Plop Art

Here's an unused Wood cover for an issue of DC's black humor mag, PLOP. About halfway through that comic's early seventies run, the artist took over the front cover chores from Basil Wolverton and began showcasing some of his own weird character designs. This one surfaced late in 1976 as the back cover to AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS # 13 (the unpredictable issue), the enjoyable in-house fanzine produced by folks such as Bob Rozakis, Jack C. Harris (both Facebook friends now!) and Anthony Tollin (a sometime reader of my other blog!). This issue also featured two unpublished PLOP stories including one written by Steve Skeates with art by Ditko and Wood!

Surf Hunter Again

From an early edition of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, here are a couple more nice examples from Jack Kirby's unpublished newspaper strip from the 1950's entitled SURF HUNTER. The strip would have been inked by Wood and, as seen here on the top sample, that would have made for some very attractive illustrations!

Terry and the Pirates

Wallace Wood is often said to have ghosted and/or assisted on George Wunder's TERRY AND THE PIRATES but no one seems to know exactly when. Here is a TERRY strip found on the 'Net that is claimed to have Woodwork. The only place I even think I see it is in the hair on the figure in the last panel. I don't know. What do you think?

Woody's Classic Covers # 27

Woodwork

Sorry for the sparsity of posting here lately. I may still be out of work but I have a number of projects going all of a sudden that are all demanding time (including those all-important naps!) To make up for it, here's some miscellaneous Woodwork as found on the 'Net

!

Nick Cuti Wins Inkpot Award

Former Woodworker Nicola Cuti who went on to create, amongst many other memorable strips, stories and characters, E-MAN, was the surprise winner of the legendary Inkpot Award today at this year's ComicCon. According to the report at COMIC BOOK RESOURCES--Cuti first broke into the business with Warren as a writer when he was still serving in the Air Force in the mid-1960s, and continued writing for the horror publisher when he returned stateside. During this period he would also write and draw his own “Moonchild” comics, a character who, like E-Man, would pop up throughout his career. Before long, Cuti would fall in with the legendary Wally Wood, with whom he would share a studio in Long Island.

Under Wood’s tutelage, Cuti was involved in the production of both “Cannon” and “Sally Forth” — a period he calls “the best days of my career.” Working from Wood’s roughs, Cuti would track down photo references, spot blacks, and apply tones. He laughed as explained the biggest challenge with these strips, which were produced for overseas servicemen: There needed to be a naked women in every installment. “We had to figure out clever ways of divesting women of their clothes,” Cuti said.

HOORAY FOR WALLY WOOD congratulates Mr. Cuti on behalf of our readers! You deserve the recognition, sir!
For more details go to http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=22180

Daredevil for Jack

A li'l DD caricatured sketch supposedly done for Jack Kirby. It is perhaps contemporaneous to FANTASTIC FOUR #39 in which Woody redrew or at least inked the Daredevil and Matt Murdock figures throughout (because Kirby couldn't get the hang of Wood's heavily shadowed new red DD costume?).

Mad Prelim and Finished Art

Found on the 'Net, here's a couple of panels from MAD showing Woody's preliminary sketches as well as the final, published piece. Note the nipples in the prelim that obviously would never beintended for publication.

Figment

Found on Ebay, here's a rare little mini-zine from Woody's last year of 1981 with an original Wood cover and other Wood content (including Wood's "Big Blue pencil" essay and this nifty ad seen here). Should any fan be interested, I can't make a working link for some reason but go to EBay and search for FIGMENT # 3. It's cheap!

Topps Original Art

From the 'Net.

Girls' Love Stories

Stewart's INDEX doesn't list a co-artist on this but I can't help thinking it reminds me of Wood's collaborations with Bob Brown on SUPERBOY around that same time (1969).

Frederick Werthless on Baseball and Juvenile Delinquincy

Here, from MAD's August, 1957 issue is EC's belated response to Dr. Frederic Wertham and his contention that since all juvenile delinquints have read comic books, it follows that comic books cause juvenile delinquincy. Here the theory is switched quite easily to baseball. Although no author is listed (other than the pseudonymous "Frederick Werthless"), Wood delivers a number of lively and amusing illustrations. Look for his trademark little boy with a wagon as the batboy this time!

Vengeance of the Armored Arm

Here we have Wallace Wood's sole contribution to Gold Key's long-running BORIS KARLOFF'S TALES OF MYSTERY. Although the comic itself outlasted even the title actor, this sole appearance by Wood came in 1965's issue # 9 (reprinted in a 1972 digest). It would have been drawn around the time Woody started his brief Marvel run . One can perhaps assume that he did this and the early M.A.R.S. PATROL series for Gold Key but then landed his probably better-paying Marvel gig. GCD refuses to even go out on a limb to admit that the art is actually by Wood, attributing it to him "or someone in his studio. Possibly Dan Adkins." Stewart's index doesn't question that it's Wood and it sure looks like Wood pencils and inks to me. Neither source even suggests an author. Wasn't Russ Jones Woody's primary assistant during this period? Anyway, I've polished up the color a bit for presentation here. Definitely some enjoyable Woodwork.

