RIP Wizard Magazine
Updated 1/25 with link in last paragraph
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So after nearly 20 years, Wizard Magazine (and sister magazine Toyfare) have ceased publication, basically falling victim to the internet. Though Wizard never - as far as I can remember - cover-featured the Legion, they have been featured from time to time. My Wizard collection is sadly lacking, so I don't even own any of the issues on my checklist (which is also incomplete - damn this procrastination!). I've got issues 19, 59, 67, and 208 on the list. What else am I missing?
In 1993, when the "Legionnaires" title was starting up, there was a trading card promotion with it for the new Cosmic Teams set. The #00 Catspaw was bagged with the March/April issue of Comics Buyers' Guide Price Guide, while the #000 card, Dragonmage, was bagged with Wizard #19. The Computo card, promo #0000, was bagged with "Legionnaires" #1. A fourth card, P1 with Apparition, was given out at conventions that year. No, there doesn't seem to have been a #0 card, go figure.
My old checklist shows that there was some sort of appearances in issue 59, but I have no idea what was in there (and I haven't been able to find a copy for download).
Issue 67 had a Reboot Legion casting call. Some of the young TV and movie actors from this 1993 casting call turned out to have pretty good careers, such as Leonardo di Caprio (their choice for Livewire), Claire Danes (Spark), and Natalie Portman (Shrinking Violet). Even Wil Wheaton got a nomination, as Chameleon.
A couple years ago, in preparation for the Legion episode of "Smallville", Wizard interviewed Geoff Johns (who wrote the episode).
Maybe you never noticed the change in tone, but others did – after not doing any form of interview with the magazine in 224 issues and countless specials, Paul Levitz sat down with me for almost an hour to talk about the Legion of Super-Heroes, and the magazine ended up running a six-page spread on the Levitz Era of Legion, something that would have never happened in the past, both in regards to the subjects the magazine covered as well as the subject interviewed.
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2 comments:
Apparently around 225 there's a 6 page piece on the Levitz Legion, resulting from an hour's talk with Paul (225 is a guess; the article on Bleeding Cool where I'm getting this from says something like "After 224 issues where he'd not talked to us..." about Paul).
Really appreciate the scans. This is the kind of unique insight into the Legion that makes this a great blog - thanks!
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