Almost 20 years ago, Wizard Magazine was released. It was, for the longest time, THE comic magazine for many people. I know personally,back in high school if I couldn’t afford any new monthly comics, at the VERY least I could afford a Wizard once a month.

Thanks to Bleeding Cool, we found out that Wizard fired more of it’s staff and that the magazine will cease publication. It will then relaunch as Wizard World online, making it a full online magazine.

It’s going to be weird to think that Wizard Magazine will stop existing, but I also knew that it was inevitable. Thanks comic sites and blogs (like this very one your reading now), the need for Wizard has lessen. Now, exclusive announcements can happen online and let the public know ASAP, where as before you would have had to plan (and wait) for a month to make a big announcement to print.

To be fair, the magazine has lowered in quality through out the years. The last few years the magazine started reformating itself as a “Pop culture” magazine, focusing less on comics. Soon they were interviewing Lee Majors, AKA The Six Million Dollar Man, because he was appearing at their OWN Wizard World Comic Convention. The articles became less insightfull, and became more fluff. A few months ago I finally decided to stop reading Wizard because I realized I was buying the magazine out of habit.

I won’t forget the impact that Wizard had in my life. I started reading it the exact time I started reading comics. When Wizard was good, it guided my young comic book mind. I learned about Jack Kirby through Wizard, learn all about Superman’s history through wizard, learned how to draw through Wizard, and I heard about Watchmen through Wizard.

In a way, there would be no About Heroes if it wasn’t for magazines like Wizard.  Farewell, I tip my pointed hat to you.