That Old Captain America/Wizard Magazine Controversy

Warning: nothing new to see here. If you want timely observations, you'll need to check back at a later date (or, some would suggest, peruse a better site). This here be history.

I was looking over site stats and saw that Johanna over at Comics Worth Reading had linked to my article about the declining popularity of Newsarama. She mentioned how their doing away with forums irritated her for a reason other than what I was pointing out in my post: links to old 'Rama articles were now dead, since the forums had been wiped from existence.

After thanking her for the link in her comments section, it hit me: one of the few original articles I had done for Newsarama (not counting convention coverage) may have been lost to the ages. Googling it confirmed that it was one of the things that had all traces deleted off the 'Rama website. What a kick square to the nuts.

While I was able to dig up the original Word doc I sent for publishing, I'll never be able to locate the conversation it generated and the give and take. I know from my notes that it was the first interview Drew Seldin had given on the subject, even if it was one of the last to get posted on the sites. For instance, Rich Johnston had a brief bit published about it in his Lying in the Gutters over at CBR, but I had talked to him before that call took place, which is partially evidenced by the message not being quite so well-formed from Wizard yet. There are some similarities in answer, but the longer form of our discussion revealed some stumbling blocks.

As I conducted the whole interview on my own (from tracking down Seldin, to developing the questions and recording the phone conversation), never received any compensation and now the article is no longer even published on Newarama, I'm going to repost it here for posterity's sake.

Oh...and for the record? Drew Seldin was a pleasure to talk to. He's a great guy who had nothing to do with the decisions Wizard made, just was in the unenviable position of having to deal with the aftermath.

Original article (with "Newarama" now edited out) follows after the break.

(full article...)

Mike Norton: One Reason To Be At The Chicago Comicon

Mike Norton's a great guy, from all accounts. But his sketches at this year's Wizard World: Chicago?

Awesome!

It's the first thing that has made me wish I was there so far. I'd have loved to snag a sketch.

I Hate Press Releases

I sometimes share press releases here when there's something that interests me. It is a very small percentage of those releases that I share in a positive light. Most times, if I do anything with them, it is to quote a bit that just demonstrates how annoying the information contained within is.

This is one of those cases.

Wizard sent out a press release touting their continued partnership with Diamond. The partnership? Diamond distributing their stuff, like they do for so many other publishers. You know...nothing worth touting in a press release, really.

But contained in the release is this little gem:

Wizard’s Philadelphia Comic Con is scheduled for June 11-13, 2010 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Retailers will join with tens of thousands of fans to converge at Philadelphia Comic Con 2010 to celebrate what’s great in pop culture: Movies, Comics, Toys, Video Gaming, Games, TV, Anime, Manga, Horror, Wrestling, MMA, Original Art, Collectibles, and more!

Look, I get that casting a wider net for customers is smart. But when you're calling your event a "comic con" and can't even be bothered to pay continued lip service to that idea by saying "to celebrate what's great in comics" and give comics the top billing in all the crap you rattle off as being covered at the event, it is time to stop calling it a comic con.

Only Real Wizards Can Magically Make Mistakes Disappear!

As you can see in the press release below, Wizard Entertainment's CEO bought New England Comic Con. Apparently, it gets them into Boston in a big way.

You're shitting me, right? They already had a WIZARD WORLD BOSTON that they ran into the fucking dirt, but they want to laud this as a way to get into a market in a big way. It just shines a light on the fact that they fucked it up so bad before that they don't even want to acknowledge that it is their RE-ENTRY into the market, doesn't it?

You know, I shouldn't be surprised by this sort of thing coming from them...but when people won't learn from their mistakes, it is dumbfounding.

GAREB SHAMUS, WIZARD ENTERTAINMENT CEO, ACQUIRES NEW ENGLAND COMIC CON

Wizard World Comic Con continues Tour Expansion

New York, NY (November 20, 2009) - Gareb Shamus, CEO of New York based Wizard Entertainment, announces today that he has purchased New England Comic Con, in a move to further expand the Wizard World Comic Con tour.

"We've known Larry for many years, and his exceptional 35-year old New England Comic Con gets us into Boston in a big way. New England has a long legacy of cartoons and comics embedded in their history, making the fans there very appreciative of comics' impact on society and pop culture," said Shamus. "I'm excited to bring these discerning fans an even better Con experience and everything they expect from a Wizard run show."

Larry Harrison, owner of Harrison's Comics & Collectibles, and Jimmy Tournas, the former owners of New England Comic Con, will be intimately involved in the new show production to ensure fan favorite traditions are maintained.

"Working with Gareb is an awesome experience. The folks at Wizard World have a great sense of how to grow the show in a way that I've always wanted to see it flourish. This should be the best comic con the city of Boston has ever seen," said Harrison.

