Friday, November 02, 2007

I'm Trying To Care, But I'm Afraid I Might Sprain Something

So earlier this week a Mildly Amusing Dinosaur of a Comics Magazine has announced (via cover blurb) that it will now be a Mildly Amusing Dinosaur of a "Pop Culture" Magazine for Men. And some fine folks who don't need that blurb to tell them what they already know--that, blurb or no blurb, it has the sense of humor of a dim Starfleet Academy fratboy--are jawing on and on about it. And I've tried to join the conversation a couple of times, but really just can't get into it.

Because--as Kalinara notes--this book is a Dinosaur. All of its primary functions have gone by the wayside, either through humor and opinion blogs, internet news sites or auction sites like eBay (who needs a price guide?). So it's left to grope around blindly in the jungle as more specialized mammals scamper out of reach of its tiny, useless arms.

It's a Dinosaur. It's closer to being oil than being relevant.

So it's hard to see what all the fuss is about.*

ETA: Here's a Wizard cover from last year:
Ship? Sailed. The only reason "men's magazine" is in this month's topline at all is because they didn't have a photo of a babe to tell us so herself.

Rob

*It's even harder to see how this change/rebranding is going to save their bacon. I love comics, but even I can see that the world at large is not clamoring for a comic-oriented Maxim. FHM's dead, Stuff became a subsection of Maxim -- and yet there's a market for Maxim with drawings of She-Hulk? Sure...hitch your wagon to that star, why don't you?

Man, everybody else gets all the good crack.

3 comments:

Alexandra Kitty said...

I can't see the fuss, either. I haven't touched a copy pf this magazine for years. The online sources for that kind of information have been beating this relic hands down for a long time.

Jeff said...

It's been a long time since I've bought a Wizard Magazine either. With Newsarama and all of the other virtual magazines out there, how could you read this and not feel like you're getting what amounts to a lot of old news? In addition to what you said about Maxim, any "geek" out there has Heavy Metal if what they want is an illustrated lady.

Rob said...

Very weird. As you know I've been getting Geek Monthly, and it seems far more in tune with the geek audience then Wizard would be in this incarnation. I still get Maxim (for free) and I think if that's what you want, that's what you are going to buy.

--*Rob