Now Comics publisher Tony Caputo saw the comment by John Riley of Grasshopper's Comics on the most recent Wizard cover, and adds his comments:

 

I find it rather disheartening that Wizard is the comic book industry's 'flagship' magazine, because the comic book industry has far more depth than Wizard's core editorial focus of babes, spandex, brawn and potty jokes.  Wizard is about superheroes (one head in the Five-Headed Monster); comic collecting, presenting the speculated 'monetary values' of the comics (another head in the Five-Headed Monster); and 'babes' whether they are drawn or in film and television.  This was Wizard years ago, and it's still Wizard today.  They've made an empire focusing on a niche market, which is teenage boys, a brilliant business strategy which works for the superhero comic book industry.  However, unlike John Riley of Grasshopper Comics, I do have a problem with magazines like Maxim, Stuff, or FHM, representing woman as objects of sex for young self-gratifying boys.  I say, get a girlfriend, or boyfriend, depending on preference, and if this concept of human relations is foreign, try a self-help book on social interaction, or 'how to pick up hot chicks' instead of a soft-porn rag.

 

Jessica Simpson bursting out of a leather vest on the cover with a cover headline about 'Comics' Kinkiest Relationships' implying a menage a trois between Spider-Man, Mary Jane and the Black Cat is exactly the message Wizard wanted to send to the hundreds of your new customers you work hard to attract at each year's Free Comic Book Day.  Wizard is a business -- but not your business.  They are in business to generate sales of magazines and just as Jessica Simpson in a bikini sells copies of People magazine, she'll happily sell copies of Wizard.  They are a business in a capitalist society striving to increase revenues and profits.  If this strategy doesn't fit into your retail strategy of creating a family-friendly atmosphere (which I commend you for), then don't sell the magazine, or wrap it in a brown wrapper.
 
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