What Was Up With ‘Wizard,’ #13: August 1999

Once again, I skipped a few issues of our favorite comics magazine, so let’s take a look at issue #96, cover dated August of 1999, with an angry Brandon Peterson Wolverine on the cover!

In the letters, the first person wants to know what exactly an inker does. Sounds like someone had just watched Chasing Amy! Wizard turns to their favorite inker, Jimmy Palmiotti, who talks briefly about enhancing things, putting some things more in the foreground and others more in the background, but he does admit that penciling is a lot harder. I’ll have more about Palmiotti below! The second letter is about … inking? What the heck, letter-writers? This dude wants to know about reference books about inking, and Wizard notes that Steve Rude collaborated on a recent inking book and there’s always How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, which was still in print at the time (I don’t know if it still is, lo these many years later). Good for Wizard, giving out good advice like that! Another dude wonders what happened to Crimson Plague, and when Wizard asked George Pérez about it., he said it would be relaunched in the summer of 2000. Only one more issue came out, however, and Pérez never got to finish it due to many other things happening in his life and the industry. So sad! Another letter-writer wants to know where Venom was, because he was “going through withdrawal.” Really, dude? You couldn’t swing a dead symbiote in the late 1990s without hitting Venom, and you’re missing him? Come on, son! The same dude wants to know if Wizard could offer writing lessons because they always do the art lessons, and they point him to their web site, where they apparently offered such lessons. They said that he might even get feedback from famed WildStorn editor John Layman! Wouldn’t that be cool!!! Somebody asked if the Y2K thing would affect comics, which cracked me up. Ah, those innocent pre-millennium days! Apparently, at that time most comics people used Macs, which didn’t have a Y2K problem, so Wizard was confident all would be well! Finally, I haven’t shown much envelope art recently because it hasn’t been great and none of the artists went on to fame and fortune, but this Supergirl is pretty keen:

On page 20, Wizard has a brief article about the success of “Marvel Knights” and what it means going forward. They note Bob Gale taking over Daredevil with issue #15, which did not actually happen. Gale’s first issue was #20, and he only did the one arc. In the interim, Bendis and Mack did an arc before Bendis took over for his long run on issue #26. Why the delay? I guess we’ll find out in future issues of Wizard! After Gale’s first arc (at this point, issues #15-18), Kevin Smith was coming back. Uh, nope. Strange. Joey Q also teased a year-long Punisher story, but he wouldn’t say who the writer was. In the sidebar, which has speculations about who would be good writers for the line, Ennis is at the top, and Quesada is quoted as saying he’d be great on the character. Is this teased story, “slated for a November debut,” the Ennis “Welcome Back, Frank” story? That didn’t actually come out until February 2000, so maybe it just got delayed a bit. Was there anything Punisher-related from Marvel Knights before the Ennis series? In that sidebar, they list Ennis, of course, but also Stan Lee (really?), John Singleton, John Cassaday, Jeph Loeb, the Wachowskis, Joe Casey, and Michael Lark. I mean, I guess?

Moving on, Mark Waid was leaving Captain America, and he notes that it was probably a bad idea for him to return to the book after he was unceremoniously dumped for [checks notes] Rob Liefeld [checks notes again, sighs]. Dan Jurgens was taking over, and I don’t know how long he lasted on the book. There was a rumor that Stan Lee would be writing for DC in the near future. The deal didn’t become official until almost a year later, but the rumors were true! I don’t usually show advertisements here, preferring to wait until the end, but the facing page gave us this:

Man, CrossGen. I mean, some of their books were great, but they really didn’t have it as together as everyone thought, did they? On the next page, Wizard has a chart. I love it when they get so very cynical, and this is one of those times:

On page 27, Wizard has a nice brief obituary of John Broome, who died in March 1999. It’s always neat when Wizard acknowledges that comics did exist before about 1985, so good for them! In their “Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down” section on page 28, they give ups to the “Phantom Menace Hype” — not the movie itself, just the hype, while booing the “Darth Maul Hype,” which, fair. They also give thumbs down to Beau Smith: “The Undertaker writer and Todd McFarlane fart-catcher hasn’t written us a nasty letter about anything in, like, a year. Whatever happened to the surly, nasty Beau we all used to know and love? Get off your hairy ass and write, dammit!” Did Smith take them up on it? I’ll have to check future letter columns! There’s an article about how hot the Avengers were at the time, which is weird, as a few years later, Marvel needed Bendis to come in and rescue the franchise. What happened, Marvel? There’s also a note about the 1999 Wizard World Chicago convention in July, which will feature a lot of exclusive covers, including …