Mystery Wood

Over at Thom Buchanan's today we have some real Wood and some mystery Wood that may not even be Wood at all. Mr. Sirois weighs in on the comments. Is it possible that the sketch of the girl was copied by someone else who then added other Wood-like detail and inked it in a Wood style? There's just something about this finished piece that feels not quite Woody.

Woody's Classic Covers # 26

Dick Tracer

Found on the 'Net, here's a Wood parody of Chester Gould's DICK TRACY done for...?? The art is so dead on Gould that to me Wood only really shows through in Tracer's face and the woman flying away! Pay particular attention to the notes, however, which ask that the superfluous characters be taken out leaving only Dick, Sam and the woman.

P. Craig Russell

The Groovy Agent over at http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2009/07/famous-first-fridaysyouve-come-long-way.html reminds us that the now highly stylized artist P. Craig Russell started out in comics as a protege to Dan Adkins the same way that Adkins himself had started out as protege and co-worker with Wood. Here's the cover of the 14th issue of THE BUYER'S GUIDE (circa 1971) shown as an example of Russell's work with Adkins's finishes (and some Wood influences!).

Lunar Tunes Painting

Apparently this late period Bucky Ruckus painting was intended as the front cover to Wood's ultimately disappointing LUNAR TUNES graphic novel. When the book finally came out (two decades later) it was not used.

Frazetta Vs. Wood

Via UNCLE EDDIE'S THEORY CORNER (http://uncleeddiestheorycorner.blogspot.com/2009/07/frazetta-vs-wood.html ) and pointed out by Tom Spurgeon of THE COMICS REPORTER at ( http://www.comicsreporter.com/ ), here's an interesting comparison of an EC story done twice--once by Wood for SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES during the peak of the New Trend titles and once by Frank Frazetta in an ultimately uncompleted and unpublished picto-fiction format during the company's last gasp (but for MAD). Be sure to read the lively comments section also.

Another Underground Wood Homage

Here we have Hal Robins' cover to RIP-OFF COMIX # 23, published in 1989 as part of that venerable underground's attempt at being a modern alternative comic with an international flavor. I'm not familiar with Robins' work but the magazine's editorial says he was an old time sci-fi movie savant. It also says, however, that this cover harkens back to the classic days of sci-fi paperback covers when clearly it's an EC homage. From the busty babe to the BEMs to the space suits to the bubble helmets to the woodtech on the walls of the ship, this is clearly an homage to Wallace Wood...and a good one at that!

Kirby With and Without Wood

I've mentioned a number of times the magical combination of Jack Kirby's artwork and Wallace Wood's inks. Kirby, of course, was no slouch on his own without Wood's help' Here, though, we have a couple of panels from their late period teaming on SANDMAN in 1974 that demonstrate just how much of an impact Wood could have on the King's pencils. Kirby's looks just fine and a finisher like Mike Royer or most of Jack's other later inkers would undoubtedly faithfully ink every jagged little line and shadow but Wally (no doubt with assistance) smooths the sharpness all around and adds blacks that frame the face as well as accentuate the lightning effect. Kirby's dotted eyes become much more realistic and the mask looks more fabric than metal.

Woody's Classic Covers # 25

One of the most enjoyable resources for all things Wood is this issue of Roy Thomas's always excellent ALTER EGO from about ten years ago.

Comic Art Fans

Comic Art Fans at http://www.comicartfans.com/comic-artists/Wally_Wood.asp offers a veritable and virtual treasure trove of more than 300 pieces of original art by our hero. Pages, sketches, paintings, doodles, FOO drawings. Hours of fun embiggening and just enjoying all the black ink, the white paint, the overlays. In some cases there's even scawled notes from Wood and/or an editor on the edges! Seen here are only a few of the rarities you'll find there...all with contacts for the owners should you be fabulously wealthy and in the market!

The DYNAMO drawing above is one of the very latest sketches I've ever seen from Wood, dated April of the year in which he died. While one can clearly see the deterioration, it is still an impressive piece.

We've all seen the "Can I keep him?" piece both as Woody's sketch and Dave Stevens later poster. Here we have a rarely seen stage of this unpublished GALAXY cover done by Wood himself.

The last pieces here are DAREDEVIL preliminary sketches from the seminal DAREDEVIL # 7, the first with Wood's redesigned costume.

When you're through drooling over Wally's stuff, there's a few hundred other artists represented, too. Thanks to Bill for reminding me about this lovely site.

Cindy Eller

COMIC ART COMMUNITY is yet another cool site for finding rare and lovely comic book art by literally scores of artists...all alphabetically! This FAR OUT FABLES page was only one piece from two pages of Woodwork that can be found at

http://comicartcommunity.com/gallery/categories.php?cat_id=84

Hoo-Hah! It's Potrzebie!

It's been awhile since I reminded all of you Wallace Wood fans to visit Bhob Stewart's POTRZEBIE blog at http://potrzebie.blogspot.com/ . Not just an old friend and collaborator of Woody's, Stewart is also a Wood historian of great reknown and, as such, often features Wood-related posts such as this cuter than cute illustration from just the other day. The link is to no post in particular. It's all interesting over there! Check it out!