Many of you may not be aware, but MAD Magazine used to be part of a line of comic books in the 1950′s, known as EC. They were among the best comics ever illustrated, and IMO they’ve never been equaled.
When comic books came under fire in the 1950′s during the communist witch hunts, EC’s publisher William M Gaines refused to allow his company’s work to be censored. He discontinued his popular line of comic books… except for one… MAD. Gaines then turned Mad into a magazine so that it would not fall under the jurisdiction of the comics code censorship board. EC fights for freedom of speech! In the 30 odd years Bill published MAD magazine, there was never a single outside advertisement in it. MAD magazine would not be influenced by advertisers in any way shape or form, and it went on to become one of the most hilariously revolutionary publications ever, and with some of the best humorists, and artists in the world.
Of the EC line, the science fiction comics were my favorites… incredible art, and incredible stories. Ray Bradbury was such a fan of EC, that he allowed the boys to illustrate his stories for something like 50 bucks a pop. He was just delighted to see his work so beautifully realized. What I’ve been dying to show you folks for weeks is one of my all time favorite EC comics drawn by the supernaturally talented Wally Wood. Wally’s name became synonymous with 50’s sci-fi illustration. He was best known for his tenure as a staffer at EC. Some of you already know Wally for his classic Mad stories such as Superduperman, Little Orphan Melvin, and Batboy and Rubin.
Bill Gaines, and Al Feldstein wrote all of the EC science fiction comics. Bill was the “springboard” guy who would fire off ideas until Al got excited, then go off and write it in a matter of hours. Stories were written with specific artists in mind, and Wood was a natural for their science fiction line. “Woody”, as he was known by the EC staffers, would always knock it right out of the park. My all time Wood work is the all time iconic “My World”, written by Al and BIll for Wally.
“My World” has inspired me many, many, many times over the years, and I am delighted… nay, thrilled… to bring it to you. Welcome to ”My World”.
That’s quite awesome, sir. Rocket ships, bubble helmets, ray guns, bug-eyed monsters, and moon maidens – that’s pure delicious pulp, right there. “Sci-fi” in the best sense.
Thanks for posting this beautiful stuff, Douglas. Being a bit of a comic book nerd, I know Wally Wood mostly through his work for Marvel and DC in the ’60s and ’70s, so seeing “My World” really puts him in a different light.
That’s gorgeous stuff!
Great stuff, no doubt about it. I knew Woody briefly in the 70s back in Connecticut, got a couple of books signed, and was shown how to fire a crossbow. He was a comic art genius who had an instantly recognizable style and who had no equal, but as we were to learn not long after, he had personal demons that took him from us. Damned shame. I still love what he left us.
Bill Gaines said Wally was their most talented, and most troubled artist. Rick, you lucky dog, you met Wally!
Wow so dramatic and so well drawn
lol..
i see you subscribe to my old website joke.
Dinosaurs, Spaceships, and Tits….
unless anyone needed any other reason for the internetz….;)
nice stuff.
c3
Doug – Yeah, one of those brushes with greatness. I helped judge an art show with Jack Kirby; does that count? I also got to hang out briefly with Vaughn Bodé and bought a big piece of his artwork in 1973. Another one gone before his time (stylistically -very- different, but still with that genius spark). Woody’s stuff became part of my visual memory early on; I discovered a pile of MADs and EC comics in my dad’s architectural office when I was a wee sprout. Who would ever have guessed in a million years that I would end up meeting Woody, and becoming friends with the guy who did a bunch of those MAD illustrations; what’s his name…Kelly Freas.
Wish I could have met more of those guys; they seemed like such a fun, crazy crowd. But I do get a sense of what it was like from Maria Reidelbach’s “Completely MAD” and Dick DeBartolo’s “Good Days and MAD,” both amazingly good books.
Kirby= sheer genius. I visited Kirby at his home in Thousand Oaks, 30 years ago. Vaughn Bodé!Wow… now you see him, now you don’t! Snuffed just like that! Freas is another icon. Loved DeBartolo’s “Good Days and Mad”. I love the picture of Bill Gaines stuck in the statue of Liberty’s torch! I struck up an E-mail conversation with De Bartolo. He was actually answering MAD’s E-mail letters! He wrote some of the best MAD TV/Movie satires of all time. Man… along with Mort Drucker! What a characaturist!
Actually, Woody was one of those people who, when I heard of his passing, made me wonder if we could have done anything, had we known even a little bit. But he had moved to Texas and was basically out of touch with those who knew him much better than I. It’s all hindsight, but it still makes me wonder.
Mort Drucker now there is a name I recognize from my Mad Magazine reading pre-teen days
He is a fine artist, indeed! I think it’s great that these two talented writers wrote this just so Wally Wood could showcase his talent. Exploding alien monsters, slinky women, spaceships…he’s done it all with great detail. The scenes truly come to life!
I’m sorry to be introduced to such a great artist, then find at the same time that he was tragically troubled. I’m thankful to Wally for influencing you, Doug, and helping to get you motivated and into the game. And thanks to you for introducing me to Wally through this fun and entertaining story.
You are so welcome Dea! I hope you won’t mind if I show you a few others in the coming weeks!
This is a perfect sample of Wood at his best. I haven’t seen this in years. Fantastic work – thanks for the reminder. I’m also a huge Jack Kirby fan.
Mind? Share aware, oh wise blogger!
