News quickly rocketed around last evening that Kiel Phegley has been dismissed from his position at Wizard Magazine. Phegley has been co-writing the Indie Jones column for Wizard.com and spearheaded much of their convention coverage, and was a familiar face on the circuit so it comes as a bit of a surprise. However, with massive personnel changes taking place at the company, and their offices put on the market in an “exploratory move” you can only come to one conclusion — printing magazines just isn’t as lucrative as it used to be.
The Beat wishes Phegley well in his future endeavors — given his very obvious skills, we’re sure he’ll be snatched up soon.
Kiel seemed to be one of the bright spots at Wizard. I guess if they don’t appreciate him, I look forward to seeing him move on to bigger and better things.
I’m sorta glad Kiel is gone from Wizard, as I will no longer have to pause in my trash-talking of Wizard to add “…except for Kiel Phegley.” Really, my only regret is I don’t have a vast media empire for him to spearhead.
The guy’s smart, funny, and as sharp as whip. I look forward to seeing what he does next.
He’s a cool guy and I’m sure he’ll end up doing something good.
” … you can only come to one conclusion — printing magazines just isn’t as lucrative as it used to be.”
Well, no. Publishing WIZARD may not be as lucrative as it used to be. Or holding WIZARD WORLD conventions. This sounds more like a classic example of killing the golden goose.
Aw, that’s a bummer… Sorry, Kiel.
My boy Kiel will land on his feet. He’s too talented not to.
Crap, I hope he doesn’t take my job…DON’T TAKE MY JOB, KIEL!
Fortunately there are around 17 other former Wizard creative staffers who’ve left in the past 10 months to help Kiel out!
He’s a great writer with great tastes in comics, if anyone’s got any use for someone like that…
Writer of articles about Indiana Jones movie fired as soon as the movie opens.
How typically corporate.
Best of luck to Kiel. His life just became immeasurably better.
Congratulations Kiel!
Kiel’s an incredibly talented writer in the industry and was producing work at considerable quality — and also quantity. Congrats to him for shedding a burden that was holding back his real potential and speeding up his move to a great publisher. Let the bidding begin…
Always a pleasure to work with. Sorry to see him go, but excited to see what’s up next for one of my favorite Wizkids ®
Good luck, Kiel!
Sending good karma to Kiel and I know he will land on his feet. I had the privilege of being on a comics podcast panel with Kiel and I was impressed not only with his friendly and easy-going manner but his broad-ranged knowledge and savvy about the industry. Thus fades virtually the last reason to look at Wizard at all, but I’ll be following Kiel’s writing wherever he goes.
sorry to hear this. best of luck dude!
Kiel’s writing speaks for itself. As someone who’s worked side by side with him, I’ll tell anyone who wants to know that his keen wordsmithing is matched by the kind of constant bright idea generation and professionalism that’s going to make a publisher somewhere quite happy to have aboard.
I love Kiel. I’m sure he’ll bounce back.
Boy, Wizard sounds like a nasty place.
Man, Kiel’s a hell of a dude. This is pretty depressing news. Best of luck to ya, buddy.