What Wizard overlord Gareb Shamus once called "the smartest business decision" of his life seems not to have panned out, as the Wizard World digital magazine he launched earlier this year appears to have been, well, deleted.Presently, visitors to the WizardWorldDigital.com URL will be met with some inscrutable Web code indicating the magazine is no more. The Wizard World digital mag was launched concurrent with the abrupt cancelations of Wizard: The Guide to Comics and ToyFare, print publications once considered staples of the industries they covered. The now infamous press release that announced the Wizard World project and the company's public stock offering made no mention of the cancelation of those magazines (whose former subscribers still demand satisfaction), so it is consistent that Shamus hasn't yet commented on the deletion of Wizard World.


Despite the Wizard World digital magazine setback, Shamus is continuing to embrace the contemporary digital landscape via Twitter, which boasts a thriving comic book community of professionals and fans whose interactions fuel the ongoing discussion about comics news, culture and art. There, Shamus has posted twice since November 20, each time inviting followers to his blog (to which he does not link). He also retweeted a post by VH1 host Siggy Flicker about her matchmaking show.

Perhaps consequently, Shamus' follower count remains lower than that of the amusing Fake Gareb Shamus account that tracks many ex-Wizard contributors (like our own Laura Hudson and Caleb Goellner) and other comics journalists.

On his new Wizard World blog -- "where pop fi comes to life" -- Shamus has published video interviews with such comics creators as Greg Horn, Kevin Maguire, Greg Capullo and Marv Wolfman. There is also a post dedicated to delicious cookies. "In addition to growing up in the comics biz, I also grew up liking chocolate chip cookies," Shamus wrote. "I can't help it; every time I see them on the dessert menu or at a delicious-smelling bakery, I have to get one."

The apparent demise of the Wizard World digital magazine, which was available in the form of downloadable PDFs and via an iPad application, is consistent with some deft observations made by former Wizard contributor and current Robot 6 blogger Sean T. Collins back in March. Collins reported that Shamus' digital venture was garnering at that time just under 2,000 "clicks," as tracked via bit.ly, a steady decline from the 4,000 clicks the magazine launched with. This underwhelming performance came after Shamus gave a thoroughly entertaining interview to iFanboy in which he claimed the Wizard brand reached "millions of people" and that alternative websites -- presumably outlets like iFanboy, Robot 6 and ComicsAlliance -- "are pretty worthless in their ability to have an impact on an audience."

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