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Fantagraphics Publish EC Comics Of Wally Wood, Some For The First Time

Fantagraphics Publishes the EC Comics of Wally Wood, Some of Them For the Very First Time

Published Thu, 22 Aug 2024 07:27:09 -0500

Article Summary

Fantagraphics to publish "The Spawn Of Venus And Other Stories" by Wally Wood, with some works seeing print for the first time.
Collection includes "My World" and adaptations of Ray Bradbury stories, showcasing Wood's science fiction art.
Volume features restored and completed comics, including a rejected page from "You, Rocket" by Al Feldstein.
Wally Wood's influential career highlighted, from EC Comics to "Daredevil" with Stan Lee and iconic satirical works.

It's not just Oni Press that is putting out EC Comics right now. Next April, Fantagraphics is publishing Wally Wood's The Spawn Of Venus And Other Stories, part of The Fantagraphics EC Comics Artists Library with Al Feldstein, Ray Bradbury, Grant Geissman, Thommy Burns and Jon Gothold.

The Spawn Of Venus was written and drawn for a 3-D comic that was cancelled before it could be printed and has been restored in the 2D version. The collection also includes the famous My World story from EC Comics that changed the comics publishing industry, as well as his trilogy of Ray Bradbury adaptations, Home to Stay, There Will Come Soft Rains… and Mars Is Heaven!, as well as He Walked Among Us," a "what if…?" variation on Bradbury's The Man from The Illustrated Man.

The volume contains one of 26 such stories by Wally Wood, most scripted by Al Feldstein. In 1955, the Comics Code rejected the second page of You, Rocket and forced EC Comics to completely rewrite and redraw it. When the original art for that rejected page was rediscovered, one panel was missing. Al Feldstein wrote a new panel to complete the story again, but died before it could be published, but is included in full in this volume for the first time. The book contains commentary on all the stories by EC experts Thommy Burns, Grant Geissman, and Jon Gothold.

Born in 1927, Wallace Wood attended the Hogarth School of Art, then Cartoonists and Illustrators School, before working for Will Eisner as a Spirit background artist, then with George Wunder on Terry and the Pirates. Before working for Fox Comics on the likes of My Experience, My Secret Life, My Love Story and My True Love: Thrilling Confession Stories, before his most famous work for EC Comics. He persuaded publisher William Gaines to start a line of science fiction comics, and he pencilled and inked several dozen EC science fiction stories, many of which are reprinted in its new volume.

He is also best known for working on Daredevil with Stan Lee, in which he created his red costume, as well as creating Stilt-Man. He was also famed as the anonymous artist of the satirical Disneyland Memorial Orgy poster as well as the Panels That Always Work comic artist guideline, created for himself and then made famous by Larry Hama, who used it to train other comics artists. Wally Wood, suffering health issues and a fading career, regretting his life choices, committed suicide in 1981 with a gun. Fantagraphics Books published The Life and Legend of Wallace Wood as a set of two hardcover books.

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