Wally Wood

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Wally Wood
A drawing of Wood's face in profile
Self-portrait by Wood
BornWallace Allan Wood
(1927-06-17)June 17, 1927
Menahga, Minnesota, U.S.
DiedNovember 2, 1981(1981-11-02) (aged 54)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Area(s)Cartoonist, Writer, Penciller, Inker, Publisher
Pseudonym(s)Woody
Awards
List

Wallace Allan Wood (June 17, 1927 – November 2, 1981)

Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, and MAD Magazine from its inception in 1952 until 1964, as well as for T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, and work for Warren Publishing's Creepy. He drew a few early issues of Marvel's Daredevil and established the title character's distinctive red costume. Wood created and owned the long-running characters Sally Forth and Cannon
.

He wrote, drew, and self-published two of the three graphic novels of his magnum opus, The Wizard King trilogy, about Odkin son of Odkin before his death by suicide.

Much of his early professional artwork is signed Wallace Wood; some people call him Wally Wood, a name he claimed to dislike.[2] Within the comics community, he was also known as Woody, a name he sometimes used as a signature.

In addition to Wood's hundreds of comic book pages, he illustrated for books and magazines while also working in a variety of other areas – advertising;

trading cards, including work on Topps's landmark Mars Attacks
set.

EC publisher William Gaines once stated, "Wally may have been our most troubled artist ... I'm not suggesting any connection, but he may have been our most brilliant".[3]

He was the inaugural inductee into the comic book industry's

Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame
in 1992.

Biography

Early life and career

Wallace Wood was born June 17, 1927, in

The Spirit and especially Roy Crane's Wash Tubbs. Recalling his childhood, Wood said that his dream at age six, about finding a magic pencil that could draw anything, foretold his future as an artist.[2]
Wood graduated from high school in 1944, signed on with the
Hokkaidō
.

In 1947, at age 20, Wood enrolled in the

Cartoonists and Illustrators School (now known as the School of Visual Arts), staying less than one year (although he made a number of professional contacts which helped him later).[7]

By October, after being rejected by every company he visited, Wood met fellow artist John Severin in the waiting room of a small publisher. After the two shared their experiences attempting to find work, Severin invited Wood to visit his studio, the Charles William Harvey Studio, where Wood met Charlie Stern, Harvey Kurtzman (who was working for Timely/Marvel) and Will Elder. At this studio Wood learned that Will Eisner was looking for a Spirit background artist. He immediately visited Eisner and was hired on the spot.

Over the next year, Wood also became an assistant to

romance comics in 1948. This lasted about a year. I also started doing backgrounds, then inking. Most of it was the romance stuff. For complete pages, it was $5 a page ... Twice a week, I would ink ten pages in one day".[8]

Artists' representative Renaldo Epworth helped Wood land his early comic-book assignments, making it unclear if that connection led to Wood's lettering or to his comics-art debut, the ten-page story "The Tip Off Woman" [

marquee
. He penciled and inked two stories in that issue: "I Was Unwanted" (nine pages) and "My Tarnished Reputation" (ten pages).

Wood began at EC co-penciling and co-inking with Harry Harrison the story "Too Busy For Love" (Modern Love #5), and fully penciling the lead story, "I Was Just a Playtime Cowgirl", in Saddle Romances No. 11 (April 1950), inked by Harrison.[9]

1950s

Working from a Manhattan studio at West 64th Street and Columbus Avenue, Wood began to attract attention in 1950 with his science-fiction artwork for EC and

Superduperman!" battling Captain Marbles.[10]

Wood was instrumental in convincing EC publisher

Tales from the Crypt, as well as the later EC titles Valor, Piracy, and Aces High.[9]

Working over scripts and pencil breakdowns by Jules Feiffer, the 25-year-old Wood drew two months of Will Eisner's Sunday-supplement newspaper comic book The Spirit, on the 1952 story arc "The Spirit in Outer Space". Eisner, Wood recalled, paid him "about $30 a week for lettering and backgrounds on The Spirit. Sometimes he paid $40 when I did the drawings, too".[11]

Books illustrated by Wood

Feiffer, in 2010, recalled Wood's studio, "which was at that time in the very slummy Upper West Side [of Manhattan] in the [West] 60s, years before it was [the] Lincoln Center [area]. It was a cartoonist and science-fiction writers' ghetto – just a huge room where the walls were knocked down, dark, smelly, roach-infested, and all these cartoonists and writers bent over their tables. One was [science-fiction writer] Harry Harrison."[12]

