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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 in the background
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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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