Wally Wood: Strange Worlds of Science Fiction (WOODWORK, 4)

I've been hunting this book for a quite a while, and finally I found it at a reasonable price ( most of the buying options were quite expensive, I guess due to the rarity of the publication). The collection contains Wally's stories from non EC publications, that I wanted to have, and see how he developed his artistic style from his start of his career. Everything is as expected to be, everything is as in the description ( used copy, very good, with small number of defects on the cover due to the use from previous owners). It was delivered most quickly, within one week, it's my fastest delivered item so far. Hope to come upon some other items that I want to have in my collection from this seller, I sure will keep my eye in the future.

This is a great collection of about two dozen of Wally Wood's non-EC science fiction comics, mostly from 1950-'53. Most are heroic he-man stuff: CAPTAIN SCIENCE! KENTON, of the STAR PATROL! SPACE ACE! And the roguish Chet Fields, interplanetary adventurer! All are lots of fun, innocent 50's stuff. The artwork is terrific early Wood. Sometimes it is Wood inking Wood, but a lot are either Wood inking someone else (looks like Joe Orlando at least a couple times, but in one case Jack Kirby) or someone else inking Wood (Joe Orlando for at least a couple, but also the great Al Williamson - and Frank Frazetta! And other, er, less accomplished artists.) Personally, I wish it was always Wood inking Wood - I don't think Wood's art was really compatible with Kirby, and as for Williamson, Frazetta, or Ditko (none of that here) inking Wood, it's like getting a one for two deal. But that kind of thing was typical for the comics back in the day, sadly. BTW, if anyone knows who the inker was on "OPERATION UNKNOWN" (no pun intended,) a publication of the fascinating Lev Gleason, I would love to know. An odd element I can't find any reason for is a triple-stripe fore-edge decoration that wraps around a lower bit of each page. I don't find it distracting, just - odd. It doesn't interfere with the artwork in any way. A great element is the inclusion of a page of a B&W Wood EC sci-fi comic as story breaks throughout the volume. I have (reprints) of those comics, but it's interesting to compare the art. Of course the EC stuff is almost always Wood inking Wood (Gaines must've had some pay differential) so of course they tend to compare favorably to the non-EC stuff. There're also 11 pages of Wood sci-fri covers, er, towards the end of the volume. Whatever! It's all great examples of a great artist.

Collection of mr woods early work,fun perusing

Wally Wood is known throughout comic fandom for his superheroes, humor and horror. One of the EC Masters of the 50's, he also did a lot of science fiction work for smaller, less well remembered publishers like Avon, Youthful and Lev Gleason. Impossible to find, this new collection in library bound hardcover features great reproductions of over 20 tales with articles and lots of nice large illustrations to boot. Woody live around the corner from me in the 80's, and I've always loved his artwork. This volume fills a major hole in my knowledge and collection of the work of this pioneer of the comics world.

The reproductions are not very good and it's not very easy to handle due to the binding which is very tight. (this is the paperback version)

This is hardly Wally Wood's best work if indeed some of the work is Wally's at all...? Disappointed by the 3rd Rate low quality of the work in this book.

Wally Wood - what else is there to say? The mans art should be an inspiration to all aspiring graphic artists. This book is well put together and does a great job at reproducing Wally's stories and artwork. I bought the sofbound edition and wasnt dissappointed, if you are a true fan I would recommend seeking out the hardback as I understand it has extra material.

I would really, really like to have a word with the idiot who designed this book. For some unfathomable reason, he or she decided that the really cool thing to do would be to deface each and every single page of the book (besides the cover) with three gray bars. Every time I look at a page in this book, my eyes are instantly drawn to this defacement! Arrggh!

Great!!

Arrived in record time, and in perfect condition. This volume is an excellent collection of Wally Wood Classic Science Fiction. Highly Recommended!

nice Paperback presenting out of space stories by Wally Wood, penciled in the 50s. Surprise is always guaranted and welcome.

Un libro fantástico para los amantes del comic y la science fiction 100% aconsejable y a todo color. No Creo que se publique en español. Solo la portada ya te anima

All the stories here come mostly from long forgotten science fiction comics of the early 1950's. The stories, which are crude and simplistic, tend to reflect this. Several of them feature the equally and deservedly long forgotten Captain Science the two-fisted space inventor and adventurer, among other equally bland space heroes. Sadly the art tends to reflect this. Clearly this was the lower paid end of the market and Wood wasn't putting the same effort into these stories as he was those for the contemporaneous EC stories and, much later, those he did for Warren magazines. The publishers only emphasise this by reprinting sample pages and covers of work he did for those publishers and the difference is obvious. And yet I've given this a 4-star rating. Well, it's because compilations of Wally Wood comic art are very hard to come by and, apart from out of print but available at a cost books, this is the only one currently available at anything close to an affordable price and second class Wally Wood is better than no Wally Wood at all because he is simply one of the finest exponents of comic book art of the last century. What is really needed are compilations of his work for EC and Warren to see his sequential art at its best. If you just like his art, then a compilation of his covers and illustrations for Galaxy SF magazine is coming out soon. My copy's on order. Recommended for hard core Wally Woods fans only.