The THUNDER Agents Companion

by Wallace Wood (Artist), Paul Gulacy (Artist), Paris Cullins (Artist)

The heroes who never die! Though the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents had a relatively short life during their initial run in American comics during the 1960s, you just can't keep a good team down, as evidenced by their periodic revivals over the years. This is the authorized, and definitive, book on the history of such memorable characters as Dynamo, No-Man, Lightning, Andor, the Iron Maiden, and all the other super-heroes and super-villains created by the late, great Wallace Wood and company. To celebrate the team's 40th anniversary, included are interviews with Woody's creative team, as well as those superb writers and artists involved in the various T-Agents resurrections over the decades, and a detailed examination of the origins and exploits of the characters themselves, including the shocking truth behind the first super-hero to ever be "killed," Menthor, the master of mental force!

Genres: Comics

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

About the author

Wallace Allan Wood was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. Although much of his early professional artwork is signed Wallace Wood, he became known as Wally Wood, a name he claimed to dislike. Within the comics community, he was also known as Woody, a name he sometimes used as a signature.

He was the first inductee into the comic book's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame, in 1989, and was inducted into the subequent Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame three years later.

In addition to Wood's hundreds of comic book pages, he illustrated for books and magazines while also working in a variety of other areas — advertising; packaging and product illustrations; gag cartoons; record album covers; posters; syndicated comic strips; and trading cards, including work on Topps' landmark Mars Attacks set.

For much of his adult life, Wood suffered from chronic, unexplainable headaches. In the 1970s, following bouts with alcoholism, Wood suffered from kidney failure. A stroke in 1978 caused a loss of vision in one eye. Faced with declining health and career prospects, he committed suicide by gunshot three years later.

Wood was married three times. His first marriage was to artist Tatjana Wood, who later did extensive work as a comic-book colorist.

EC editor Harvey Kurtzman, who had worked closely with Wood during the 1950s, once commented, "Wally had a tension in him, an intensity that he locked away in an internal steam boiler. I think it ate away his insides, and the work really used him up. I think he delivered some of the finest work that was ever drawn, and I think it's to his credit that he put so much intensity into his work at great sacrifice to himself".

EC publisher William Gaines once stated, "Wally may have been our most troubled artist... I'm not suggesting any connection, but he may have been our most brilliant".