I’m slightly late to the party with writing about this, but if you haven’t heard Wizard and ToyFare magazines have ceased publication. They’re done. Over. Kaput. No more issues. Seeing as how my first job out of college was working for Wizard mag (where I spent about 6 years of my life), I figured I’d weigh in a bit on the whole thing.
Yes, I worked for Wizard. Twice in fact. I started as an intern actually while I was still in college, having a blast doing anything and everything I could while on spring and summer breaks. Gareb Shamus even offered me a full-time job with the company pending my graduation, so that senior year of college was a breeze.
I spent a few years working my way up from simple copy editor to Managing Editor of Wizard magazine itself. But at that time, the Internet was really starting to develop and Wizard was way too slow to get going on their end. I was going to be heavily involved in the first website outing, but managed to get a job offer from iWon.com at the time. Hard as it was to leave my ideal job, I left and learned an insane amount about business and how the Internet works. I stayed in touch with a lot of the editors (i.e. my friends from the “Old Guard” like Pat McCallum, Doug Goldstein, Brian Cunningham, Tom Root, Matt Senreich, Mike Searle) and when a bunch of them left for California to start up “Robot Chicken,” there were some pretty high-up positions open. Suddenly opportunity came knocking again, and I returned to Wizard. This time to head up ToyFare, Anime Insider and the annual mega toy special Toy Wishes.
I lasted another year or two, and once again got heavily involved in trying to push them into the Internet age. I won’t go into details, but sadly, upper management once again refused to realize the insane importance of the Web, and things really went nowhere. Except for me. I left to start my own business, but again have stayed in touch with many Wizardites.
It’s been a few years since I actually worked for Wizard. And while there was plenty of bad (particularly in recent years), it was mostly tied to some really poor upper management decisions. But I don’t want to harp on any of that. There are still a few (very few) employees at Wizard working on a new digital project, and I seriously wish them the best of luck.
While the print magazine of Wizard itself is dead, it doesn’t really change my feelings for the company/magazine at all. My memories of Wizard (especially from those real early years) are just unbelievable. Sure it was chaos. Sure we worked insanely late nights every month during our “drop dead” deadlines. Sure it seemed like a frat house with practical jokes around every corner. But beyond all that, there was an incredibly talented bunch of people who I’m proud to call my friends. I’ve never worked with a more passionate and creative bunch. I actually lived with a bunch of them for awhile, so yeah, we were living, breathing, and eating comic books pretty much 24/7.
There’s a ton of stories and blog posts on the Web this week from former Wizard employees and they’ll all tell you pretty much the same thing. The best part about Wizard was the friendships that developed and endure to this day. It sounds cheesy beyond belief, but, well… it really was a magical place.
If you’re still reading at this point, I figured I’d take a cue from Spock-lookalike and former Wizard buddy Doug Goldstein and share some of my favorite moments from Wizard history, in no particular order.
1. Winning the Wrestling Tag-Team belt! Editor-in-Chief Pat McCallum had a Nintendo 64 in his office. (Hey, it was cutting edge at the time!) And the most popular game at the time was some WWF game put out by THX. It was awesome and come 6 p.m. every day, employees would pile in for a battle royal. It got to the point where tag teams were set up, along with tournaments. Myself and Wizard Editor Brian Cunningham formed Los Bobos and miraculously stunned the crowd when us underdogs beat the favorites to win the belt. Es bueno!
2. My Dinner with Luke Skywalker! – As an editor, I had a number of companies I stayed in contact with regularly. One of which was Dark Horse Comics, publisher of Star Wars comics. Well, one year I was attending San Diego Comic-Con just as Mark Hamill’s Black Pearl comic was coming out. So my contact at DH invited me to dinner with him, Mark and a number of other industry folks. Me and Brian Cunningham sat at one end of a long table, while Mark chatted it up with some folks all the way at the other end. It was entertaining, but Brian and I were a bit miffed we were shafted and nowhere next to Mark. But right after dessert, Mark stops talking, looks in our direction and says, “I want to go talk with the Wizard guys now.” So he came over and sat right next to us and chatted for a good hour or so with us. One of the best dinners ever.
3. My Lunch with Dee Snider! - I could write a book about this one, but long story short… I’m a huge Twisted Sister fan. I’d slip in Dee Snider and Twisted Sister references anywhere I could in the magazine. Apparently Dee’s son (Jesse Snider!) was a big comics fan too and somehow figured out I was the one slipping those references in Wizard magazine. Dee called me up at work, and after finally realizing it WAS him, we talked for a good hour. He came up for a tour of the offices even, and we got to take him and his kids out to lunch. I stayed in touch over the years, and even see Jesse on occasion at various conventions.