The New England Comic Con acquisition is the first of several Comic Con tour expansion announcements expected in the weeks ahead.

“We bring together more fans, in more cities than anyone, to celebrate their passion for pop-culture. We've had such a strong positive fan and industry reaction to our new show launches that expanding the tour just made sense," said Shamus.

New England Comic Con venue and dates will be announced soon.

About Gareb Shamus:
Gareb Shamus founded Wizard Entertainment in 1991. Today, Wizard Entertainment publishes consumer magazines Wizard, ToyFare, FunFare, and numerous books about pop-culture's top talent, comic books and toys. Gareb also produces a North American Comic Con tour.

Wizard World 2010 Comic Con Tour:
Toronto Comic Con, Direct Energy Centre, March 26-28, 2010
Anaheim Comic Con, Anaheim Convention Center, April 16-18, 2010
Philadelphia Comic Con, Philadelphia Convention Center June 11-13, 2010
Chicago Comic Con, Donald E. Stephens (Rosemont) Convention Center, August 12-15, 2010
Big Apple Comic Con, Pier 94, October 7-10, 2010
New England Comic Con, TBD

At What Point Will It Stop?

Putting a public figure into your story is one thing. You can argue for fair use and parody. Great.

But at what point do people realize a line is being crossed and a backlash start up?

Museum Quality, Eh?

Looks a little bit rough, to me. Of course, I think they may have limited their audience a bit by including the woodland creature green lantern.

Comic Conventions Might Not Be For Me Anymore

Wizard World Chicago closed up at 6pm. I could have sworn they were open later last year. They close at 7pm tomorrow.

There's something retarded about closing up at 6pm on Friday when you have your guest of honor's Q&A 3.5 hours after you close up your convention. How the hell does that make sense?

You have a panel full of top DC & Marvel creators answering questions from fans and just generally bullshitting. It started at 5pm and showed no signs of dying out on its own. Wizard closed the panel down, not because the room was needed, but...well...just because. Apparently, a Japanese ska band would be rehearsing next door and a Wizard rep said the crowd wouldn't have been able to hear anything from the panel shortly.

I can't personally understand why the Bendis Vs. Johns was a Friday panel rather than a Saturday one, but I'm sure there are some good reasons why it shook out that way. But lord...this tendency to put Japanese music acts as some big lure in what is supposed to be a comic book focused convention just bugs me. I'd like for something as special as the Bendis Vs. Johns panel to get treated better than that.

I Don't Hate To Do This Quite As Much...

Remember how I took Newsarama to task for someone over there taking a conference call interview and saying that Newsarama went in-depth with the stars? How they threw "Newsarama" in front of every question as if it had been theirs, when it certainly wasn't?

Cue CBR's Dark Knight interview with Christopher Nolan...

They managed to take it a step further. The front page says that "CBR's Andy Khouri goes in-depth with director Christopher Nolan". The interview has "CBR News along with other members of the press spoke with Christopher Nolan", but they then proceed to label the first question as theirs and continue on in a way that implies each question is theirs.

Some of the same answers are over on SuperHeroHype.com, with the questions paraphrased. Actually, there's a few parts where the answers diverge slightly, in ways that indicate one of them is supplying a quote that isn't actually a quote. Given that SHH uses XXX as a stand in for parts of their recording that were unintelligible, I'd lean towards it being CBR that has the iffy quotes. Then again, that could indicate more of a need by SHH to get the idea of the statement right, if not the exact words. Given that SHH seems to include even the less necessary words (including verbal crutches like "you know"), I'm still leaning strongly towards CBR being the one supplying answers as direct quotes but getting the verbiage wrong.

I never thought I'd say this, but Wizard actually got it right. When I googled one of the sentences of a Nolan answer, I found it in their coverage. But, instead of dressing it up to make the casual observer think it was a question and answer led by one of their people, they wrote an article peppered with quotes from the director (and others, as they seem to have "blown their load" by sneaking multiple interviews into it).

At the time I'm writing this, Newsarama hasn't posted their interviews on the set of Dark Knight. Their first part is about the costuming, which involved interviewing but I haven't checked elsewhere around the net to see if others framed theirs as their own interview. Troy Brownfield wrote his up as an article with quotes scattered through it like the Wizard article.

Wizard World Philly: Boy I'm Glad I Didn't Go!

Wizard's new tagline for the convention (if/)when it returns next year:

Wizard World Philadelphia: We're Stuck Between NYCC and Wizard World Chicago...Please Come & Pretend Anything Exciting Is Happening Here

Or at least that's what I think it will be. There's a lot of "wait and see" being shared at the con this year, with the answers more likely to be given at a WWC or SDCC. Anything not being saved for those was likely shared in NYCC.

