Tim Doyle here-
Does the world need "Wizard: The Guide to Comics" anymore?   Sure, when I was a kid back in the heady days of the comic book boom of the early 90's (fed by the fervor surrounding the '89 Batman movie), Wizard was like a good friend.  It gave me tips on what comics would be hot and valuable.   It told me how tall Jim Shooter was, and why I should care about 'Violator vs. Badrock'.  It came with shiny, shiny cards, and for some reason, the guy who drew Turok was attempting to teach other people how to draw musclebound, sharp cheek-boned 'roid-heads just like him. 

But as I got older, I no longer needed to know, or even cared what comics were worth.  I didn't need shiny cards.  I was more interested in what was GOOD to read.  And that, my friends, is where the Wizard hype machine failed miserably. 

When I was a retailer a few years back, I made sure I read the thing cover to cover every month, just to stay on top of things.   Or, so I thought.  I noticed as more time went by, it seemed like every one of my more 'with it' customers knew about things weeks, sometimes even months before Wizard or even Diamond's Previews told me about them.  Why...how were they finding out about these things? 

"Well, Dumbass" they said, throwing a computer at my head, "It's online." 
Please keep in mind this was far back in 2001, before I could afford a computer of my own, and high speed internet was a toy for the rich.  (Well, richer than the manager of that comic book store could afford at the time.)

Hmm...so I dug around.  Wild world, the internet.  You got CBR, Newsarama, AICN (okay, even I hate AICN, but they got clout.)  And if you just want to hear Marvel and DC beat their own drums, you don't have to wait for Wizard to do it for them, you can go to their own respective company owned sites!  For the indie crowd, the Internet is FAR more suited for disseminating info about small-press books.  With the 'unlimited page count' of websites, publishers don't have to be limited by space, and can use that canvas to promote books Wizard wouldn't ever mention.

So, here we are today, and it looks like Wizard's days are numbered. 

Sure you can find it on the shelves of your local 7-11, but good luck finding any freaking comic books there. 

(Total digression, but don't you think it weird that gas stations and drug store magazine racks, once the foremost vending venue for comics, now don't carry a single comic?  Oh, you can find an anemic magazine telling you about comics...but where is the casual customer supposed to actually find them?)

One could argue that Wizard makes up for being bound to the sluggish cycle of a physical news publication by providing good content, and access to the 'stars' of the industry.  You'd be wrong. 

Wizard's overly cheerful boosterism of ANYTHING that ANYBODY publishes is what drove me away from reading the thing in the first place.  (That and the STUPID-high price point...let's see, spend 6 bucks on a magazine ABOUT comics, or buy 2 actual comics…tough choice).  Their inability to say that anything is 'bad' is telling, and smacks of an organization afraid to lose 'access'.  I'm not looking to get the kind of literary criticism that one gets from Comics Journal (ps- dear Comics Journal, please cover more artists I've actually HEARD of, and I promise I'll buy more issues...I swear.) but it would be at least nice to once in a while read an article like "Unity 2000...what went wrong?" or, "Rob Liefeld...are you still seriously buying this crap?"...or, "Comic Book Companies...Stop Hiring TV writers to write your comics."  Or maybe, just maybe, they could write a report on their own back-room dealings involving eBay sales on "Captain America 25"!  Heck, they might have even broken US federal trade regulations with that one!  No, instead they sound like a bunch of first year journalism students who never read a press release they could turn down.  Just because there is a Ghost Rider movie guys, doesn't mean you have to make it your cover story...please, it's embarrassing…cover yourself up, people are staring.  

See, Wizard could write and run GOOD, educational stories, but they won't.  They're afraid they'll piss off the wrong guy at Marvel or DC, and *snip* they're cut off, and bye-bye ad revenue!  I believe that they are SO wrong about this.  If you look at almost ANY website, comic book pros will talk to ANYBODY about anything.  Guys like Quesada and Dido understand the news and promotion tool that is the web.  They will talk to everybody. 

Example- today's front page on www.ComicBookResources.com - you've got Rich Johnston's Lying in the Gutters column buzzing about backroom cold-feet at DC over the Lesbian Batwoman book they've been sitting on, and Marvel's shenanigans with rights over G.I. Joe comics.  Some spicy stuff!  But, you also have a full on interview with Ed Brubaker about upcoming X-men storylines.  Do you see?  It's okay for you to call a spade a spade, Wizard!  Marvel won't cut you off!  They want to get their message out, regardless of what else you report!  

So, let's mosey on over to Wizard's own website, www.wizarduniverse.com and see what they have…surely, the GUIDE TO COMICS must have a kick-ass website, with tons of content you can't get anywhere else.  Let's see here- today on Wizard Universe we have…uh…"Toy of the Day: Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and it looks like they're trying to sell me tickets to conventions.  And statues.  Lots of crappy statues.  Oh, I spoke too soon, it looks like they're running "Annihilation Diaries" in where the writer of Marvel's Annihilation series tries to convince me to care about Drax the Destroyer.  Wow…way to go Wizard.

On top of all this journalistic mediocrity and cowardice, Wizard has seen the writing on the wall, and has been making more and more money on ticket sales to their conventions and their exclusive toys.  Now, a simple web search will bring up a TON of first hand confessionals about how poorly retailers and indie talent are treated at a Wizard World convention.  Not to mention the mind-numbing experience of endless line-waiting for autographs.  But these things all make Wizard money.  

I'm not against someone trying to make a buck…but don't try to operate under a veneer of 'Journalistic Integrity' when your magazine only seems to exist to hype product from the major publishers, which in turn buy ad space in YOUR magazine, and they send their talent to YOUR conventions…the very conventions you hype endlessly in YOUR magazine.  Then those very publishers tell you what hot storylines are coming up so you can then order up and sell those very hot and short-supply comics on YOUR very own web-store and eBay account.  On top of that (and here is where we get into Federal Trade violations) Wizard even has the balls to print a price guide to try to tell us what the comics are going to be 'worth'.  (This is known as price-fixing.)

So, you can see why this gets REALLY scary.  Wizard finds out what's happening soon from Marvel…with that non-public knowledge they go through their own retailer account, and order a bunch of books.  They write stories about why you should be reading that particular book.  Then they publish their price guide, widely regarded as being the industry standard, 'setting' the price on that book.  Then, they sell the books that they were able to stock up on at greatly inflated prices!  This, ladies and gentlemen, is called UNFAIR COMPETITION and insider trading.  Martha Stewart went to jail for this kind of crap.  This is a big dick-slap to the face of the comics retailer, which not only is their main sales channel, but BUILT their fan-base to begin with. 

If you stack all this up, the cowardly reporting, the constant hype-machine, the internet does it better, dick-slapping your local retailer…does the world need Wizard: The Guide to Comics anymore? 

I'm voting with my dollars…I'm just putting that money into new comics…that the INTERNET told me to buy.