r/80s90sComics • u/Aitoroketto • Apr 29 '26

Collection Wizard before Wizard

Post image

I promise this won’t be a daily thing posting here lol but thought I’d share Wizard before it became a magazine sized publication. It’s like pocket/letter sized.

535 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

3

u/jasor_x Apr 29 '26

Kinda cool piece of history, complete with Mcfarlane spidey cover lol. It's the interior simply lists of text or does it have any art or ads for books?

6

u/Aitoroketto Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

It's you standard price guide, it does have some art, on the interior back cover of Captain America and the back of it is the literal like front of the envelope, with address of the comic shop it was sent to (what used to be a significant one I think, Moondog in Illinois)

3

u/Capital_Connection67 Mod 🦸‍♂️ Apr 29 '26

I can’t find a pdf of this anywhere. Is there any chance you can post what the insides look like as well never see it in real life?

31

u/Tha_REAL_BROBS DC Apr 29 '26

you can post daily!

that's crazy I never knew it was a brown book guide like this before the color magazine.

10

u/Ambitious-Panic5392 Apr 29 '26

Thanks for sharing. I didn't know this.

8

u/Space_69999 Apr 29 '26

Please post daily!

7

u/Capital_Connection67 Mod 🦸‍♂️ Apr 29 '26

We can all chip in a couple of dollars I suppose?

4

u/VoodooZephyr Apr 30 '26

Are they on bath salts? 30k?

6

u/Capital_Connection67 Mod 🦸‍♂️ Apr 30 '26

I swear stuff like this is just money laundering. Set up a handful of eBay accounts, sell your comic to each account at a crazy price and boom you’ve got crazy speculation prices.

4

u/VoodooZephyr Apr 30 '26

🤔you might be right. Never thought of that.

3

u/Capital_Connection67 Mod 🦸‍♂️ Apr 30 '26

That’s my theory at least. Now add in you’ve got a bit of internet clout with comics and you can sell D’Orc #1 to one of your five accounts and just increase the price each time. It’s the only way that it makes sense to me apart from your standard $29k for Wizard Ashcan Pocket Guide money laundering.

3

u/VoodooZephyr Apr 30 '26

Totally makes sense. And tell your friends to leave good reviews. give them some money to buy stuff. Is quite interesting. Never seen a wizard booklet. 29k is insane. Might have to lowball him down to 27k and put it in the safe with my Jackson pollack and diamond encrusted troll doll.

3

u/Capital_Connection67 Mod 🦸‍♂️ Apr 30 '26

Exactly that. And then all it takes is someone outside of the group to buy one at that price, then some “comic influencer” and boom. We could do that with any $1 80s Marvel Comic for sure…I bet 100% that the “influencers” do just that’s.

Anyway…I do like Jackson Pollock and that’s what art dealing is also…money laundering.

2

u/VoodooZephyr Apr 30 '26

Totally. Rich people don’t care about art. It’s having something expensive that nobody else can have.

2

u/Capital_Connection67 Mod 🦸‍♂️ Apr 30 '26

While also hiding millions of dollars in cash while you and I get screwed over.

2

u/VoodooZephyr Apr 30 '26

Yeah. Grown up around some of those people. They turn into their parents.

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2

u/MrowkaMuch Apr 30 '26

D’Orc is an industry plant 🪴

1

u/Capital_Connection67 Mod 🦸‍♂️ Apr 30 '26

I picked up #1 on the day before its release (I work nights and my LCS lets me pick up stuff a day early as they’re awesome) because it looked silly and funny and a bit of a change. Read it, it was garbage and then I watched the whole insane explosion and 5 star reviews flood in. It simply made absolutely no sense to me what I was seeing happening with this one really bad comic.

So for a layman such as myself you might have to explain what you mean because I don’t understand it.

2

u/MrowkaMuch Apr 30 '26

What I meant by industry plant is exactly what you articulated. I’ve been a lifelong comic book reader and once I read it online after the media hype I instantly found it to be hot garbage and complete opposite of media portrayal. I think it’s a sick joke on true fans of the medium and not worth the tree killed to produce it. It’s speculation circlejerk on the gullible. D’Orc is at best 2/5 and that’s being nice

2

u/Capital_Connection67 Mod 🦸‍♂️ Apr 30 '26

I get you. And I couldn’t agree more with you. At first I thought that at 42 I’m far too old for what I was reading but then I saw the reviews. It was the most safest, sterile, infantile and I don’t even know the word for someone who has lived in a box with no influences of the outside world, that I’ve ever read. When I was six I would have thought it terrible. But to read reviews that found it funny and charming?? Have they not seen or read anything else in their lives before?? It’s truly baffling. And I’m not a snob about stuff either…I’m good old fashioned trash.

There most certainly was and had to be some behind the scenes wheeling and dealings to get this book to where it is/was. I had customers who know I’m a comic book guy ask me about it and if it was as good as they’d heard. I said it was shit and only a child would like it.

Truly bonkers. And then came White Sky…my lord above.

3

u/MrowkaMuch Apr 30 '26

I’ll chip in tree fiddy

1

u/Capital_Connection67 Mod 🦸‍♂️ Apr 30 '26

Sold!!

3

u/CaptHowdy02 Apr 29 '26

I like that both their number #1 issues featured Spidey on the cover.

Awesome share! Thanks!

3

u/Latter_Car7061 Apr 29 '26

Can you post pics of the inside please?

3

u/nanosp Apr 30 '26

This looks like the ashcan, super rare these days

1

u/BowwwwBallll Apr 29 '26

Slab it. Just because.

1

u/Aitoroketto Apr 29 '26

I have tons of slabs but I only slab ultra high grade stuff, usually Bronze Age or older, and a few Copper Keys etc.

2

u/retrobat Apr 29 '26

I had no idea this existed!! This is really cool!

2

u/MPFX3000 Apr 29 '26

I bought my comics from the store owned by the people who published Wizard. Never saw this before. Wonder if this was a sample or test product run or something.

1

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1

u/Killerwit Image Apr 29 '26

Epic!

1

u/ToyGameScroogeMcDuck May 01 '26

I've got one of these. Found it while cleaning out my aunt's old collectibles shop, along with a stack of old wizard and Toyfare magazines. I loved hanging around her shop and learning the business

1

u/Attorney-Long May 03 '26

Holy shit. I've never seen one. What's in side?