Wizard Magazine 37, September 1994 

D.C. Fontana was a famous Star Trek writer/ editor, she died in December '19.

At 49:31 Ed asks for specifics on how popular Death Dealer was. That painting was SO POPULAR it literally launched a series of FANTASY NOVELS. Written by James Silke, there were at least 3 full length paperbacks written about a character that showed up in a painting! Pretty incredible considering that was a decade after the painting was completed! That one piece of art has a legacy.

We got Starman out of Zero Hour.

These are dark days fellas. Thank you for the laughs over Ominous Press' truly empty-headed publishing ideas. I remember being a young comic reader, my buddy Dave ponied up his $4 for that "Monument Tablet Set." The disappointment creeping across his face as he pawed through the package and realized he had thrown his money away was all but forgotten until you guys brought it back.

The name on that Tekno Comics list that has some interesting history is John Jakes. He was prolific in paperback fantasy for years and known to those who collected Frazetta covers. Jake's Brak the Barbarian appeared in Marvel Comics during the Sword and Sorcery boom and later was enlisted by Gil Kane as part of a series of graphic novels that Morningstar press put out. Kane's own book never appeared, but Jakes worked on the adaptation for Richard Corben's Bloodstar. Kane was a perennial hustler and entrepreneur and he put together a deal to have a novel written by Jakes that would also appear as a graphic novel by Kane. Part of the pitch was a proposal/treatment written by Jakes. In the middle of the dealings, Jake suddenly hit it big with historical novels like the Kent Family Chronicles and North and South; it was an escalation of fame similar to what happened to George R.R. Martin and he disappeared from writing the novel somewhere in there. The publisher had the rights to Jake's treatment and had some company hack expand it into a thick book with Jake's name big on the cover to exploit his surge in fame.The graphic novel didn't happen, but Jakes insisted Kane's name appear first on the cover of what became Excalibur! (publisher's exclamation point there) I'd love to see you tackle the big final interview Kane did in the Comics Journal. He was a real exception in that these sort of stories happened often in his career. He was an early self-publisher and was always searching for new formats and venues for comics that would get them in front of a larger market.

Glad to see the Wizard reviews are back! Keep up the great work guys

Frazetta museum should still be running I went just a few years ago, his son broke down all kind of good info on the paintings, would be a good interview.

The Gary Frank run on Incredible Hulk is actually one of my favorite runs during the Peter David run. I really like Frank’s style and the story was a slow burn drama. It’s true that the Hulk’s look got less monster like, more buffed supermodel, but it fits the story.

That Frazetta Death Dealer image was used for the 1978 debut album by Molly Hatchet. May explain why he considered it his most popular. Great video, lads. Keep it up!

41:10 Jim with the best quote, "Ominous is not going to be a writer's haven." "No shit..."

I would LOVE to see you guys do an episode dedicated to breaking down the Image X Month Books. I've only ever read the Jim Lee Savage Dragon book. (Sidenote: I love that Erik eventually had to create another Savage Dragon 13 issue drawn just by him to make his Savage Dragon run solely his own. That is dedication!). I definitely gotta track down the rest of those X Month Books!

You guys HAVE TO DO THE JACK KIRBY CARD SET. My jaw drop when I saw that. KIRBY IS KING!

HOLY SHIT THE FUTURE STARS CARDS!!! I bought an unopened box of those when I was 16 or so

This is a great breakdown, as always. Thank you guys for putting this together.

This was my first Wizard magazine. I was 13 at the time, and I read this book about 100 times.

The Solaitare painting looks like Dave Dorman to me

This was my first issue too! I was 10 and while my mom went shopping in the Safeway, I peeled off to the magazine aisle to check out Mad and Cracked. I spotted that Hulk with the haircut under the word Wizard so fast! Mom even fronted my next allowance so I could get it then before it left the shelves. It was a really great discovery for me! I was just so excited to be able to see all the different comics and art that I didn't have access to. The only time I'd seen Death Dealer was on my Uncle Dale's copy of that Molly Hatchet record, and now I had that and more and I could just stare at those pictures as long as I wanted. That was a pretty big deal! So this was rad to turn the pages of my very well worn copy along with you guys! Thank you! This channel really inspires that same excitement of discovery for me. There's just so much awesome work out there that's been made, is being made, and will continue to be made!

Props to my brother Jimmy for making sure I got credited for naming their character ASH. A ton of creators and fans have let me know throughout the years that they would love to see a new ASH series. ...maybe one day. 👍👊

DC Fontana was one of the main writers on the original Star Trek, and John Jakes wrote North and South. No idea who Robert Silverberg is and I don't want to cheat and Google it.

Jim! I’m pretty sure the Frazetta Museum is still open and still being run by the family. I just ordered a Death Dealer t-shirt back in January, and it showed up pretty promptly. The web site gives info about visiting and mentions that they still have over 200 paintings on display. After things get back to a place where we can all travel again, you all should take a trip out there. I’m gonna go sometime whenever I can get back east as I’m out here in California.

