DD # 9

From Sean Howe's Tumblr. Howe is the author of the new history of Marvel Comics in which, of course, Wood has a brief but major role.

http://seanhowe.tumblr.com/post/39212719957/cover-to-daredevil-9-by-wally-wood-1965

Buttons?

© Wallace Wood Estate. All Rights Reserved.

I clipped these from an old TBG back when Woody was still alive. They look like buttons in a way. Were they?

Press Release--IDW Announces T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS

IDW Announces T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS!

The Enduring Classic Finds a New Home!

San Diego, CA (December 19, 2012) – IDW Publishing announced to a full house at this year’s New York Comic Con that they’ve acquired the rights to publish the exploits of the legendary band of super-powered heroes, the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS! 
 
First published in 1965, the fan-favorite team has seen their exploits published by Tower, JC, Deluxe, and DC Comics and been written and drawn by a virtual who’s-who of comic industry titans. The diverse cast of Agents have seen their share of adventures over the years—including DC’s well-received run most recently—but IDW is excited at the opportunity to put their stamp on the legendary team.
 
“I'm thrilled that IDW will be bringing its extraordinary talents and craft to producing everything from beautiful omnibus volumes to bold and cutting-edge new comic book titles based on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents,” said Michael Uslan, who initiated the project.  “With top quality, IDW will be presenting the works of comic book super-stars, including T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents creator, Wally Wood(Daredevil, MAD, EC horror and science fiction comics, All-Star Comics,Power Girl) along with the legendary Steve Ditko (Spider-Man, Dr. Strange); Gil Kane (Green Lantern, The Atom); Mike Sekowsky (Justice League); Reed Crandall (Blackhawk); Dave Cockrum (X-Men); George Perez (Wonder Woman, New Teen Titans); Murphy Anderson(Hawkman, The Spectre); Paul Gulacy (Master of Kung Fu); Jerry Ordway (Shazam, Justice Society); Ron Lim (Warlock, Silver Surfer),Keith Giffen (Legion of Super-Heroes, Lobo); Dan Adkins (Creepy, Dr. Strange), and many others.”
 
“T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents always had a great premise in addition to the list of esteemed creators who worked on the comics—people whose day job was being government-employed superheroes,” said IDW’s Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall, “That premise offers a resonant jumping-off point for some exciting new stories that will add to the great comics already left behind by both Tower and DC’s recent run.”
 
“T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is a classic, beloved property,” added Greg Goldstein, IDW's President and C.O.O.. “Its original stories featured some of the best superhero art of the silver age and it was well ahead of its time in many areas of storytelling. As an example, it was the first mainstream comic book to feature the ‘permanent’ death of a major character.”
 
In addition to the rights to reprint classic T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comics as well as create all-new series around the property, IDW also now controls the rights to fellow Tower Comics titles Undersea Agent and Fight the Enemy, too.
 
“We are very excited that T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents has found a new home at IDW,” said David M. Matthews, Managing Director of Radiant Assets, owner of the property.  “Their history of high-quality publications coupled with top-notch creative teams perfectly compliments our desire to expand not only the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent franchise, but Undersea Agent andFight the Enemy, as well.  We join them with great optimism about bringing this storied team’s past, present and future to a whole new generation of readers, who will join the longtime legion of fans already anxious for the continuation of the team’s legendary exploits.” 
 
Though specific plans have yet to be revealed, 2013 is looking to be a mighty year for the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents!

Woody's Last Christmas

© Wallace Wood Estate. All Rights Reserved.

                                                    Found on the web slightly censored.

On Sale Through December 16th!

by Bhob Stewart and Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.

On sale for only $1.79 now through December 16th!

An unprecedented reference to Wood’s work! Lists his published comics WORK in detail, plus FANZINE ART, ADVERTISING ILLUSTRATIONS, unpublished work, & more. Indispensible for serious Wood collectors!

http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=130&products_id=189

A Tale of Two Sallys

© Wallace Wood Estate. All Rights Reserved.

