Comic Books Are Dying in November 1995 -- Wizard 51

[@deecee881]

Hey! That's my "Maxx on a toilet" envelope art! (It's really just one of those Isz things, but I see the potty resemblance).

[@lhooq27]

“In the midst of all the feces…” This about sums up the industry at the time.

[@hairpat7]

"FOR BETTER OR WORSE" is spot on!!!!

[@davidc1664]

That Daredevil run Ed’s thinking of was Karl Kesel & Cary Nord

[@CartoonistKayfabe]

Yes! You’re right! My bad. -Ed

[@vizsla826]

There was a Canadian newspaper strip called For Better Or For Worse I remember catching episodes of the animated version sometimes on TV

[@russellharrell2747]

I think it was the only comic strip that had the characters age. The kids grew up and had kids of their own.

[@igouge]

At last! The only issue I actually bought. Couldn’t remember why til you showed that Maxx insert.

[@snarferyasmr3739]

The Maxx kept comics alive during this period for me.

[@markriedel1977]

Maxx was one of the few things that interested me from Image as the 90s went on

[@anthonythomasexperience]

I was collecting comics during the Wizard area. I collected all the Wizard magazine starting with issue #1. They are the reason why I bought certain issues of comics and why I was a fan of a artist or writer. They where the People magazine of the comic book industry. I miss that magazine 🤩

[@dchisholm]

I still just love these Wizard episodes--I listen while I'm making pages so it's nice to have these long videos even though I'm sure the shorter-form vids are more profitable for CK

[@snogrog]

Pretty sure Batman: Ghosts was actually the THIRD Loeb/Sale Batman Halloween collaboration and was the last one before they did The Long Halloween.

[@LiersonMorais]

Awesome video, guys. But it's funny to see the "Avengers pool party" article since at this time, Heroes Reborn was in motion so everything ended up being moot. And maybe the reason there were no artists is that most of them were not from the USA (except Captain America's Ron Garney), and they were interchangeable.

[@Therealmrmeow]

Oh hello Wizard my old friend!

[@WhenWeTeamUp]

This was my firsy wizard, i was 10, and I had only read non consecutive Marvel books from a spinner rack, and a random Atom and Superboy comic. I obviously knew Batman and Superman by name only, and when i found out the scope of just how many comics existed, i was shook.

[@jeremydawe341]

Alan Moore did script an issue of Maxx. It was issue 21, starting off a new story with Sara as an adult.

[@randywhitehair5403]

The Book of Ballads and Sagas ended up running 4 issues. I picked them up back in the day at Eide's and got them all signed by Mr. Vess at the Pittsburgh Comic Con in the early 90s. He was incredibly nice. In addition to Jeff Smith, Neil Gaiman also collaborated on this. I'm pretty sure the copies are available cheaply online. Also, there was a hardcover collection published more recently with some extra material.

[@TheRickHoward]

One guy who has some great Bill Sienkiewicz art stories is Carl Potts. We talked for about 10 minutes just about Bill at the last HeroesCon.

[@jeffnicholas6342]

My interest in comics waxes and wanes over the years, but I’m glad y’all make these videos! They always get me up and out to the comics shop just to browse and buy!! Thanks y’all

[@neondharma]

"HAVE FUN AT YOUR POOL PARTY...CAUSE ITS DONE"

[@TerryParr]

I ain't gonna lie... I wish you would have talked about that Avengelne article. Lol.

[@andyburk8771]

Ed layin down the Lawrence Tierney, Pulp Fiction inspired smackdown Kayfabe style on the Pool Party. Laughin' so hard!

[@erikwirfs-brock2432]

So funny, and then the ten pages of horrendous Marvel Ultraverse promos

[@D_Fyre]

Yeah, I came to the comments to see if anyone else was talking about this lol.

[@miamikaos5958]

I remember being fanatical about Elfquest as a kid in HS of Art & Design, but i can't remember when / why I stopped collecting.

[@dyingbreed5386]

6:45 I think I still have that Maxx issue 1/2 floating around somewhere.

[@jovandjuric9694]

Will there be an episode about Concrete? (Maybe there's already been one but I missed it.)

[@snarferyasmr3739]

I bought those issues of ultraforce from a dollar bin.... and they went right back in.

[@portland-182]

Some of the early Ultraverse books were really quite good. Did Marvel buy them to as a spoiler to prevent DC buying them, or just to get hold of the digital color technology and expertise?

