Reprinted by permission from THE JOHNNY BACARDI SHOW, Tuesday, January 14, 2003--
http://johnnybacardi.blogspot.com/"When I was 18 or so, I saw an ad in (I think) the Comics Journal. It advertised the opportunity to join a new club that was started by none other than the legendary artist Wally Wood. For $15, a mere pittance, you could receive copies of his
newest, self-published works, a membership card, a newsletter updating you on upcoming projects, and the coup de grace, an original Wood sketch of your choice. I couldn't resist; I signed up immediately and sent my check for fifteen bucks. Being an aspiring comic book artist, I couldn't resist the opportunity to write one of my art heroes...I told him of my ambitions and asked if he would be willing to review some samples of my stuff. Oh the chutzpah of 18. Anyway, below you can read his reply, as well as see the envelope, membership card, and cancelled check. Needless to say, Woody
was a far better artist than he was a prognosticator. What I eventually received was the latest collections of Sally Forth, the Wizard King, and Cannon, all B&W and gorgeously drawn
. What I didn't receive was my frigging original sketch. Oh well, sobered by the tone of his response, I never got around to sending him any of my art...too bad, I understand he was in failing health by then and probably could have used the laugh. A couple of years later, he was dead, but I have still held on to all the swag I got as a member of the Friends of Odkin and wouldn't trade it for all the tea in China."
Send your own Wood encounters, anecdotes or memorabilia to booksteve@aol.com.
newest, self-published works, a membership card, a newsletter updating you on upcoming projects, and the coup de grace, an original Wood sketch of your choice. I couldn't resist; I signed up immediately and sent my check for fifteen bucks. Being an aspiring comic book artist, I couldn't resist the opportunity to write one of my art heroes...I told him of my ambitions and asked if he would be willing to review some samples of my stuff. Oh the chutzpah of 18. Anyway, below you can read his reply, as well as see the envelope, membership card, and cancelled check. Needless to say, Woody
was a far better artist than he was a prognosticator. What I eventually received was the latest collections of Sally Forth, the Wizard King, and Cannon, all B&W and gorgeously drawn
. What I didn't receive was my frigging original sketch. Oh well, sobered by the tone of his response, I never got around to sending him any of my art...too bad, I understand he was in failing health by then and probably could have used the laugh. A couple of years later, he was dead, but I have still held on to all the swag I got as a member of the Friends of Odkin and wouldn't trade it for all the tea in China."
During his relatively brief stay at Marvel, Wood teamed once again with his former SKY MASTERS OF THE SPACE FORCE penciller, Jack Kirby on these three AVENGERS covers.
ning ten issues over a five year period beginning in 1965, Wood and Dan Adkins were only involved with the first three but their enthusiasm showed. As Gold Key--like Dell before it--had alwa
ys eschewed the Comics Code, Woody went to town with comic strip violence in what might almost be seen as a dry run for his later CANNON strip. TOTAL WAR told the story of a mysterious force invading the US, With Cold War paranoia being what it was, this had bee
n an underlying fear for a generation by 1965. In this take, the US military's response is augmented by the M.A.R.S. Patrol, the Marine Attack Rescue Service Patrol, a specially trained group of fighters who take on the unknown invaders issue ater issue. The first three issues contain some of Woody's best comics work from this period and were recently collected by Dark Horse with an intro by Adkins.
simply took the basic character's visuals and made up everything else. Unfortunately, by 1968 the moment had passed and Ideal's Captain was no longer particularly popular. 
Another Net-grab. The fact that these two apparent hero characters appear next to a rough for Wood's Harvey Comics story, EARTHMAN, would seem to date them to around that same point in the mid-sixties. Also, note the Knight's similarity to RADIAN from WHAM-O GIANT COMICS, also from that period. All of this makes me wonder if Woody was perhaps already mulling over in his mind some sort of bigger sci-fi super hero concept than just a few individual stories. Perhaps this was the gestation of what soon thereafter appeared as the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS?
Lennard Grahn from Copenhagen sent along this story suspecting that it might be by Wallace Wood. I don't blame him for thinking that. It isn't but some parts of it are a darn good imitation so I thought I'd share it here anyway! Other parts of it strongly resemble Jack Davis work. As near as I can tell, the story, SHIRL THE JUNGLE GIRL, is fairly obscure, having been reprinted in at least one of Bill Black's JUNGLE GIRLS anthologies but otherwise ignored. Part of the reason for this is that it originally appeared as the back-up in HARVEY HITS # 1 starring THE PHANTOM. The actual artist is Howard Nostrand who was known to imitate Wood and Jack Davis in Harvey's short-lived MAD rip-off, FLIP, in 1954. It's my theory, then, that SHIRL was leftover FLIP inventory simply being used up in 1957. Still, a fun, silly story clearly inspired by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood.
