Walter Simonson — Bucket List
Hercules Unbound #7, November 1976
Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Wally Wood only teamed up for six issues of the short-lived Hercules Unbound. Garcia-Lopez moved on, and Walter Simonson took over with Issue #7. (Wood only stayed on for one additional issue.)
Walter’s art style, like many of his generational peers (Chaykin, Wrightson, etc.) is very distinctive. Manhunter. Thor. X-Factor. Ragnarok. Et al. Typically, when you see a Walter Simonson penciled page, you know it.
Not here though. As noted earlier, Wood’s inks typically put so much lush polish on the pencils, It’s not that easy to sort out the penciller’s own style. When I first scanned this issue, I didn’t immediately catch that Garcia-Lopez was off the book. (Once you know, and compare against the earlier issues, you can definitely see some differences.)
Here’s an extra cool thing about this great Herc page. I luckily acquired it at a convention where Walter was a guest of ours at IDW Publishing, and I asked him to inscribe it. It reads:
“Another bucket list check mark — my layouts — Wallace Wood inks!”
Footnote — More creative shuffling: After two issues inked by Bob Layton, Walter provided both pencils and inks on the final two issues. As evidenced below, Walter’s work again looks like… Walter!