What Was Up With ‘Wizard,’ #3: January 1997

We’re back with another check-in with Wizard magazine, this time #65, the “year-end spectacular” according to that very 1996 Kevin Lau cover. Look at that chest! Look at those shoulder pads! Look at those … ears? Whoo-hoo!

Garb Shamus’s publisher letter isn’t terribly interesting this time around, so let’s get right to the letters on pages 8-16! The first is from a dude who is really offended by Jim McLauchlin, who answers the letters. The reason for his anger is so funny, given the future course of human history. Apparently, in issue #61, someone sent in a picture of themselves with a Spider-Man tattoo on his shoulder and asked McLauchlin who the artist was. McLauchlin, apparently, told the tattooed guy to “get a dose of common sense,” because McLauchlin, it seems, does not think tattoos are something people should be getting, and he brings up getting hepatitis. The letter-writer notes that he himself has four tattoos, and they have a long tradition, and perhaps McLauchlin should “stick to something you are good at, like replying to letters, and keep your nose out of things that you have no idea about!” Phew! McLauchlin replies that he got a “flood” of letters from people defending their tattoos. He’s still a bit snide about it, as he writes that “in the interest of fairness,” he decided to let a tattooed comics creator have their say, and then he writes, “Ever try to find a tattooed comic writer or artist? It ain’t easy.” From today’s perspective, that’s hilarious. He did find one — the delightful Anina Bennett, co-creator (with her husband) of Heartbreakers, plus some other fun comics. Bennett lets him know that he’s being an ass, and McLauchlin actually does write that if you want to get a tattoo, knock yourself out. It just all feels so quaint!

Another letter-writer suggest some creative teams for various books, and Wizard says he listed over 30 of them, of which they reproduce just a few. This guy knows what’s what, I’ll tell you that much:

It’s another indication of the pre-internet years (I know it was around in 1996, but let’s call it the ur-internet, because it certainly wasn’t what we have today) that McLauchlin didn’t know if Graham Ingels was still alive. Sadly, he was not, having gone to his eternal reward in 1991. How do I know that? THE INTERNET, GUARDIAN OF ALL THAT’S GOOD AND HOLY IN THE WORLD!!!! Another letter-writer, going off the suggestion by Wizard that novelists should write comics (he calls it a prediction, while McLauchlin calls it a “wish”), lists some novelists he thinks should write comics: Grisham for Daredevil (the lawyer thing, of course)(I’ve only read one Grisham book in my life and found it crappy, so I can’t really endorse this, although maybe he would work on comics better than in prose?); Clancy for Captain America (a bit jingoistic, but not bad); Anne Rice for Vampirella (sure, why not?); Crichton for X-Men (honestly, I think Crichton would have killed on X-Men); Koontz for Spawn (mainly because Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms), King for Spider-Man (which, maybe?). I … don’t hate these?

A person who I can only assume is younger than … 20, maybe, writes in about the “Super Friends,” which he’s been watching on Cartoon Network. He wonders who the heck Firestorm, Samurai, Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, and El Dorado are. I mean, it’s not the worst question, especially as most of them were created solely for the show, but it does seem like someone who was around when the show first aired would have known that already. Another writer asked (somewhat sadly, I think) if comics will ever get cheaper. Oh, my poor lost soul. He does write, “I’m surprised they haven’t tried printing comics on sheets of gold and selling them for 50 bucks a pop,” to which McLauchlin replies … “Uh, they have.” Apparently, Marvel printed the two big Onslaught comics as special editions with 22-karat gold-coated covers, retailing at about $75. Jeebus, Marvel, and you wonder why you went bankrupt. Comics in the Nineties, everyone!

The art on the envelopes wasn’t that great this month, so let’s move on!

On page 21, DC announced The Kingdom, an ongoing spinning out of Kingdom Come. Waid and Ross would return (Ross as cover artist and advisor), with Gene Ha — specifically chosen by Ross — as the interior artist. This fell apart for some reason, but both Waid and Ross got to do their thing in different places, so that was nice for them. Elliot S! Maggin (can I still use the exclamation point, ’cause I dig it) was writing the novelization of KC. I wonder if that was any good.

More announcements: Hellboy was going to guest-star in Savage Dragon, which was nice. Larsen was drawing it, but I think it would have been neat if Mignola drew only Hellboy, with Larsen’s work fitting around him. That would have been neat. Scott McCloud’s The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln got a mention. An Azrael/Ash crossover was getting pushed back. I don’t know if it ever came out? There was an article on Batman/Deadman: Death and Glory by James Robinson and John Estes. I’m not sure why I never got this! Matt Wagner was moving Mage to Image … and it still took him a hella long time to finish it!

Wizard had a poll on page 26 about the “Heroes Reborn” books. Fantastic Four was the favorite, with 57% of the vote. Captain America was the most disappointing, with 49% — Wizard points out that Marvel killed the Waid/Garney run to give it to Liefeld, which pissed people off. 92% of the respondents did not want the “Heroes Reborn” universe to supersede the Marvel U. Even the Marvel readers knew Lee and Liefeld would get bored with their toys!

Wizard always had a love affair with Stephen Platt (I mean, how could you not?), so on page 28, they have a “Where Are They Now?” feature on him, even though, I mean, he hadn’t gone anywhere, he just wasn’t as hot as he had been a few years earlier. You could do that today (even though he’s around and drawing, but nowhere near at the level he was back then), but in 1996, it seemed premature.

On pages 32-33, Wizard enlists Frank Cho to write about the Small Press Expo. Cho, perhaps unsurprisingly, comes off as a douchebag, which means I guess he comes by his current douchebaggery honestly, at least? I do like his quoting Evan Dorkin: “Everything is funnier with monkeys.” Dorkin speaks the truth!

Page 34 has two Image announcements: Silvestri returning to the company and Liefeld suing it. Oh dear. On the next page, McFarlane tears Liefeld a new one, and his final answers resonates across the decades: “I think that’s something that we need to make clear. I will quit Image Comics … I will quit this industry … before I let that kid back into Image. You can put that in big bold letters. Over my dead body will that kid come back to Image Comics.” Tell us how you really feel, Todd!!!!

Craig Shutt has an article about Karl Kesel taking over Daredevil, which is a fairly well-regarded run on the book (so, of course, Marvel killed it so Kevin Smith could slaughter Karen Page). It’s a pretty good article — Kesel has a lot of thoughts about Daredevil and what he can do and who he is, and he seems able to get that into the book. I assume sales weren’t too good as the run went along, which is why Marvel killed it, but this is still a pretty good run, at least the few issues I’ve read of it.

On page 46, Wizard has an article about breaking into comics. It’s actually very informative, as they interview several comics pros about it, including Bob Harras (who doesn’t give any advice on how to avoid bankruptcy) and Denny O’Neil. A lot of it is kind of self-explanatory, but it’s neat to see it all laid out in a few pages.

Then we get a casting call, which, as you know, I love. Wizard casts the Savage Dragon movie, because why not? Because they apparently want this movie to crash harder than your TRS-80 back in 1984, they cast Brian Motherfucking Bosworth as the Dragon. Oh yes, that will work so well! With that excellent beginning, they cast Tyra Banks as Rapture, his girlfriend. Sure, why not? As Star, they cast Patrick Dempsey. Hey, an actual actor! Then they cast Halle Berry as Alex Wilde. For the two cops, Rita Medermade (really, Larsen?) and Frank Darling, they cast Farrah Forke and James McDaniel. They cast some rando from Baywatch, David Chokachi, as Mighty Man, and Bridget Fonda as Ann Stevens. I’m a big fan of Fonda, so sure! Another rando, Joe Lara (of Tarzan: The Epic Adventures), is their choice for Cyberface. For Overlord, they pick Robert Davi, who’s not a bad choice for a villain. Look, I don’t read Savage Dragon and never did, so I don’t know much about these characters, but man, if the Boz is your first choice, that movie is going to suuuuuccccckkkkk.

Scott Beatty has an article about Astro City … not the series, but the actual city, with its population, cultural facts, climate, and a map. It’s kind of cool, but also … a bit weird? Whatever, I love it. DC should do this for all of its fictional cities!

Next, we get an interview with Scott Lobdell, who was the big kahuna in the X-verse at the time. He was celebrating his first anniversary, and I’m not sure if he’s still married, but if he was a decade ago, he might have had to have some awkward conversations with his wife. So, yes, this is long before everyone found out that Lobdell is an asshat. It’s actually a pretty decent interview, and Lobdell is wearing this bomb-ass shirt, so there’s that:

On page 68, Wizard has an article about eight artists to look out for. It’s a bit depressing, not because the artists aren’t talented or because they’re very symbolic of mid-1990s comic book (although they are that). No, it’s depressing because three (3!!!) of the eight are dead. Michael Turner, Lee Moder, and Carlos Pacheco are all featured. Turner was 25 (he died at 37), Moder was 27 (he died at 53), and Pacheco was the old man of the group, at 33 (he died at 60). I mean, I know it’s been almost 30 years since this issue came out and things happen, but man, that sucks. Anyway, the artists to watch are: Turner, Jeffrey Moy, Steve Skroce, Jim Calafiore, Moder, Cary Nord, Ian Churchill (whom Wizard really loved, as they really flogged him as the Next Big Thing during these years), and Pacheco. I’m not sure any of these dudes, with the possible exception of Turner (for all the wrong reasons, but still), ever became superstars, but they did some nice work, I guess.

Tom Russo has a long article on pages 78-82 about how well DC is doing these days, mostly thanks to their writers (which, to be fair, were very good at the time) and how their revamps have mostly worked out (Kyle Rayner, Tim Drake, Conner Hawke) even though some haven’t. It’s a pretty good piece, and they contrast it nicely with Marvel’s attempts to revamp, which did not go as smoothly (the Spider-Clone and Teen Iron Man, for instance). They list the top ten DC superhero comics at the time, and it’s not a bad list: Hitman, Aztek, Aquaman, Robin, Impulse, Green Lantern, Legion of Super-Heroes, Legionnaires, Flash, and JLA. Hitman was early in its run, Aztek was in the middle of its brief run, Aquaman had moved past the first two years (the good issues) and was beginning its slow decline, and I’m not even sure if Morrison’s JLA had shipped its first issue when this hit the stands, but “Midsummer’s Nightmare” was out, I guess. The one that I’m surprised Wizard didn’t list is Starman, which was a few years in, and maybe The Spectre, although that’s not really a superhero comic. Come on, two Legion books and no room for Jack Knight? Anyway, as we know with hindsight (although it was somewhat obvious at the time), this was during DC’s “Post-Crisis Golden Age,” so it’s nice that Wizard recognized it!

On pages 86-100, Wizard has annotations for Kingdom Come. They’re very cool. Of course, I need to drag out my issues to really appreciate it, but I’m not going to do that! You can find annotations around, which is nice, but it’s pretty keen that Wizard did them.

As it’s the year-end issue, Wizard has some sneak peeks at upcoming storylines for 1997. Those should be fun! Some of the X-Men are heading to space, where Bishop and Deathbird decide they’re horny for each other and Cannonball gets into a fight with Gladiator. Meanwhile, other X-Men hang out with Shang-Chi. Later in the year, Xavier goes on trial for doing Onslaught-y things! Spider-Man will fight a new Black Tarantula, Electro, Chameleon and Jack O’Lantern, while Sensational Spider-Man will focus on Z-listers, which sounds fun. Ralph Macchio claimed that he was trying to get Stan Lee and John Romita Sr. together to do a Spider-Man thing, but I don’t know if they ever did. Peter David will send the Hulk to the Savage Land, which really rejuvenated the book, but he was not long for the Hulk-Universe, and some of the things they claim he has planned never came to fruition. Wizard also very briefly mentions that Thunderbolts is debuting, which, if they knew what was happening with it, they showed remarkable restraint in keeping it quiet! On the DC front, Batman is still doing his thing — 1997 was a bit quiet in terms of Big Events in the Bat-books, so they just kept on keeping on. Wizard claims that there are big things coming for Superman, but they’re kind of vague about it. I wasn’t reading Superman comics back then, so I don’t know what happened in ’97, although I know in ’98, we got Red Supes and Blue Supes, right? So their “inside scoop” is kind of dull. In Green Lantern, Kyle and Donna Troy are still doing their thing (the guy has to find some solace from his girlfriend becoming a meme!), and Jade was joining the cast, too, so good for her! Kevin Dooley, GL‘s editor, claimed that Kyle and Donna wouldn’t be getting married anytime soon, saying they might have to wait as long as Lois and Clark did. Oh, to be young and ambitious and think that Kyle Rayner will be an iconic character for 50 years! Waid is still writing Flash, and he was planning something for issue #123 as a homage to “Flash of Two Worlds,” as Wally thinks about moving away from Keystone City. So exciting! The Legion books were going to have a crossover and also celebrate 40 years of the Legion. Good for them! Moving to other publishers, McFarlane was wrapping up some plots from the early days of Spawn, while the movie was tentatively scheduled for an August release. I have no idea what the heck is going on in Gen¹³, as there’s … a 23-year-old with the body of an infant? What? There were plans for crossovers, though — with Spider-Man, Batman, and Generation X. I don’t remember any of those! Witchblade was doing its thing, and the “folks at Top Cow” wanted to “guard against oversaturating the market with too many Witchblade crossovers.” We wouldn’t want that! The regular series of Shi was ending, but there were crossovers and one-shots and a manga mini-series and then a new regular series planned. I don’t know how many of those saw print. There were big plans for Ash, too, but it does not appear they came to anything. So sad!

Then we get the “ten events that rocked the comic world in 1996.” How many of them rocked your world?!?!? “Heroes Reborn” is their first one, and then the Image news of the year — Silvestri leaving, Liefeld leaving, Silvestri coming back. Garth Ennis’s big year is another event, which is odd because, I mean, it’s not really an event. “Onslaught” was a big thing in ’96, of course, as was Kingdom Come. Self-publishing took a hit, as many creators moved their stuff to publishers, even if they were small ones. Clark Kent and Lois Lane got married, so that was nice. The Spider-Clone nonsense reached a head. Amalgam was a huge surprise hit. Wizard had a calendar of events at the bottom of these pages which I’m not going to get into, and they had some sidebars, too: Biggest Disappointments and Things They’d Like to See in 1997. The disappointments? Wolverine beating Lobo in Marvel vs. DC thanks to readers voting; Waid on X-Men; Waid/Garney off Captain America; Xavier as the “X-traitor”; bad comic book movies (The Crow: City of Angels, Barb Wire, The Phantom) … but they do hope that Batman and Robin will reverse the trend!; the death of Hal Jordan; Spawn’s … new face?; Wolverine still didn’t get his adamantium back; “Heroes Reborn” (I love how Wizard hypes things like crazy but then says they suck); Superman’s wedding (because Lois broke up with Clark, and then DC rushed to get them married). In Things They Want to See, they have: Getting rid of “Heroes Reborn” (done!); more Amalgam comics; continued improvement of the Spidey books (and they’re very against him being married, so they must have been happy when Joey Q killed it); self-contain the X-Men; no “event” specials (yeah, sorry, Wizard, that ship sailed); the Batman and Robin movie (they don’t say much about it, so they … just want to see it?); better characterization in superhero books (bwah-ha-ha-ha!!!!); villains should stay villains; “death to T & A schlock” (yes, Wizard actually wrote that); reader-friendly comics (meaning, first-timers should be able to follow along … yeah, it didn’t get better, Wizard!).

Moving on, Wizard checks in with movies and television news on pages 130-134. Kevin Smith was writing the Superman movie, and I’m sure when that came out, it was awesome. I know someone knows what happened with Smith’s Superman movie, but I don’t, and it’s kind of a bummer that it didn’t come out. Smith had also written a Six Million Dollar Man script. Another one that didn’t get made. Chris Columbus, meanwhile, was going to direct a Fantastic Four movie. That certainly didn’t work out. There was a Scud script moving around Hollywood, as well, and Too Much Coffee Man had been optioned, but that didn’t go anywhere. Steel had finished principal photography and was going to be released in the summer of 1997. Apparently Shaq took a meager salary to be in the movie, and Annabeth Gish and Richard Roundtree had already agreed to be a sequel! I wonder if they committed to the last movie in the epic trilogy, as I’m sure that got made! There’s also a brief mention of Wesley Snipes doing Blade and how production was about to start, and I still love how Wizard doesn’t attach much importance to it. I get it, but it’s fun how nobody had a ton of expectations for Blade.

Walter Simonson has a fun strip about sound effects on pages 138-143. It’s fascinating reading this stuff after the explosion of the internet, because back then, there really wasn’t so much reference material handy at your fingertips, so this short primer on how to create sound effects is very fun and helpful. How did we ever learn anything back then?!?!?!?

Wizard has a few pages about toys ‘n’ such, with DC superhero figurines designed by Hallmark and a Han Solo-in-carbonite life-sized model from FAO Schwarz for $1350. There’s also video game news, with Super Mario 64 (“probably the greatest video game ever created”) coming out. They also list a bunch of figures that have been produced specifically because Wizard readers asked for them and toy company people read Wizard (so they say). That’s kind of neat. The best action figure of 1996, according to Wizard, was the Light-Up Psylocke figure from Toy Biz. There she is!

On pages 158-159, we get homemade action figures. This Rogue — which is made from a mannequin, so it’s life-sized — won the grand prize. It’s pretty neat.

Wizard then turns its baleful eye to indie comics, which is always fun to see. They mention that Fantagraphics is going to be publishing new Ditko stuff. Kitchen Sink was planning more series of The Crow, as well as some new Spirit stuff by various creators. Sean McKeever was going to do The Waiting Place, which is a pretty good comic. As always, Wizard crammed a lot of weird stuff into not very many pages so they could get back to breathlessly reporting on what Rob Liefeld had for breakfast!

Let’s check out some reviews on pages 173-176! Greg Capullo was drawing Spawn at the time, which Wizard says is just a nice, solid book. The Incredible Hulk gets a bad review, which is fair, because Wizard checked in right when David’s run was its most unfocused, right after the Gary Frank era and right before the Adam Kubert era — David was trying to write a Hulk comic when Marvel was specifically fucking with the Hulk to appease Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld, and the results were fairly wonky. I can’t really disagree with Wizard‘s assessment, but the book rebounded nicely in 1997! Meanwhile, Chuck Dixon was writing Robin, and Wizard enjoyed the book quite a bit. Staz Johnson was the new artist, and they wanted him to develop a better artistic vision, plus they were annoyed by all the Bat-crossovers, but overall, they dug it. Finally, they really dig Martin Wagner’s Hepcats, which is nice. They do mention that it takes a long time for issues to come out, but it’s a small-time independent book — of course it does! I’ve never read Hepcats. I suppose I should at some point.

On pages 184-185, they have a nice article about Disney signing a distribution deal with Hayao Miyazaki. I don’t know how this ultimately worked out, but I do know I wouldn’t have seen Princess Mononoke (with the giant boar!!!) if it hadn’t been for this deal!

Once again, let’s check out Wizard‘s “hottest back issues”! Which ones do you own and can now sell to pay off your mortgage?!?!?!? Play along! Kingdom Come #1 was the hottest back issue. Witchblade #1, Onslaught: Marvel Universe, Preacher #1, The X-Files #1, Preacher #2, Fantastic Four #1 (not the real #1, the Jim Lee one), Witchblade #2, Hitman #1, and Onslaught: X-Men round out the top 10. I own 7 of them! Oh, I’m rich, RICH!!!!

Wizard, as they always do, lists the hottest writers and artists. Look at those pasty-faced fellows! Not a chick to be seen! They name Howard Porter as their up-and-coming creator, as you can see. Somewhere Tim Callahan’s head is exploding!

On pages 258-259 (I skipped ahead through the price guide, which is fascinating but very long), Wizard lists its top ten heroes and villains of the month. How do they determine them? Well, this word wasn’t really a thing in 1996, but it’s basically “vibes.” Coming in at #1 is Witchblade (is that actually the character’s name, because that’s dumb), followed by Wolverine, Spawn, Fairchild, Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, Dawn, X-Man, and Gambit. That’s a 1996 list if I ever saw one! Wizard did a lamest character of the month, too, and this one’s was Kite-Man. How dare they?!?!?

Denny O’Neil wrote a nice obituary for Mark Gruenwald on page 261, and then, to finish up, we get a page-long profile of Mark Hamill. That young man has quite a future, I would wager!

So that’s the super-sized year-end version of Wizard. Phew! Lots of good stuff, and so very mid-1990s you might find yourself wearing acid-washed jeans just by reading this recap post! Watch out! Next time, I think I have a much shorter issue to go through — I haven’t checked, but I do know I began to get Wizard a bit more regularly, so they’re not all going to be giant anniversary issues and such. We shall see! Come back next time, y’all, and we’ll see what fun comics stuff Wizard thinks we should know about!