Wood got his start in the late 1940s
doing whatever work he could find in the comic book industry. He
apprenticed under both Will Eisner of The Spirit fame and Terry And
Pirates by George Wundar.
It wasn't too long before editors and fellow comic book professionals recognized the stellar talent of the young Wood.
For us old comic book collectors, Wally Wood, or "Woody" as his friends called him, is synonymous with the heyday of EC Comics and his incredibly detailed
work on the various genres the company produced from science fiction,
fantasy, horror and socially conscious suspense stories.
He was especially adept a war comics as detailed in Vanguard's recent Dare-Devil Aces book. In his introductory essay, Vietnam war veteran and famed GI Joe comics writer Larry Hama recalls how Woody was a stickler for details when it came to military paraphernalia, weapons and vehicles.
He had a huge library of swipe files taking up several filing cabinets.
His attention to details and mastery of the art form was second to none in all genres.
He
was a workaholic often depriving himself of sleep, the proper diet and
physical activity. As he grew older his output slacked off and his style
became less detailed.
Still he was consummate professional and produced work on schedule until he
suffered a stroke, loss of sight in one eye, and kidney failure.
The
doctors' prognosis of spending the rest of his life hooked up to a
dialysis machine, unable to draw or earn a living, led to the WWII veteran to taking is own life. The loss of such a celebrated industry icon in late 1981, rocked the comics community to the core.
Over the decades Woody worked for a number of publishers, EC, Avon, DC Comics, Topps Cards, Galaxy magazine, Dell, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents for Tower Comics, Warren's black and white horror comics magazines.
One of the popular comic book genres Wood excelled at was war comics. For a very brief period, between leaving his historic run at MAD magazine and landing at Marvel Comics where he revolutionized their new character Daredevil, Wood briefly produced a handful of war stories for Charlton.
Everyone of which are included in Dare-Devil Aces. Charlton offered Wally the freedom to create comics on his own terms albeit with low page rates.
He
proved himself to be adept at drawing military personnel, weapons,
vehicles and the like in historically accurate detail accompanied by
break-neck action and exciting fight scenes.
In Vanguard's Dare-Devil Aces, Commandos & Other Sagas Of War readers are privileged to enjoy his war comics from 1950 through 1972. Even
at a young age his talent was evident, especially his story-telling
capability.
Look for full-color and black and white reproductions of his
most stellar work encompassing wars and conflicts on the and, in the
air and on the sea. Also included are stories from his creator-owned series: Cannon in collaboration with his close friend, Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko.
Commentary
is provided by author J. David Spurlock, a foreword from Larry Hama, an
article about his EC war comics work written by Thomas Burns as well as Rafael Medoff and J. David Spurlock's article examining Wood's innovative socially conscious work regarding The Holocaust for EC Comics.
Revel
in the sheer talent of the man and be amazed by his technical
expertise, ability to draw whatever the stories required of him and his
passion for the medium.
Dare-Devil Aces is part of the ongoing Vanguard Publishing's Wally Wood Classics series and features a beautiful full-color cover with Wood's art and titles highlighted in spot varnish. Interior pages are on high quality coated paper stock making the illustrations and colors pop.
It's nicely designed package that is both visually and conceptually pleasing.
"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" — Micah 6:8
No comments:
Post a Comment