Hey quick question, "What's your opinion of the now defunct Wizard magazine?" I was cleaning out my attic and found a whole bunch, and Im curious what actual comic book writers thought off it. Thanks and I love your work.

Wizard was odd for a number of reasons. People who came late might not remember this, but it was THE tastemaker for mainstream comics for years, and rarely in a good way. It promoted a lot of junk for dubious reasons…it celebrated Pogs and variants and god knows what else.

And it had a seriously virulent streak of anti-female sentiment that never completely went away, even when the magazine grew up a little bit.

It was more like People Magazine than the Comics Journal. In short, it was mostly crap, promoting crap, in a crap manner.

All that said, I still had some fondness for it. When it was really popping, there was almost always at least a couple good articles and something funny in there somewhere. And it was fun, I admit, to see comics treated in that breathless manner…seeing excitement in print, rather than the usual ennui, that was enjoyable to me.

I also loved the big, beautiful pages of art, and the splendid photography of the collectibles. When I read Wizard before turning pro, which was rare, I had never been to a con, and Wizard made it all seem glamorous and entertaining in a way no other source has done, or even attempted.

And, because they would occasionally have a great editor, sometimes really good writers and artists were hired, and I do remember some really good pieces.

I think ultimately, Wizard relied on having a monthly price guide and a lively news section. The internet immediately started doing those things so much more quickly that every issue was dated weeks before it came out. And the excitement was no longer there.

Truthfully, I didn’t always love it. Sometimes I thought it was just hideous. But it was a lively, loud, exciting ambassador for comics to the non-comics reading public. I think its disappearance did hurt the industry…but Wizard did a fair amount of damage itself when it was still around.

I would like to see something like it return, but a little less problematic.

I should also add that they were never anything but fair to me. They publicized my books with regularity, they put me on their Top Ten Writers list more than once (something that I think  had happened with only one other female prior), they interviewed me, they called me several times when they really liked an issue or I’d won another Wizard award. They were nice guys, very respectful.

I talked about the negatives, but I also think there is room in the industry for a big, loud, bright, shiny magazine of that nature.

So I would say, it had problems, but I was often glad it existed.