Five Best Wizard Magazine freebies

By: FlixtheCatJr

“Wizard” magazine was one of the most controversial magazines of the nineties for comic book fans. It divided comic book buffs big time, with half of them considering it a cheap and exploitative rag that showed obscene favor to DC and Marvel, while also overlooking the indie comics scene. For others it’s a wonderful memento that, while imperfect, brought some fun memories, including great articles, fun tutorials and some sweet swag. Fans that bought the magazine would almost always find a free gift within the plastic bag housing the mag. As a constant buyer these are five of my all time favorite freebies that I consumed before the internet became common place.

5. Mini Comics
Wizard was notable for including small or mini comics for the subscribers and fans. While they never gave full comics, a lot of times they’d include a mini comic promoting “The Avengers” cartoon, or maybe they’d have sketchbooks for events like Marvel Knights and or Earth X from Marvel. The comics were actually a lot of fun to read and if you were an art nut like me, they were great to help you learn the art form. I was able to take a lot of the mini-comics and sketchbooks and pair them with the actual comics as a sort of larger experience for the comic.

4. Christmas Gift Tags

For Christmas Wizard gifted fans their very own gift tags featuring some of their favorite comic book characters and teams. I have two whole sheets of comic tags to this day featuring Gen 13, Witchblade, the Justice League and the like. I didn’t know anyone back in the nineties that would have appreciated the tags, but they shockingly have aged beautifully and would likely be a treat for any comic book or pop culture geek today.

3. Chrome Promo Cards

Back then along with variant comic books with multiple covers, companies were convinced that trading cards would also appreciate with value and garner collectors big cash in a decade. We had sheets of these when I was a kid, and Wizard allowed fans various chrome collectors cards with characters like Superman Blue, Iron Man and Onslaught. They were pretty cool cards, overall-- even if about ninety nine percent of the trading cards have zero value.

2. X-Men Diploma
Imagine being an X-Men geek like yours truly, and opening up your Wizard to see your very own X-Men diploma in mint condition for you. This is yet another freebie from Wizard magazine that I still own to this day and have signed it with my own signature. It’s a wonderful bit of wish fulfillment for a comic book geek like me. It’s surprising that these were made relatively free considering the quality. I might have to finally frame the diploma.

1. Avengers ID Card
Originally included in Wizard issue 76, Wizard included a blank Avengers ID Card that felt like a genuine ID Card, right down to the signature from then president Bill Clinton. I went nuts for this freebie when I found it in my Wizard magazine, and filled it out with my own original comic book character at the time. The ID is a wonderful memento and I still own it to this day.

Looking for more from FlixtheCatJr?

READ 179270 TIMES

The Thrill of Looking Through Holiday Shopping Catalogues

As Novembers of each year came to a close, a recurring hobby for me was to always be looking through shopping catalogues for the Christmas season. I d...

What Happened to the Christmas Magic?

It's that time of year again, the lights are stung up and handled with care, the air is filled with the smell of holiday...

Remembering the Rugrats Series

One of the most impactful moments from my childhood was introduction of Nicktoons in the early 1990s, cartoons made by creators who wanted a bit more ...

Castlevania Symphony of the Night - A Masterpiece Not To Be Missed

The Sony PlayStation broke ground to the generation of 32-bit gaming in the 1990s in different genres, from racing, to shooters and even turn-based st...

What Makes Nostalgia, Nostalgic?

The older we get the more we tend to look back on the past, or to be more specific, our own past. It may be as simple as a song or a show that ...

A Thermos Lunch Box Can Define You

When you were in your early years of grade school, all sorts of school supplies were bursting with personality to give you a bit of flair to get recog...

Remembering TMNT Tournament Fighters

When it came to the early 1990s, one fighting game that will get brought up often is the ever popular Street Fighter II. And with Turtle Mania dying d...

How The Summer Days Were Always Packed

Reminiscing on the Summer season can bring either of two cases, remembering how dreadfully hot the temperatures would get, or thinking only of the act...

The Failed Expectations of Third Party Game Controllers

After the resurgence of the video game console market coming from the video game crash of 1983, third party video game controllers from other companie...

MOST RECENT RETRORATING FEATURED OFFICIAL

Go to page: