Best of Wally Wood from Witzend

"...including the ULTRA RARE Wood EC story, 'Spawn of Venus.' Originally created for EC's cancelled EC 3-D Classics #3 in 1953, the masterpiece went unpublished until EC/MAD publisher Bill Gaines gave Wood his blessing to premier it in Witzend #6 (1969). In the decades since... the layered [3-D original art] version ran in IDW's [expensive, out of print] Wood Artist Edition... but... has not run in other EC collections. All of which means Wood's 'Spawn of Venus' may still be the rarest EC comic-book story of all and, it is by EC's biggest fan-favorite star talent. ...Fantagraphics' Best of Witzend [isn't comparable as it] only has 42 pages of Wood [while] this new ultimate Wood collection has 160 pages of Wood." First Comics News (June 18, 2024) "Witzend; What is this?" Pablo Picasso, legendary fine artist "Wally Wood may be the top comic book artist for a unique style. With Witzend Woody expanded the borders of comic books wider and deeper than Marvel and DC." Steve Ditko, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, and Mr. A creator "Wood was very enamored of Tolkien and was reading Freud, so he began doing things that didn't have any place in what was then a far more rigid marketplace than exists now. It was really pure impulse, wanting to just make stuff that would be interesting to him. Since there wasn't a venue, he made one, which is not dissimilar to the impulse that got Raw to happen." Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Maus "I'm a big Wally Wood fan. WITZ-END! I subscribed from the very first issue." Gene Simmons, KISS rockstar

Wallace ("Wally") Wood is one of the most celebrated cartoonist-illustrators of all time. Wood's creative efforts on such properties as Daredevil, Weird Science, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, MAD, Witzend, Mars Attacks, Power Girl, etc., have earned him great acclaim both during his lifetime and posthumously. For his science fiction work, Wood received various Hugo Award Nominations including: 1959 Best Professional Artist; 1960 Best Professional Artist; and 1997 for Best Dramatic Presentation: Mars Attacks! Other awards include: National Cartoonists Society for best Comic Book Artist, 1957 (MAD), 1959 (MAD), and 1965 (T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents); Alley Award, Best Pencil Artist, 1965; Alley Award, Best Inking Work, 1966; Best Foreign Cartoonist Award, Angoulme International Comics Festival, 1978; The Jack Kirby Hall of Fame, 1989; The Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame, 1992; and The Inkwell Awards' Hall of Fame Award, 2011. J. David Spurlock is an award-winning author, historian, educator, advocate for artists rights, documentary filmmaker and associate to star talents Frazetta, Basil Gogos, Neal Adams, Steranko, Joe Kubert, Carmine Infantino, Julius Schwartz, Wally Wood and many more. Spurlock's book How to Draw Chiller Monsters, for Random House, rose as high as #18 on the Bookspan best-seller list. Spurlock's IPPY Award-winning book, Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage, has been universally acclaimed including by MTV and by the Village Voice who proclaimed it one of The Best of 2013. Spurlock's works have been lauded by the Rondo Awards, The New York Times, IPPY Awards, Entertainment Weekly, Eisner Awards, National Public Radio, Time Out New York, Library Journal. Publishers Weekly, the Hugo Awards, The Village Voice, Locus Awards, The Society of Illustrators, and MTV. He lives in Dallas, Texas.