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 Here we have a rarely seen stage of this unpublished GALAXY cover done by Wood himself.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!

Woody's Classic Covers # 24

An Adkins/Wood collaboration on the sixties fanzine FANTASY ILLUSTRATED showing just how well their respective styles meshed.