Hey, it’s time to vote in the 2007 Wizard Fan Awards!:
The power is in your hands!
It’s finally time to vote in the 2007 Wizard Fan Awards—the only awards show decided by the fans of comic books and all of pop culture. Covering comics, movies, television shows, games and toys released in 2006, the Wizard Fan Awards let you decide who takes home the trophies for everything from Favorite Writer to Favorite DVD
What are you waiting for? Vote now—then visit Wizard World Chicago on August 9-12 and attend the award ceremony, where the biggest names in comics, from Joe Quesada to Mark Millar, will be on hand to find out who takes home your top honors!
Yes, the biggest names in comics - from one person who works at Marvel Comics to another person who works at Marvel Comics! With that kind of variety, how could you fail to be excited? Vote early, vote often, vo - Oh, I’m sorry, Chris Butcher. You have something that you want to add?:
No, seriously though. Who is your favorite publisher? Is it Marvel or DC? Or, you know, Image, or maybe Dark Horse? Those guys got a few nominations in other categories. Maybe your favorite publisher is Oni (not, say, Oni Press, like their name)? I mean sure, not one other nomination for Oni or any of their talent can be found on the ballot, but you can totally vote for them for best publisher… I dunno. I dunno WTF. Oni for best publisher for, apparently, no books. IT’S THE WIZARD ADVERTISER AWARDS!
My honest question to the Wizard people: How the hell is Casino Royale in there as a comic movie project?
July 18th, 2007 at 9:50 am
I’m glad to see I wasn’t the only who balked at Casino Royale’s inclusion, as well as most of the choices. In fact, I found myself voting for some options just to ensure another company would have that much less a chance of winning or leaving some nominations completely blank.
Does anyone besides Wizard actually take Wizard seriously anymore?
July 18th, 2007 at 9:56 am
I can’t emphasize this enough guys: these nominees did indeed come from the FANS as we had a poll open on our web site for weeks. Nearly all the nominations were for Marvel and DC properties. Honestly, just about all of the non-big two stuff came from a follow up meeting where we had to fill in some holes in categories without enough nominees.
So if you’re not pleased with the nominees, that’s your prerogative, but rather than bitch about it, make sure you get your ass in gear next year and get a grassroots campaign going for your favorites.
As far as Casino Royale…we need to rename that category, that’s all I can say.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:01 am
Ben- Yeah, you’re right man, I’m sorry. We should all send as many people to visit the Wizard website as possible and get those unique visitors up! up! up! I don’t know what I was thinking, just implying those awards are a thin sham.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:12 am
God bless you for thinking that a luddite like Ben knows what “unique visitors” are, let alone is secretly agitating to acquire them, Chris. But he’s right–the nominees came from the reader poll, and if you look at what people are buying in the Direct Market, it’s pretty easy to figure out how these nominees were arrived at.
I voted for Art School Confidential, fwiw.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:20 am
Chris,
At the end of the day, I’m collecting a paycheck regardless of how many hits the web site is getting (fingers crossed), so I really wasn’t trying to steer people there, just give folks a way to rectify their complaints rather than continue to simply complain.
If you want to imply the awards are a “thin sham,” I really don’t know what I can do as I know there are no shortage of people on this here Internet that are going to call Wizard evil and stick to their guns regardless of if we cure cancer. All I can do is report openly and honestly the process I was a part of and leave it to you whether you believe me or not.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:40 am
I don’t think Wizard is evil by any stretch of the imagination, but it does get a little irritating when every time there is a big event, Wizard promotes it like the second coming and informs its readers not to miss out on it because it’s the comic event of a lifetime. Then the sotry finishes, it’s terrible, and once a trade of the story hits Wizard gives it a C or a D. Where was that critical analysis back before we’d already bought the turd?
