On Wally Wood. And other things

Hi, Everybody!

The AMOC Fax Machine has been earning it's keep:

And then:

Christon's rough:

Then I sent Dave:

Dave,
This came across the transom:
On WALLACE WOOD

I got out of the Army in spring of ’71, and my high school buddy Ralph Reese invited me to join him in his home studio to help him on penciling jobs for NatLamp, Esquire, and B&W horror mags. There wasn’t a huge amount of work available, so Ralph put me in contact with Wallace Wood, as a possible assistant. I met with Woody (nobody who actually knew him called him anything else, because he HATED being called “Wally.” (his first wife Tatjana always addressed him as “Wallace.”) We hit it off right away, and he took me on as his background guy, Zip-cutter, swipe-o-grapher, morgue-keeper, and (literally) bottle-washer*.

Once settled in, Woody proceeded to teach me to letter, using the Gaspar Saladino alphabet. He said if he couldn’t teach me to letter, he couldn’t teach me any of the other skills. It was all about control of the tool. Crisp verticals, and horizontals, visually pleasing circles- all at a microscopic Italic angle, sprightly positioned within the Ames Guide pencil lines. This tool control was the basis for teaching me inking.

Inking was done with Gillotte 190 pen points (no longer available) and Winsor Newton Series Seven Russian Red Sable watercolor brushes. (They were a buck and a quarter at the time, and I shudder to think what they fetch today) His fave was the #3. He would “Chevy” the brushes, to modify them for specific tasks. He needed a slightly blunter tip for “outlining” and that was accomplished by wetting and pointing the new brush, and slowly bringing the tip close to a freshly extinguished paper match. This would burn off that annoying little hair at the end, and blunt the point so that it produced a thicker line. A more judicious approach to the ember created a “feathering” brush which was used to “feather out” from solid blacks. Speedball lettering pen points were ground down to specs on a hone stone.

As I took on more assistant tasks, Woody sat me down and told me “the Parable of the Old Cartoonist and the Elves.”

“Once upon a time there was a little old cartoonist who was up against a frightful deadline, but could no longer stay awake to finish the job that was due the next morning. As he slept at the drawing table, the Elves came into the studio and feeling sorry for the old cartoonist, they each grabbed brushes and pens and proceeded to finish inking the whole job. When the old cartoonist awoke to see the finished pages, he exclaimed, “Omigod, these really SUCK!” It was a mishmash of hairy tiny lines that didn’t mean anything, and the spotting of blacks was haphazard, and the overall look was ugly.”

I got the message.

Larry Hama, August 11, 2024

Dave responded by sending me this:

Which let's me bring up one of, if not THEE most popular post in AMOC history:

Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work!!

Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work!!
by Wallace Wood
(Click image to enlarge)

(Although, TECHNICALLY, it's Larry Hama's Wally Wood's 22 panels that always work!!)

Rigamarole:

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The AMOC TeePublic Shoppe:

October 26-28.*

*Sale dates are not final and therefore subject to change.

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The Cerebus Humble Bundle is over, you can STILL get all 16 volumes for $99CANADIAN at CerebusDownloads.com (More if you want the Remastered Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing...)

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Heritage has slapped copies of #1 and #2.

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The Help Out Bill Messner-Loebs Go Fund Me, or buy Rodney Schroeter's book with proceeds going to Bill. 

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The Last Day Without nothing.

   "      "     "        "  Dave's signature.

   "      "     "        "  an Old Cerebus Remarque

   "      "     "     Auction catalog for the Panoramic Remarques. 

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Oliver' Simonsen's Cerebus movie: The Absurd, Surreal, Metaphysical, and Fractured Destiny of Cerebus the Aardvark it's currently available on "Plex", "Xumo", "Vimeo On Demand", "Tubi". If you're in Brazil..., "Mometu", "Nuclear Home Video".

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Next Time: Nothing about Wally Wood, I tell ya what...