The Wally Wood Letters, 1976-1981

May 18, 2010 7:31 PM

The Wally Wood Letters, 1976-1981. A collection of postcards and letters from comic book great Wally Wood to a fan, beginning in 1976 through 1981. Introduction. Letters begin here. via

Comic book artist Wally Wood made a name for himself drawing science fiction comics for Avon Comics and EC in the 1950's. He was also a key contributor in early issues of the comic book Mad (later a magazine). Wood penciled some early issues of Marvel Comics' title Daredevil and in the 1960's and 1970's got into self-publishing with his magazine Witzend and his Wizard King Projects. That was an extremely brief overview of an incredible career, which included collaborations with Will Eisner and Jack Kirby.

Wood is friendly and chatty in these letters, offering up his opinions on his early work and various comic publishers and artists. I know, one letter to a page. Lots of clicks.

Wally Wood Gallery.

Found this link via Hooray for Wally Wood!, a celebration of all things Wally Wood and deserving of a front page post itself.

Previously: Wally Wood's 22 Comics Panels That Always Work

posted by marxchivist (8 comments total)

Awesome!

And I see you already have the 22 panels... Good stuff!
posted by Artw at 7:39 PM on May 18, 2010

Whoa. Cool.
posted by pjern at 7:48 PM on May 18, 2010

It's kind of depresing to read the letters to the end - he's so bitter about all the stuff I know him for, and I'm afraid I know nothing about the personal project he's so keen on. And that last letter and the epilogue... Kind of a bummer.
posted by Artw at 8:38 PM on May 18, 2010

Also reading the Witzend link - by Stephen Bissette! - it seems that his zine was best known for being the first place Ditko's Mr. A was published, and Mr. A is known for revealing to the world that Ditko was fucking crazy. Kind of an odd legacy.
posted by Artw at 8:45 PM on May 18, 2010

Yeah Artw, when I saw the dates on these letters "1976-1981" I knew it wasn't going to end well. I'm guessing he was talking about his hopes for the Wizard King animated project. In one of the letters he says "The best is yet to come." Sadly, with his failing eyesight and other health problems, his best work was behind him. But reading these letters, it seemed like he was always working, working. His output was prodigious.

And when he couldn't draw anymore...
posted by marxchivist at 8:51 PM on May 18, 2010

I guess I should be used to it by now - stories about old time comics masters hardly ever end well, and pretty much every well loved comic from back in the day has a story about someone getting ripped off attached to it.
posted by Artw at 9:00 PM on May 18, 2010

Heh. I see Smilin' Stan just unleashed his latest flurry of twitter posts. Ah Stan, I guess you came out on top...
posted by Artw at 9:06 PM on May 18, 2010

Thanks for posting this. Really interesting stuff!
posted by joelhunt at 6:09 AM on May 19, 2010