Maybe I’m just turning into a cranky old man.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Guys guys, I know you love your jobs and all, but suggesting a grassroots campaign or that this is reflective of “The Direct Market” is a joke. It’s the WIZARD site, polling WIZARD readers who, while perhaps reflective of the direct market certainly don’t make up the entirety of it. Your results are biased towards the comics that Wizard covers, in depth, and comics that Wizard acts as a sales agent for on a number of fronts. “Hey, thanks for reading our article about the Death of Captain America, and buying one of our CGC’d Death Of Captain America issues. Do you love Captain America? Vote!”
You’re not evil by any stretch of the imagination, and casting the argument that way is childish because it implies I lack reason. That is not the case. What you are is severely, severely compromised. Take your lumps.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
I get an error when I try to vote:
Error Executing Database Query.
SQLException occurred in JDBCPool while attempting to connect, please check your username, password, URL, and other connectivity info.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Chris, obviously this doesn’t represent “the entirety” of the DM. I know the sales charts at a DM store like the Beguiling, for example, don’t look like the overall sales charts. But these awards pretty much do. Wizard readership is indeed “reflective” of the DM–we’re not claiming otherwise. In fact, that’s exactly what we’re saying, and that therefore these awards are also “reflective” of the DM. I’m not sure why you say the former is the case but not the latter.
JK, I’ll try to find out what’s going on with that poll problem…
July 18th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Are you still having trouble, JK? I was able to vote just fine now.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
They’re not evil, just really bad for the comic industry and fans in general.
I’m amazed Ben isn’t here promoting Wizard under a thinly veiled alias as they are so fond of doing.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Addendum to Sean’s comment:
I think part of the reason us Wizard guys are so quick to reply on stories like this is because while we all know that you don’t think we’re evil and that you have intelligent and level headed criticisms to share, those intelligent thoughts seem only to come out in the comments section of threads like this while your actual blog is more sarcastic barbs lobbed in our direction. Most people who check your site and this site probably only read the main article, and it’s them who go around from here on out posting “Wizard is so evil! They intentionally get paid to give their awards to Marvel and DC only!” when that’s completely untrue.
July 18th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Mike,
I love attention way to much to go under an alias.
Chris,
Suggestions for how we can approve our award nomination system? I figured trying to bring in non-Wizard readers from outside sites would be one potential solution, but I’m all ears for your thoughts.
July 18th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
I don’t see why there would be a need to bring in non-Wizard readers to the nomination process. The magazine primarily covers Marvel/DC books - nothing wrong with that. The Wizard award nominations reflect what the Wizard readers enjoy (as has been previously pointed out). They’re the Wizard Awards, not the Eisners.
July 18th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
I think a lot of the problem the Wizard guys are having is that the magazine behaved one way for too long; and now, even if they are “on the level”, the past practices of the magazine overshadow a possibility that they are trying to accurately “reflect” the DM and or be truly critical of the industry.
I mean the demographic of the magazine covers a gap of readers that mostly read “cape” books–teens and young males…what: 14 to 24 year olds?
Let’s be honest here, most of the guys out there who are reading Comics Journal aren’t running to go out and buy a copy of Wizard to see what bits of wisdom an issue might have…
And these awards are more like watching an award ceremony on Spike–or something like the “People’s Choice Awards”–no one with any intelligence will EVER buy the idea that “the people” chose stuff with merit based on anything beyond their general entertainment–that’s not in our nature as a culture of lazy bastards.
Just look at American Idol and all that crap you call in to vote for…it’s disingenuous garbage–to someone who isn’t roped up in the hooplah (…woo…hoo…)_it almost seems fraudulent.
Personally, Wizard claiming something is award winning and giving it an award is kind of like Ricky Bobby telling us that Highlander is the greatest movie of all time–its funny and we may even agree but Ricky Bobby doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.
That’s not me trying to discredit your magazine–as an adult–I just don’t see how your magazine bears any true relevance on the industry; other than as a means for companies to pimp their projects without any real discourse or criticism–it’s safe and somewhat homogenized.