Between 1957 and 1967, Wood produced both covers and interiors for more than 60 issues of the science-fiction digest

Sky Masters of the Space Force, penciled by Jack Kirby.[13]

Wood expanded into book illustrations, including for the picture-cover editions (though not the dust-jacket editions) of titles in the 1959 Aladdin Books reissues of Bobbs Merrill's 1947 "Childhood of Famous Americans" series.[14]

Silver Age and Bronze Age

Wood additionally did art and stories for comic-book companies large and small – from

Bob Powell and Norman Saunders.[20]

Daredevil #7 (April 1964): Wood's best-known work for Marvel, debuting Daredevil's modern red costume.

For Marvel during the

Stilt-Man in Daredevil #8 (June 1965).[22] When Daredevil guest-starred in Fantastic Four #39–40, Wood inked that character, over Jack Kirby pencils, on the covers and throughout the interior.[23]

Wood penciled and inked the first four 10-page installments of the company's "Dr. Doom" feature in Astonishing Tales #1–4 (Aug. 1970-Feb. 1971),[24] and both wrote and drew anthological horror/suspense tales in Tower of Shadows #5–8 (May–Nov. 1970), as well as sporadic other work.[25]

In circles concerned with

Cinderella's Castle. Wood himself, as late as 1981, when asked who did that drawing, said only, "I'd rather not say anything about that! It was the most pirated drawing in history! Everyone was printing copies of that. I understand some people got busted for selling it. I always thought Disney stuff was pretty sexy ... Snow White, etc."[27] Disney took no legal action against either Krassner or The Realist but did sue a publisher of a "blacklight
" version of the poster, who used the image without Krassner's permission. The case was settled out of court.

At DC Comics, he and

Frank Miller's cover of Daredevil #164 (May 1980). His last known mainstream credit was inking Wonder Woman #269 (July 1980).[9]

Over several decades, numerous artists worked at the Wood Studio. Associates and assistants included Dan Adkins,[38] Richard Bassford, Howard Chaykin,[39] Tony Coleman, Nick Cuti,[40] Leo and Diane Dillon, Larry Hama,[41] Russ Jones, Wayne Howard,[42] Paul Kirchner, Joe Orlando, Bill Pearson, Al Sirois, Ralph Reese,[43] Bhob Stewart, Tatjana Wood,[5] and Mike Zeck.

Publisher

In 1966, Wood launched the independent magazine witzend (originally to be titled et cetera, a name which had to be withdrawn when Wood was told another magazine had already used this) one of the first alternative comics, a decade before Mike Friedrich's Star Reach or Flo Steinberg's Big Apple Comix for which Wood drew the cover and contributed a story. Wood offered his fellow professionals the opportunity to contribute illustrations and graphic stories that detoured from the usual conventions of the comics industry. After the fourth issue, Wood turned witzend over to Bill Pearson, who continued as editor and publisher through the 1970s and into the 1980s. Wood additionally collected his feature

Fantagraphics Books, which in 1998 collected the entire run into a single 160-page volume.[44]

In 1969, Wood created another independent comic,

CPL Gang Publications. Larry Hama, one of Wood's assistants, said, "I did script about three Sally Forth stories and a few of the Cannon's. I wrote the main Sally Forth story in the first reprint book, which is actually dedicated to me, mostly because I lent Woody the money to publish it".[46]

In 1980 and 1981, Wood did two issues of a completely pornographic comic book, titled Gang Bang. It featured two sexually explicit Sally Forth stories, and sexually explicit versions of

Alice in Wonderland, titled Malice in Blunderland; a second Flash Gordon sendup titled Flesh Fucker Meets Women's Lib!; and The Wizard of Oz
, titled The Blizzard of Ooze.

