By the time of this 1965 YEARBOOK, Warren publishing's SPACEMEN, a sci-fi companion to their long-running FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND and MONSTER WORLD, was ending its relatively brief run. Why they didn't get Wood to be their cover artist every month is a mystery as this Russ Jones/Wally Wood collaboration is still a favorite of many fans. Jones had worked with Woody on a black and white comic adaptation of Universal's THE MUMMY for Forrest J. Ackerman (who was surprisingly NOT the editor of SPACEMEN), reaction to which, one can assume, convinced Warren to go forward with his magazine EC clone, CREEPY with Jones as its initial editor. Going forward, Warren quickly closed up shop on his sci-fi mag as well as a western mag, a serial and B-movie mag, MONSTER WORLD and other one-shots. Keeping only his flagship FM, CREEPY would lead to EERIE and VAMPIRELLA, all of which would feature superior work from Wallace Wood from time to time over the following decade after this SPACEMEN cover. Then they finally started a sci-fi mag again...and proceeded to screw Woody over big-time. But that's another story.
Hi—I just came across this blog yesterday. Glad to see it and look forward to more and more. I've included it on my favorite blog list on my blog, My Delineated Life, where I've also posted some Wood material that has influenced me. I plan on posting a bunch more in weeks and months to come, and some of it may parallel or even duplicate yours, but it's just to show the influence in my life and work.
ReplyDeleteEven at his worst I liked Wood work, but at his best, wow, none better.
Thanks for all the background material, it's very enlightening and may shed some light on an experience I had with Wood many years ago. When I post about that I will let you know and that point I hope to get your insight.