Staff Pick (July12): Woodwork — Wallace Wood 1927-1981 HC

Publisher: IDW Publishing
Item Code: JUL120375
SRP: $59.99
PREVIEWS Page # 179
In Shops:9/19/2012

I’m not quite sure when I began noticing the comic book work of Wally Wood, maybe it was on Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown or Mad Magazine but I definitely remember Daredevil and Thunder Agents as grabbing my attention and if I got hooked on an artist I wanted everything I could find by him. I bought records if he illustrated the sleeves and amassed a collection of Galaxy SF digests and of course Topps trading cards.

When I started collecting ECs I wanted the few that Toth, Kubert and Frazetta worked on and any title after that had to have at least one story by Williamson and one drawn by Wood.

Now thanks to IDW Publishing‘s US release of Woodwork: Wallace Wood 1927-1981, previously produced as a catalog for the Woodwork exhibition at Palma del Mallorca, Spain back in 2010, Wood is given the attention that this legendary talent deserves. From biography filled with photos to sketches and many previously unpublished drawing to full pages shot from the original art we get to review the man and his career.

His career is covered from his early days, to his celebrated EC work including full page reproductions of key pages and splashes, complete EC stories and his Flash Gordon story done for King in the 60s are reproduced from the original artwork.

With art and color reproduction this hefty hardcover presents the world of Wally Wood decade by decade, encompassing the EC era, Mad comics and magazines, creation of Thunder Agents, reliving the glory days of EC at Warren drawing for Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, and Blazing Combat, contributions from Marvel to Daredevil and his red costume to his Doctor Doom in Astonishing Tales, DC Comics and Justice Society featuring Power Girl, Robin and the original JSA, and continuing on with his self publishing starting with Witzend, Cannon, Sally Forth, Pipsqueak Papers, to his final opus The Wizard King trilogy.

IDW has brought Woodwork: Wallace Wood 1927-1981 to us at a reasonable price point that any fan or collector of comics and comic art should be creating a space for in their libraries. I’ve already made room for it right next to my EC Libraries and Williamson and Frazetta artbooks.

~ Steve Leaf