Wally Wood (1927–1981)

This issue is a ton of fun! Namor is so ridiculously over the top, and Matt trying to corral him (both as Matt Murdock, Namor's lawyer, and as Daredevil) is supremely entertaining. This issue marks the introduction of the all-red Daredevil suit and Matt adding a grappling line to his billy clubs, which surprised me because I didn't realize how how few issues it was until the original yellow-and-red suit got replaced. Wally Wood draws a real nice Matt Murdock, there were several panels where show more I paused to just take a moment to admire the character art. show less

If you can imagine Cannon as a film co-directed by Sam Peckinpah and Russ Meyer, you'll probably have a good idea what this contains. Wally Wood is a legend, and though this is trashy and sexist, it's still hilariously over-the-top (intentionally so) and incredibly well drawn.

This book is definitely a relic of its time. Wood liked to write sexy action comics for servicemen, so these stories originated in comics sent to soldiers. Wood had a great art style, all bullet-headed agents and voluptuous, leggy women. He had a talent for drawing both action scenes and cheesecake pinups, and he was also especially good and looks of existential horror, which pop up once or twice in this volume.

One of the tropes of this series is that all the women are beautiful and none of show more them keep on their clothes. A handful of the female characters (heroes and villains both) are seemingly always nude or only occasionally dressed in see-through clothing. When given the opportunity to disrobe, they do, and if they need to escape a villain’s clutches in the altogether, they make the best of it.

This would all be a bunch of absurd, sexploitational fun if not for the threats of rape and casual misogyny that crop up throughout. I liked the art and adventure enough that the occasional sour note didn’t ruin the book for me, but my rating definitely comes with a big asterisk. show less

Well this is about the fanciest Tijuana bible I've ever come across.

As in those little underground booklets from the 1930s, the stories here mostly feature well-known comic strip characters having extremely explicit sex. In addition to Flash Gordon, Prince Valiant, Li'l Abner, and Superman, Disney is represented with Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, and a two-page Disneyland orgy with Mickey and all his friends. The Wizard of Oz and a few fairy tales get thrown in for good measure. (About show more half of the book is taken up with reprints of stories from the first two issues of Wood's . . . ahem . . . Gang Bang series from the early 1980s.)

The art is rather arousing if you are just flipping through the book, but I made the mistake of actually reading all the words from cover to cover, and the stories are just subpar Mad magazine parodies loaded with misogyny, male fantasy wish fulfillment, and offensive portrayals -- you don't want to know what Wood renamed Dopey in the "So White and the Six Dorks" story.

Wood is a major figure in the history of comic books, but this is far from his best and most representative work. At best it's a novelty or curiosity.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents:

All art by Wallace Wood unless noted

• Illustration (originally published in Naughty Knotty Woody, March 1998)
• Frontis art (originally publshed in France in Cons De Fée, October 1977)
• Wood Uncovered / essay by J. David Spurlock

1950s

• Prank EC Comics panel (drawn 1952, published in Woodwork: Wallace Wood 1927-1981)
• Good morning, Ed (Dude, May 1957)
• At last! A human face! (Dude, July 1957)
• The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain (Dude, September 1957)
• He drew it from memory (Gent, August 1957)
• Not much. Who's new with you? (Gent, August 1957)
•The rabbit died? (Gent, August 1957)
• Balancing Act (Nugget, October 1958)

1960s

• We could give them something else to think about (Nugget, February 1963)
• Marquis de Sade Coloring Book (Laff, July 1965)
• Pussycat (Male Annual #3, 1965) / Gabe Guttman, script; Wallace Wood, art
• Far-Out Fables: The Disenchanted Prince (Calvacade, January 1965) / Seymour, script; Wallace Wood, art
• Far-Out Fables: The Story of Cindy Eller (Calvacade, February 1965)
• Far-Out Fables: Slipping Beauty (Calvacade, January 1967)
• Far-Out Fables: Handsel and Feetsel (Calvacade, April 1967)
• The Disneyland Memorial Orgy (The Realist #74, May 1967)
• Dragonella (originally published in color in Heroes, Inc. #1, 1969; black-and-white toned version dated 1975) / Wallace Wood and Ron White, script; Wallace Wood, art

