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Wallace "Wally" Wood (born June 17 , 1927 , Menahga, Minnesota , United States ; died November 2 , 1981 ), was an American Writer and Artist best known for his work in EC Comics and ''Mad Magazine'' . In addition to Wood's hundreds of Comic Book pages, he illustrated for books and Magazine s while also working in a variety of other areas — Advertising ; Packaging and product illustrations; Gag Cartoons ; Record Album covers; Posters ; Syndicated Comic Strip s; and Trading Cards , including work on Topps ' landmark '' Mars Attacks '' set, EC publisher William Gaines once stated, "Wally may have been our most troubled artist ... I'm not suggesting any connection, but he may have been our most brilliant". EARLY LIFE AND CAREER Wood began reading and drawing comics at an early age, strongly influenced by the comic strip artwork of Roy Crane . He graduated from High School in 1944, signed on with the Merchant Marine near the end of World War II , and then enlisted in the U.S. Army 's 11th Airborne Paratroopers in 1946. He went from training at Fort Benning , Georgia , to occupied Japan , where he was assigned to the island of Hokkaido . Arriving in New York City after his discharge in summer 1948, he worked as a Bickford's Busboy and briefly attending the Cartoonists And Illustrators School . He broke into the field of professional art as an assistant to George Wunder , who had taken over the Milt Caniff comic strip '' Terry And The Pirates ''. As Wood recalled in 1981:
Artist-representative Renaldo Epworth helped Wood land some of his first comic-book assignments, reportedly in 1949, making it unclear if that connection led to Wood's lettering or to his comics-art debut, the ten-page story "The Tip Off Woman" {Link without Title} in the Fox Comics . He penciled and inked two stories in that issue: "I Was Unwanted" (nine pages) and "My Tarnished Reputation" (ten pages). Wood's first recorded works for EC Comics , the company with which he would establish his reputation, were co-penciling and co-inking with Harry Harrision the seven-page "Too Busy For Love" in ''Modern Love'' #5; and fully penciling the eight-page lead story, "I Was Just a Playtime Cowgirl", in ''Saddle Romances'' #11 (April 1950), inked by Harrision. 1950S AND THE SILVER AGE (pencils) & Wally Wood (inks)]] Working from a studio at West 64th Street and Columbus Avenue in Manhattan , Wood began to attract attention in 1950 with his highly detailed and imaginative Science-fiction artwork for EC and for Avon Comics , some in collaboration with Joe Orlando . During this period, he drew in a wide variety of subjects and genres, including adventure, romance, war and Horror ; message stories (for EC's '' Shock SuspenStories ''); and Satirical Humor for editor Harvey Kurtzman 's '' Mad '' comic book. Wood penciled/inked several dozen stories, many considered comic-art classics, in EC's '' Weird Science '', '' Weird Fantasy '', '' Two-Fisted Tales '', and '' Tales From The Crypt '', as well as the lesser-known EC titles ''Valor'', ''Piracy'', and ''Aces High''. Working over scripts and pencil breakdowns by Jules Feiffer , the 25-year-old Wood drew two months of Will Eisner 's classic, Sunday-supplement newspaper comic book '' The Spirit '', on the early-'50s story arc "The Spirit in Outer Space". Eisner, Wood recalled, paid him " $30 a week [for l ettering and backgrounds on ''The Spirit''. Sometimes he paid for $40 when I did the drawings, too". Later, Wood expanded into book illustrations, including for the picture-cover editions (though not the dust-jacket editions) of titles in the 1959 Aladdin Books reissues of the 1947 Bobbs Merrill "Childhood of Famous Americans" series. Between 1957 and 1967, he produced both covers and interiors for more than 60 issues of the science-fiction digest ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' , illustrating such authors as Isaac Asimov , Philip K. Dick , Jack Finney , C.M. Kornbluth , Frederik Pohl , Robert Silverberg , Robert Sheckley , Clifford D. Simak and Jack Vance . He painted six covers for ''Galaxy Science Fiction Novels'' between 1952 and 1958. His gag cartoons appeared in the Men's Magazines ''Dude'', ''Gent'' and ''Nugget''. He Inked the first eight months of the 1958-1961 Newspaper comic strip '' Sky Masters Of The Space Force '', penciled by fellow comics legend Jack Kirby . Wood additionally did art and stories for comic-book companies large and small — from Marvel (and its 1950s iteration Atlas Comics ), DC ('' House Of Mystery '', ''Plop!'', ''Stalker'', '' JSA '', Kirby's '' Challengers Of The Unknown ''), and Warren ('' Creepy ''), to such smaller firms as Avon (''Strange Worlds''), Charlton (''War and Attack'', ''Jungle Jim''), Fox ('' Martin Kane , Private Eye''), Gold Key (''MARS Patrol/Total War'', ''Fantastic Voyage''), Harvey (''Unearthly Spectaculars''), King Comics (''Jungle Jim''), Atlas/Seaboard (''The Destructor''), Youthful Comics (''Capt. Science'') and even the Toy company Wham-O (''Wham-O Giant Comics''). In 1965, Wood and Larry Ivie created '' T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents '' for Tower Comics . For Marvel during the Silver Age Of Comic Books , his work as penciler-inker of '' Daredevil '' #5-8 and inker (over Bob Powell ) of issues #9-11 established the title character's distinctive red costume (in issue #7; see cover at left). Wood also penciled and inked the first four 10-page installments of the company's " Dr. Doom " feature in ''Astonishing Tales'' #1-4 (Aug. 1970 - Feb. 1971), and both wrote and drew anthological horror/suspense tales in ''Tower of Shadows'' #5-8 (May-Nov. 1970). 