Wizard the Guide to Comics: Bart's Mascot

Bart Sears has had a long history with Wizard, going all the way back to its first couple of issues. Over the first 100 issues, Bart produced more covers than any other artist, even Alex Ross.

But he also did other things for Wizard other than covers (the covers of which will be featured in another post soon), and the one thing I want to concentrate on in this post is the Wizard Mascot that was used from Wizard 4 through 16.

Bart produced, as far as I've seen, a total of 10 different Mascot images for Wizard. Let's go through each one and what it was used for.

Mascot #1 - The Headshot

This image was used in the regular article titled 'The Wizard's Crystal Ball,' it is the only Mascot image using only his head.

Mascot #2 - The Director's chair

This image was sometimes used on the regular article 'Hollywood Heroes,' but was also used on an issue 9 full page advert in issue 8 and one side of issue 8's Subscription Coupon.

Mascot #3 - The Spotlight

This particular image was definitely used the most of all of the mascot images. It was used on the section called 'Wizard Spotlight,' but also appeared on 'Wizard Comic Watch,' 'Wizard News' and 'Recommended Reading, as well as the back side of Issues 8's Subscription Coupon.

Mascot #4 - Lucky Dip

This image wasn't used much, but features in 'Picks from the Wizard's Hat.'

Mascot #5 - Strike a pose

As far as I know, this image was only used three times, most notably on the Subscription Coupon for issue 4 and on the card featuring Jim Lee's Wildcats. It is pretty badly pixelated, and I've never seen a good copy of it.

Mascot #6 - Mailman

This guy was used a lot in the 'Magic Words' section, which was essentially the reader letters column.

Mascot #7 - Ta-da!

Another one not be used much at all, only in issue 15 as far as I know in the 'Special Thanks' column.

Mascot #8 - Really hot comic

Yet another image only used once, for something called the 'Wizard Cool C.O.R.P.S.' in issue 12. The Cool C.O.R.P.S. was some kind of fan club they set up, can't imagine too many people joined it with a name like that.

Mascot #9 - I'm excited about something!

This Mascot was never used, as far as I know, so its another exclusive to this Blog, I guess.

Mascot #10 - Now I'm running from something scary!

Again, this Mascot wasn't used, I guess they couldn't find a department for him either.

Please note I am yet to scoure issues 2, 3, 5, 6, 9 and 11 for Mascots (a problem I'm hoping to remedy soon), so there may well be further Mascots out there. But I though I'd go ahead anyway, seeing as they're such as nice little corner of Bart & Wizard's history virtually unknown to most people. Hope you liked it.

I've got a lot more to say about Bart's work for Wizard The Guide to Comics, so this is only the first step into that world. I still have to write about Bart's covers (both used and unused), interviews, adverts, articles, and most importantly, his Brute & Babe tutorials.

So check back often for further updates, which will be coming thick and fast from now on.