Wizard: The Comics Magazine #16
Wizard #16 (December 1992) arrived at a pivotal crossroads for the comics industry, capturing the two biggest stories of the moment — the Death of Superman and the rise of Image Comics — in a single package. Most significantly, the issue's gatefold cover placed The Maxx, Pitt, Deathblow, and Bloodwulf before the reading public for the first time in print, making it the earliest published appearance of all four characters ahead of their respective debut comics. Dale Keown's Q&A feature on Pitt gave collectors and readers their first substantive look at the character's concept and design months before Pitt #1 shipped, while a parallel spotlight on The Sandman (accompanied by a Kelley Jones interview) illustrated that Wizard was tracking both the creator-owned Image wave and the Vertigo-era DC renaissance simultaneously. As a time-capsule document, this issue encodes late-1992 comics culture with unusual density.
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Wizard was founded in 1991 by Gareb Shamus as a newsletter serving his parents' comic book store and evolved into a full-color glossy publication by its seventh issue. By issue #16, the magazine had grown into the dominant fan-facing comics periodical in North America, strongly championing both Valiant Comics and the newly formed Image Comics. The December 1992 issue was produced at a moment when Wizard was deliberately shifting its editorial emphasis toward creator-driven Image properties while simultaneously covering the Superman #75 'Death of Superman' phenomenon that dominated mainstream comics in that same month; the two-poster insert (a Death of Superman poster and a Darker Image poster) neatly emblematizes that editorial balancing act.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: December 1992; published by Wizard Entertainment (then operating as Wizard Press).
- The gatefold cover — the title's first four-panel gatefold — features art by Sam Kieth, Dale Keown, Jim Lee, and Rob Liefeld, depicting The Maxx, Pitt, Deathblow, and Bloodwulf together; this constitutes the earliest known published appearance of all four characters, predating Darker Image #1 (March 1993) and Pitt #1.
- The issue came polybagged and included two poster inserts: a Death of Superman poster (tying directly to Superman #75, also cover-dated December 1992) and a Darker Image promotional poster.
- Dale Keown — then wrapping his celebrated run on The Incredible Hulk with writer Peter David — is interviewed extensively under the 'Keown's Misunderstood Monster' feature, previewing the creation of Pitt as his Image debut.
- A dedicated Kelley Jones interview accompanies a retrospective feature on the history and incarnations of The Sandman, reflecting Jones's recent contributions to Neil Gaiman's Sandman series.
- The issue includes a 'Writing at the Edge' column by David Quinn, Bart Sears's recurring 'Brutes & Babes' art-technique feature, and an X-Men 'X-Traitor' suspects roundup — a nod to the era's dominant Marvel event plotting.
- A feature on breaking into comics as a writer (authored by Lawrence Watt-Evans among others) was a recurring Wizard editorial strand in this period, reflecting the magazine's role as a practical guide for aspiring creators.
- Bloodwulf, whose cover and Darker Image debut was drawn by Rob Liefeld, is explicitly a parody of DC's Lobo — a piece of meta-commentary baked into the character's very conception.