With the coming of the Internet, I've seen a number of variations on the free FOO Sally Forth sketch but at left here, spotted online recently, is the first one I've seen obviously made from the same template as my own. Longtime readers will recall that Wood's friend and sometime assistant Paul Kirchner was paid to trace the sketches promised fans who joined Wood's fan club as the artist's health was already suffering.

One can clearly, in both sketches here, see pencil lines, so I'm presuming that Woody may well have done a handful of original sketches which Paul traced (lighboxed?) in pencil and then inked with what appears to be marker. Other than the eyes in these two shots, they are actually remarkably similar. I do believe the face looks better on mine.

Daredevil Letter

Cannon is Coming

© Wallace Wood Estate. All Rights Reserved.

Just announced by The Wallace Wood Estate. More details to follow--

BIG NEWS DEPT: The Wood Estate is Teaming with Fantagraphics for the Biggest, Best CANNON Collection Ever!

The Estate has uncovered historic original negatives; when combined with 21st Century state-of-the-art printing techniques, will provide the best quality Cannon reproduction to-date!

Trees

© Wallace Wood Estate. All Rights Reserved.

Some lovely trees here by Woody...oh, and if you look close, there's also an elf (Odkin?) and a naked lady.

Original Confessions Art

http://popculturesafari.blogspot.com/2012/11/wally-wood-confessions-illustrated-1-my.html

Flower Child

The Comic Artist # 3

This is an ad for a fanzine from, I believe, 1969 or '70. I used to have it but not anymore. It's my recollection that it had a series of fannish articles and tributes to Wood along with spot illustrations and pin-ups of characters with whom Wood was normally associated. If I remember correctly, little or no actual Wood art appeared.

And the Winner Is...

Oh, my gosh. You mean they STILL aren't re...What? What do you...? Oh. OH! We're on? We're on! Of course we're on! Hello there, Wood fans! Although we've been anxiously counting the ballots, we're still counting the votes from Florida! Enough precincts have reported in, however,  that we are calling the MISS WALLYWOOD 2012 race at this time for...SALLY FORTH in a landslide!

Sally received a total of 13 votes while the next closest competitors ended in a three way tie with 3 votes each! Should Sally be for any reason unable to complete her reign, a coin will be flipped to decide who will replace her. The three runners-up are Rusty aka The Iron Maiden, Kara aka Powergirl and Brenda, the lovely Warren sci-fi girl.


Greer, aka The Cat, received 2 votes and each of the remaining contestants at least got on the board with a single vote.

Thanks to all who participated! SALLY FORTH is, of course, tm  and Copyright Wallace Wood Properties, LLC, 2012.

Agacon '71 Ad Art

Fan artist/publisher Martin L. Greim, an excellent artistic mimic, appropriated Wood's cast of characters to apparently promote Agacon (?) way back in 1971. (They are, of course, TM and Copyright Wallace Wood Properties, LLC).

Six-Gun Smith

Four days to go to vote for Miss Wallywood 2012! While you're waiting for the ballots to be counted (we haven't heard from Florida yet!), check out this nice young lady, undoubtedly a previous winner of the award!

http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/2012/11/number-1262-wally-woods-wild-west.html

Miss Wallywood Voting

Now that that other voting is behind us, it's time to choose MISS WALLYWOOD 2012! 

Email me at booksteve@aol.com

Contact me on Facebook

or just leave your vote in the comments here or for each individual contestant.

As of tonight, we have three votes cast in early balloting. One each for Greer, Brenda and Sally! There are 9 contestants. Who will win. Voting will continue throughout this next week with the winner to be announced on Saturday!

Miss Wallywood Contestant # 9-Sally Forth

Break Time

Taking a break this way to hopefully make up some time on some paying work. We'll return next week with the final MISS WALLYWOOD contestants and begin the voting!

Miss Wallywood Contestant # 8-Kara

Miss Wallywood Contestant # 7-Pussycat

Miss Wallywood Contestant # 6-Rusty

Miss Wallywood Contestant # 5-Boobarella

Miss Wallywood Contestant # 4-Melody

Miss Wallywood Contestant # 3-Lois Pain

Miss Wallywood Contestant # 2-Greer

Miss Wallywood--Contestant # 1--Brenda

Miss Wallywood!

