Stuck in the Middle

Libraries | An editorial in the Lewiston, Maine, newspaper praises a local school board’s decision last week to leave the 2007 comics anthology Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics from an Unpleasant Age in the Buckfield Junior-Senior High School library following a parent’s complaints about “objectionable sexual and language references”: “American culture can be graphically sexual and explicitly foul and it’s important that young people learn how to navigate that world in a responsible way. The best possible way, of course, is for parents to steer their children through that process, but not every parent does and many children are left adrift. So, the next-better place to learn is the school library, where a responsible adult can help educate children about their hormone-charged emerging feelings in a confusingly sensual culture.” [Sun Journal]

Business | Wizard magazine founder Gareb Shamus, who resigned earlier this month as president and chief executive officer of Wizard World Inc., will sell most of his shares in the company to his successor, who’s expected to be named next month. [Bleeding Cool]

Creators | The Korean American Experience asks, “Why Are There So Many Good Asian American Cartoonists?” and highlights the work of Jason Shiga, Gene Yang, Derek Kirk Kim, Hellen Jo and more. [Korean American Experience]

Art by Sharon Moody

Creators | Author and comics writer Scott Edelman takes issue with paintings by Sharon Moody that depict photo-realistic images of comic books. (Honestly, when I first saw the images, I thought someone was just tacking a comic to the wall and calling it art). The paintings don’t credit the creators of the comics. “You might ask, but what’s wrong with this? Aren’t these just still-life paintings like any other? Aren’t there many trompe l’oeil paintings that can pass for photographs? Why should an artist be allowed to paint a bowl of fruit but not a comic book? My issue is this—an apple, once you set aside either a Higher Power or human hybridization (depending on your belief system), has no creator, but the pages of art apparently reproduced here line for line do. What’s going on here is at the very least a collaboration with Kirby, Buscema, Novick, and others without those artists’ permission, and at the very most … well … I’ll let others decide whether they want to go there.” [Bleeding Cool]

Alex de Campi

Creators | Laura Sneddon chats with Alex de Campi about her Kickstarter-funded project Ashes, and women in comics: “The only reason the majors don’t have more women creators is they expect the creators to be in their face begging for jobs. Most women creators just don’t care that much (and also the female way of working socially is different), so they’re all sitting on their piles Eisner nominations and critically-acclaimed indie books waiting to be asked to dance by DC and Marvel … but DC and Marvel are too busy doing keg stands with the freshmen boys.” [comicbookGRRRL]

Creators | Paul Gravett translates a paper he presented for a conference on war and totalitarianism in comics, contrasting Joe Sacco’s Palestine with his Footnotes in Gaza, completed 16 years later and under very different circumstances. [Paul Gravett]

Creators | John Allison discusses the event that sparked his webcomic Bad Machinery, his frustrations about the strip’s progress, and more. [12 Books in 12 Months]

Creators | Sean Kleefeld interviews Frank Page, creator of the long-running webcomic Bob the Squirrel. Page recently announced in the comic, which is based on his life, that he is considering ending the strip. “I think it was a combination of everything… the early mornings, the volume of work, my looking back on 3000+ strips and wondering what the next 3000+ would look like… I’ve made it very clear that I haven’t decided one way or another if the strip will end. Bob has become my best friend, he’s very real to me. And, after reading the considerable amount of emails I’ve received, he’s real to a lot of other people as well. How do you say goodbye to your best friend? Would you be any better off doing something else?” He still hasn’t made up his mind, though. [MTV Geek]

Digital comics | Margaret O’Connell gives the online manga site JManga a thorough test drive and finds it promising but a bit clunky. [Sequential Tart]

Commentary | Bill Kartalopoulos writes a lengthy, thoughtful essay on Daniel Clowes’ The Death-Ray. [Brooklyn Rail]

Awards | Clay Bennett, the editorial cartoonist for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, has won the 2011 Lurie UN Award, which is given by the UN Correspondents Association and the UN Society of Writers to promote excellence in political cartooning. Hit the link to see the winning cartoon, an M.C. Escher-like take on the Mideast peace talks, read how Bennett came up with the idea. [The Daily Cartoonist]

Wizard

Conventions | Wizard’s executive chairman Mike Mathews tells Heidi MacDonald that after the resignation of former CEO Gareb Shamus, the company wants to be “a Switzerland of entertainment” and mend fences with members of the industry: “Gareb is one of these types of personalities who has taken strong positions over the years with various people in the industry and brands. And that kind of hurt us because of where we are trying to go — we’re trying to be a Switzerland of entertainment and we want to try to try to reach out to brands.” MacDonald notes the company is offering a $100 credit toward Wizard conventions to former Wizard subscribers whose subscriptions abruptly ended when the magazine was shut down. A new CEO is expected to be named early next month. [The Beat]

Conventions | Image Comics announced several more guests for the Image Expo, scheduled for Feb. 24-26 in Oakland, California. The lineup now includes Blair Butler, John Layman, Rob Guillory, Nick Spencer, Joshua Fialkov, Joe Keatinge, Jim McCann and Jim Zubkavich, among many others. [press release]

Organizations | The Associação da Luta Contra o Cancer is running an awareness campaign in Mozambique featuring images drawn by artist Maisa Chaves of Wonder Woman, Catwoman, She-Hulk and Storm checking their breasts for lumps. [Daily Mail]

Retailing | The Sacramento Press surveys local comic shops. [Part 1, Part 2]

Comics | Greg Elias talks to Dr. Peter A. Hancock about the use of augmented cognition in The Flash. [Speed Force]

The Massive

Creators | Brian Wood reflects on Channel Zero, one of his earliest works, and discusses digital comics, the financial hit he took when his exclusive contract with DC expired, and his upcoming work at Dark Horse on Conan and The Massive: “The Massive is at once both a stylistic and tonal followup to DMZ, and representative of a radical new approach in how I’m writing my comics. It was designed, originally, to be a Vertigo book and follow right after DMZ’s end and capture that same audience, to give those diehard readers something they would enjoy just as much. That obviously didn’t come to pass (conflicts with the new contracts Vertigo was offering, mostly) but the intent is the same. Existing readers of my Vertigo work, The Massive is for you.” [ComicsAlliance]

Creators | Chew artist Rob Guillory is briefly profiled by his local newspaper. [The Advertiser]

Commentary | K. Thor Jensen lists 11 comic characters “that should have stayed dead.” [UGO]

Awards | Houston Chronicle editorial cartoonist Nick Anderson is the recipient of the National Press Foundation’s 2011 Clifford K. & James T. Berryman Award for Editorial Cartooning. [The Daily Cartoonist]

Gareb Shamus

Gareb Shamus, divisive founder of the once-influential Wizard magazine, has resigned as president and chief executive officer of Wizard World Inc.

The publicly traded company announced the move in documents filed Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “The resignation is not the result of any disagreement with the company on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies or practices,” Shamus wrote in his two-sentence letter of resignation.

Michael Mathews, the former CEO of interclick inc. who joined Wizard World in March as chairman, will oversee the day-to-day operations of the company until Shamus’ replacement can be found.

Shamus founded Wizard: The Guide to Comics in 1991, overseeing the rise of a magazine whose prosperity was inextricably tied to the speculator boom it helped fuel with its price guides, creator hot lists and enthusiastic coverage of new publishers like Image Comics and Valiant. By 1997, Wizard Entertainment had added Inquest Gamer and ToyFare magazines and extended its reach with the purchase of Chicago Comicon, later rebranded Wizard World Chicago, setting the company on its long, and occasionally rough, path to becoming a major organizer of regional conventions (earlier this year Wizard World briefly trumpeted 12 cities before slashing that number to eight).

However, the following decade wasn’t as kind to Wizard or the comics industry, with the magazine seeing its circulation dwindle to about 17,000 copies by December 2010. A month later, Shamus abruptly announced the closing of Wizard and ToyFare, the company’s last remaining magazines, and the subsequent launch of an online magazine, a move he later characterized as “the smartest business decision I’ve made in years.”

But about two weeks ago, the digital magazine that Shamus had boasted reached “millions of people” apparently disappeared from the Internet, just about the time that its founder launched a blog on the Wizard World site. Now that, too, is gone. His new Twitter account remains — although he hasn’t written an update since Nov. 28.

Wizard World hopes to have Shamus’ successor in place by Jan. 15.

Looks like Wizard Magazine/Wizard Entertainment/Wizard World founder Gareb Shamus is taking a more hands-on approach to the internet component of his comics-related empire. After years of communicating with his audience (or at least putting his signature on these communications) solely through press releases, editor’s letters, and the occasional confrontation over unrefunded subscriptions to the now-defunct Wizard magazine with a white Lando Calrissian cosplayer, Shamus has started a blog and opened a Twitter account. Meanwhile, Wizard Magazine’s much-ballyhooed digital incarnation — previously touted by Shamus as “the smartest business decision I’ve ever made” — appears to have disappeared from the Internet.

On Twitter, Shamus is following a dozen people, including Brian Michael Bendis, Jim Lee, Kevin Smith, and Whitney Cummings of the NBC comedy Whitney. So far his only tweet is a retweeted link to an interview with Siggy Flicker, matchmaker and star of VH1′s Why Am I Still Single? (Ironically, perhaps, that last bit reminds me of the weird fake Gareb Shamus twitter account that’s been following virtually all of us ex-Wizard employees for a couple of years now.)

On his blog, Shamus has posted interviews with creators Bill Sienkiewicz, David Mack, Marv Wolfman, Phil Jimenez, Greg Capullo, and Kevin Maguire, as well as his thoughts on chocolate chip cookies. That’s actually a pretty fun line-up.

But Wizard World, the digital magazine that replaced Wizard‘s print iteration after it and sister publication ToyFare were unceremoniously canceled? Nowhere to be found on its dedicated URL WizardWorldDigital.com. And on Wizard’s main site, currently billing itself as the place “Where Pop Fi Comes to Life,” Wizard World‘s death has gone unnoted as well. Perhaps White Lando can direct inquiries about this matter to @gareb.

Fear Itself #2

Publishing | May marked the worst month of the year for the direct market since January as sales of comic books and graphic novels fell 11.21 percent versus May 2010. Chart watcher John Jackson Miller chalks up the decline to a combination of retailers ordering more Free Comic Book Day titles than “for-profit” books and publishers’ summer events heating up a little later this year. Marvel led Diamond Comic Distributors’ list of top comics for the month with Fear Itself #2, followed by the first issue of DC’s Flashpoint. Avatar topped the graphic novel chart with Crossed 3D, Vol. 1. [The Comichron]

Legal | The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has joined a coalition that includes booksellers, media companies and the ACLU of Utah in seeking to permanently stop enforcement of a 2005 Utah statute that would regulate Internet speech that some consider “harmful to minors,” including works of art, graphic novels, information about sexual health and the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth. The law has not gone into effect because Utah consented to a temporary injunction until the case can be decided. [press release]

Awards | A reminder: Online voting ends today for the 2011 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. The winners will be announced July 22 during Comic-Con International in San Diego. [Eisner Awards]

Archie Comics

Publishing | Tom Spurgeon talks at length with Archie Comics Co-CEO Jon Goldwater about the publishers’ marketing strategy, digital initiatives, and how recently introduced gay character Kevin Keller fits into Riverdale: “You know, with all of the bullying going on in the world today, and all of the issues young people grow up with, it just proves the point that kids are kids, and that Archie, the gang, Riverdale, it’s all-inclusive. That’s how kids are in high school today. The point of his being gay, he’s just another kid. That’s the point of putting him in there. He’s accepted, and everyone should be accepted wherever they go. That sounds a little bit utopian, but why not? Why can’t we at least put that forth? Put forth the fact that everyone no matter what their orientation is, what the color of their skin is, what their religion is, whatever it may be, everyone’s accepted: there is no divisiveness. When you turn on the TV and you hear all this vitriol back and forth between political parties and all this nonsense it’s enough to get you nuts. The point of Kevin was ‘Hey, stop with this craziness. Everyone’s included. We’re all part of the human race no matter who you are or what you are.’” [The Comics Reporter]