"Panels That Always Work"

Wood struggled to be as efficient as possible in the often low-paying comics industry.[47] Over time he created a series of layout techniques sketched on pieces of paper which he taped up near his drawing table. These "visual notes," collected on three pages,[48] reminded Wood (and select assistants he showed the pages to)[49] of various layouts and compositional techniques to keep his pages dynamic and interesting.[47] (In the same vein, Wood also taped up another note to himself: "Never draw anything you can copy, never copy anything you can trace, never trace anything you can cut out and paste up.")[48]

In 1980, Wood's original, three-page, 24-panel (not 22) version of "Panels" was published with the proper copyright notice in The Wallace Wood Sketchbook (Crouch/Wood 1980).[50] Around 1981,[48] Wood's ex-assistant Larry Hama, by then an editor at Marvel Comics, pasted up photocopies of Wood's copyrighted drawings on a single page, which Hama titled "Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work!!" (It was subtitled, "Or some interesting ways to get some variety into those boring panels where some dumb writer has a bunch of lame characters sitting around and talking for page after page!") Hama left out two of the original 24 panels as his photocopies were too faint to make out some of the lightest sketches.[50] Hama distributed Wood's "elegantly simple primer to basic storytelling"[51] to artists in the Marvel bullpen, who in turn passed them on to their friends and associates.[49] Eventually, "22 Panels" made the rounds of just about every cartoonist or aspiring comic book artist in the industry and achieved its own iconic status.[51]

Wood's "Panels That Always Work" is copyright Wallace Wood Properties, LLC as listed by the United States Copyright Office which assigned the work Registration Number VA0001814764.[52]

Homages and tributes to "22 Panels"

In 1986, Tom Christopher, who had been given a copy by Larry Hama at the DC office in 1978 light-boxed the pages, incorporating a non-linear dialogue, and asked Par Holman to ink it. Holman inked and lettered the piece, and the completed art was distributed through

Cerebus TV producer Max Southall brought together materials and released a documentary[57] that featured Dave Sim
's homage to Wallace Wood and a focus on his 22 Panels, including a tribute that features a creation using the motif of one of them, depicting Daredevil and Wood himself, in Wallace Wood style – and the Wallace Wood Estate's official print of the panels.

Personal life and final years

Wood was married three times. His first marriage was to artist Tatjana Wood, who later did extensive work as a comic-book colorist. Their marriage ended in the late 1960s. His second marriage, to Marilyn Silver, also ended in divorce.[5]

For much of his adult life, Wood had chronic, unexplainable headaches. In the 1970s, following bouts with alcoholism, Wood had kidney failure. A stroke in 1978 caused a loss of vision in one eye. Faced with declining health and career prospects, he shot and killed himself in Los Angeles on November 2, 1981.[1][5] Toward the end of his life, an embittered Wood would say, according to one biography, "If I had it all to do over again, I'd cut off my hands."[58]

Biographies, criticism, collections

Wally's World: The Brilliant Life & Tragic Death of Wally Wood, the World's 2nd Best Comic Book Artist by Steve Starger & J. David Spurlock, is a comprehensive biography. It was published in 2006 by Vanguard, which also publishes collections of Wood's comic book work, including Wally Wood: Strange Worlds of Science Fiction, Wally Wood: Eerie Tales of Crime & Horror, Wally Wood: Dare-Devil Aces, Wally Wood: Jungle Adventures, Wally Wood: Torrid Tales of Romance, new editions of The Wizard King books, and the Wally Wood Sketchbook.

In 2017 and 2018,

ISBN 978-1-68396-068-3), mainly compiled by his former assistant Bhob Stewart over a 30-year period. It is a revised, expanded, and uncensored version of his previous Wood book Against the Grain: Mad Artist Wallace Wood (TwoMorrows, 2003). It features personal recollections of Wood's friends, colleagues, and assistants, including John Severin, Al Williamson, Paul Krassner, Trina Robbins, Larry Hama, and Paul Levitz; previously unpublished artwork and photographs; and a detailed examination of his life and career. It was Stewart's last publishing project, but he did not live to see it in print.[59]

Awards

Bibliography

DC Comics

EC Comics

Marvel Comics

Tower Comics

Warren Publishing

  • 1984 #1–2, 5 (1978–1979)
  • Blazing Combat #3–4 (1966)
  • Comix International #1 (1975)
  • Creepy #38, 41, 55, 75, 78, 91 (1971–1977)
  • Eerie #5, 11, 14, 60–61, 131 (1966–1974)
  • Famous Monsters of Filmland #58 (1969)
  • Galactic Wars Comix #1 (1978)
  • Monster World #1 (1964)
  • Vampirella #9–10, 12, 19, 27, Annual #1 (1971–1973)
  • Warren Presents #1, 3 (1979)