This episode was great!!

Yeah! Been missing these Wizard reviews, it's what I watch to get pumped for drawling.

Nice video... makes me feel young again.

I just remember the pile of Tekno Comix swag I came home with from Chicago Comicon that year

The Hulk cover is a Dale Keown image recolored by Fleer for the real expensive Flair set.

Damn, that Hulk one, that's "the" Wizard I remember.

Comic art on phone cards is actually extremely common in Japan. I'm sure Ed realized this after he took his trip.

I won 3rd place for that Vampirella contest for Drawing Board. I drew Mummirella and they did not print it. It was lame they printed so many same concepts.

@ 9:31 Ed says “a lot of the news is just bollocks man”, excellent use of the British word bollocks, contextually correct and everything 👍🏽

Regarding the digital painting in the 90s: I specifically remember one of my art classes in 1998 or 99 having a project where we reproduced a photograph in some computer painting program using a mouse. Mine didn’t come out very good, but our teacher showed us some examples that were much better. If high school students could make it happen, I’m sure a comic professional could do something on that level with a mouse!

One of my friends at my local comic shop had this issue with him today and showed me how he been one of the winning entries in the "Drawing Board" section! His was one of the Vampirella/ Predator mashups... Matthew Parmenter is his name. :)

When McFarlane started his toy company, he cherry-picked Larry Marder to be the president (He had previously been the guy who got the trains to run on time over at Image Comics as Executive Director, and basically whipped them into shape.

I have found atomic city comics recently. He is great

I still remember the Chicago comic book convention (was it a Wizard World show, or was that too early?) where Tekno Comics had a HUGE display with a giant fist at the center. Thing had to be 12 feet tall!

The Solitaire ad at the end is by Dave Dorman I think.

Miss ya, Ed.

Now that you pointed it out, I can't stop seeing Frazetta in Mignola. Really interesting how he translated this influence into his own distinct style. I would add the sense for motion in particular. I think this is a cool example of a Frazetta composition that could easily work as a Mignola piece: 66.media.tumblr.com/c65ed503de060d65bdeef3653242d020/fc5d181cd377a982-9a/s1280x1920/cec203281e3911d588e8f757e29ed9e86b9bc4cb.jpg Plus the shadows on the left figure's face, the smoke around the right guy's, the way he draws parts of the figures basically in silhouette etc. etc. Frazetta isn't really known for simplification or abstraction, but it´s a big part of what makes him intersting to me. He really knew where to put detail in and where not. Might have been in part about saving time, but whatever, it works!

That's Dave Dorman on the Solitaire piece. And Alfredo Alcala inked the Kirby animation art cards, as well as Destroyer Duck, which worked better than one might think.

In this era, yes Wacom pads existed. Software to digitally paint existed. However, resolution and memory were still expensive. The best way to think about digital tech/tools and capabilities is...In the 70s, 3d graphics were defined. In the 80s, all those graphics you saw on TV were done digitally using a system called Quantel Paint Box, which Photoshop and other desktop software later just ripped off wholesale. So...consumer end tools, yeah, maybe hard to get, but if you got the bucks and the will, you could have had wacom tablets in the early 90s and software that can do that stuff. Your mileage on them would vary based on your incoming skill of painting and color to begin with, though... So for me, I think that Hulk is maybe a mix of scan and digital. Just my thoughts. It looks like it's digital painting, but it may just be they style of that artist with physical media since in a lot of ways, I see Garbage Pale Kids style coloring on it....very 'quick/industrial design illustration' techniques on it. Very commerical.

Photoshop 2.5 would’ve been out at the time. Maybe version 3 which introduced layers. If there were tablets available they would’ve been way expensive.

Didn't Ice-T own one of the Badrock busts?

I can't wait until the Fabián Nicieza Shoot Interview

7:16 lol

God damn if I didn’t almost break my snes playing that lord of the rings game

Is Jim Salicrup Tom Scioli's father??

Looking forward to the THB issue. Kayfabers, you better buy up those THBs, they’re already expensive. Also force Chris Pitzer to reprint some of the stuff He put out :) ...

If you want to check out a great interview with Jay Stephens from 2019, check out the Speech Bubble Podcast or subscribe: www.neversleepsnetwork.com/podcast/jay-stephens

scott jobdel hahah

Macfarlane did Cyber Force

The only thing that Bart Sears ever did that was really any good was The Path at CrossGen. But that may have had more to do with Mark Pennington's inks.

Just did a spit-take with “…and they just wanna show Batman’s d!¢&.”

I remember buying some of my first comics at a Tekno Comix store front at the Mall of America. They Marvel\DC books as well. Check out this store front and animatronic hand! technifex.com/portfolio/tekno-comix/

Show and tell: Xenozoic tales !