Wizard

Conventions | Jerome Maida previews Wizard World Philadelphia, which returns on Friday to the Pennsylvania Convention Center. [Philadelphia Daily News]

Conventions | Lisa Allmendinger looks toward the third annual Kids Read Comics! convention, which kicks off Saturday in Chelsea, Michigan. [AnnArbor.com]

Conventions | On a related note, Snow Wildsmith offers tips on taking children to conventions. [Good Comics for Kids]

Creators | Greg Rucka talks about his upcoming run, with artist Marco Checchetto, on Marvel’s Punisher: “You find yourself in the position of going to your editor and saying, ‘So, who can I kill? Who is on the list of characters we can put a bullet in and is not going to horribly destroy what’s going in the rest of the universe?’ You never want to take a character out of play. It’s easier to take stuff away from the universe than to put it back into the universe.” [USA Today]

Broadway | The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society has filed an arbitration claim against the producers of the $70-million musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark for failure to pay royalties to original director Julie Taymor, who was fired in March. [The New York Times]

from Wizard World Version 1.3

When Wizard World CEO Gareb Shamus decided to cancel his long-running magazines Wizard and ToyFare, and relaunch them in an amalgamated electronic form as a digital magazine called Wizard World, he did not do so quietly. Well, alright, the initial press release didn’t so much as mention the cancellations themselves, or the employees laid off in the process. But Shamus has been quite vocal about his new project’s prospects for success, as well as what he perceives to be the dire state of the industries surrounding it. In an interview with iFanboy’s Ron Richards, Shamus spoke of the new digital magazine sharing the things its staff likes with “the millions of people that we reach all the time,” in contrast with more traditional digital-news outlets like websites, which he said “are pretty worthless in their ability to have an impact on an audience.” And in the editor’s letter (see above) for Wizard World‘s third issue, “Version 1.3,” by way of explaining why he made the leap to digital publishing, he writes:

The creativity in the comic book industry is at an all-time high, yet it saddens me to see that publishers can’t get new people excited, and are losing existing fans at an alarming rate. The publishers keep doing what they’ve done in the past, but keep expecting better results. Not gonna happen!

Perhaps Shamus’s apparent disdain for comics publishers he deems stuck in the past explains why Wizard World‘s first three issues contain exactly zero articles on currently ongoing Marvel or DC titles. (Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Marvel/ICON book Incognito gets a graf in a piece on comics that should be made into video games, and toys for the upcoming Thor and Green Lantern movies get prominent play, though.)

“I am doing something new…and it feels good,” Shamus writes. “Starting a digital magazine feels like the smartest business decision I’ve made in years.”

Apparently, another decision made in the making of Wizard World was using the URL shortening service bit.ly for all of the digital magazine’s download links. Each issue is available in one of three ways: They are directly downloadable in PDF and Issuu formats, and can also be accessed by downloading Wizard’s iPad app. And by adding a plus sign to the end of any given bit.ly link (eg. http://bit.ly/dYy4I9+ ), anyone can see exactly how many times those downloads have been clicked. As of this morning, here are the stats:

Wizard World for iPad on the iTunes App Store
745 clicks total for all three issues

Wizard World Version 1.1 (aka Version 1.0), March 2
PDF: 4,695 clicks
issuu: 616 clicks

Wizard World Version 1.2, March 9
PDF: 3,277 clicks
issuu: 429 clicks

Wizard World Version 1.3, March 16
PDF: 1,779 clicks
issuu: 260 clicks

Caveats galore, of course: The stats for the iPad app link tell us nothing about how many people went to the iTunes App Store on their own and downloaded Wizard’s app directly, without first clicking through the link Wizard’s website provided. There’s also no way of knowing how many of the downloaded PDFs and issuus have circulated from person to person. And while the Graphic.ly and ComiXology platforms Shamus promised in his interview with iFanboy have yet to materialize, that doesn’t mean they won’t at some point. Maybe that explains the delay for issue/Version 1.4: Originally slated for a March 23 release according to a house ad in #1.3, it has not yet been published.

Wizard

When the news broke that Wizard was killing both the print edition of its long-running comics magazine and its sister publication ToyFare, the company also announced a new online publication called Wizard World that’s due to launch this month.

In an interview with iFanboy’s Ron Richards, Wizard founder Gareb Shamus announces that the new, free publication is due Feb. 23 and will be distributed in several different ways.

“It’s going to be free, and it’s going to be weekly, and it’s going to be available everywhere,” Shamus told Richards. “So however people are going to want to read it, whether it’s through their iPad, they’re going to be able to read it online, they’re going to be able to read it through a bunch of different mobile devices.”

Shamus mentions digital comics providers comiXology and Graphic.ly as distributors, noting, “Our intent is to work with everybody to get it everywhere. Because for us, we want the product to continue to be ubiquitous the way the products I’ve created in the past have been.”

Richards also asked a lot of good questions about GeekChicDaily, the Wizard conventions, the new public company and his thoughts on websites, which Shamus says are “pretty worthless in their ability to have an impact on an audience.” About the only ground Richards didn’t — and probably should have — cover were the layoffs and how people were treated. Otherwise what he did ask were some good, solid business questions. It’s too bad the answers themselves come across as (as was pointed out in the comments field) very rehearsed, politician-like and kinda vague.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Broadway | Michael Coehl, lead producer of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, has responded to the thrashing the $65-million production received this week from some of the country’s top theater critics. The Julie Taymor-directed show, which finally opens on March 15,  was labeled by The New York Times and The Washington post as one of the worst musicals in Broadway history. “Any of the people who review the show and say it has no redeeming value are just not legitimate reviewers, period,” Coehl told Entertainment Weekly. [PopWatch]

Publishing | Wizard World CEO Gareb Shamus gives another interview about the abrupt closing of Wizard and ToyFare magazines, his expanding stable of regional conventions, plans for a weekly online magazine, and the state of the industry: “The market’s changed. When I started 20 years ago, I was pioneering in the publishing world in terms of creating a product that got people excited about being involved in the comic book and toy and other markets, and we could do a lot of really cool and innovative things. Unfortunately right now being involved in the print world is very stifling, in terms of being able to leverage your content and your media and your access to the world out there.” Meanwhile, Tom Spurgeon and Martin Wisse comment on Shamus’ previous interview, which is pretty much the same as the new one. [ICv2.com]

Archie Comics

Publishing | Archie Comics Co-CEO Jon Goldwater discusses his company’s digital strategy, which includes a move to same-day digital release in April: “In the music business, we were always falling behind, and when I came in here to Archie Comics, I was determined that Archie would be the leader in new technology, that we would never make that mistake again, and that the company would blaze new trails and see how vibrant new technology is–and, frankly, that it can be monetized. The ability to make serious money by embracing digital is a reality. It’s not just a pipe dream.” [TFAW.com]

Digital piracy | Japanese publisher Shueisha reportedly has asked Apple to stop selling an app for a puzzle video game that illegally uses art from Eiichiro Oda’s bestselling pirate manga One Piece. [Weird Asia News]

Awards | The inaugural jury has been announced for the Stumptown Comic Arts Awards: Michael Allred, Brandon Graham, Laura Hudson, Michael Ring and Jason Leivian. The Stumptown Comics Fest will be held April 16-17 in Portland, Oregon. [press release]

Joe Hill

Creators | Author Joe Hill talks about his acclaimed IDW Publishing series Locke & Key, and the Fox television adaptation, which begins production this week: “All the elements are there. You don’t know what’s going to happen. You can get a whole bunch of talented people together and fail to score and you can have a huge success with Wipeout, a show about fat people flailing  in the mud. You hope all the elements are there and we’ll catch a little luck, that people will get excited and it will take off.” [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Creators | Gail Simone discusses the four-part “Death of Oracle” story arc in DC’s Birds of Prey. [Comic Vine]

Creators | I don’t know whether it’s the title’s hook, savvy PR work or both, but the creators of the IDW miniseries Kill Shakespeare receive a steady stream of mainstream press coverage. Here’s the latest, an interview with collaborators Anthony Del Col, Conor McCreery and Andy Belanger ahead of a weekend appearance in London, Ontario. [London Free Press]

– Wizard World CEO, and self-described pioneer, Gareb Shamus, in an interview touching upon the legacy of Wizard magazine, criticism from former employees and more

Most of their posts focus in large part, or even in full, in praising the work and character of their co-workers. (There are exceptions, of course: Writing for Bleeding Cool, recently laid-off freelance price guide writer Mark Allen Haverty mostly praises the work and character of…Mark Allen Haverty.) And no one — not even writer Chris Ward, whose comments about the Shamus Brothers are among the most scathing you’re likely to see — has come forth with the full-on “here’s where all the bodies are buried” piece some folks are no doubt waiting for. Nevertheless, the picture that emerges when the remembrances of the Wizard diaspora are pieced together is a clear one: Wizard and its related publications employed a staff talented enough to land on their feet in positions across the length and breadth of the comics industry and pop culture at large; a staff whose bonds of mutual admiration and respect last to this day; a staff that has high hopes for the employees who were let go in this most recent spate of cutbacks (laid-off Research Editor Dan Reilly, an 18-year veteran of the company, and still-standing ToyFare editor Justin Aclin are repeatedly singled out for high marks); a staff that includes many who feel their potential and that of the publications for which they worked were consistently squandered by what they deem the erratic and unscrupulous management of the company. In a way, they indicate that while the death of Wizard is unfortunate, the death of the alternate-universe Wizard that might have emerged from a better marshaling of their talents may be the bigger loss.

Below you’ll find links to a comprehensive list of posts by former Wizard, ToyFare, Anime Insider, and WizardUniverse.com editors, writers, and contributors. It will be updated as more become available.

Alejandro Arbona (former Associate Editor, Wizard; Associate Editor, Marvel): “I’ll be 100% blunt in my opinion: Gareb & Stephen Shamus are dishonest, disreputable, ethically rudderless businessmen playing a shell game.” [Alejandro Arbona's Twitter]

Scott Beatty (former Editor, ToyFare; writer, Batgirl: Year One, Buck Rogers, DC’s Ultimate Guides, etc.): “Any mention of ToyFare should include Editor-in-Chief Pat McCallum, who was the comedic heart and guiding influence of the magazine.” [Points of Articulation]

Rob Bricken (former Editor, Anime Insider; Editor, Topless Robot): “For all the shit Wizard got, I don’t think my writing has been influenced by anything more — that nerdy subjects could be worth of news coverage, critical thought, and a shit-ton of humor. That you could take things like comics more seriously than regular people, but less seriously than insane fanboys. There was a time when Wizard did that before and better than anybody, and I hope people remember that. At least today.” [Topless Robot]

Rob Bricken, part two: “…I would like to call out the gutless shitweasels in charge of the company who had the unmitigated hubris and bastardry to issue a press release today, heralding both the announcement of “Wizard World” and that Wizard is now being publicly traded without ever mentioning the cancellation of either magazine, or the god-knows-how-many people they laid off. Not only it is callous and classless, telling people they should invest money in their company ON THE SAME DAY THEY CANCELED THEIR TWO MOST VISIBLE PRODUCTS… well, that sums up Wizard Entertainment more than anything.” [Topless Robot]

Mel Caylo (former Editorial Director, Wizard Entertainment; Marketing Manager, Archaia): “It really irks me that some people are celebrating the 
demise of Wizard, but that’s the Internet for you. It won’t take away 
all the good times I had and the good people I met at the company.” [Newsarama]

Mel Caylo, part two: “There definitely were a lot of disagreements between editorial and the managerial side of things.” [Meltdown Comics' Meltcast]

Sean T. Collins (former Managing Editor, Wizard; writer, Robot 6, Maxim, Destructor, etc.): “I met, oh, between a dozen and two dozen of the best people I’ve ever known, people with whom I’m close friends to this day. You’d recognize their names as they’re in positions of prominence across the industry and the popcultjourno biz at large; I don’t care about any of that so much as i care about the fact that they’re kind, generous, talented people I’m privileged to know and be associated with. And there’s nothing I can say about Wizard and its management more damning than telling you how poorly so many of those people were treated there, up through and including today.” [Attentiondeficitdisorderly]

