August
14 Wizard Woes

Wizard World watchers are speculating on the direction of the company's shows after a pair of high-profile employees were fired last week.

Stewart Morales, director of strategic planning and marketing, and Gabe Fieramosco, manager of business development were let go Friday. Wizard told Newsarama the moves were unrelated to recent Chicago convention. That convention, which Wizard says drew a record crowd of 58,000, has been criticized by retailers and exhibitors as being down in terms of traffic and sales. Fans and general observers, too, seem unhappy with the shows' repetitive programming, and no one seems to like the fact that the show comes so quickly on the heels of the massive San Diego show.

Wizard shows are different from shows like San Diego, Wonder Con and the New York Comic-Con, in that they focus very heavily on the die-hard mainstream comics fan, i.e., those interested mostly in Marvel or DC superhero comics. That's all well and good; there's certainly demand for some of that. But casual fans are drawn to the depth of content found at those other shows. Wizard shows have long been light on programming, preferring to focus on being retailer friendly and fans who want to buy collectibles and seek autographs.

Again, that's fine and it matches the approach that has worked so well for Wizard magazine for so long. But it's likely nowhere near enough for Wizard to do what it was poised to do a few years ago in becoming a force in the convention biz that could rival the biggest shows. Whether Wizard has the depth to develop this kind of content has yet to be seen, but considering the track record of the company's publications, becoming that kind of show may just be beyond the company's ability to achieve.

That doesn't mean that Wizard World shows can't be successful, but they may need to learn to be happy filling a smaller niche and bringing shows to places where not all the fans can make it to San Diego or New York and still want to spend a few days at a con buying a few cool comics or toys and meet the Wizard lineup of guests such as Kevin Smith. But a show like that, for all its charms, isn't going to be able to challenge the established shows the way it was thought it could just a year or so ago.