Wallace "Wally" Wood was a comic book pioneer, working as an assistant on Will Eisner's The Spirit before gaining fame for illustrating classic 1950s EC titles such as Weird Fantasy, Weird Science, and Mad. Wood did notable work for Marvel during that company's explosive growth in the 1960s.
Yet Wallace Wood was also a master of cheesecake and humorous erotica, unusual for a mid-century comics artist of his stature. In the fifteen years before his untimely death in 1981, he drew a number of adult comics. Thanks to their satirical edge, and Wood's gift for mimicking the styles of other cartoonists, some of them rank with his best work.
Wallace Wood's Disney Parodies
Wally Wood had already lampooned iconic characters in early 1950s Mad issues (when Mad was still in comic-book format). These included "Superduperman" and "Bat Boy and Rubin." But the atmosphere of the late 1960s allowed Wood to push the boundaries of comic-book parody further.
Wood spoofed Disney characters with the "Disneyland Memorial Orgy," which he drew anonymously for The Realist magazine's May 1967 issue. In the cartoon, famous Disney characters are depicted having sex or doing drugs, having been "liberated" by the recent death of Walt Disney.
The cartoon became so popular that it was released as a poster, and spawned numerous bootlegs. It also inspired other counterculture artists, like the so-called Air Pirates, to parody the wholesome image of Disney's iconic cartoons.
Wally Wood Creates Sally Forth and John Cannon
But the most popular and longest-lasting comics Wallace Wood drew for mature audiences was his Sally Forth strip. Appearing from 1968 to 1974, this comic was targeted at servicemen, featuring a busty co-ed commando with a knack for getting into trouble.
Sally Forth finds herself humorously out of uniform in a series of science-fiction and adventure escapades in the strip, which co-stars a crack team of military oddballs such Kicky McCann, Wild Bill Yonder, Hairy James, and their cherubic lieutenant, Q. P. Dahl.
Wallace Wood's Sally Forth shouldn't be confused with the later Greg Howard syndicated strip of the same name.
During the same period, Wood also created Cannon, a more "serious" adult comic. Starring John Cannon, a CIA-conditioned super-agent, the strip was an action-adventure send-up of the popular spy genre of the late 1960s. Needless to say, plenty of undressed communist femmes fatales appeared amid Cannon's explosions and shootouts.
Wallace Wood Publishes Adult Comics
Meanwhile, Wood went on aping the Walt Disney style in his 1970s comics, and parodied many of the same fairy tales that Disney had turned into successful animated films. Wood's adult parodies included "Malice in Wonderland," "Slipping Beauty," and "Strange Symphonies," as well as non-Disney take-offs such as "The Blizzard of Ooze" and "Flasher Gordon."
These were published in men's magazines such as Puritan and National Screw (before the debut of Heavy Metal), and became increasingly graphic. Yet Wallace Wood's cheerful style and talent for artistic mimicry still shone through.
Sadly, depression and illness plagued Wood by the late 1970s, and his work suffered a visible decline. He published two titles, Gang Bang #1 and #2, which featured explicit though amateurish spoofs. These featured, among others, graphic versions of his own previously-cheesecake Sally Forth stories.
The Legacy of Wallace Wood's Cartoons
While he remains best known for his EC sci-fi/fantasy work, Wallace Wood's adult cartoons remain an important part of a career that would posthumously be honored by induction into both the Jack Kirby and Will Eisner Halls of Fame.
The comics fit into a body of work that was always keen on parody and cheeky fun. For a brief period in the early 1970s, Wood's skill and humor flourished amid a more permissive culture than that of comics' silver age.
Luke Arnott - Luke Arnott has a Master's Degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Western Ontario, where he is currently enrolled in the ...
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