The Animated Wizard King

There wasn't one. Animated WIZARD KING that is. Wood had reportedly had the story of Odkin and the World of the Wizard King floating around in his head for decades. Other than a few odd sketches here and there, it finally began to emerge from his subconscious in early issues of his self-published WITZEND in the mid-sixties and beyond. With the popularity of sword and sorcery fiction and comics by 1970, it seemed a natural that Odkin and friends could make it in the movies! Animated, of course!

I don't know if there were really ever any plans for a WIZARD KING film or if these and other "animation cels" were done on spec just to try to sell the project. Ralph Bakshi's WIZARDS borrowed a bit from Wood's work and Wendy and Richard Pini's ELFQUEST clearly showed inspiration but Woody's dream, like so many in later years, was not to be.

Seen here, though, from the legendary limited edition STreet (sic) Enterprises...Ummm... OMG! I JUST now got that! Capital S and Capital T as in the last names of the two guys who comprised the company--Jerry Sinkovec and Mike Tiefenbacher. I can't believe it! More than 30 years and I just now...Ahem! Sorry...Where was I?

As I was saying, as seen here from the limited edition STreet Enterprises Portfolio of 1975 (mine's # 883 out of a print run of 2000) we offer 4 of the cels featuring scenes from the never was animated feature THE WIZARD KING. If I recall, the Odkin character was to be renamed "Weehawk."