Kelly Freas, there’s another beloved name. I have an autographed print of his “The Gulf Between” hanging up in my master bedroom, owing to my enduring love of both sci-fi and a particular rock band …
Wow…this is my first exposure to Wally Wood and I gotta say I am in awe!! He has a fantastic ability to capture so much action in his images. I loved the story that went along with the panels. I think he really nailed it on the head when he said that he has a great deal of love for his world in the last panel. It really shows in the quality of these drawings.
Thanks so much for sharing these, Doug!
I knew Mr. Wood as the artist drawing the Marvel comic “Daredevil” in the early 1970′s. He is generally credited as the man who took DD out of his early yellow and red costume and designed his more familiar all red outfit.
Until today, however, I had no idea that he was the same Wally Wood who did all that great sci-fi stuff for EC. Looking at his work in this article, I’m reminded of the scene in “Back to the Future” just after Marty McFly has inadvertantly traveled back to 1955, crashing into a barn on the Peabody farm. The family go out to the barn to find a crashed DeLorean and Marty still in his radiation suit. The young Peabody boy is holding an EC style sci-fi comic and the cover looks very much like the scene before the family’s eyes. That comic cover also looks very much like it could have been drawn by Mr. Wood himself. The art style is so similar that I have to believe Wood’s art was the inspiration for it.
Thanks for posting this great tribute, Mr. Drexler. I now admire Wally Wood’s incredible talent all the more.
The drex files plans to give you some Wood in the near future!
Hi Buckaroohawk! The Back To The Future comic was meant to look like an EC comic for sure, in fact it was made by Andy Probert for the movie! Connections, everywhere you look!
Not to get too “inside baseball,” but if you’ll notice the lettering for the comic pages above, the body copy was all hand done using a very clever set of scribed guides and an ink pen similar to a Rapidograph (what’s that?!) where one pin fit into a track groove and another pin followed the form of the letter. I’ve still got a Leroy lettering system and four guides, and I can say from experience that it took an amazingly steady hand and an eye for spacing to make that thing work cleanly! A far cry from today’s whiz-bang comic fonts.
Thanks for sharing that, Rick. I had spent a little time looking at that lettering thinking it didn’t look perfectly spaced like type, but the letters are so clean. Did he have a different guide for the last word?
I like how it really stands out!
Rick,
I probably have that same Leroy lettering system. I still do most of my mechanical drawing the way my grandfather taught me.
I grew up with computers, but there is just something about sitting at a drafting table surrounded by the tools, pens and pencils that brings everything into focus.
I love this strip and Wally’s artwork !!
How wonderful to see these! Although I grew up in the era when they were published, I was not a reader of MAD until I got married…so it was not until you presented Mr. Wood’s work that I recognized the artistic inspiration for one of my all-time favorite comic strips.
My sons were brought up on Bill Watterson’s “Calvin and Hobbes.” We bought and still have all the book compilations. Surely I’m not the only one to see “Spaceman Spiff” in the panels above?!
The theme of dinosaurs in outer space aside, Watterson also used a Rapidograph pen to letter dialogue…
More, more, more!
Hi J. Oliver! No doubt that Watterson is a Woody fan. Calvin is a Wood kid, right from the pages of Superduperman! J, there are some stories I’ll run that will blow your mind!
Seems weird to admit this, but I never grew up with comic books, so I never got into them. They were actually hard to come by where I grew up, unless you liked ‘Casper the friendly ghost’, ‘Richie Rich’ or ‘Archie’.
With choices like that I opted for MAD instead… probably explains a lot about me actually
I always loved the gorgeous artwork.
Thanks for the great post Doug!
Au
http://www.amethystimagery.ca/Prairie.html
…growing up in a place like this is why comic books were hard to get
Man, that’s awesome.
Wow! If I didn’t like sci-fi already, I think I’d be hooked after that. Thanks, Doug!
Ben, Even more amazing stuff ahead!
Can’t wait, Doug!
BTW, we just returned home from our third viewing of the new “Star Trek” movie. I’ve decided to move to Iowa, join Starfleet, sign up for duty on the Enterprise, go back in time 25 years, and offer my services as ship’s artist. As far as I can tell, they don’t, and never did, have one. Pretty poor for an exploratory mission, don’t you think?
Thanks for posting this great chunk of Wood. I’m just getting back into comic art after many years, and my collection of old Wally Wood is like a master class in inking.
Just for the record though, there was really almost zero connection between the comic book witch hunt of the ’50s and the communist witch hunt. The star witness of the censors was Dr. Fredric Wertham, an ultraliberal who believed that no juvenile delinquent would ever have done anything bad if he hadn’t seen it in a comic book first. The anti-comic crusade was more an alliance of anti-smut conservative impulses and anti-violence liberal impulses; everybody got into the act. Your average brown-shoe citizen, Democrat or Republican, was really taken aback by the ultra-splatter in some of the EC and other horror/crime lines (like Lev Gleason’s CRIME DOES NOT PAY line), which — let’s admit it– were often in very bad taste. Basically, what happened was the downside of populism. The good aspect of populism is that it sometimes stands up for the little guy against the crooked elites; but the bad side is that it tends to cater to common prejudices and a narrow morality. The anti-comics crusade was one of those “But what about the children?” movements that unfortunately had a very wide base of popular support. Gaines was smart to just bow out and find a new venue. Fortunately, he could still employ Wood at MAD, and indeed, Wally did some of his greatest work there.
I’ve gotta say, as good as Wood was, I am still partial to Bill Elder, even though I know Kurtzman laid everything out for him, pretty much. Wood was, however, unmatched when it came to Sci-Fi, gotta admit. Great post, long live E.C.!!!