Writing for Wizard’s website, indie (and future Minx) creator Josh Howard defends Wizard:
One could argue that if only indies got more coverage, they would sell better and thus take a more prominent role in the industry. I suppose that’s a fair argument. But to put the blame solely at the feet of Wizard and other comic news outlets is unfair. Everyone deserves their share of the blame, from fans to retailers to the creators themselves. If fans began to buy more independent titles and sales began to compete with the likes of X-Men, you can bet Wizard would sit up and take notice. And if more indie creators would put out quality, well-produced product that actually appealed to a larger audience outside of their own friends, then readers might feel more comfortable parting with their hard-earned cash. I mean, a story about your pathetic childhood or how the world just doesn’t understand you might feel like a bold artistic statement, but really…no one cares. There’s art, and then there’s just shooting yourself in the foot.
Perhaps the funniest part of the criticism directed toward Wizard can be found on Internet message boards. Usually about once every month or so you’ll see the obligatory “let’s trash Wizard” thread. But take a quick look around at all the other topics on the board and you’ll see that they’re talking about exactly what Wizard is talking about—the mainstream. Countless threads devoted to the latest leaked photos from the next Spider-Man movie or what’s going on in Marvel’s Civil War. But go to the Independent forums of any comic book Website and it’s practically a ghost town—an average of two or three replies per thread, and those are usually by the book’s creators saying “Please read my book!” The Internet is a place where fans have complete freedom to make their voices heard, and the voices are saying resoundingly, “We love mainstream comics.”
Later, Wizard interviews Howard about his new Sasquatch anthology with the proper journalistic attitude, as the following “question” shows:
[New Howard book, The Lost Books of] Eve came into the office, and the collective response was like, “Wait a minute…Wha?” There’s so many ideas and so much stuff going on in that book, and it was so different than Dead @ 17. Flipping between that and Dead, it seems that your fans and people in general will really be able to see you be more versatile.
March 28th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Howard is right. To some extent it’s a vicious circle, of course, but WIZARD will inevitably give the most attention to stories that it thinks its readers are already interested in. Yes, it might change matters if WIZARD adopted more of an evangelical crusading stance, but why should they feel obliged to do so?
March 28th, 2007 at 10:04 am
Josh is right. Newsarama can do all the Independent articles they want, but I usually don’t read them. Hell, look at all the advertising for 300 lately, and I’ve still got no interest in the movie or the graphic novel.
March 28th, 2007 at 10:14 am
You know, as the guy that did that interview I’m obviously in no place to be defending it here, but the comment on our reaction to the book was legitimate, as was the intent of doing the interview in the first place.
March 28th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Weirdly, in the middle of the speculator boom – which was when I last read Wizard – it seemed to me that it gave quite a lot of coverage to indies – admittedly in the same “hey check out these weirdoes!” style that SMASH HITS magazine used to cover Foetus, say, or Nurse With Wound.
The mainstream isn’t fixed forever – indies go through periods of major and minor heat – the 80s B&W boom for instance. But to get that they need a really strong breakout title.
It’s worth pointing out that indies don’t necessarily NEED Wizard or Newsarama or wherever – Manga does fine commercially with lower coverage there. Good indie titles should probably just bypass these places completely and send their stuff to Pitchfork writers, fashion mags, local coffee shop owners etc etc.
March 28th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
“if more indie creators would put out quality, well-produced product that actually appealed to a larger audience outside of their own friends”
That is such a straw-man argument against “indie” comics, and mis-represents the indie/alt/art comics world (its even more unusual coming from an admitted “indie” comic creator). It basically says that every genre should be judged by its worst output instead of its best. So “indie” comics are obviously insular autobiographical tales that appeal only to the friends of that creator.
Yet when these same criteria are used to judge “mainstream” comics (ie superhero books), the fans howl at the unfairness of such judgments.
Wizard is an industry mouthpiece for the “big two” (with cameo appearances by Image and Dark Horse) and shouldn’t be expected to do anything else. It is the “Cat Fancier” of the comics world. Taking it seriously is always a mistake. I’m personally glad they don’t shine more light on “indie” books since their articles are usually nothing more than slightly altered press releases. It is a parallel world where gay Northstar jokes are still “funny” and Hawkeye (maybe) dying deserves more coverage than Alison Bechdel’s “Fun Home” being named one of the “10 Best Books of the Year” by Time Magazine and becoming a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award.