TJ Dietsch (former Associate Editor, ToyFare/freelance writer, Wizard and ToyFare; freelance writer, Marvel.com, Maxim.com, etc.): “…I got the news and was floored. I had actually just started writing for Wizard again, though I don’t know whether the piece I finished will ever run or what the deal is. It was fun to write about comics again.” [United Monkee]

Eric Drumm (former freelance writer, ToyFare; freelance copywriter, DC): “ToyFare and the people i met there opened every door that has ever been opened to me.” [Eric Drumm's Twitter]

Ryan Dunlavey (former freelance illustrator and cartoonist, Wizard and ToyFare; artist, Action Philosophers and Comic Book Comics): “WIZARD: It was fun working there, the people were awesome and they all deserved better than what the owners gave them. THE END.” [Ryan Dunlavey's Twitter]

Poe Ghostal (former freelance writer, ToyFare; Editor, Points of Articulation): “The heyday of the action figure industry was around 1999-2004, so in some ways it’s impressive that ToyFare lasted as long as it did, and remained fairly successful for most of that time (as far as I know, anyway). But I also know that all those toy news websites, and even sites like PGPoA, were hammering in ToyFare‘s coffin nails. It’s not at all clear to me how Wizard’s new online venture will fare, and what role ToyFare, or toys in general, will have in it. Here’s hoping the best parts of ToyFare survive, not only in whatever the new website brings, but in the continued success of its many contributors.” [Points of Articulation]

Jim Gibbons (former Associate Editor, Wizard; Publicity Coordinator, Dark Horse): “Between the dire atmosphere Wizard had towards the end of my tenure and the unceremonious and impersonal way I was let go, there was a fair share of anger and bitterness at a company I was once proud to work for. Time heals all wounds and all that jazz—a rad new job certainly doesn’t hurt, either—but I kind of felt I was past really caring about Wizard. I’d had good times there as well as bad and the place and publication seemed firmly set in my past, only occasionally entering my present when my job in comics PR required. It’s for that reason I found the disparate emotions that washed over me this week regarding the news about Wizard to be so unexpected. ” [Enemy of Peanuts]

Doug Goldstein (former VP, Wizard Special Projects; co-Head Writer, Robot Chicken): “From what I’ve read online so far, there’s too much celebration of the downfall of the “upstairs” management, and not enough loving eulogies recalling the good times we had “downstairs” in editorial. It IS understandable though. As Wizard got really big and successful, people “upstairs” thought everyone should suck their assholes because their dicks were too good for ‘em. Maybe that plan works at Halliburton, but the world of comics is a small place where everyone knows each other, loves what they’re working on, and likes to keep it loose. So you can imagine management’s annoyance that their bungholes remained unsucked. Wizard began as a silly fun-time friend and ended as an adversarial bully.” [Doug Is Typing]

Mark Allen Haverty (former freelance Price Guide writer, Wizard; editor, CrucialTaunt.com): “What I find so amusing about the posts here and on other sites is that the same people that ridiculed Alan Moore for his absurd criticisms of comics today, only to admit that he does not read any, is that those criticizing also proudly proclaim that they stopped reading ages ago. If they actually had read, they would know how absurd so many of their criticisms were. There is of course the knocks about Wizard being filled with boob jokes and homophobic cracks, which I rarely if ever saw in my two years in the magazine, and certainly not from me – after all, I did say [I have a] ‘partner’ above, for those of you playing along at home.” [Bleeding Cool]

Rick Marshall (former Editor, WizardUniverse.com; Editor, MTV Splash Page): “Sadly, I remember a time when Wizard could’ve turned the corner & ensured their future, but chose to keep walking toward a cliff instead. My sympathies go out to the Wizard staffers I’m still friendly with. Some of them really are the best in the biz.” [Mind Pollution]

Jim McLauchlin (former Consulting Editor for Wizard; co-founder and member of the Board of Directors, Hero Initiative): “I just had lunch with Mark Waid a couple weeks ago, and I mentioned to him that as much as people like to sharpen sticks and point them at Wizard, they were the only organization left that was willing to fund things such as the Wally Wood feature I wrote a few months ago, which I thought was a very good and very vital piece. I don’t know that there’s anywhere left in comics media that’s actually willing to pay for stuff like that anymore.” [Newsarama]

Ben Morse (former Staff Writer, Wizard; Associate Editor, Marvel.com): “I had a lot of fun during my three years at Wizard and I daresay on our good days we put out some fine content. In that sense, I’m sad to see the magazine go. I certainly know plenty of people have axes to grind with Wizard as an entity and organization and most of them have pretty legitimate grievances. For me, though, my time there was positive and so are my memories.” [Newsarama]

Zach Oat (former Editor, ToyFare; Editor, Television Without Pity and Movies Without Pity): “The company regularly swelled to seating capacity in times of growth only to contract to its previous size after a year or two. I saw at least two or three purges in my time there, which meant a lot of my friends were let go, although many got out ahead of a purge — the purge of early 2008 was what prompted me to leave, since a lot of my best friends at the company were gone by that point.” [Buster of Chops]

Ryan Penagos (former Price Guide Editor, Wizard; Editor, Marvel.com/Twitter superstar Agent M): “I’ve been thinking about all this today. And I’ve been thinking all my friends who were (or are) at Wizard. We, to a man, have all had different experiences. Some good, some bad, some terrible. But I have this great band of brothers (hurr durr) who I shared this time with and will be friends with for life. I’ve been thinking about guys like Andy Serwin and Dan Reilly (two names who, I assure you, you’ll hear great things about from most of us sane post-Wizard folks) who deserve better from the way this shook out. I’ve been thinking about shitty management and bad decisions and missed opportunities and hope for a successful future because there are people who still depend on the Wiz.” [Agent M Loves Tacos]

Kiel Phegley (former Staff Writer, Wizard; News Editor, Comic Book Resources): “I’m having a much harder time getting worked up over this than some of my bros, but then again, I expected the magazine to get killed about a year and a half ago.” [The Cool Kids Table]

