Pussycat, Pussycat?

I should have checked this in advance but the Wally Wood Yahoo newsgroup (click on the big "Wood" at the bottom of this page) went all through the questionable PUSSYCAT claim we documented here yesterday not long before I joined the group last Fall.

Former Woodworker Nick Cuti stated flat out that he saw no trace of Wood in the posted page but Roger Hill posited the theory that perhaps Woody "owned" the account and brokered the stories for artists like Ward and Mooney. If that was the case, then he might possibly have had a hand in layouts. As unlikely as that seems to me, I can't discount that completely without knowing for a fact that Woody DIDN'T own the account.

What IS known for a fact is that Woody himself did one story. Here, from Fred Hembeck's site, is that entire 5 page story: http://www.hembeck.com/More/Voodog/PussycatWood/PussycatOne.htm

Pussycat?

Well, this IS PUSSYCAT. The question mark above comes from the assertion on the Comic Art Fans website that this is:

A) from the first PUSSYCAT story published in "a MALE annual"

B) Has layouts by Wallace Wood and art by Jim Mooney

More than 20 years ago, I researched and wrote an article for AMAZING HEROES on the obscure Marvel (sort of) sexy heroine strip called PUSSYCAT. The 1968 one-shot collected a number of the stories of the character but many remain rare and completely uncollected to this day. It is, however, a widely held belief that Woody worked on only the very first story which was, in fact, printed in the one-shot. In fact, I speculated in my article that Steve Ditko may have helped with it as it looks a bit like the work that paring turned out at various times. That story was done in 1965 when Wood was still at Marvel finishing his DAREDEVIL run.

This page, however, is NOT from that story. I am fairly sure this is a later piece as the strip ran for at least five years in various issues of Martin Goodman's mens' mags and was reprinted in same well into the 1980's! Following a long run by veteran Bill Ward (BLACKHAWK), many of the later strips were nicely drawn by Jim Mooney. As the owner says, this does appear to be Mooney but I don't see the slightest trace of Wood or even Wood influence. Outside of Pussycat herself, in fact, I think I would be hard-pressed to identify this as Mooney! Some parts still look like Ward to me. Could Ward have done the layouts?

Dating this piece beyond 1965 would have Wally pretty busy at Tower and then at DC. He could conceivably done layouts for later stips when he returned to Marvel around the turn of the decade but why? If you have Wally Wood working on a strip with naked and semi-naked girls, it would be waste to JUST have him do layouts!

When I wrote my original article in 1987, I got a few things incorrect so it's possible I'm wrong here. There's very little actual info out there on PUSSYCAT even in these instant knowledge Internet days. Does anyone out there know the real, full extent of Wood's involvement? COULD he have done layouts for this piece? I say, "no." What do my readers think?

Susie Stripper

To celebrate our 100th post on Wally Wood, here's Woody's SUSIE STRIPPER from the 1950's. I'll be honest with you, I'm not at all sure where this paper doll came from--some adult mag, one assumes. This clip, however, appeared in THE BETTY PAGES, issue 2, the one with the amusing Woodyesque cover by avowed Wood fan Bill Wray.

Roy Thomas/Wally Wood

Roy Thomas's intro notes on SUB-MARINE MAN explain the background of these two pages better than I could. Reprinted here from the same issue of ALTER EGO Saturday's WITZEND ad came from, here are two MAD-style superhero parodies from Roy and Wally!

Teen Titans By Kane and Wood

WaffyJon from RANDOM ACTS OF GEEKERY has a running feature where he presents original art found on the 'Net. The most recent update, found at
http://waffyjon.blogspot.com/2009/04/cool-stuff-original-comic-art_25.html features a couple selections of Woodwork (along with some great Kirby THOR pages) including this TEEN TITANS page drawn by Gil Kane and inked by Woody. The Kane/Wood combination was yet another unique pairing in which the best of both artists always seemed to shine through.

Witzend Ad-1969

Here's an ad for Wood's (and later Bill Pearson's) WITZEND that appeared in a 1969 issue of Roy Thomas's revived ALTER EGO fanzine. While that revival didn;t take (no doubt due to Roy's busy schedule at Marvel) a later one would and is still going today with frequent appearances by Woody and his work. Note that this ad eschews art, preferring to sell the product on the strength of its contributors!

Woody's Classi....Ummm...Wait a Minute

Here's one of the great missed opportunities. Warren's EERIE # 131 is a special tribute to Wally Wood issue and yet the cover is by...Rudy Nebres?? Love him or hate him, Nebres' style just isn't particularly Wood-like! Published as a "tribute" to Wood on the occasion of his death, this issue reprints 6 of his Warren stories seemingly at random along with an obit up front. Unlike the similar Steve Ditko tribute issue (with Ditko, of course, still alive) this one just seems like a quick cash-in. Nebres' cover presents Wood's staples by the numbers--heroic spaceman, sleek rocket, facial shadows, blonde babe and slimy monster. In spite of that, if you hadn't TOLD me this was a tribute to Wood, I would not have recognized it. In fact, I didn't and passed this up on the stands in 1982! I get the fact that Wood was no longer around to do a cover. Had he been, Warren as a company had so pissed him off that they would have probably had to pay through the nose to get one out of him anyway! How tough, though, would it have been to have utilized a scene from one of his excellent stories or even some generic sci-fi illustration he had done? Maybe even re-use the SPACEMEN cover he had done years earlier. Warren was nearing the end here, though, and what should have been a nice tribute to one of their longest contributors comes off like a rush job. The art, of course, still holds up and this is a nice addition to any Wood collection but still somehow disappointing.