1970s

• My Word (reproduced from the original art, circa 1975, Big Apple Comix October 1976)
• Brave Nude World (black-and-white version, drawn circa 1976-77, Wallace Wood's Horny Toads #1, November 1993)
• Brave Nude World (color foldout, drawn circa 1976-77, Someday Funnies, 2011)
• Super Cosmic Comic Creator Comix (drawn 1974-76, Slow Death #11, 1992)
• Patriotic Duo (cover illustration, Screw #383, July 4, 1976)
• Crotch Shot (cover illustration, Screw #398, October 18, 1976)
• Carnal Catch (cover illustration, Screw #405, December 6, 1976)
• Paradise Pondered (cover illustration, Screw #414, February 7, 1977)
• Super Recreation (cover illustration, Screw #418, March 7, 1977)
• Where No Man Has Gone Before (cover illustration, Screw #437, July 18, 1977)
• Locomotive Plunder (cover illustration, Screw #476, April 17, 1978)
• Treading Incentive (cover illustration, Screw #479, May 8, 1978)
• Split Decision (cover illustration, Screw #485, June 6, 1978)
• More Fun on a Pablo (cover illustration, Screw #491, July 31, 1978)
• Fabulous Freestylin' (cover illustration, Screw #535, June 4, 1979)
• Pilgrim's Progress (unused Screw cover illustration, Gang Bang #2, 1981)
• Venus Fly Trap (Wally Wood's Weird Sex-Fantasy Plate #2, black-and-white version, 1977)
• Malice in Wonderland, Part 1 (National Screw #1, November 1976) / Wallace Wood and Al Sirois, script and pencils; Wallace Wood and Paul Kirchner, inks; Al Sirois and Paul Kirchner, color
• Malice in Wonderland, Part 2 (National Screw #2, December 1976) / Wallace Wood, script and art; Paul Kirchner, ink assist and color
• Malice in Wonderland, Part 3 (National Screw #3, February 1977) / Wallace Wood, script and art; Paul Kirchner, ink assist and color
• Malice in Wonderland, Part 4 (National Screw #4, March 1977) / Wallace Wood, script and art; Paul Kirchner, ink assist and color
• Flasher Gordon Meets Women's Lib! (National Screw #6, May 1977)
• Cover illustration (The Magazine of Mail Order Collector's Press Newsletter #16, December 6, 1979)
• Snorky and Sally Forth (original art, 1976, publication status unknown)

1980s

• The Wizard of Ooz, Part 1 (Puritan #4, March 1979) / Wallace Wood, script and art; Paul Kirchner, ink assist and color
• The Wizard of Ooz, Part 2 (Puritan #6, 1980)
• The Wizard of Ooz, Part 3 (Puritan #7, 1981)
• The Adventures of Mighty Masher (unfinished story pencil roughs, Naughty Knotty Woody, March 1998)
• Cover illustration (Gang Bang #1, 1980)
• Sally Forth - 1 (Gang Bang #1, 1980) / Wallace Wood and Paul Kirchner, art
• Lil an' Abner (Gang Bang #1, 1980) / Wallace Wood and Paul Kirchner, art
• So White and the Six Dorks (Gang Bang #1, 1980) / Wallace Wood and Paul Kirchner, art
• The Farmer's Daughter (Gang Bang #1, 1980) / Wallace Wood and Paul Kirchner, art
• Perry and the Privates (Gang Bang #1, 1980) / Wallace Wood and Paul Kirchner, art
• Cover illustration (Gang Bang #2, 1981)
• Prince Violate (Gang Bang #2, 1981)
• Sally Forth - 2 (Gang Bang #2, 1981)
• Stuporman Meets Blunder Woman (Gang Bang #2, 1981)
• Flasher Gordon (Gang Bang #2, 1981)
• The Sexual Revolution (Gang Bang #2, 1981)
• Starzan (Gang Bang #2, 1981)
• Cover illustration (Gang Bang #3, 1990 - 3rd printing)
• Wallace Wood / essay by J. David Spurlock
• Illustration (excerpt from Chapter Three, The King of the World, 1978) / Wallace Wood, art; Tatjana Wood, color
• Wood Books [advertisement] show less