Bent Corner

The other day I wrote about Wizard Universe selling hundreds of issues of Captain America #25 on eBay. It seemed as though Wizard Universe had some kind of special insight that Captain America #25 would include the death of Captain America. That’s some insight no other comic retailer seemed to have.

Wizard the magazine is a magazine about comic books. Wizard Universe is a retailer that sells comic books. Is there an information firewall between the two entities? Are there safe guards in place to ensure that the retailing side of Wizard doesn’t get an unfair advantage from the (don’t laugh) the journalistic side of Wizard?

The Daily News was the first to break the story about Captain America getting killed. It wasn’t by accident. They were privy to the fact that Captain America was going to be killed in issue #25 two whole months before it happened. What if the Daily News also sold comic books? Would that be a conflict? They don’t sell comic books, so it’s not an issue.

The difference with Wizard is that not only do they report on comics, they also sell them. By the looks of Wizard Universe’s eBay auctions for Captain America #25, someone over there had the foresight to order lots and lots of this particular issue.

I decided I would try to ask Wizard.

I contacted Wizard’s media contact Drew Seldin. In an email, I asked if in fact anyone at Wizard the magazine had prior knowledge of Captain America’s death and if anyone at Wizard the magazine passed this information over to Wizard Universe before last week. Seldin responded to my email. Instead of simply answering my question, he told me that he believed that my “ultimate goal is to attack Wizard“.

He went on to say that if he was wrong about my intentions, I could call him next week and we could discuss it. My ultimate goal was not to attack Wizard. It was to have him answer my question. By refusing to answer my question, I’m left with even stronger suspicions then I had before.