Alex Segura (former Associate Editor, Wizard; Executive Director of Publicity and Marketing, Archie): “If you’d told me while at Wizard that I was working with future Marvel, DC, Archie, Archaia, Maxim, Robot 6, WB, Mashable, CBR, Television Without Pity, Bluewater, Topless Robot, Robot Chicken, Cracked and Bleacher Report employees or contributors, I probably would have scoffed. So, while the print magazine may be gone, the spirit of Wizard at its best certainly continues.” [Newsarama]

Alex Segura, part two: “And yeah, I did a lot of cool stuff while at Wizard – got to interview Sarah Michelle Gellar, met a ton of awesome creators and celebs, traveled around the country and networked like crazy. But the moments I miss – the ones that still get me choked up in a happy, ‘Damn, those were good times’ way – are the little ones. Laughing over our lunch break. Hanging out after a long week. Those quiet seconds between conversations when you’re just sitting around and basking in the fact that you’re surrounded by people you care about. That’s what I’ll remember most, and I’m thankful for that.” [Alex Segura's Tumblr]

Steve Sunu (former Staff Writer, Wizard; freelance writer, Comic Book Resources): “Wizard helped me get to where I am today. Some of the most awesome people I’ve ever met came through Wizard. It’s sad to see the magazine go.” [Steve Sunu's Twitter]

Chris Ward (former Staff Writer, Wizard; writer, Political Power: Barack Obama): “…while it’s easy to go with the old ‘Wizard can’t copy edit’ jokes or ‘Wizard has just been shitty boob graphics’ jokes during this time, just remember to direct your ire straight to the top, instead of where good people are not being paid enough to copy edit AND come up with something other than boob jokes AND write Gareb’s masthead letter (he never wrote his own masthead. In other breaking news, Burt Reynolds wears a toupee). And, even then, you almost can’t get mad at the people straight at the top. Because it falls on deaf ears. Because it’s aiming for the slow kid in a dodge ball game. Because it’s like getting mad at yourself for touching the stove every time and finding out, ‘Shit! That’s HOT!’” [World of WardCrap]

Brian Warmoth (former Staff Writer, WizardUniverse.com; freelance writer, Comic Book Resources, MTV Splash Page, etc.): “Used to work right next to the InQuest guys. The debates that went on in there made me look forward to work every day.” [Brian Warmoth's Twitter]

Brett White (former News Editor, WizardUniverse.com; writer, Tales to Diminish): “Wizard’s continued refusal to change with the times has now completely bitten them in their foot which was just shot by the gun their ass was holding. As a former employee who ran one of their websites (Wizard World) I know they are still using a late ’90s Yahoo Business model site. I know they cannot update their site more than 3 times a day. I know that the updating process takes about an hour. I know that Wizard Magazine was irrelevant because every other internet news site was beating us at our own game. But was any money ever pushed towards an up to date website? No.” [Digsy Finally Has a Tumblr]

Brett White, part two: “What hurts the most about all of this, ALL of this, is that it didn’t have to happen. Wizard as a name, as a thing, it’s something that has always existed to me. I started collecting hardcore in 1993 and Wizard was there for it. And when you look at all the great people that have worked there, it really should have always been at the absolute top of its game. Wizard in 2011 should be as popular as Wired in print and CBR/Newsarama/Etc online.” [Digsy Finally Has a Tumblr]

Josh Wigler (former Assistant Editor, Wizard; Editor, MTV Movies Blog): “OK, comment: met some of the best people I know through Wizard. Wouldn’t be where I am today without it. I’m very grateful for those things.” [Josh Wigler's Twitter]

Anonymous (former Wizard employee, let go as part of the cancellation of the magazines): “Honestly, I know [Wizard's new plan] will fail. First off, there is no leadership. The people that are still on staff have no digital publishing experience or seem to want to be there. As more money goes into the conventions, the less the owners care about the magazine side. They plan on publicly trading and launching this app for free with no real advertising. I think anyone who does a little research before purchasing stock will find just how screwed that place is.” [iFanboy]

Collins, Marshall, Oat, and Ward on Wizard’s female staffers

Wizard

Publishing | More details have begun to emerge about the abrupt closings of Wizard and ToyFare magazines, and the announcement of a new public company headed by Gareb Shamus. ICv2.com reports that Wizard World Inc. was taken public through a reverse merger with a shell company, a failed oil and gas venture known as GoEnergy Inc., which acquired the assets of Kick the Can, a corporate repository for the assets of Shamus’  Wizard World Comic Con Tour. Following the acquisition, GoEnergy’s chairman and chief financial officer resigned and was replaced by Shamus. In the process, the new company raised capital through the issuance of $1.5 million in preferred stock. Meanwhile, an anonymous Wizard staff member reveals to iFanboy he was informed that the magazine had folded during a phone call Sunday evening, and was not permitted to collect personal belongings. A freelance contributors writes at Bleeding Cool that he learned about the closing through a Facebook message on Monday morning.

The comics Internet is swarming with reaction pieces: Andy Khouri points out the huge number of comics editors, bloggers and journalists who got their starts at Wizard; Heidi MacDonald does the same, noting that it was “a total boys club”; Albert Ching surveys numerous creators and editors; and Robot 6 contributor, and former Wizard staffer, Sean T. Collins comments on the magazine’s demise and rounds up links.

In related news, GeekChicDaily, the email newsletter and website co-founded by Shamus in 2009, has secured new Hollywood investors. [Wizard World]

Comics Code Authority Seal of Approval

Publishing | Through some solid digging, Vaneta Rogers discovers that the Comics Code Authority and the the Comics Magazine Association of America, which oversaw it, appear to have stopped functioning in 2009, well before DC Comics and Archie announced they were abandoning the 56-year-old Seal of Approval. [Newsarama]

Digital comics | Digital-comics distributor Graphic.ly announced it has raised $3 million in its first round of institutional funding. [Tech Crunch, press release]

Business | Disney Interactive Studios, the video-game division of The Walt Disney Co., reportedly laid off nearly half of its 700 employees on Monday. That follows the closing earlier this month of Disney’s Propaganda Games unit, leading to the loss of 70 jobs. [CNBC.com]

Digital comics | Todd Allen crunches some numbers to come up with a rough idea of how much publishers make for each digital download, and how that compares to print. [Publishers Weekly]

