Customer Reviews

WALLY WOOD SKETCHBOOK PB

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Wood is known as one of the early Mad magazine artists, but it's nice to see some preliminary sketches of his other work here. With examples of various genres, including both ink and pencil drawings, this slim volume doesn't really have his best stuff. Woody's work has a slightly stiff and old-fashioned quality, but if you're interested in illustration or science fiction (especially of the 1950's), this is passable. A lot of weird and absurd images, obsessively rendered. I was struck by the long hours he must have put in. The bio describes the sad end of his life. For better examples of Wood's cartooning, get reprints of '50s era Mad magazines. For his classic sci-fi illustrations, "Against the Grain: Mad Artist Wallace Wood" has more to offer than this book, but it's much more expensive.

Don't get me wrong, I am a great appreciator of Wally Wood's art, but this sketchbook is just that, rough sketches. If you thought you might see some unused covers, or detailed drawings that Wood just did for pleasure, there are a few, but not much. Most of these sketches are pretty bare bones, just Wood scratching out some ideas, and many of the drawings have hardly any intrinsic interest at all. Though there are some good drawings here, as well as a lot of character design sketches that are fairly fleshed out. There are lot of character designs for trading cards. There is also some of his more commercial work, including a series of lunchbox designs. If you a completist, than you will like this book. The most interesting drawings to me were the ones Wood did in his youth, not just because they were the most complete, but because you can see the enormity of his talent even then.

The book does have some good interviews, including a rare one with Wood himself. The editors unfortunately chose to put the interviews on the margins of the pages, the book is not very big, about the size of a comic, so the art is squeezed into the same space as the text. The sentences are very short, making for choppy reading. An odd choice, and one that does not serve the art, or the text. There are some good drawings here, but there is mostly rough sketches, character studies, doodles and layouts - alongside early works of a young genius.

Anything with Wood is a masterpiece. This is an excellent addition to anyone's collection of Wood art. Wally Wood was a master of cartooning. He was a great artist that deserves mention amongst the notables of great art. Squ Tront and Russ Cochran's ec reprints provide the public with much of Wood's work. However, his sketchbooks are hard to find. His sketchbooks reveal the creative genius he had. His suicide is a great tragedy. I saw him at a convention in 1980. I noticed at that time he was quite despondent. It's an aweful thing he didn't have anyone to talk to. May God rest his soul.