's modern red costume]] Additionally, he inked '' The Avengers '' #20-22 and the " Iron Man " feature in '' Tales Of Suspense '' #71, both over penciler Don Heck , as well as the " Human Torch " feature in '' Strange Tales '' #134, over Powell, in 1965; '' Captain America '' #127, over Gene Colan , in 1970; '' Kull The Conquerer '' #1, over Ross Andru and " Red Wolf " in '' Marvel Spotlight '' #1, over Syd Shores , in 1971; and '' The Cat '' #1, over Marie Severin , in 1972. He inked Kirby again on the covers of ''Avengers'' #20-21 and '' The X-Men '' #14, and — in one of his final assignments — he returned to a character he helped define, inking Frank Miller 's cover of ''Daredevil'' #164 (May 1980). The Grand Comics Database (see "References", below) also cites "additional inks...uncredited" on the Kirby layouts and George Tuska pencil and ink work of the "Captain America" feature in ''Tales of Suspense'' #71. In circles concerned with Copyright and Intellectual Property issues, he is known as the creator of the unsigned Satirical Disneyland Memorial Orgy poster, which first appeared in Paul Krassner 's magazine ''The Realist''. Wood himself, as late as 1981, when asked who did that drawing, said only,"I'd rather not say anything about that! It was the most pirated drawing in history! Everyone was printing copies of that. I understand some people got busted for selling it. I always thought Disney stuff was pretty sexy ... Snow White , etc." . During the 1960s, he did many Trading Cards and humor products for Topps Chewing Gum, including concept roughs for Topps ' famed 1962 '' Mars Attacks '' cards prior to the final art by Bob Powell and Norman Saunders . Active with the 1970s Academy Of Comic Book Arts , Wood contributed to several editions of the annual '' ACBA Sketchbook ''. Over several decades, numerous artists worked at the Wood Studio. Associates and assistants included Dan Adkins , Richard Bassford , Tony Coleman, Nick Cuti , Leo And Diane Dillon , Larry Hama , Russ Jones , Paul Kirchner, Joe Orlando , Bill Pearson , Al Sirois, Ralph Reese , Bhob Stewart, Tatjana Wood and Mike Zeck . WOOD AS PUBLISHER In 1966, Wood launched the independent magazine '' Witzend '', one of the first Alternative Comics , a decade before Mike Friedrich 's '' Star Reach '' or Flo Steinberg 's ''Big Apple Comix'' (for which Wood drew the cover and contribute a story). Wood offered his fellow professionals the opportunity to contribute illustrations and graphic stories that detoured from the usual conventions of the comics industry. After the fourth issue, Wood turned ''witzend'' over to Bill Pearson , who continued as editor and publisher through the 1970s and into the 1980s. Wood additionally collected his feature " Sally Forth ", published in the U.S. servicemen's periodicals ''Military News'' and ''Overseas Weekly'' from 1968-1974, in a series of four oversize (10"x12") magazines. Pearson, from 1993-95, reformatted the strips into a series of comics published by Eros Comix , an imprint of Fantagraphics Books , which in 1998 collected the entire run into a single 160-page volume. In 1969, Wood created another seminal indepdent comic, ''. FINAL YEARS In the 1970s, following bouts with Alcoholism , Wood suffered from Kidney Failure . A Stroke in 1978 caused a loss of Vision in one Eye . Faced with declining health and career prospects, he committed Suicide three years later. and anthological Fantasy stories for the company.]] EC editor Harvey Kurtzman , who had worked closely with Wood during the 1950s, once commented, "Wally had a tension in him, an intensity that he locked away in an internal steam boiler. I think it ate away his insides, and the work really used him up. I think he delivered some of the finest work that was ever drawn, and I think it's to his credit that he put so much intensity into his work at great sacrifice to himself." AWARDS
LEGACY Wood's art was hugely influential from the early 1950s and into the 21st Century . Traces of his style are evident in the work of numerous cartoonists and illustrators, including Bassford, Reese, Larry Hama , Kyle Baker , Hilary Barta, Sid Check, Rand Holmes, Wayne Howard, Howard Nostrand, Mark Schultz , William Stout , Tom Sutton , Bruce Timm , Bill Wray and Bernie Wrightson . AUDIO
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