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b "Wallace Wood". Lambiek Comiclopedia. 2014. Archived from the original on June 5, 2014.
  2. ^ .
  3. .
  4. .
  5. ^ a b c d McLauchlin, Jim (July 2010). "Tragic Genius: Wally Wood". Wizard (228). Archived from the original on December 30, 2013.
  6. ^ David Saunders: WALLACE WOOD
  7. ^ Nadel, Dan. "Wally Wood Should Have Beaten Them All," Comics Comics (FEBRUARY 18, 2010).
  8. ^ Wallace Wood interview, originally published in The Buyer's Guide No. 403 (August 1, 1981), reprinted in Comic Book Artist No. 14 (July 2001); p. 18 of the latter.
  9. ^ a b c d e Wallace Wood at the Grand Comics Database and Wally Wood at the Grand Comics Database
  10. . In the fourth issue [of Mad] (April–May 1953), writer Harvey Kurtzman and artist Wallace Wood make light of the lawsuit between Superman and Captain Marvel.
  11. ^ Wood interview, Comic Book Artist No. 14, p. 19
  12. ^ Transcript of March 24, 2010, Feiffer interview at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, published as "Backing into Jules Feiffer: An Exclusive Q&A", p.2, FilmFestivalTraveler.com, April 18, 2010. WebCitation archive.
  13. . The artwork was exquisite, in no small part because Dave Wood had the idea to hire Wally Wood (no relation) to handle the inking.
  14. ^ Guthridge, Sue. Tom Edison, Boy Inventor. Illustrated by Wood. New York : Aladdin Books; London : Collier Macmillan, 1986, c1959
  15. .
  16. ^ Arndt, Richard J. (April 2018). ""Nice" Is the Word: A Few Words on Archie Goodwin". Back Issue! (103). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 12.
  17. ^ Ivie, Larry, "Ivie League Heroes", Comic Book Artist No. 14 (July 2001), pp. 64–68
  18. ^ Markstein, Don (2010). "T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on June 22, 2014. The series was created by Wallace Wood, whose art had been seen throughout the comics industry since 1947 ... Wood was mainly responsible for the overall look of the series.
  19. ^ Truitt, Brian (July 23, 2012). "Mars Attacks again, 50 years later". USA Today. Archived from the original on April 3, 2015.
  20. . The complicated red-and-yellow costume that [Bill] Everett created for the original Daredevil cover was changed by artist Wally Wood to simpler red tights. The more devilish new costume is the one that ultimately lasted.
  21. . The Stilt-Man sprang into action in Daredevil #8. Created by Stan Lee and Wally Wood, his limited powers made him a joke among other criminals.
  22. ^ Per Stan Lee in letters page, Fantastic Four N#42 (Sept. 1965)
  23. ^ Sanderson, Peter "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 146: "Marvel's second split book of 1970 gave two longtime Marvel stars their own series. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby collaborated on the first installment of the new series starring Ka-Zar ... Marvel's greatest villain, Dr. Doom, also received his own series, scripted by Roy Thomas and drawn ... [by] Wally Wood."
  24. ^ Wood inked The Avengers #20–22 and the "Iron Man" feature in Tales of Suspense #71, both over penciler Don Heck, as well as the "Human Torch" feature in Strange Tales #134, over Powell, in 1965; Captain America #127, over Gene Colan, in 1970; Kull the Conqueror #1, over Ross Andru, and "Red Wolf" in Marvel Spotlight #1, over Syd Shores, in 1971; and The Cat #1, over Marie Severin, in 1972. He inked Kirby on the covers of Avengers #20–21 and The X-Men #14. The Grand Comics Database also cites "additional inks ... uncredited" on the Kirby layouts and George Tuska pencil and ink work of the "Captain America" feature in Tales of Suspense #71.
  25. ^ Krassner, Paul, and Wally Wood "The Disneyland Memorial Orgy", The Realist Archive Project: The Realist #74, May 1967, pp. 12–13. WebCitation archive. Credits listed at archive's May 1967 Contents Page. WebCitation archive.
  26. ^ Comic Book Artist No. 14, p. 20
  27. . Writer Jim Shooter and artist Wally Wood helmed November [1968]'s Captain Action #1, based on Ideal's popular action figure.
  28. . In 1969, Superboy ... swerved radically from the complacent Super-house style once writer Frank Robbins came aboard ... Overnight the comic was reinvented with realistic teen angst, natural dialogue, and a sex appeal that was only aided by the inks of good-girl artist Wally Wood. Under his brush, Lana Lang never looked hotter.
  29. .