Frank Jacobs on MAD Comics

Jeff Overturf offers up THE INCOMPLETE HISTORY OF MAD COMICS, written by no less than prolific MAD author  and Bill Gaines biographer Frank Jacobs himself and serialized in late nineties MAD reprints. As you might expect, you'll find some Wood content there.

http://jeffoverturf.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-incomplete-history-of-mad-comic-book.html

Thanks to Loston

Very special thanks to artist and Wood fan extraordinaire Loston Wallace for putting together our new header! Check out his work at http://www.lostonwallace.com/

Iron Maiden

Here's a lovely 1986 George Tuska rendering of Woody's cult-favorite villainess, the Iron Maiden, from T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS. Go here to see lots of other rare art by comics artists including one of Wood's WEIRD SEX FANTASIES plates.

The Dawn Comes Soon

It's being reported on Facebook that Fantagraphics' new volume, CAME THE DAWN, has seen advance copies arrive at their offices today. The book, due to hit stores in October, is the latest of a number of Wood collections this year, offering all 26 horror and crime stories Woody did for EC in the 1950's. Although justly revered for his sci-fi and humor stories, the young artist had an intensity in the best of these stories that he rarely showed anywhere else. 

 You can get a 23 page preview PDF over at Fantagraphics' page: http://www.fantagraphics.com/browse-shop/came-the-dawn-and-other-stories-the-ec-comics-library.html?vmcchk=1

"Wood's work seemed like snapshots of a lush and vibrant reality where even madmen, monsters and mayhem possessed a stately grace. There might be pandemonium but, oddly, the panic never seemed to reach the eyes of Wood's regal heroes." - Geoff Boucher, The Los Angeles Times

"Legendary artist [Wally] Wood mastered every comic-book genre — humor (he was one of Mad's first artists), horror, superheroes, war — but is best known for the 1950s science-fiction stories he drew for EC Comics, in which, one commentator noted, he 'began drawing things into panels that no human being seemed capable of before.' His heroic spacemen, intricate rocket ships, and frightening aliens embodied classic space opera, and his influence remains visible in the work of many leading comics artists today." - Gordon Flagg, Booklist

Cannon With Ditko

Copyright Wallace Wood Properties, LLC

http://grantbridgestreet.blogspot.com/2012/09/cannon-by-wally-wood-and-steve-ditko.html

Wood Doodles

Copyright Wallace Wood Properties, LLC

Fat Freddy and Wood

In 1983, the first issue of FAT FREDDY'S COMICS AND STORIES featured an EC homage by Gilbert Shelton, Paul Mavrides and friends. On one page, our hero trudged through panels done up in the style of various EC artists. Here's the Wood panel.

Woodwork at Dragon Con

Seems like Dragon Con in Atlanta is THE place to be this weekend for an amazing list of showbiz folks, comics artists and publishers including Craig Yoe and, representing the Wood Estate,  David Spurlock.

Here's what David has to say about it:

This weekend, DRAGON-CON in Atlanta!
3 S's! SIENKIEWICZ, SPURLOCK & STARLIN!
Stan Lee, Alice Cooper, Bill Stout and Neal Adams will also be around. We will have a few STERANKO items but more FRAZETTA & WALLY WOOD. Including some RARE, VINTAGE Wood Sally Forth and Cannon prints from the early-'70s! The only OFFICIAL print of Panels That Always Work, as well as Frazetta prints and books.

Any Wood fans going?

Blast Off Color Guide

Spotted at Heritage, here's a color guide for an unpublished cover featuring Woody's MIRACLES, INC.

eBay Warning

THE WALLACE WOOD ESTATE posted this on Facebook earlier today. With permission, I'm reposting it here (updated) for those of you who might be likely to purchase some of the questionable items on eBay.