Superman

Legal | The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property has ruled against DC Comics, which had objected to a Swiss company’s trademark for a logo that resembles Superman’s familiar “S” shield. Although DC had never filed a trademark for the Superman logo in Switzerland, it cited the Paris Convention for the Protection of International Property. However, Swiss authorities held that the Superman logo isn’t sufficiently known in Switzerland. [Marques]

Organizations | Executive Director Charles Brownstein provides an overview of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. [io9.com]

Creators | James Kochalka will be appointed as Vermont’s first cartoonist laureate on March 10, an occasion marked by events across the state. Vermont is the first state to bestow the honor. “A cartoonist laureate is the kind of thinking outside-the-box that Vermont supports,” says Gov. Peter Shumlin. “Cartooning promotes literacy and literature, two things we can’t have enough of.” [The Beat, The Center for Cartoon Studies]

Creators | Johanna Draper Carlson talks with Sinfest creator Tatsuya Ishida about the Dark Horse collected edition Viva la Resistance. [Publishers Weekly]

Comics | Three comics recommendations for Valentine’s Day reading. [Technician]

Gareb Shamus

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release relating to Wizard World’s future plans, expectations, beliefs, intentions and prospects are “forward-looking statements” and are subject to material risks and uncertainties. When used in this press release, the words “will”, “future”, “expect”, “look forward to”, similar expressions and any other statements that are not historical facts are intended to identify those assertions as forward-looking statements. Any such statement may be influenced by a variety of factors, many of which are beyond the control of Wizard World that could cause actual outcomes and results to be materially different from those projected, described, expressed or implied in this press release due to a number of risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, no assurances can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur. A detailed discussion of these factors and other risks that affect our business is contained in our SEC filings, including our most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, particularly under the heading “Risk Factors.” Copies of these filings are available online from the SEC or by contacting [contact info redacted]. All information set forth in this press release is current as of January 24, 2011. Wizard World undertakes no duty to update any statement in light of new information or future events.

–The legal boilerplate disclaimer that accompanied today’s Wizard press release in which Gareb Shamus announced the beleaguered company would be going public, launching an all-digital Wizard World magazine, and soldiering on with its convention circuit — without mentioning the shutdown of Wizard magazine and its accompanying layoffs. The line for investors forms to the left, folks.

Gareb Shamus

“When it comes to the comics industry, we invite the comics industry. You can ask them why they may or may not go to shows, but at the end of the day, we bring the fans. The fans come here because they want to be part of our experience […] and we create a very compelling experience for people, as you can see […] we have a lot of celebrities and a lot of TV stars.”

– Wizard Entertainment CEO Gareb Shamus, addressing the absence of most major comics publishers from this year’s Wizard World Chicago Comic Con

Big Apple Comic Con

Wizard Entertainment CEO Gareb Shamus has announced an additional New York City convention set for May 6-8, 2011, overlapping with Free Comic Book Day and the premiere of Marvel’s Thor.

Comic Con NYC — not to be confused with rival Reed Exhibitions’ New York Comic Con, certainly — will be held in the newly renovated Penn Plaza Pavilion, which will play host in October to Shamus’ Big Apple Comic Con.

“Response to last year’s Big Apple Comic Con and advance interest in the show this October has been so strong that we had to add the Spring event,” Shamus said in the announcement. “Everyone – the celebrities, the fans, the dealers, manufacturers, artists, and the entire community we deal with was begging us to bring a huge Spring event to New York. And now we have Wizard World Comic Con NYC.”

Rich Johnston suggests the date might be “ideal” to tempt Marvel back into the Wizard fold. However, it’s tough to imagine Marvel viewing as some sort of olive branch an event that stands to compete with Thor‘s opening weekend, at least regionally. What’s more, the studio doesn’t need Wizard World to market the movie — to its core audience, no less — particularly that late in the game.

What may be interesting to see is reaction from New York-area retailers regarding the possibility of the convention siphoning off Free Comic Book Day traffic. I don’t know, maybe some attendees will still wander over to Midtown Comics or Jim Hanley’s Universe to pick up free comics before heading back to the Penn Plaza Pavilion.

Wizard

“We’re not done with Philly per se, but we do seem to be done, at least for the moment, with the Wizard conventions.”

–Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort, answering a Formspring question about Marvel’s third Wizard World Philadelphia no-show in a row by making Marvel’s severance from Wizard’s convention wing more-or-less official. (On its blog, Wizard reports that this year’s Philadelphia show “broke ever [sic] attendance record EVER!! The show was a HUGE success!”)

Gareb Shamus

Just as his Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con kicks off today for its 10th year, Gareb Shamus announced he’s acquired another convention, bringing the total to 13. This time it’s the fledgling ComiCONN, which was held for the first time in May in North Haven, Connecticut.

In what’s become standard practice for these Wizard World acquisitions, the convention’s organizers will remain to “promote, advise and consult on the show.” They’ll also continue to operate their own local events.

The renamed Wizard World Connecticut Comic Conn will debut sometime in 2011 in Hartford.

But back to Shamus and his Philadelphia show, the subjects of a fawning preview — the convention “appears to be bigger and better than ever,” mainly because “Gareb Shamus is back in charge” — in this morning’s Philadelphia Daily News.

After the repeated drubbings the Wizard empire has received, maybe it’s due a softer spotlight. Still, even the company’s defenders are likely to admit the article is a little … much. Witness, for instance, this passage, explaining away the recent decline of Wizard’s convention arm. It turns out it was an unfortunate result of Shamus’ flirtation with mixed martial arts fighting and the International Fight League:

“I had left Wizard for a number of years,” said Shamus, whose Wizard brand is arguably the most popular, powerful and influential name in comics. “Around 2003, when I felt the company and conventions were healthy and in good hands, I decided to try something different.” [...] “These shows take a lot of time and a lot of money,” Shamus said. “I thought others could handle them, but then decided I had to get back to the company.

And the cancellation of shows in Los Angeles and Arlington, Texas? That was “all just part of a grand plan dating back to when I came back in 2008.”

“We had already decided that Austin would be better to have a show than Arlington, and Anaheim would be better than Los Angeles,” Shamus explained, “so why put the time, effort and money even for one more year where we knew we wouldn’t get maximum benefit? We needed to realign and put our time, effort and money on making sure that worked long-term. But we have never failed. Some people laughed when we did Boston for one year and stopped. Well, guess what? We’re doing a Boston show again.”

As for criticisms of the Wizard conventions, well …

Shamus said that because Wizard has been so successful, it is a target for everybody – from fanboys on the Internet to writers and artists who are used to being coddled at smaller shows.

“A lot of those people who complain want something for free,” Shamus said. “We will work with people as much as they want to work with us.”

Wizard World Philadelphia began today at noon at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and continues through Sunday. Comics guests include Greg Horn, Michael Golden, J.G. Jones, Joe Madureira, Mike McKone, Arthur Suydam, Mark Texeira, Herb Trimpe and Ethan Van Sciver.

Philly2Philly has a solid primer for attendees.

The battle of New York is over without so much as a shot fired.

On its convention website, Gareb Shamus’s Wizard Entertainment announced this morning that it is rescheduling its suite of Northeastern comic conventions, eliminating the head-to-head, same-town, same-dates match-up between its Big Apple Comic Con and Reed Exhibition’s New York Comic Con on October 7-10. Now, the Big Apple Comic Con will now be held on Oct. 1-3, the New England Comic Con on Oct. 15-17, and the New Jersey Comic Con on dates to be announced later. In addition, Big Apple has changed locations from Pier 94 to the Penn Plaza Pavilion, while the New England show will be hosted at Boston’s John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center. It’s unclear whether the New Jersey con’s date change will lead to a move from Edison’s New Jersey Convention & Exposition Center upon rescheduling.

Wizard made headlines, and drew a significant industry backlash, beginning late last year by making a series of aggressive scheduling moves against veteran convention promoter Reed and its slate of comic and pop-culture shows. Most notoriously, Wizard scheduled its Big Apple show the very same weekend as Reed’s New York Comic Con, October 7-10, and in 12th Avenue venue literally blocks away from NYCC’s Javits Center location. Later, Wizard scheduled its New Jersey con for the following weekend. Ever since, guest-list comparisons and official industry presences have weighed in mightily in Reed’s favor.

Wizard’s move is not without precedent: Shamus’s company earlier switched the dates for its Chicago Comic Con from Aug. 12-15 to Aug. 19-22 following Reed and Lucasfilm’s scheduling of Star Wars Celebration V for the original dates. But this move seems more likely an attempt to accommodate comics industry players who did not seem keen on shuttling back and forth between two competing shows in their New York City backyard.

Of course, the date-shuffling and venue-switching hardly represents a cessation of hostilities: Scheduling shows in Manhattan and Boston the weekends before and after Reed’s NYCC could be seen as an attempt to leech business away from more established show. But we’ve already had a same-weekend Reed/Wizard match-up a few weeks back, when Reed’s inaugural Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo more or less forced Wizard’s Anaheim Comic Con into obscurity despite underwhelming attendance (to which, it must be said, Reed admitted with refreshing candor). At this point, it’s tough to say whether there’s really any direct competition between Wizard’s nostalgia-tinged line-up of genre-TV stars and Reed’s much more comics-focused conventions. But whatever competition there is has just gotten much less direct.

From the new WizardWorld.com

If you were to go to WizardWorld.com, the online home of Gareb Shamus’s publishing, retail and convention empire, you would see a jazzy new layout (albeit one still based on the old Yahoo SiteBuilder template) and a fancy new logo for both the company and its many conventions (the little superhero silhouette guy is gone). You’d see news and blog sub-sites dedicated solely to guest-list updates for the aforementioned cons. You’d also see a major, major, MAJOR SPOILER for the acclaimed Syfy series Battlestar Galactica, based on the appearance of certain actors from the show at Wizard’s Chicago Comic Con. Let the surfer beware.

Eliza Dushku ad for Wizard World Toronto

She was the top-billed star of the Wizard World conventions in Toronto and Anaheim — and briefly the victim of a case of mistaken identity with Warren Ellis. But now Eliza Dushku, the Joss Whedon mainstay who starred in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse, has quietly been dropped from the guest lists of both shows.

Is this a victory for the shows’ Con War rivals, Fan Expo (the same city as Toronto) and Reed’s Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (the same weekend as Anaheim), a sign that Wizard’s rapid convention-circuit expansion isn’t making it any easier to attract big-name talent, or just schedule churn?

This latest rebranding of a small local show with the Wizard/”Comic Con” name is part of a now-established pattern; interestingly, Johnston describes it as one in which “no money actually chang[es] hands,” but rather an existing con infrastructure is essentially bartered for Wizard’s name recognition. I hadn’t heard that before, but it may be the only way such rapid expansion makes sense for a company with fewer employees than it’s had since its very earliest years.

In other recent Con War news, Johnston reported last week that Wizard has now sandwiched Reed Exhibition’s New York Comic Con with nearby shows of its own the weekend before (New England Comic Con, Oct. 1-3), the weekend after (New Jersey Comic Con, Oct. 15-17), and of course the very same weekend in the very same city (Big Apple Comic Con, Oct. 7-10). Johnston sees this as an attempt to crowd NYCC out; piggybacking off the press of the larger and more established show could also be a motivation.

For their part, Reed continues its M.O. of adding guests, rather than shows: Recently announced additions to Chicago Comics & Entertainment Expo — a competitor of Wizard’s Chicago Comic Con that runs head-to-head against Wizard’s Anaheim Comic Con the same weekend — include Dan DiDio, Paul Levitz, Mark Bagley, Peter David, Mark Waid, Dash Shaw, Chip Kidd, Art Baltazar, Bob Layton, Jonathan Hickman, Peter Tomasi, James Robinson, Greg Pak, Jim Valentino and, in all likelihood, probably quite a few I’m missing. The presence of DiDio, Levitz and Geoff Johns seems to be a pretty clear vote of confidence from DC, by the by. Meanwhile, reports that the city of Anaheim is strongly trying to woo Comic-Con International away from San Diego indicate that Wizard’s show isn’t quite what the city is looking for.