Page 34 brings us an article about Steampunk, Chris Bachalo’s Cliffhanger comic. Bachalo actually defines “steampunk,” which cracks me up, because I knew the term before this, but it hadn’t actually been around that long — it was coined in 1987, sort of, and first used in a title of a work in 1995, even though the kind of books that are now called “steampunk” have been around for over a century, as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells could be called “steampunk” writers. He notes that “it’s about a 25-issue story with a planned end.” It only lasted to issue #12, however (with a preview issue, so 13 total issues), and it probably won’t ever be back. I own every single issue of Steampunk, and … it’s not great. It’s better as a whole, because you don’t have to wait for things, but this was when Bachalo reached his Crazy Design Apotheosis, and the book is very, very hard to read. After this, it seems Bachalo really began the shift toward a bit more simplistic art, perhaps because he knew he just couldn’t keep up with the insanity of his work or, perhaps, companies weren’t willing to hire him if he kept it up. Still, it’s a nice curio of a comic.

On pages 36-42, Wizard has a goofy article titled “X-Mania,” which is all about the X-Men. I mean, they always loved the X-Men, so why they felt the need to do this is beyond me, but they have some fun with it. They have the many times Xavier should have died (I mean, he’s a comic book character — of course he’s almost died a lot!); they have 10 insane plots of X-Men comics and ask you to pick out the fake one; they have an X-Men Mad Libs; they have the filthiest (out-of-context) X-Quotes (sample: “Even if I took it all, Ororo, it still wouldn’t be enough”); and they have distorted character drawings that you need to identify. Among other things. It’s goofy, sure, but it’s still fun.

Wizard has an interview with J. Michael Stracyznski on pages 44-50, right as he was launching Rising Stars. It’s a good interview, although JMS does say some vaguely douchey things, mainly because, like a lot of creative types (it seems), nothing is ever his fault. TNT put Crusade on hold after one season to see how it would do, and that made him mad (never mind that they’re a business). DC screwed up the Babylon 5 comics (never mind that maybe they sucked). Other than that, though, it’s a decent conversation. JMS has been doing comics (along with television and movies) ever since, so I guess he digs ’em!

We get the next article, which is 20 Places Every Comic Fan MUST Visit. Fun! Let’s see how many are still around!
1. Universal’s Marvel Island of Adventure. Still there! I’ve never been. It would mean going to Florida, and I’m in no hurry to go back. Adult one-day ticket: $44.52. I don’t even want to know what it is these days!
2. Marvel Mania. Did not last long. So sad!
3. Metropolis, Illinois. I mean, of course the town is still there. Has anyone ever been?
4. Star Wars Cantina, FAO Schwartz, Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas. This is defunct. Oh well.
5. The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. Still going strong! Wizard claims the tour is free, but I can’t confirm that it still is from the web site. It would be neat to tour it, though!
6. Wizard World Chicago. Really, Wizard? It was, however, “the biggest comic convention in the United States,” according to … Wizard? Technically, it’s still going! Mel Gibson will be there this year — you don’t want to miss that!
7. International Museum of Cartoon Art. It be gone, but its closing inspired this interesting exchange between a sales manager for United Press Syndicate and Mort Walker himself. Remember wars of words between angry letter writers? Good times!
8. Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. Still there, although according to this Reddit thread, it’s gone downhill! Plus, you know, you’d have to go to Jersey, which, blech.
9. Marvel Comics. As in, the headquarters. They’re no longer at 387 Park Avenue and they no longer do tours (which Wizard says are free, even though there’s a long waiting list), so … kind of pointless.
10. Six Flags theme parks. I guess? Wizard says they were owned by Warner Bros. at one point, so they have comic-based rides, but this seems a bit weak. Listen, I used to go to Great Adventure almost every damned summer (even if it was in Jersey, blech), and I loved it, but, I mean, they’re amusement parks. Anyone can enjoy them!
11. Warner Bros. Studios. Sure, you can do the tour. I shudder to think what it costs!
12. Warner Bros. Movie World. Listen, this is in Queensland. IN AUSTRALIA. If you’re spending all that money to go to Australia, there’s a hell of lot more to do than go to an amusement park. I mean, if you live there, sure. But to make a special trip? Um, no.
13. Star Trek: The Experience, Las Vegas Hilton. Permanently closed for the last 18 years. Oh dear.
14. The Extraterrorestrial Alien Experience. This is no more — apparently it was controversial because it was so scary? I mean, “terror” is right there in the name, parents! Come on!
15. Adventure Inns. They specifically list the one in Gurnee, Illinois, which is not open any longer. It’s a generic name, so I don’t know if the other “adventure inn”s you get when you Google it are affiliated. Wizard knows about Gurnee because it’s right outside of Chicago, and there’s a Six Flags there. Sounds like a fun town!
16. Museum of Television and Radio. This is now The Paley Center for Media, so who knows if it’s as cool as it used to be, but it’s still there!
17. “Terminator 2” 3-D, Universal Studios. This was a short film at the parks that closed in 2012. So sad!
18. Forbidden Planet London. They’re all over the UK, so that’s nice. One of these days I’ll get back across the pond!
19. Library of Congress. I thought this would still be there, but it turns out Trump has converted it to a Topgolf with a KFC annex. I made you think that was true for a second, didn’t I? Yeah, I did!
20. Star Tours, Disney World. Gosh, do you think these are still going?

Wizard also has some tongue-in-cheek places for comics fans to avoid: Hell’s Kitchen, Central Park, Alan Moore’s beard, the blue area of the moon, Detroit, the top of the Brooklyn Bridge, Garth Ennis’s basement. Oh, those scamps! Overall, though, this is a pretty good nerd itinerary. I wonder how many people have done all 20!

On pages 66-70, Tom Palmer Jr. — Wizard‘s resident indie comics guy, or at least he used to be — goes out to Denver for a Star War Celebration weekend. Why they held it in Denver at the beginning of May, when the weather probably wouldn’t be great, is beyond me, but, it turns out, the weather wasn’t great! I know, shocking! The report is fine, but Palmer seems to have more contempt for Star Wars and its fans than you might expect, which makes me wonder if he was the best person to send even though it is claimed he’s a big fan. Weird. He does note that Ray Park is the most popular person at the convention. Park hasn’t done much since his brief moment in the sun in 1999-2000, but I guess he had a good time with it for a little bit.

Wizard then casts … a Young Justice movie! Dang, they even have Joss Whedon writing and Doug Liman directing, that’s how together they are! Let’s take a look. Tobey Maguire is Tim Drake. Maguire was 23 at the time, so perhaps a bit old for the part, but that didn’t stop him from playing a high schooler a few years later in Spider-Man! I think this is a pretty good choice, actually, as we know he can pull off the whole superhero thing. They get Seth Green as Impulse, which is a pretty excellent choice. For Arrowette (really?), they Sarah Michelle Gellar, which is perfectly fine with me. Selma Blair is their choice for Wonder Girl, which works pretty well for me — Blair was always kind of an underrated actor. Wizard points out that she’s a brunette when she’s in costume but really a blonde? Was that a thing? How weird. They give us Freddie Prinze Jr. as Superboy, which seems pretty solid. As Red Tornado, they cast Ed Harris, which seems all right. Harris was 48 or so at the time, and while he gave off an old man vibe even then (he kind of always has, even back in Coma, when he was in his late 20s), he would have made it work. There’s a character called “The Secret” whom I’ve never heard of (I’ve never read Young Justice), but that’s all right, because Wizard casts Meredith Monroe, whom I’ve never heard of! It all works out! She was on Dawson’s Creek at the time, which I didn’t watch, but having checked out her CV, I have seen her in some things. In the category of “We cast people who look like the characters,” they have Malcolm McDowell as Max Mercury, which I don’t mind at all because McDowell is usually awesome. Because Wizard loves them some wrestlers, they cast Kevin Nash as Rip Roar. Wait — Rip Roar is a New God with four arms? What fresh hell is this? Nash is, weirdly enough, a Democrat, and he’s a big gay rights supporter, and he plans to donate his brain for CTE research after his death. So that’s cool. Finally, there’s a little kid named Bedlam, and Wizard puts Jack Johnson II in that role. Johnson was Will Robinson in the Lost in Space movie, and he didn’t do much after that. I guess he would have been fine. I know the main cast is just a who’s who of hot fin de siècle actors, but Wizard still did a pretty good job with it!

Moving on, Wizard has movie news! Man, there’s a lot of it, so let’s hit the highlights. First up is Batman. Of course — after Joel Schumacher wrecked it, the franchise became the Great White Whale! There was a script, featuring the Scarecrow as the main villain (I wonder if Nolan put Cillian Murphy in his movies because of that?), while Schumacher had said he wanted to do a “Year One” style movie, with a younger Bruce Wayne. He wanted to cast James van der Beek, didn’t he?!?!? Wizard notes that there will be a new movie, but it might take a little bit. And it did! In other news, Jeph Loeb and Joe Madureira had done a screenplay draft for something called Blast. That never took off. Pre-production had begun on a Bone movie, which also never happened. Joss Whedon had been talking about putting Buffy the Vampire Slayer in movies, but that never happened, either. Blade 2 was moving forward, and Wizard got the general gist right, although they wondered if Morbius was in it, even though writer David Goyer said he wasn’t. What do you know — the writer was right! There was talk about a Danger Girl movie, but it seems like Charlie’s Angels took all the “hot-girls-kicking-ass” energy in Hollywood at that time! There’s nothing going on with Daredevil, Wizard tells us. They have a brief about Dogma, which is not a comic book movie, but what’s interesting here is that they mention that the Weinsteins bought the film from Disney (which owned Miramax at the time) so they could distribute it, as its controversial subject matter and presence of a “golden calf” that might have reminded Disney execs of Mickey Mouse might have scared them off. This seemed innocuous at the time, but of course, after the truth about Harvey came out, this seemingly magnanimous gesture turned into a rights clusterfuck which has only recently been resolved. Dogma deserved better — it’s a pretty darned good flick. Wizard didn’t have much news about the second Matrix movie, but they did note that Keanu wanted his band, Dogstar, featured on the soundtrack to the sequel. That’s pretty funny. It does not appear that he got his wish. There’s a short thing about Doom, which didn’t show up until 2005. McFarlane was involved at this time, but I don’t know if he was later. Sam Hamm was working on a Fantastic Four script, but “reports” said it would still cost over $100 million to make. This was back-burnered for a while, as we know! Michael Turner was working on an animated Fathom, but it never saw the light of day. McFarlane wanted to make Spawn 2, but … yeah, you know the drill. Final Fantasy was in production, with Wizard noting it would come out in summer 2001 … which is when it came out! For its time, it’s neat, but the uncanny valley effect hits you hard. Still, it’s kind of like Shatter back in the 1980s — neat for what it is, even if the flaws are obvious. Green Lantern “remains undeveloped,” and given what we eventually got, maybe it should have stayed that way! Meanwhile, over in Spider-Man land, Sony got the rights to make a movie, with consequences that are still being felt today, but James Cameron was no longer interested in it. A rumor had Sony approaching the Wachowskis about it, but we know that never got off the ground. Apparently, Freddie Prinze Jr. really wanted the role. No mention is made of Maguire! There wasn’t movement on the Hulk front, nor on the Iron Man scene, although apparently a script had been floating around in which our hero fights M.O.D.O.K., which, wow, especially back then (it wasn’t much better now, but back then it would have been something). The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen production was moving along, with Fox wanting to make it a tentpole movie. If only they could have looked into their crystal ball and seen that they actually drove an icon into retirement, maybe they would have done things differently (to be fair, I don’t think the movie is that bad, but it could have — and should have — been a lot better). Kevin Smith was keen to write a Mage movie, but that never happened. Liefeld had been fired off The Mark, the property he specifically designed, it seems, for Will Smith, and the movie, of course, never got made. So sad! Wizard had some hopes for Mystery Men, which was coming out in a few months, but the movie didn’t really set the world on fire, even though I dig it quite a lot. Preacher was moving along, but it must have hit some snag, because it took a long time for it to show up, and that was on television. Wizard notes that in the next Star Wars movie, we might see the Clone Wars, which … hey, we did! They mention that Jake Lloyd won’t be back (because of the time gap), so I think Lucas should hire some sucky actor who talks about sand a lot and looks like he might kill a lot of children. That would work! There was a lot about the recent history of Superman, but no new movement on that front. Tia Carrere was supposed to be doing a Shi movie, and everyone was confident it would appear … but it didn’t. Fox still held the rights to Silver Surfer, but nothing was going on with it. Oh dear. There was noise about a new Star Trek movie, but nothing concrete — Nemesis didn’t show up until 2002. James Cameron was kind-of, sort-of attached to Terminator 3, but there seemed to be a lot of hoops to jump through. Wizard wonders about Linda Hamilton, who, of course, was not in it. The movie came out in 2003 with no involvement from Cameron, and … it didn’t do great. I kind of like it, though, and I appreciate that they took it to its logical extreme. I do like that Wizard mentioned that Schwarzeneggar wasn’t getting any younger, as he was back in a Terminator movie in 2015, when he was 68. Casting was underway on X-Men, as Wizard only knew that McKellan was playing Magneto and Stewart was in final negotiations to play Xavier (although the rumor mill had spat out Tyler Mane’s name). Luke Wilson as Cyclops and Gina Gershon as Mystique were the rumors, according to Wizard. Denise Richards was being “targeted” to play Lara Croft, probably based on her stellar work as a [checks notes] 28-year-old hot nuclear physicist in The World is Not Enough (which hadn’t been released yet, but was in the middle of filming). I’m not a huge fan of Angelina Jolie, but she was better as Croft. There wasn’t much about the V for Vendetta movie, and it did not show up until 2005. Also nothing new on Wonder Woman, so there’s that. There were some sidebars about animated movies (Iron Giant! Princess Mononoke!) and some less comics-related movies, but this has gone on long enough, so let’s move on!

Jim Calafiore, sporting a sweet mullet, is back for “Basic Training,” Wizard‘s art tutorial that is always pretty cool. He’s writing (and drawing) about perspective, and it’s pretty useful. Here’s something that’s always weirded me out about perspective: Why did it take artists so long to use it? I mean, if you’re an artist in ancient Egypt or something, you could certainly see that things farther away looked smaller, yet artists didn’t incorporate it until the Renaissance. What the heck, artists? Why weren’t you using this great tool? I know in histories of the Renaissance they mention artists beginning to use perspective, but has anyone ever delved into why it took them so long? Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

For the drawing contest on pages 90-91, Wizard challenged readers to “create the most terrifying vampire the world has never seen.” The winner is excellent, but frankly, all the featured drawings are pretty keen:

In the toy section, Wizard asks the tough question: “Can anything stand up to the Star Wars juggernaut this summer?” Probably not, they admit, but “odds are the Will Smith action flick ‘Wild Wild West’ will give ‘Episode 1’ a run for its money.” Um … no. Still, there were toys that you definitely needed to have!

I usually skip the “Market Watch” section, because I just don’t care how back issues were doing on the secondary market, but this month, Wizard realizes (as they periodically do) that they know what they’re talking about when it comes to the business of comics and gives us an article about prices. They note that back in the day, distributors would simply pull various amounts of different books and send them to newsstand retailers. Which is weird. But by 1999, of course, things had changed. According to Wizard, the general rule is: the better a title sells, the lower the price. Ah, would that were still the case! However, Wizard points out, in the 1999 market, things are confuzzled, as there were different formats and audience fragmentation. Bob Wayne, vice president for direct sales at DC, said that to outsiders, the way they make decisions about pricing would be impossible to discern. DC had a new Titans ongoing, which came after the previous iteration “floundered” and lasted only 24 issues. It was a low seller, so DC priced it “high” at $2.50, but it was still selling well. Marvel was generally sticking at $1.99 for the time, but the Marvel Knights books were at $2.50, because Joey Q. and Jimmy P. wanted a nicer format. Marvel also bumps the price on limited series, so Inhumans cost more than Black Panther. They also note that DC might be higher on single issues, but they’re consistently lower on collected editions. This is still the case, which is nice for a trade-waiter like me. Marvel tended to price their trades higer. According to Wizard, it was because DC “massively overprints its collected editions, generating overstock.” They do this to drop the per-unit price, but profits come more slowly. Marvel, on the other hand, is interested in immediate returns on the collections, so they print exactly to order, causing the per-unit price to rise. It’s a pretty interesting brief article, and as usual, it vexes me that stuff like this from Wizard is usually buried somewhere while they’re highlighting who would win in a fight between Iron Man and Green Lantern, as they do in this issue (Iron Man, in case you’re wondering).

The Top Ten Creators is goofy, as Wizard “Pokémons” them:

You’ll notice the “buried treasure” is the first appearance of Ki-Adi-Mundi. Apparently, this dude gets a lot of hate on yonder internets. I’m not a big enough Star Wars fan to care. It’s been a bit since I checked in on the top back issues, but they’re kind of interesting. Pokémon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu #1 was their #1, followed by What If …? #105 (first appearance of Spider-Girl), Earth X #1, Undertaker #1, Shadow of the Bat #83 (first appearance of Cassandra Cain), Mutant X #1, Tom Strong #1, Dawn: Return of the Goddess #1, Black Widow #1 (the Grayson/Jones joint), and Aria #1. Six of them hadn’t been on the list the previous month, so that’s some nice turnover. And hey, let’s take a look at the charts from 5 years earlier! Gosh, that’s a lot of Zero Hour:

Way in the back (page 184 this month), Wizard has listings for conventions around the country. I hadn’t gotten the right ones, I guess, because this is the first time I’ve gotten one around the San Diego con, and it’s listed this month. It’s worth checking out the (partial) guest list: Jill Thompson, Larry Gonick, Art Spiegelman, Neil Gaiman, Mike Mignola, Steranko, Arnold Drake, Samuel R. Delany, Jerry Robinson, Mark Evanier, Scott Shaw!, Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, Dave Stevens, Jim Starlin, Barry Windsor-Smith, Will Eisner, Bill Mumy and Miguel Ferrer, Max Allan Collins, and Steve Leialoha. Greg Hatcher always talked about trying to see the pioneers of the industry before they died, and man, Robinson and Eisner and Drake at the same con would have been fun. Of course, some of these dudes got too big and famous to go to cons any more, but it’s worth mentioning that Dini was at the Phoenix convention a few weeks ago. He’s still out fighting the good fight!

On the final page, Wizard took us back in time 26 years earlier and highlighted the death of Gwen Stacy and the Green Goblin. Greg H. has pointed out how badly this hit him, and apparently, he wasn’t alone! It’s hard to believe these days how big a moment this was, because death in comics means nothing now, but I imagine it must have been something. Also in July 1973, Live and Let Die came out, Maude was controversial, and “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” topped the charts. Good times!

As always, we can’t leave an issue of Wizard behind without checking out some advertisements. I know I already showed one, but let’s take a look at some more, including (but not limited to) that glorious double-page ad for Awesome Entertainment at Wizard World Chicago (what, Ian Churchill AND Cathy Christian?!?!?) and not one, but two new comics from Tony Daniel! And a Kid Rock sighting? Everything is coming up roses in Wizard advertising!

A final note: Back when I checked out Wizard #79, I noted that the magazine ran a contest for a double date in New York with Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner. I wondered what happened with that, and as it turns out, Palmiotti and Conner were at the Phoenix convention (Phoenix Fan Fusion, officially, because why be normal?) a few weeks ago, so I asked them about it. Palmiotti told me that they never went on the date — he wasn’t sure if Wizard canceled it for some reason, because I imagine someone tried to win it — but he said it never happened. He said he and Joey Q. did go out bowling with a couple of Wizard contest winners, but he and Conner never got a double date. I know it was bugging all of you who read that previous post! This is the kind of hard-hitting journalism you get at the Atomic Junk Shop!!!!

So that’s it for this month. Thanks for reading, everyone! Have a great day!