Number 2537 Taking it to the Max!

 

Peter Max was a pop artist of the late '60s who got a lot of attention from the press. I bought the first issue of Peter Max Magazine which came out in 1970, not for Max, but for a story drawn by Wallace Wood, which on the last page is mostly done by Max.

I don’t have much of an opinion of Max’s art, because most of it, especially during his ’60s fame, seemed more popular in the public mind because of its tie-in with psychedelic drugs. Max kept up his career long past those psychedelic times.

As a bit of biographical information, Max was born Peter Max Finkelstein to a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany, October 1937 (the family got wise and left Germany when Peter was one year old). I also read that Peter Max now has dementia, and I have nothing but pity for anyone with that condition.

Wallace Wood (and his assistants of the time) did a very fine job on the artwork for “Mister Mouse Meets Peter Max,” so I would have been happier with a magazine devoted to Wallace Wood. But we don’t get to choose what catches the attention of the public. 

Number 2527: Ride the gargoyle

Wallace Wood was good at fantasy stories, as “Flight into Fear” shows. A teenager, Johnny, who has lost the use of his legs is transported to another world by riding a gargoyle that has come to life. Johnny then helps the people there get rid of a bad king. The best thing about fantasy is absolutely anything, no matter how unlikely, can happen. Wood used a series of events, which are more like a dream (or nightmare), rather than try to explain the reasons why such other-worldly happenings occur.

Like other stories Wood did during this time there are echos of Lord of the Rings. All comic books are one form of fantasy or another. The seven page story was produced for a Marvel title, Tower of Shadows #5 (1971), and of course Marvel and DC comics are fantasy factories.

There is also the self portrait of the artist, with a whimsical, but telling, look at his studio as a medieval dungeon. Wood conjured up fantasy, humor, science fiction, all parts of his signature — and life's — work. But from interviews he gave over the years he griped that drawing comic books was a path to poverty, and bad habits. Showing himself with a cigarette was telling. His unhealthy lifestyle had no fantasy way out for him except tragedy when, ten years from the time he was drawing this he took his own life.

Number 2497: The Ghost Beast

Marvel Comics had a title called Tower of Shadows which began  in 1969. It published some reprints and some original stories, and lasted 9 issues before becoming Creatures on the Loose. I remember buying the comic with its original title, because some of them had stories by Wallace Wood. I’ve still got them.

The story, “The Ghost Beast,” appeared in Tower of Shadows #6, from 1970. Something I noticed about Wood’s storytelling is that in this period his stories were economical (i.e., short), all fantasies. Wood, along with most all of the artists working for Marvel in the early '70s, is deceased. It’s not Tower of Shadows I collected, but Wood.

Number 2454: Wallace Wood’s “Sanctuary”

Wallace Wood has been a favorite artist for this blog, because he is a favorite of a lot of comic book fans. Including this story today, I have posted 46 stories by him. The man died almost 40 years ago, and yet his artwork is still thrilling fans, including cynical old me. In 1970 Wood did some stories for Marvel Comics’ Tower of Shadows. He wrote and drew them, along with his assistants. I enjoy the imagination of his sword and sorcery stories. Wood, besides being an artist who could do dynamic work from scripts of other writers, was a natural storyteller on his own.

“Sanctuary” appeared in Tower of Shadows #8 (1970).

Number 2402: Humbug and Mad: variations on a theme

I was 10 years old in 1957, and aware of the buzz on the movie, Baby Doll, from a play by Tennessee Williams. I thought the images of actress Carroll Baker sucking her thumb were odd, but not only was I only 10, I was completely naïve about sex and sexual symbolism. Baby Doll was controversial because of its sexual theme. But all of it went over my head.

That summer I bought Humbug #1 at a local pharmacy. Later in the summer I bought Mad #35. Both of them took off on the image of Carroll Baker. Humbug did a more traditional satire, probably written by editor Harvey Kurtzman, and Mad did a 4-page mash-up of Williams’s plays, Baby Doll, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Rose Tattoo, drawn by Wallace Wood. Despite my innocence, I “got” the Humbug satire, but was puzzled by Mad. That was because at the time I knew more about Tennessee Ernie Ford* than Tennessee Williams.

When looking at Humbug and its bad printing, it did not match Mad, but I recognized the names Harvey Kurtzman and Jack Davis from the Mad Reader paperback. (And Humbug cost 10¢ less than Mad; important for a kid with a small allowance.) I knew more about Mad than I did sex. Not impossible, because I knew nothing about sex except I liked looking at pictures of actresses like Carroll Baker, Marilyn Monroe, and especially the incredible Brigitte Bardot . . . sigh. Oops, I’m going off into a reverie. Sorry about that.

The Humbug scans come from my copy of Humbug #1, and the Mad scans come from the CD set, Totally Mad.

*From YouTube, Tennessee Ernie’s biggest hit, “16 Tons”.

Number 2343: Wallace Wood in the Stone Age

I believe that Wallace Wood drew better when he got a story he was interested in drawing. This story, “The Lost Kingdom of Athala” is one of those. It has a prehistoric setting, it has a beautiful girl in an abbreviated animal skin. And it even has a Wood-version of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. I read it, but I more-or-less dismissed the story to look at the artwork.

However, during a second look I did read it, and note, this is a spoiler: sexy Rhoa, the cavewoman ruler, says she wants to be like other girls of leading man Jack Rance’s world. I doubt she’ll be thinking that when she gets to that era in the time machine Jack and his young friend traveled in. She just doesn’t fit into that early '50s era, when women were expected to be in the kitchen or taking care of the kids. And speaking of time machines, that odd-looking mechanical device looks clunky to me, not as sleek as the devices we are used to seeing Wood draw.

The story was printed originally in Strange Worlds #4, an Avon comic from 1951. My scans came from a 1958 IW reprint, Strange Planets #9.

Number 2294: The Werewolf Legend

“The Werewolf Legend” is from The Vault of Horror #12, which is actually #1, from 1950. It is, once again, the EC publisher avoiding having to pay for a whole new second class mailing permit for a new title. So War Against Crime was killed after issue #11, and resurrected as The Vault of Horror #12. EC had been experimenting with horror stories in their crime books, and felt secure enough to issue horror comics under their own titles, after chiseling the Post Office.

The story is drawn by Harry Harrison and Wallace Wood. I am not sure who did what, but the inker may be Harrison. He bragged once about how fast he could ink with a #7 brush, “socking in the blacks,” as he called it.

The story is kind of a cheat, and also clumsy, putting all of the exposition into the last couple of panels. (The stories got better over time, which is why EC Comics has the reputation they do today.) The credit for the story goes to Gardner Fox, based on information from Tales of Terror/The EC Companion, by Fred Von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman.