Blog

Comic Artist 3: Winter 1970
Editor/publisher: Lamar Blaylock

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Stink Pains. I mean Dinks in Spain. I mean Fink Cranes. Wait, the medication is kicking in…Ink Stains! One of the benefits of getting old.

So…another zine I had never heard of until now! Many familiar names, though, starting with the prolific, smooth and very giving (as far as fandom goes) Dandy Dan Adkins seen above on the cover. That’s Dynamo in the corner up there in the spotlight, since this issue celebrates the great Wally Wood. Apropos and timely, for me at least, since I am reading the first of the two big The Life and Legend of Wally Wood from Fantagraphics (having read volume 2). Check out Fantagraphics’ Wood page here if interested. Now, of course, you will be able to see all the actual Wood art presented in this fanzine in a much better settings in the books (and other books too), but, back then, there was no internet, and EC comics were not the easiest to come by, so zines like this were pretty valuable. Wally Wood was an incredible and incredibly tragic figure, but his art will always be praised highly, as it certainly deserves. I advise anyone interested to pick up those books. There are multiple places to read about Wood of course. There is a very nice youtube channel, Cartoonist KayFabe, and they cover Heroes Inc, pointing out Wood might not have been at his best here. They do, however, go appropriately nuts over Wood’s Artist Edition (the guys are Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg).

But, hey, this is a fanzine column! I wish editor Blaylock was still around to gab about the zine, but unfortunately I was informed he died of a heart attack in 1988. He did a great job on this zine, so let’s jump in.

After a page or two of homages and the editorial, as well as the D. Bruce Berry pin up seen above, The Wallace Wood story starts with When Wood Worked in the Fifties by Blaylock, covering his work for publishers like Ziff Davis, Avon, as well as with people like Sid Check and on characters like Captain Science. The article includes a checklist, another invaluable service provided by zines like this. In an “intermission” page, the credits of the following pages of pin ups is shown. There is also an illustration on the preview page by Martin Griem, and that gives me the opportunity to finally show some multi-character sketches Marty secured when he was a convention regular…check out the amazing pieces below!

I mean…can you believe the superstars he was able to corral into doing these incredible gems??? Ok, on to the actual pin ups from the zine!

The piece above is by David Bradly (unsigned, so, glad Lamar prefaced the portfolio with credits). In much of Wood’s earlier work, his control of detail, staging and the placing of blacks was virtually unparalleled, as seen by the double page spread below.

The next article details Woods work in The Sixties, and is written by Gordon Flagg Jr., with reprinted comic work by Wood within the article. There are also a few pages of testimonials from Wood’s fellow professionals, entitled and the pros say… This list includes Marie Severin, Joe Orlando, Jerry De Fuccio, and Tom Sutton (more on him in a bit). Pretty damn good company, I would say!

The last article is The Wood At Wits’ End, by Tony Isabella, covering Wood’s own fanzine, Witzend. Various illustrations accompany the article, as well as the letters page (including a letter from Joe Kubert!), by Steve Leaf, Alan Hanley, Steve Fritz and (as seen at left), a pre cartoony Fred Hembeck!

The back cover wraps it up very nicely featuring a pin up celebrating Wood by Tom Sutton, seen below.

And with that, Comic Artist 3 ends. I hope I can find other issues of this zine, because if this one is indicative of the quality, I am sure it will be worth the search. For more info on Wood, check out the TwoMorrows Wood page, Total Control, written by Michael Gilbert (a damn fine artist himself) here.

Thanks very much for stopping by, hopefully leaving a comment, and viewing the pdf (available on my site at kenmeyerjr.com, along with all the other installments), where you will see other work by Gary Kato, Steve Fritz, Bill Black, and of course, the great Wally Wood. Until next time…

Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com