4. The Creators – As an editor I got to call creators regularly for quotes, information, etc. Chuck Dixon. Mark Waid. Ron Marz. Terry Moore. Brian Pulido. Beau Smith. Still to this day, if I bump into any of them at a convention, we’ll chat things up. I was always shocked at how approachable a lot of these creators were and still are.
5. Basic Training/Last Man Standing – As an editor, I handled 2 artist-heavy columns that both killed me and were my favorite parts of the job. For both the “Basic Training” How-to-Draw column and the imaginary superhero battle art spread, I had to contact artists and work with them from concept to final column in the magazine. Jim Balent and Mike Wieringo (R.I.P. Mike) were not only two of the nicest people I ever worked with, but they were also my go-to guys when I was super tight on deadline and needed something fast, and good. My shining moment for “Basic Training,” though was getting the insanely talented George Perez to do a column on How to Draw Group Shots, starring my favorite team The Avengers. It took probably over a full year to put that together, but it was so worth it.
6. Matt Senreich is a Thief! – You may know Matt Senreich as one of the producers of “Robot Chicken,” but I remember when he was a wide-eyed Editorial Assistant at Wizard. In his first week at Wizard, Matt joined all of us for our routine trip to a local Taco Bell for lunch. We somehow started talking about the awesome Taco Bell welcome mat right outside the restaurant, and by the time lunch was over, Matt was helping us snag the mat and toss it into the trunk of the car. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen it, but Matt claims he still has it out in California.
7. What’s a Galactus? – For one of our photo-heavy articles in Wizard, we needed to get a Galactus costume made. After finding an awesome Costume shop in semi-nearby NJ, I had a few entertaining conversations with them. The end result? After a slew of art reference, and a fitting or two… an amazingly awesome (and crazy comfortable!) Galactus costume.
8. The Infamous Sushi-Eating Contest – A local Japanese Restaurant had a weekly all-you-can-eat sushi buffet. So a few of us macho types kept claiming we could eat more sushi than the next guy. Always looking for a way to make mountains out of molehills, the staff created the first (and only one I believe) Sushi Eating Contest. We all partnered up with a “counter,” and then had one hour to eat as many rolls as we could. I managed to down a whopping 56 pieces of sushi… and yet came in Third place! “Magic Words” guru Jim McLauchlin came in 2nd with 60 pieces. And sports nut Scott Gramling came in first with 65 pieces because, as he put it, “I don’t lose eating contests.”
9. The Mego House of Horrors – Before ToyFare and before “Twisted ToyFare Theatre,” there was the Mego House of Horrors. Basically on a bookshelf in my office, I placed my childhood collection of Mego figures in… uh… let’s just say compromising positions. Every few days, I’d change things up, add props, etc. (Captain Kirk was REALLY nasty to poor Robin…). Was it inappropriate? Hell yes. Did people come in regularly to look and laugh at it? Certainly. And when the very first Twisted Mego Theatre strip was created (Spider-Man Macarena), my Spider-Man Mego was snatched off the shelf and used to kick off a long and gloriously twisted run.
10. Those early Wizard Halloween Parties – Early on, a number of us editors lived together in one big house. Which meant, it was perfect for parties, particularly Halloween parties. We’d spend months planning these things and really went all out decorating, setting up games, and even getting some designers to help create some pretty memorable photo-heavy invitations. Not to mention the themed-costumes we’d put together. Yes, we were always superheroes, but nothing will ever top the awesomeness of our New Teen Titans costumes. (Despite the fact that designer Robin Ramos’ wife kept asking who “Jericho” was, and why did I look like Thomas Jefferson?)
There are oodles more great memories, but that just gives a taste of the fun. To all my former co-workers, it was beyond a pleasure and a privilege working with you. To all those recently let go, as well as those few still at Wizard, best of luck to you guys!
As for the future, who knows? Right now I’m running my new comparison shopping website, and I actually have a few former Wizard guys (including Adam Tracey, Rob Bricken and Karl Cramer) working for me. Like I said, Wizard was a petri dish of pure passion, creativity and talent. So why wouldn’t I want to bring all of that to my new company?
The Macho King is dead. Sadly, there’s no “Long live the Macho King” line to follow.
