This is a great Wallace Wood war page, from the classic EC Comics WWI story: “Old Soldiers Never Die.” (Two-Fisted Tales #23.)
I first discovered EC comics in late ’71 or early ’72, thanks to the incredible oversized Nostalgia Press collection, The EC Horror Library of the 1950’s.
From that moment on, I was hooked.
Maybe surprisingly, once I got past the initial shock value of the horror books, I realized I could kind of take them or leave them. But everything else? That was a different story.
Science fiction—absolutely. Crime—of course. Humor—what was better than Mad?
And those war comics… man.
Harvey Kurtzman’s storytelling was first-rate. And unlike the Al Feldstein-driven stories in the other genres, he typically let the art—more than captions or dialogue—carry the narrative.
If you had told 12-year-old me that one day I’d own original art from artists like Wally Wood, Jack Davis, and others, I would’ve thought you were completely out of your ever-loving mind.
To say I’m grateful to be the temporary caretaker of this art… that’s the understatement of the year.
Wallace Wood’s brief return to Marvel in 1970 gave us an early glimpse of the sword-and-sorcery wave that was about to hit like a tidal surge.
If you mostly know Wood from EC or straight-up superhero work, his Tower of Shadows run (#5–8) is a really fun side trip into that territory. This great page comes from the second story, featuring an offbeat take on Beowulf.
He wrote and drew all four shorts, so what we’re getting is pure, undiluted Wood: moody lighting, dramatic staging, and an always-present feeling that everyone’s living one bad decision away from doom.
These aren’t Conan-style epics. They’re more like dark fairy tales from a guy who clearly loved drawing adventurers, monsters — and gorgeous women. The earliest of them — including this one — actually predate Conan #1. Woody was ahead of the curve.
Short stories. Big atmosphere. Fantastic art.
And a preview of what he’d later unleash in his own indie — and decidedly adult — fantasy project, The Wizard King.
Four stories, four great title pagesAlso before Conan the Barbarian #1, Roy Thomas and Barry Smith tested the waters with a prototype Conan-like hero—Starr the Slayer—in Chamber of Darkness, the sister title to Tower of Shadows.
WALLY WOOD — MARVEL CHECKLIST (1964–1972)
1964–1965 Run (Primary Period)
☐ Daredevil #5 — Dec 1964 Pencils, inks (Wood’s Marvel debut; defined early DD look)
Please collect all the random and misc. (and typically GREAT) stories from the legendary Wallace Wood in one place — omnibus, compendium, DC Finest, whatever. I’m constantly discovering “new” storiesI’ve missed like this one, aptly titled “The Collector.” (Pencils and inks by Woody, blueline breakdowns by Al Sirois.) Reprinted only once, 40 years ago, in a cheapie digest.
Woody deserves better treatment.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Yr. Pal,
Greg
PS That middle panel page is such a great throwback to Woody’s classic EC days, isn’t it? The coloring doesn’t quite do it justice.
Another checked box on the art bucket list: Green Lantern, pencils by Gil Kane and Inks by Wallace Wood, from the only GL issue (#69) they worked on together.
This dynamic page, created during the latter part of Kane’s run on the series, nicely showcases the artistic chops of both Kane and Wood. Although Woody was often known for completely overshadowing his pencilers, this issue’s collaboration is excellent — Wood adding his sleek polish to Kane’s imaginative storytelling and skillful figure work.
Green Lantern was all over the map during this period — story and art teams were always in flux, and it’s clear the book couldn’t find its footing. Ultimately, that editorial challenge proved to be a boon to comics and DC specifically, when a half year later, Denny O’neil and Neal Adams took over, added Green Arrow and revamped it all. At that point, what did they have to lose?
Wally Wood drew four short Doctor Doom stories in Astonishing Tales. This page, from the fourth and final story is, like all of them, a Wood classic.
And yes, that’s the Red Skull lurking in the last panel. After all, what use is a super-villain story without another, even more twisted super-villain as the antagonist?
This would turn out to be Wood’s final output for Marvel Comics.
Took me a long time to pull the trigger on the “right” deal for one of these, and I’m glad to have finally acquired one.
Bob Brown’s Superboy stories were the Superboy stories I read as a kid.
Wally Wood inks? A very happy bonus.
Even though the stories rarely matched the intensity of the typically featured Neal Adams covers, I’d likely buy a collection of this material on the spot if it ever becomes available. Nostalgia is a powerful thing. (It’s shocking how much DC silver age superhero material remains to be printed. But that’s a story for another day.)
Wallace Wood revisits his Mad comics chops with this terrific parody of Lord of the Rings.
Terrific, but little seen, because it appears in a later issue of Plop, when sales were low, and… it’s only been collected one other time — in digest format — a few years later.
With the exception of (perhaps) the title splash this is the best page in the issue, mashing up gags about hobbits, the seven dwarves and Prince Valiant — all in the distinctive Woody style. (And yes, one word balloon is definitely not PC in the original, but it was nearly 50 years ago, and appears to have been modified.)
Welcome to Day Nine of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.
The 80s digest reprint did a much better job of promoting of what you received when you plopped down (ouch) your dollar.The classic Harvard Lampoon satire of LOTR has gone though multiple printings since it first appeared in 1969, and unlike most parodies, has stayed in print since first publication.
Wayne Howard studied as an assistant under Wally Wood and then went full-on Wood with his creator driven book Midnight Tales which lasted 18 issues in the early mid -70s.
(The Iron Man is the final story in the final issue of the series. No relation to Tony Stark.)
And, of all of Woody’s assistants, Howard made no bones about his referential approach to Wood’s style.
The comic was a unique creation at Charlton (or anywhere, actually) and featured nearly exclusive Howard-drawn stories. Charlton promoted Howard’s concept on the cover — and in the fan press and at conventions.
A young African American in an industry still mostly dominated by (older) white men, Howard himself was a unique member of the comics creative community. He was known to be somewhat shy, and he was also known for conservative views, again a striking contrast to many of his industry peers.
When Howard left comics, he rarely spoke about his work; He passed away at the much too early age of 58 in 2007.
Happy (almost) Independence Day! Welcome to our second annual month-long celebration of the “Independents” — Independent creators and projects that continue to impact the comic book medium. This is our third (and final installment) in a week-long series focused on Wallace Wood.
Shattuck is the rarest, the oddest, and the shortest-lived of the Wood Studio strip ventures.
Many collectors had never seen any until Fanatagraphics issued a complete collection a few years ago.
“Shattuck is more a collector’s curiosity than a bona fide graphic novel, pulling together the episodes of a short lived Western newspaper strip produced in 1972 for the Overseas Weekly. Wood’s studio had the contract to produce the strip, and as with others for the same market, one of the artists recalled the brief as being to get the women’s clothes off as rapidly as possible. It can’t be said that Wood underestimated his audience…
“Many hands worked on the project… Wood himself might be involved in any episode plotting, laying out, adding inks or correcting, while his chief studio assistant Nicola Cuti also produced plots and layouts using a swipe file. Most of the actual illustration was the first published work of Howard Chaykin, then Dave Cockrum, both usually inked by Jack Abel. Both Wood and Abel have utterly distinctive inking styles, so there’s no difficulty in recognizing which worked on which strip.
This particular example appears to be mostly Cockrum, possibly with some Abel inks and definitely some Wood fixes in places. It’s “Where’s Woody” instead of “Where’s Waldo” — you have to look carefully to find it.
Happy (almost) Independence Day! Welcome to our second annual month-long celebration of the “Independents” — Independent creators and projects that continue to impact the comic book medium. This is our second part of a week-long series focused on Wallace Wood.
I own possibly the rarest of all Wallace Wood Sally Forth strips: A “PG-13” version (no nudity) and, more importantly, a full showcase of Wood’ talents; Odd creatures, robots, satire, action, and of course, sexy women. (An art dealer who wanted to acquire it from me told me that his married Wood fans could hang it up and not feel “embarrassed.”)
Forth, Wood’s sexy action-adventure character, who is mostly depicted nude in the series, first appeared during June 1968, in Military News, a 16-page tabloid from Armed Forces Diamond Sales. The title is wordplay — “to sally forth,” means to leave or attack from a military encampment.
Sally returned July 26, 1971, in the Overseas Weekly, and ran until 1974.
The character is absolutely no relation to the Sally Forth comic strip created by cartoonist Greg Howard.
But is pretty humorous when people mix the characters up.
No, not THAT Sally Forth
The Complete Sally Forth (Wood) — long out of print and VERY expensive — along with earlier comic book reprints featuring covers by Adam Hughes and John Workman.
