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Wood
quickly became a master at the art of science fiction
and horror. Here is an early cover from 1951 for CAPTAIN
SCIENCE 4.
Already, he is drawing beautiful women in sensual
poses, as the woman threatened by the space monster
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Wally
was very prolific in the '50s. Aside from his most
famous work for EC, he also did projects for Avon,
Ziff-Davis and the Fox Feature Syndicate, among
others. Here are two covers for Avon's EERIE comics
from 1952.
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EERIE
4
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EERIE
5
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Horror
and science fiction were not the only subjects that
Wally lent his talents to. He is probably best remembered
for his humorous work in MAD magazine. He was one
of MAD's founding fathers, contributing work from
issue #1, in 1952, and on up to 1964. Here is an example
of some of his pre-MAD humor in PEDRO
from 1950. |
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In
the mid-fifties, fear of what comic books could be
doing to the youth of America resulted in a kind of
witch hunt similar to the atmosphere of the McCarthy
Era. Many comic book companies went out of business,
including E.C. It was not a good time for anyone involved
in the industry. The only publication to survive the
E.C. demise was MAD in Magazine form. Wally did some
of his best work for MAD,
and no gallery would be complete without something
from it's pages... |
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.
.Beginning
in 1964, Wood started working for Marvel comics.He
worked on titles such as The Avengers, Captain
America and Ironman, but his best known work for
Marvel was for Daredevil. He redesigned the character's
suit, and even wrote one issue.
.....DD5.....DD6.....DD7.....DD8.....DD9.....DD10.....DD11.....
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Wally worked for many companies in the sixties,
spreading his talent over a wide variety of
subject matter. He was instramental in starting
one of the best remembered comic companies
in the sixties, TOWER. Many of the characters
in the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS were created
by him. One character, William "Weed", seems
to be a caracature of Wally Wood himself.
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For me, some
of Woods very best work was done for WARREN magazines,
in the titles CREEPY, EERIE, and VAMPIRELLA. After
all, this was where I first really became aware
of his art (tho' I had been exposed to it before).
After seeing the story "THE
CURSE" in VAMPIRELLA
#9, I became a lifetime devotee of Wally Wood's
wonderful work.
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The
following is a story from CREEPY #38
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....1....2....3....4....5....6
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Although
he was working for some of the biggest companies
in the industry, Wood became disillusioned with
the low status he and other creative people were
given in the business. In order to get around the
status quo, he began to self publish. It never became
a big money making venture, but it allowed artists
and writers to have creative control over their
work, and to keep the copy rights to their creations.
He published the first pro-zine patterned after
fan-zines,WITZEND,
as well as some adult oriented strips such as CANNONand
SALLY FORTH.
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Wally
never made enough money on his self publishing
projects to pay the bills, so he had to go
back to the majors. One of his last projects
was THE
WIZARD KING.
In the end, his health had deteriorated and
he had been taken advantage of by some of
the biggest names in publishing. He took his
own life on November 2, 1981. Today, not many
remember his name, but to me he will always
remain one of the greatest artists in the
world.
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