The Life and Legend of Wallace Wood, Vol. 1

Here at last is the book Wood fans have been waiting for for decades...or at least the first part of it. The late Bhob Stewart called me up out of the blue one daya few years back and we had a long conversation about Wood, after which he asked me to contribute to this book--a partial reprint of his previous book, AGAINST THE GRAIN but with much new material and no longer censored as it was in its original publication. Originally I was asked to write about SHOCK SUSPENSESTORIES but that was changed. In another call, Bhob asked me to write about Wally Wood's contributions to the early color MAD and also to its color comics companion, PANIC. I had the Cochran volumes so I spent a couple weeks revisiting EC at its finest and then sat down to write about it all. I sent it on and Bhob said it was exactly what he wanted. I explained that that was just my first draft and that I would like to revise it a bit. He called again to say it was perfect and asked me to send him a bio on myself so I did. Then I never heard back. At all. Until the news of Bhob's death hit barely a month later. It seems he'd been quite ill for some time although I never could have guessed it from our lively phone conversations.

Long before I had any actual contact with him, I had encountered his work throughout nearly my whole life. I was a huge fan of his Topps products in early grade school, I was obsessed with his CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN mag in my teens, I discovered his cheesy movies as a young adult, and admired his place as a comics historian and, in fact, in comics history itself as I grew older and discovered EC. I never would have guessed I'd work with him on what would be his final project.

After Bhob's passing, word eventually came that Fantagraphics would finish the book. As the months dragged on into years, it became two volumes because there was so much good stuff they didn't want to leave any out. And now, finally, it's shipping. Although I have yet to see a copy, I have to presume that with all this attention, this will, in fact, turn out to be the book Bhob Stewart had been working on in a way since the 1950s! The ultimate tribute to Wallace Wood!

At several points along the way, it was conformed to me that my chapter made it into this first volume. Not sure yet if it made the final cut. I hope it's good enough to sit beside the contributions of so  many others who admired, knew and/or worked with Wood. I hope it's as good as Bhob Stewart thought it was.

http://www.fantagraphics.com/lifeandlegendofwallacewood/

Shattuck at Last

Over the years, we attempted with frustratingly little success to find out info on SHATTUCK, the early seventies adult western series created by the Wallace Wood Studio alongside the better-known CANNON and SALLY FORTH strips. Well, proving that all things come to those who wait, here's the Wood Estate's new press release on SHATTUCK.

HOT OFF THE PRESS: Wallace Wood Presents: SHATTUCK. Along with his trademark 1970s Sally Forth and Cannon strips that ran in the Overseas Weekly military newspaper, Wood created a super-rare third strip, a sexy western, produced in 1972, named Shattuck. Wood originally conceived of, co-wrote (with Nick Cuti), and drew the layouts for Shattuck as a vehicle for his studio-mate, Golden Age Captain America artist Sid Shores, but turned it over instead to two young up-and-comers — Howard Chaykin (American Flagg!, Black Kiss) and the now-legendary X-Men artist, Dave Cockrum. Shattuck, the historic, very first credited ongoing feature for both Chaykin and Cockrum, has never been re-published or collected since it first appeared in Overseas Weekly more than 40 years ago. Full of gun-toting femmes fatale, fast-drawing lawmen, and snarling outlaws, Shattuck is a Western romp published in the same format as Fantagraphics’ bestselling Wood production of Cannon. As a bonus, while appearing to be in black and white, the entire book has been scanned from the carefully preserved originals in full-color to mimic as closely as possible the experience of viewing the actual original art, complete with paste-overs, notes, art corrections, etc. Previously enjoyed only by American servicemen in the Vietnam era, Fantagraphics Books and The Wallace Wood Estate and proud to present the missing link in Wood’s oeuvre in a beautifully designed and affordable format.

DD and Netflix

Perhaps you've heard about the growing controversy that Wally Wood does not receive a credit on the popular Netflix DAREDEVIL series, now in its second season. Okay, he didn't create the character. That's a given. The character existed before Wood ever showed up at Marvel. There are a lot of folks who worked on the DD comics over the years and made contributions that appreciably changed the comic but they didn't "create" the character either so as long as THEY aren't credited, I don't see why anyone should expect Wood to be. Oh. Wait.

The DAREDEVIL comic book has always had its ups and downs but it's always been blessed with a number of creators who have given it some of their best work. That most certainly doesn't start and end with Frank Miller. If one grants that to acknowledge every single writer and artist would be too much to expect, then break it down to only the really important ones who defined the series to come for decades, and that starts with Wallace Wood. 

There is no logical reason NOT to give Wood credit on the Netflix DAREDEVIL series.