Eerie #2: "The Thing from the Sea!" (Wally Wood art)

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A gifted but self-destructive artist, Wally Wood's heyday occurred during the 1950s. In that decade he was one of the stars of the innovative EC Comics line and also ghosted The Spirit, worked with Jack Kirby on an SF comic strip called Sky Masters, drew illustrations for the SF magazine Galaxy, worked for both Marvel and DC, and handled some advertising accounts.

Wood, born in Minnesota and basically untutored in art, moved east and began working in comic books in the late 1940s. Some of his earliest work was done in collaboration with writer/artist Harry Harrison. He signed on with EC in 1949 and was soon a major contributor to most of their titles, from Weird Fantasy to Mad. Wood was also good at drawing people, especially pretty girls, but he also excelled at things mechanical—whether WWII submarines or twenty-fifth century rocket ships. At the end of a story in Weird Science he addressed the reader directly, explaining, "My world is the world of science fiction." The alien worlds and spacecraft that Wood invented for his stories were much copied by later and less gifted artists. For Mad he used an informal, cartoony style that was influenced by one of his idols, Walt Kelly. In later years Wood also worked with erstwhile Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman on such humor magazines as Trump and Humbug.

As the demand for his stuff increased, Wood set up a sort of free-form shop. He worked a lot and apparently drank a lot. Initially his drawing didn't suffer much. He created The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents for the short-lived Tower line of comic books and drew Daredevil for Marvel. For armed forces publications he produced raunchier material, such as Sally Forth, about a young lady who frequently shed her clothes. And he inked Jack Kirby's Challengers of the Unknown.

His work seriously deteriorated in the 1970s. His health deteriorated, too, and he suffered kidney failure. His last professional work consisted of some crude and badly drawn pornographic comics. Wood ended his life as the 1980s began.


Credits

Script: Unknown
Pencils: Wally Wood
Inks: Wally Wood

Reprinted:

• in Eerie (Avon, 1951 series) # 16
• in Nightmare (Skywald, 1970 series) #1
• in Nightveil's Cauldron of Horror (AC, 1989 series) #1
• in Four Color Fear (Fantagraphics, 2010 series) #[nn]