Broken Frontier

In Broken Frontier’s second article examining Wizard Magazine and their place in the comic book journalism world, we analyze the recent reaction to Wizard declaring itself the Number One Men’s Pop Culture Magazine, and the charge that Wizard is turning its back on its female readership.

Tim Leong, Editor in Chief of The Comic Foundry and Deputy Art Director of Complex Magazine, sees the benefit of the new cover line to advertisers, but not for readers.

"In terms of readers," he said, "I can't see how that cover line would attract new male readers, but I certainly can see how it would turn off any new and existing female readers."

Turned off female readers it has done. Posting on The Comics Journal weblog, Journalista , Dirk Deppey cites the online rage stemming from the new titling. "This is Wizard Magazine. This has always been Wizard Magazine, and with former FHM editor Scott Gramling as its current editor in chief, it’s likely to continue being Wizard Magazine for quite some time to come," said Deppey, in his post.

"By declaring itself a men's magazine, thus more or less declaring that they have no interest in women, their greatest potential source for potential sales growth, Wizard begins its final slide in to utter irrelevance," said Kady May on her LiveJournal , which was linked to Deppey’s post.

"The latest issue of Wizard (out Wednesday) reveals it’s now calling itself ‘The #1 Men’s Pop-Culture Magazine!’" wrote Jon Haehnle, Popcultureshock.com web designer. "Although none of the three different covers for this issue features any babes, upon opening you will find the following pin-up of the newest ‘Hero Hottie,’ Kristen Bell."

The piece of content that has generated the most discussion came in the form of a sidebar called Match the Rack, where readers in a numbering game had to match the name of a female character with her upper body.

"As much heat as they're getting for their Match The Rack story, I'd bet it's the most-read thing in the issue," said Leong.

Initially, the magazine, founded by Gareb Shamus, started out as a newsletter for his parent’s comic book shop and grew through Shamus’s friendship with Todd McFarlane. The title has changed since its initial issue, stretching farther and farther away from being a comics magazine. From Wizard: The Guide to Comics to Wizard: The Comics Magazine, Wizard: The Magazine of Comics, Entertainment and Pop Culture to finally declaring itself as the "#1 Men’s Pop Culture Magazine."

"Everyone online is focusing on the argument that ‘Wizard isn't for women,’ " said Leong, "but what's more intriguing to me is that Wizard no longer labels itself as a comics magazine. Their coverage has broadened past comics the last few years, but now they're making it official via their own cover — Wizard is not a comics magazine."

Editor’s note: Hoping to present you with a more balanced point of view, we reached out to Wizard Magazine editorial for some comments, but they declined.