We noticed some Wallace Wood "transparencies" on eBay. Supposedly rare printing production items (but with no crop marks, grids or other technical notes outside the image area). Maybe they are real, maybe not. Buyer BEWARE. We sent this message to one seller of such:

I am the Director of the Wallace Wood Estate, founder of Vanguard Publishing and have a long background in graphics production going back to the mid-'70s. What you have is more properly named a "Film Positive." A "transparency" is designed to have light flow through the image -- as in a 35mm slide (but usually bigger). In a Film Positive, you have an opaque black emulsion (light can not travel through) on transparent film medium. Normal (traditional, pre-digital) comics production DOES NOT call for the creation of Film Positives (but tend to use film negatives, PMT/Stats which are often hand-colored, and ColorKey layered, CMYK color film proofs, or flat MatchPrint color proofs). True, vintage, comics Film Positives are 

practically unheard of (except for a few painted graphic novels where the paint was on a blue-line print with the line-art on an overlay/Film Positive). At least 90% of the purported comics Film Positives I have seen (at conventions) are fakes. They aren't even shot on a true graphics camera (like stats and Veloxes are shot on) but are (recent) Xeroxes on clear film (treated heat-resistant acetate). It is EASY to tell the difference if you know what to look for. On true Film Positives, the black is totally opaque. No light at all can pass through any of the deep, rich black and the film is crystal clear. On most of the fakes -- the film Xeroxes -- the black is less dense (sometimes even grey) and sometimes the film is not quite as crystal clear and shiny-smooth as it has been treated to withstand the heat (without melting) inside a Xerox machine. Maybe you don't care if yours are real as long as they sell. But in case you do care, I thought you should know to watch out for the fakes. Also, if a real Film Positive ever were made for comics, they would be one-of-a-kind.... you would never see another real Film Positive show up of the same page. They would also tend to have crop marks and other technical notations in the gutters outside the image area. I hope this proves helpful.

Best regards,

J. David Spurlock
The Wallace Wood Estate

Gil Kane's Layouts For Wood

Ken Landgraf kindly sent along this scan of Gil Kane's layouts for a page from the GREEN LANTERN story he and Wood did in the late sixties. I always thought they made a fun and fascinating combination and one of the few where Wood's inking didn't overpower the penciler. 

A Field Guide to the IDW Artist's Edition

Seen above is supposedly an early concept for the hugely popular Artist's Edition. This image, with its dreadful title font, appeared late last year on message boards. To the best of my knowledge, no copies of the actual book ever had this image.

This one was the cover as solicited but as far as I know there are NO copies out there with the light blue as it was changed to the orange below by the time it was printed and shipped.

Seen below is the First printing variant cover, a limited number of which were made available at a convention after the main edition had sold out so quickly and unexpectedly. It is still a First printing, not the Second.

Finally, shipping now are Second printing copies featuring the cover below with the pea-green color. No word yet if there is or will be a variant cover for the Second printing. 

The book is copyright by IDW, the art copyright by EC and Wood's trademark signature is a trademark of Wallace Wood Properties, LLC 

All-Star Original Art

Here are a few beautiful pages from Wood's ALL-STAR with Superman and Power Girl.

http://popculturesafari.blogspot.com/2012/08/wally-wood-original-art-all-star-comics.html

R.I.P.-Harry Harrison

Wallace Wood's one-time collaborator, Harry Harrison, has passed. Harrison started out drawing comic books with Wood but became a well-known science-fiction writer in time, perhaps best known for his book, THE STAINLESS STEEL RAT (alter adapted to comics in the UK) and MAKE ROOM, MAKE ROOM, the novel that became the movie, SOYLENT GREEN.

For more details, go here: http://io9.com/5934884/rip-harry-harrison-creator-of-the-stainless-steel-rat-bill-the-galactic-hero-and-soylent-green

The image above comes from Harrison's site here: http://www.harryharrison.com/

Smash Ad

Here's an odd mid-sixties ad for the UK comic SMASH which featured reprints of the then-current BATMAN & ROBIN newspaper strip as well as Woody's then-recent DAREDEVIL!

Rand Holmes Wood Homage

Here's yet another Wood homage cover from the late Rand Holmes, this one from Denis Kitchen's eighties revival of SNARF. If Homes had been able to draw humans as well as he did everything else, one might presume this to BE Woodwork!