Wally Wood — page from Wizard King story entitled The End
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Fanboy Stuff
Here's something for you fanboys out there (and fangirls?). As you Wally Wood fans know, Wood was in contention as artist when Hal Foster was retiring from the Prince Valiant strip. Wood 'lost out' to John Cullen Murphy, but (no offense to Murphy) I think we lost out from the direction Wood might have taken the strip (and I don't know, maybe given him more reason to live?). He couldn't have taken it as far as this page from his Wizard King pages, but one for one brief moment imagine this big panel as if Prince Valiant had ascended to King through mighty combat and fair Aleta was his Queene. Yeah, yeah, fanboy stuff.
Wally was not only a great artist in his own right, he was also the best inker for Jack Kirby's pencils who ever worked on them. Just look at their Challengers of the Unknown strips. Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteThis is quite wonderful, but I think I prefer the direction Murphy took with Valiant. (No slur on Wood!) I think Wood was a fantasist at heart, and too much magic would have intruded.... my two cents,and worth every penny!
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