J.G. Jones On Final Crisis: The pace picks up immediately with issue #3

Over on Newsarama's WWPhilly coverage:

A fan expressed some disappointment with the first issue of Final Crisis. In response both Jones and Sattler said “Don’t worry.” J.G. added that “The pace picks up immediately with issue #3. Grant structures his stories in such a specific way, and you will see why the first issue has so much set up. It all pays off!”

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is a 7 issue mini-series, right? And there's a month break after issue #3, right?

Major company events are supposed to have a bit of summer popcorn movie to them. There should be some manner of POP early on to grab the reader. Something. But there really isn't a POP in the first issue. It's quite possible that there isn't one in the second issue, if we're getting a "just you wait until #3!"

I'm sure there's some payoff in this mini, though (even if Grant hasn't had a spotless record on endings). I get that Grant is an artist, but company events tend to be weighted more toward the commerical aspect than the artistic angle. So you normally would want to get some SIZZLE into that first issue.

By the way: "don't worry"? Your customer expresses disappointment in the book and they're told "don't worry"? I'm hoping there was something not captured in the fan's question by the reporter. If not...that's a bit off as an answer.

Fun With Press Releases

WIZARD WORLD PHILADELPHIA SELLS OUT FLOOR!

The Pop Culture Extravaganza Is Packed With A Record-Breaking Number Of Exhibitors, Retailers and Creators.

Congers, NY (May 28, 2008) – Wizard World Philadelphia’s floor has sold out. All 301 exhibitor and retailer booths and 174 tables in Artist Alley have been taken, leading to 135,000 completely sold out square feet of floor space. Even though the floor is completely sold out, there is a first come first serve waiting list for those still itching to get in on the biggest Wizard World Philadelphia in history. To get on the waiting list, contact James Ross at 917-270-0121.

“With the show floor packed with retailers, attendees will have the best opportunity they’ve ever had to find and buy everything they’ve been looking for,” said Wizard Vice President of Business Development Stephen Shamus. “On top of that, the guest list is more robust than ever and offers a wide spectrum of talent from the worlds of sci-fi, toys, comic books, wrestling, and gaming.” Guests and events at Wizard World Philadelphia include Katee Sackhoff from “Battlestar Galactica,” guest of honor J.G. Jones, comic creators Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon and Ethan Van Sciver, the first annual ToyFare Hall of Fame Awards, toy sculpting lessons from the Shiflett Brothers, Robert Tonner and Clay Moore and wrestler Kevin Nash.

For tickets and more information about the 2008 Wizard World Philadelphia show and about registration for the 2009 Wizard World Philadelphia show, please visit www.wizardworld.com. The Wizard World comic convention is coming to Philadelphia from May 30th to June 1st.

Am I wrong or does it seem a little "special" to be bragging about a sellout that didn't occur until less than two days before the show?

Mike Choi: Voice Of Reason

Mike Choi comes with the logic that most fanboys always want to ignore when arguing against Wizard's practices (linked above).

Now, I'm all for being giddy about Wizard possibly going the way of the dinosaur if you project them selling their property as a sign of the end (with all sympathy to those that would be out of a job, naturally). But you can't blame Wizard for producing a magazine that people buy. It's like knocking Marvel for putting Wolverine in so many books when so many keep buying anything he shows up in (as Choi pointed out) or knocking DC for having so many books featuring Batman & Superman.

I said I'd be giddy for them to go, though, and that's definitely true. It's part the hope that whoever fills the void will be more like Comic Foundry (who Choi praises even in his defense of Wizard) and part because the fallout from Wizard disappearing would be damned interesting to observe.

• Where would the Big Two turn for print coverage of their events and major properties?
• Would CBR or Newsarama attempt to come out with a print publication?
• Would there even be an attempt to fill the void or would coverage just get that much more focus online?

I know I'll stay tuned to see how it all shakes out.

*SPOILERS* How I Know Marvel_b0y Is Viral Marketing (aka More Mr. Anonymous)

Update: People are linking to this blog to say that Mr. Anonymous says Marvel_b0y is viral marketing. He says no such thing. I believe that his information reinforces my stance that Marvel_b0y is a plant, but it isn't meant to represent his opinion at all.


So...Marvel_b0y is back for all of an hour and my source hits me back up again.

[01:01] Mr. Anonymous: he's back?
[01:06] SchwappOnline: Apparently so. But now he doesn't allow anonymous comments. Which is why I think even more that this is a Marvel run viral marketing campaign.
[01:07] SchwappOnline: You have to sign in with a Microsoft ID...making you a lot more trackable, IMO.
[01:07] Mr. Anonymous: yeah
[01:08] Mr. Anonymous: i apparently had one without knowing it
[01:09] SchwappOnline: don't we all?
[01:09] Mr. Anonymous: I guess if you have an Xbox, you automatically get one
[01:10] Mr. Anonymous: i'll keep that in mind and refrain from posting there again
[01:11] SchwappOnline: No hurt feelings if you decide to try to find a way to get comments in over there, but I'm still here when you need me
[01:11] Mr. Anonymous: i dont want to feed his ego
[01:11] Mr. Anonymous: or give marvel my IP
[01:11] Mr. Anonymous: depending on whether it's viral marketing or not
[01:12] Mr. Anonymous: here's the thing
[01:12] Mr. Anonymous: the 70's heroes aren't coming back
[01:12] SchwappOnline: LOL...really???
[01:12] SchwappOnline: that's just an April Fool's Joke?
[01:13] Mr. Anonymous: I guess
[01:13] Mr. Anonymous: it's misinformation
[01:13] Mr. Anonymous: marvel certainly wants the readers to think that the 70's heroes are back
[01:14] SchwappOnline: I hate to ask again...but...may I?
[01:14] Mr. Anonymous: Secret Invasion #1 opens with a Skrull ship crashing in the Savage Land
[01:14] Mr. Anonymous: yeah, these are more spoilers for #1
[01:14] SchwappOnline: so...I can go with the SI 1 spoilers and the 70s aren't returning?
[01:15] Mr. Anonymous: oh yes
[01:15] Mr. Anonymous: anything to discredit m_b
[01:15] Mr. Anonymous: assuming he's real
[01:15] SchwappOnline: gotcha
[01:16] Mr. Anonymous: so the skrull ship crashes in the savage land
[01:16] Mr. Anonymous: both teams of Avengers rush to get there
[01:16] Mr. Anonymous: Luke's team steals a Quinjet
[01:16] Mr. Anonymous: Tony's team follows
[01:16] Mr. Anonymous: so by the end of the issue, they've surrounded the ship
[01:17] Mr. Anonymous: they accuse eachother of being Skrulls
[01:17] Mr. Anonymous: meanwhile, Skrull-Jarvis uploads the computer virus
[01:18] Mr. Anonymous: and Iron Man has a seizure
[01:18] Mr. Anonymous: Luke Cage opens up the door to the ship
[01:18] Mr. Anonymous: and all the heroes stand in awe of...
[01:18] Mr. Anonymous: Page 33- 35
Double page spread
1- Wide across both pages. And 3/4's down. Close to full figure.
Out of the hatch comes an amazing group of marvel heroes circa the 1970's. In the glory of their Retro costume designs and younger days.
They come out, not to attack, but looking around. Wincing at the sunlight. Not sure where they are or how they got here.
Original Phoenix, Spidey with web pits, Iron Man with the nose armor, Luke Cage in satin shirt and tiara, original Ms. Marvel, Jewel, original Vision, classic Hawkeye, blue furry Beast, Sue Storm, original Wonder-man design, Mockingbird. Captain America, evil Emma Frost, and Wolverine in the Hulk 181 costume.

[01:19] Mr. Anonymous: Classic LukE Cage
Sweet Christmas!!
Classic Ms. MARVEL
Is this it??

Did we make it back to earth?
Classic Beast
Oh my stars and garters!!
Classic Spidey
Yeah, I was just about to say that... cuz...

I know who I am...
2- Wide across the bottom of the spread. The New Avengers have backed up to gather with the Mighty Avengers. United in their mouth opened shock.
The modern, darker, dirty versions of all the characters stare at their more innocent version of themselves in shock.
Classic SpiDEY
(off panel))
But who are you guys supposed to be exactly?

[01:20] SchwappOnline: Oh...so then the 70s characters do sort of return...but they could all be fakes meant to create doubt.
[01:20] Mr. Anonymous: yeah
[01:20] Mr. Anonymous: of the 70's heroes, the only one I think is real is Mockingbird
[01:21] Mr. Anonymous: the rest I'm 90% sure are really Skrulls
[01:21] Mr. Anonymous: for example, the "evil" Emma Frost
[01:22] Mr. Anonymous: she HAS to be a Skrull because Ellis is using her in his Astonishing X-Men run
[01:22] Mr. Anonymous: It's all a swerve

So...it seems like Marvel_b0y is just playing up the stuff Marvel wants you to think and get excited about in anticipation of Secret Invasion #1. Otherwise, he'd put it into a little more perspective than that.

Of course, Marvel_b0y could be legit and Mr. Anonymous could just be feeding me stuff to make people doubt him. Either way, Marvel winds up having engaged in dishonest viral marketing. But I'm partial to my source, whether I sink or swim. ;)