Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Of Swords And Sorcery! Splash by Wally Wood



I've never known exactly why this resonates so mightily for me, but it's just one of those images I've always loved, even before I saw it


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4 comments:

  1. RussNovember 4, 2015 at 5:57 PM

    He might've been inspired by Prince Valiant of 6/19/38. Those three consecutive issues of Tower of Shadows with Wood stories are a real highlight for me. Too bad he didn't get a regular Sword and Sorcery strip. ( Though Kull #1 was pretty cool, too.)

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  2. Cap'n's ComicsNovember 4, 2015 at 9:25 PM

    True ALL that! You probably also dig the Warren fantasies Wood did

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  3. RussNovember 5, 2015 at 5:30 AM

    Absolutely. Did you ever notice, though, that Wood never quite takes his Macho leads seriously and often draws himself in as a cynical, diminutive or elfin character. Odkin tended to look more and more like Wood as they both aged. And he obviously identified with the kid protagonists in strips like the Rejects, Goody Bumpkin and Bucky Ruckus. And the psychologically motivated Pip, the "baby man" in the Pipsqueak Papers. The most human of his incarnations was Weed in Thunder Agents, a sarcastic and small-sized smoker who usually schemed his way out of trouble. since he was obviously not strong enough to punch his way out.

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  4. Cap'n's ComicsNovember 5, 2015 at 10:33 AM

    Oh, crike! Don't get me goin on Wally's psyche! (poet/knowit/likes toshowit) Thanks for the initial reminder of Prince Val, by the way (and Corben does this scene in airbrush on the fanzine cover of Infinity Four), but what I was referring to may even apply to Hal Foster 75 years ago----I feel this is one of those moments/situations stamped on the collective consciousness(put on yer waders, cause it's getting awful deep in here).
    Now, about the mind of a great artist--id, ego, and super-ego all seem to show up in Wally's work when he's writing the story, and it's usually very obvious that they are reflections of himself. You covered one aspect about that quite nicely (except you forgot Dollar Bill, who I'm adding to these images with his/Wood's take on the whole process), and I would dig your take on Wally as the rah-rah jock/superhero. Oh, and did someone mention the quirky echoes from Vincent Van Gogh? wow

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