Wally Wood Sketchbook

by Wally Wood

A study of the art of Hall of Fame cartoonist Wallace Wood. Includes Wood's Fireball XL-5, Mars Attacks and Daredevil designs, as well as production art for his unfinished collaboration with Fritz the Cat, Wizards, Lord of the Rings, and Cool World filmmaker Ralph Bakshi. There is a rare interview with Wood, along with insights from his closest colleagues; MAD Associate Publisher Joe Orlando; "Star Wars" and EC artist Al Williamson; Jim Steranko and a foreword by W-B animation director Bruce Timm.

Genres: Art

112 pages, Hardcover

First published May 28, 2001

About the author

See Wallace Wood for the Comic Book artist.

Reviews

[Bob Fish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great essay by Steranko (as usual) + insightful interviews with close buddies Orlando & Williamson.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sketchbooks are sketchbooks. If you like the artist, and I love Woody, then you're probably going to be happy with that aspect of the book. This is full of great sketches by a master and it definitely gives some insight into the final covers for a number of Tower books, Daredevil, and where a ton of those funky characters who showed up in Witzend came from. It's in the supporting material that this book really shines. In particular, the interview with Joe Orlando sheds some decent light on the career's of both Woody and Orlando. If you're a Wood fan, this is a must have.

[Tyson Cocks]

Wood’s art is awesome and well worth the price. I do wish the layout quality was better. I found text on the side of every page frustrating a certain point since the sketches didn’t my always relate to the information. I would rather have a few pages of text and a few supporting images and then just sketches. The quality of some of the sketches are rather pixelated as well, not many but a few. But having these sketches is awesome!

[Bill Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slim book has a load of sketches by Wally Wood and a few interviews with the master himself, Joe Orlando and Al Williamson. It provides context for the comics of the 1950's, provided by the artists who created brave new worlds filled with ray guns, rocket ships, monsters and beautiful women.