[@johnpenguinthe3rd13]

From what I remember reading long ago, it was BOTH. Getting that digital color tech was a huge reason why Marvel wanted Malibu (which includes Ultraverse). However, preventing DC from buying Malibu (Ultraverse and all of Malibu's other imprints) was the other huge reason. Malibu wasn't going to be able to sustain themselves and someone was going to buy them. If Marvel didn't, it would have been DC. Honestly, I think DC would have handled the Ultraverse comics a lot better (I think the line would have lasted longer and the characters would at least still pop up during the bigger crossovers like Death Metal, Dark Crisis, etc, unlike Marvel where Ultraverse got sabatoged by some screwed up editorial shenanigans and then permanently put away in a vault by Marvel.

[@YakBat]

I was so excited to visit my dad for the Holidays as I would have a chance to go through my comic collection and more importantly relive awesome childhood memories by following along with my issues of Wizard. His bastard tenet threw 90% of it out as trash.Turns out, about 5 years ago he went into my childhood room and decided to tidy up and throw away anything I wouldn't need. No one asked him to and asshat never told anyone. Great way to spend my first Christmas at home in over 10 years. Oh my entire Preacher run was used as fuel during a power outage one winter. We threw him out on Christmas Eve.

[@DrLynch2009]

The book of Ballads & Sagas come out that same year but Vess only did four issues.

[@zubesultana]

Square Eyes by Anna Mill (2018) is a great piece of modern cyberpunk, gorgeous artwork, very topical with its themes of our real vs digital selves.

[@the_flushjackson]

I guess we won't be seeing a Cartoonist Kayfabe pool party anytime soon 😂

[@drawrobot]

Oh man, by ‘95 I had dropped Wizard early on and started digging into the Comics Journal. Going back and forth between Central City comics and the Ogre. Monkey’s Retreat was a zine haven but I think it was close to the time it closed at their original location.

[@rebeccapeters295]

Oh I so wanted the tracing paper on the cover what’s up with the abs and connect the Brest to the abs behind the arm oh boy pleaseput on the socials

[@justin8889]

Industrial Gothic is McKeever's true masterpiece. Like Paul Popes 100% he is drawing from his life into a fantastical narrative. Such a shame there is no good collection. Definitely worth looking at it again. I got this this Wizard for the Maxx, the only sort-of mainstream US comic I followed at the time. An insight into a weird world.

[@patrickphillips1720]

Vess put out a new HC volume of Ballads and Sagas a few years ago through Titan. It's a nice package, and doesn't have the bad scanning of a lot of Titan reprint productions-- cough, cough, Druillet translations.

[@ValadeCartoonist]

In regards to the Charles Vess Ballads & Sagas, I have issue 1 of that series (may have been my first Vess come to think of it), so it at least got started. Not sure how many issues made it to print though.

[@kingVibe111]

I love this Magneto look. I know it doesn’t hold up but I thought the helmet was awesome. Looking back the metal diaper was pretty silly.

[@kenpowers01]

You guys are right to hate on Tekno Comics, but Teknophage issues 1-6 are written by Rick Veitch, with art by Brian Talbot & Angus McKie. They have Veitch's special sauce and are worth scooping up.

[@billofdoom]

Love seeing the old games workshop ad I had that warhammer 40k box set

[@D_Fyre]

To be fair, one of Abnett and Lanning is also an artist. Not that he was at the pool party for that status, though.

[@philiparsenault1043]

Loeb and Sale did two Batman Halloween specials before Ghosts

[@johnlittle8452]

Magic is STILL undeniable.

[@rocket69218]

Yeah Manga video and 'manga' comics were the same company (manga entertainment ltd) they were a UK company. They distributed the first easily available anime videos in the UK.

[@chelseastratton7072]

The Ballads books did come out and are collected On top of that they are excellent

[@markriedel1977]

I remember reading X-Books in the 90s, that crossover with Avengers, Bloodlines, I was like, ugh, I really disliked the Avengers as a teen, felt very old fashioned and a bit too establishment and very stale to me, same thing for F4, my opinion did not change when the Image guys came in to save the day (and the bloom was definitely off those guys by that time anyway)

[@FancyFranklin138]

Hell yeah Patty's Paperback & Comics.

[@geekxilladennismagnant4292]

I took a 2 or 3 year break from comics at Thai point

[@MS-ij1tq]

Stray Bullets for sure!

[@justingartside3009]

had that