  30. ^ "Hal Foster". Lambiek Comiclopedia. November 25, 2011. Archived from the original on October 25, 2013. Hal Foster grew older, too – after all, he was already 44 when he started Prince Valiant! He decided to start working with assistants. Three artists worked with him: Gray Morrow, Wally Wood and John Cullen Murphy.
  31. ^ McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 156: "From the lavish covers of Basil Wolverton and Wally Wood to one-page gags and stories too peculiar for even the likes of a Mad magazine, Plop! lived ... by its own macabre rules."
  32. . I'll make do with re-reading these wonderful four issues in which Ditko's beautiful pencils are ennobled by the incomparable Wally Wood's inks.
  33. .
  34. .
  35. ^ Markstein, Don (2010). "Power Girl". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on June 22, 2014.
  36. ^ Evanier, Mark (July 4, 2012). "Foto File". News From ME. Archived from the original on July 13, 2012. Fans noticed that her chest seemed to grow from issue to issue. I was around once when Woody was asked about this. He said that it was his intention to add about a half-inch to her bustline every issue and see how long it would be before someone told him to stop. Wood only did eight or nine issues and I think someone told him to stop around his sixth
  37. .
  38. .
  39. ^ Wahl, Andrew (July 23, 2009). "CCI: Nicola Cuti Earns Inkpot Honor". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on September 19, 2016. Before long, Cuti would fall in with the legendary Wally Wood, with whom he would share a studio in Long Island.
  40. Fictioneer Books
    : 36–45.
  41. ^ "Wayne Howard". Lambiek Comiclopedia. October 2, 2015. Archived from the original on September 15, 2016. He joined Wally Wood's studios in Long Island, New York, around 1969.
  42. ^ "Ralph Reese". Lambiek Comiclopedia. 2016. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. From the age of 16, Ralph Reese assisted Wallace Wood on a number of projects, including the DC series Superboy and a series of Topps trading cards.
  43. ^ Markstein, Don (2007). "Sally Forth". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on June 22, 2014.
  44. ^ Wally Wood's "Misfits" at An International Catalogue of Superheroes.WebCitation archive.
  45. ^ JoeGuide.com: "Larry Hama: Writer & Artist", no date. Original link dead as of at least February 4, 2010. Archived January 1, 1996, at the Wayback Machine.
  46. ^ a b Evanier, Mark (July 2, 2010). "Today's Video Link". News From ME. Archived from the original on June 25, 2014.
  47. ^ a b c Hama, quoted in Johnson, Joel. "Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work: Unlimited Edition," Joel Johnson's blog, August 18, 2006. WebCitation archive.
  48. ^ a b c Johnson.
  49. ^ a b Wallace Wood Sketchbook (Crouch, 1980). [1].
  50. ^ a b McDonald, Heidi. "Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work: Unlimited Edition", The Beat, August 21, 2006. WebCitation archive.
  51. ^ "Panels That Always Work". United States Copyright Office. n.d. Archived from the original on January 3, 2022.
  52. ^ Beschizza, Rob. "22 movie making techniques that always work...", BoingBoing, July 1, 2010. WebCitation archive.
  53. ^ Thompson, Steven. "Wood's 22 Panels Revisited", Hooray for Wally Wood, November 3, 2010. WebCitation archive.
  54. ^ "Cheese's 22 Panels That Never Work!" HouseOfTwelve.com. Accessed August 2, 2011.
  55. ^ Arrant, Chris. "Mike Oeming’s homage to Wally Wood’s 22 Panels That Always Work," Archived May 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Comic Book Resources: "Robot 6" (June 1, 2012).
  56. ^ "CerebusTV #36 (Wally Wood episode)". Cerebus.tv. July 2012. Archived from the original on August 28, 2014.
  57. .
  58. ^ "Report to Readers: The Life and Legend of Wallace Wood Volume 2". The Comics Journal. March 19, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  59. ^ "Division Awards Comic Books". National Cartoonists Society. 2013. Archived from the original on December 16, 2013. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
  60. ^ a b c d Bails, Jerry, and Hames Ware. Wood, Wally (entry), Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999. Accessed April 5, 2011. WebCitation archive.
  61. ^ Inkpot Award
  62. ^ "2011 Inkwell Awards Winners". Inkwell Awards. Archived from the original on October 8, 2014.
  63. ^ YouTube – J. David Spurlock – Heroes Convention 2011 – Posthumous acceptance on behalf of Wally Wood
  64. ^ "Doug Gilford's Mad Cover Site - UGOI - Wally Wood".

References

External links