July 18th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
I guess my issue is with people that basically criticize Wizard for being what it is - a mainstream comic/entertainment magazine. It’s basically a slightly more juvenile, Marvel/DC comic-centered version of Entertainment Weekly. I don’t think they ever try to claim they are anything more than that, and that’s fine. There is obviously an audience for that, and I admit every once in a while I pick up an issue for a little mindless entertainment, guilty laughs and pretty pictures. The Wizard Fan Awards are relevant to Wizard’s audience, if nobody else, and to put them down for it seems misguided and pointless. It’s the same argument I’ve gotten so sick of: Popular entertainment exhibit A (Wizard, Marvel/DC, movie sequels, American Idol) are for the uneducated and ignorant masses while underappreciated/cult entertainment exhibit B (independent/foreign films, Oni Press, Studio 60, etc) are SO much more worthy and important.
I think the world needs its Wizard Magazines as much as it needs its Comic Journals.
July 18th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Entertainment Weekly doesn’t set prices for it’s industry. Neither does the Comics Journal.
Wizard profits from information no one else is privy to and uses it to profit from people who at one time or another were enough of a comic book fan to know about Wizard in the first place and spend $25 on an issue of Captain America on their site. Or $6.99 for the unreleased pre-order of issue #26. Out of curiosity, what is that going for in your price guide at the moment? How are these people who should be helped back into the hobby feeling when they see stacks of these available for cover price in bookstores weeks later?
The leading comic book magazine should be helping the industry not actively making the casual/lapsed fan feel like they are being taken advantage of.
You guys can give the capitalist society it’s OK to make money argument all day and that’s fine but that doesn’t make it OK.
July 18th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Hi Sean: I’m on a different computer now, and it’s working fine … so it might have had something to do with my browser settings or something like that. Thanks for looking into it.
July 18th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
I’m saying that Wizard has a vote based award for a couple of comic book companies and it inadvertently shelters its audience from a ton of really good books because it’s too busy pandering for hype-able material. Should there be a meaningless award that companies can throw on top of a book that doesn’t really deserve an accolade? It shouldn’t be called an award–instead it should be called Wizard’s Mainstream Popularity Contest.
Really good books from smaller presses like Ape Entertainment’s Bizarre New World or 803 Studios’ anthology, Sequential Suicide, from earlier this year, don’t get any exposure from Wizard.
Wizard can’t be moderately critical because they’re afraid that the Big 2 won’t let them get the scoop on certain things or they’ll give them less support.
To me that’s not good journalism–good journalists work for the people–being true and honest even in the face of adversity. Wizard is more like an advertising mercenary with a star covered, pointy purple hat.
Entertainment Weekly, on the other hand, is a highly objective consumer-minded magazine that isn’t worried about losing advertisers or “news worthy info” when they review something in a negative manner.
July 19th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
I see what you’re saying, Steve, and I agree their inability to really give a negative review to anything is a significant difference between them and EW (although I don’t know if I’d necessarily call EW “highly objective”). My point is just that Wizard is what it is, has never really claimed to be otherwise, and has been that way pretty much since its first issue. The fact that people seem to constantly bash it for what it isn’t seems unfair and pointless to me. Wizard doesn’t have an obligation to cover books from Ape or 803, and in all likelihood if they did the vast majority of their readers would skip the coverage to get to the next Marvel or DC story. And that’s OK. It’s like constantly complaining that EW doesn’t write articles about the latest PBS series, or why they don’t do a cover story on Evening or Paris J’Taime.
I’m not sure I’m effectively conveying my point; I feel like I’m all over the place. I hate writing these things from work.
July 19th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
I get what you’re saying–you’re fine and valid.
However–if Wizard–”THE GUIDE TO COMICS” is the most circulated industry magazine on the shelves–then YES they do bare a certain amount of responsibility to the industry to distribute information about the industry as a whole to the fan base.
God forbid a couple more independent books get better coverage and someone spends 6 dollars less on the Big 2 and 6 dollars more on the little guy. (laugh)
July 19th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
You Wizard folks were quite chatty yesterday, cat got your tongues?