with which they are familiar, but distributed in a form that is always available at any time on any device. It is a natural evolution for us in this market."

I, for one, look forward to reading the first edition of Wizard World, which has been slated for publication some time in February.

Source:IGN [http://comics.ign.com/articles/114/1145644p1.html]

Permalink

 

[Anarchemitis]

Somewhere, Scott Kurtz is laughing at them, not with them.

 

[Gaderael]

With any luck the Wizard World site will be sort of like the Escapist, only with a Comic Book slant.

I loved the magazine back when I was in high school. I loved their Holiday issues, where, in thier comic price guide, they had highlights over "Season's Greetings" and then "Season's Beatings", highlighting holiday comics where the hero got the living tar beat out of them in epic fashion. Their humour was always top notch in my books.

Toyfare was bloody hilarious, and eventually led in to Robot Chicken.

 

[AwesomeNinjaPowers]

All I can say is what the hell?!? I've been reading Wizard and Toyfare since I was 13 and I like having a physical magazine in my hand it's never the same when a magazine goes digital Boo I say and thrice boooooooooooo!

 

[Baldr]

I read Wizard Magazine when I was teenager, long before their were comic book movies, but even then most of the articles were about the staff's dream cast of actors that would portray characters if there was a movie based on that comic book.

 

[RA92]

Publisher ditching the physical format and going online?

Now what does that remind me of? [http://www.cracked.com/]

Trust me, this can only get better.

 

[Flauros]

I was just about to subscribe again....

 

[tcurt]

Is Previews still printing as well? How do you sub comics these days?

 

[Something Amyss]

I haven't followed Wizard in years. Is it quality these days?

 

[Alone Disciple]

I haven't followed Wizard in years. Is it quality these days?

That's a shame, but I kinda expected it, but perhaps not so soon.

I too remember getting the very first issue way back in the early 90's and had a regular subscription for about a decade. There were occasional changes to the format that were met with both praise by some and boos by others. For me it was the goto magazine that really filled a niche in an otherwise vacant magazine field on comic books.

It was roughly 2-3 years ago I noticed that my issues started to get really anemic in size, but the price wasn't going down either. And shortly thereafter, one issue was incredibly thin I thought it was either: A) a publishing mistake, or B) a 'special' issue. To my eventual disappointment, i was to learn this was the new format...a shadow of its former self. It was then I decided not renew my subscription.

Why pay the same price for what was now amount to 1/3rd of its previous size and many of the articles lost their shine.

It really is too bad....There is really si no excuse why it faltered other than they went into a direction and format that most comic-geeks like myself didn't understand. Like they were trying to re-program how we look at comics, storylines, and characters. They became like a miodern day Mtv....everything else but very little comic heart.

Now there is nothing, and quite frankly their online presence is too chaotic to follow.

Sad

 

[iblis666]

used to be a long time reader of wizards but as i stopped after a while since it was a major drain on my cash for so little information when i had the internet. I just hope they do their website right or they might scare off lots of potential customers.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

All I can say is what the hell?!? I've been reading Wizard and Toyfare since I was 13 and I like having a physical magazine in my hand it's never the same when a magazine goes digital Boo I say and thrice boooooooooooo!

You do know your on an online magazine at this very moment right?

 

[AwesomeNinjaPowers]

All I can say is what the hell?!? I've been reading Wizard and Toyfare since I was 13 and I like having a physical magazine in my hand it's never the same when a magazine goes digital Boo I say and thrice boooooooooooo!

You do know your on an online magazine at this very moment right?

I didn't know the Escapist was ever a print magazine?

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

All I can say is what the hell?!? I've been reading Wizard and Toyfare since I was 13 and I like having a physical magazine in my hand it's never the same when a magazine goes digital Boo I say and thrice boooooooooooo!

You do know your on an online magazine at this very moment right?

I didn't know the Escapist was ever a print magazine?

I don't think it was but still it says "www.escapistmagazine.com."

 

[AwesomeNinjaPowers]

All I can say is what the hell?!? I've been reading Wizard and Toyfare since I was 13 and I like having a physical magazine in my hand it's never the same when a magazine goes digital Boo I say and thrice boooooooooooo!

You do know your on an online magazine at this very moment right?

I didn't know the Escapist was ever a print magazine?

I don't think it was but still it says "www.escapistmagazine.com."

You'll note I said it's never the same when a magazine goes digital. I said nothing about magazines that start as digital

 

[thiosk]

I, for one, welcome our new Wizard overlords.

THERE we go. Fixes that right up.