That’s really what this all is about, isn’t it? These books are great glimpses into the past but they would be nothing without the art on the pages and Wally Wood is a comic book legend, a literal Hall of Famer. I can almost hear the din of the general hustle and bustle of a publishing office and maybe Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman, and I are just now looking over the new pages from this Wood kid.Īnd, oh boy, Wally Wood. When I open up Wally Wood’s EC Stories Artist’s Edition I like to pretend that I’m back in the EC offices in New York City in 1948. It’s very easy to open up this book and let it envelope you and transport you to another time and place. You don’t purchase Wally Wood’s EC Stories Artist’s Edition because you really want to read the stories-though you can certainly do that because in a time before digital production the books were all hand lettered on the pages themselves-you purchase it because you want to appreciate the work of a comic book legend, as close to as that work was originally presented without actually owning the pages themselves. The pages themselves are high quality color scans so you can see the blue lines, you can see the purple “Silver Printed” stamps, you can see where mistakes were whited out and fixed, you can see the doodles and the notes in the margins. I give you all of these details because what IDW Publishing is doing with these Artist’s Editions aren’t just reprinting comic books, they are reprinting experiences. The difference was pretty staggering when you put them together. WALLY WOOD ART FULLPreviously I thought that the other Artist’ Editions were massive, but at 12” x 17” they are a full four inches shorter. I had ordered the Romita edition at the same time as this Wood edition and so they shipped together. When I opened the box it was delivered in I nearly doubled over in laughter. That’s right - this thing is almost two feet tall. Original art in the late 1940s and early 1950s was larger than it is now and because these editions reprint at the original size, Wally Wood’s EC Stories Artist’s Edition measures in at 15” x 22”. I’ve bought them all and I’ve loved them all, but nothing could prepare me for Wally Wood’s EC Stories Artist’s Edition. In the intervening years there have been Walter Simonson’s The Mighty Thor Artist’s Edition and John Romita’s The Amazing Spider-Man Artist’s Edition. That book went on to win the Eisner Award for Best Archival Project and Best Design. I hadn’t planned on buying it, but after seeing the books for myself there was no way I couldn’t. The Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer Artist’s Edition was a masterfully put together and loving tribute. When we opened up the book all three of our jaws hit the floor. In 2010 at San Diego Comic-Con we attended a press event held by IDW and Scott Dunbier - the editor behind these books - gave us a sneak peek at the Dave Stevens volume. And third, this was going to be a chance to see high quality reprints of Dave Stevens’ original pages in their original size, something I would probably never otherwise get to see in my lifetime. Second, I think that Dave Stevens is an unappreciated genius. When IDW first announced its line of Artist’s Edition books with Dave Steven’s The Rocketeer I was pretty interested for a number of reasons. Let’s rewind more a moment and start back at the beginning. And I’ll take them every time.īut friends, I was not prepared for Wally Wood’s EC Stories Artist’s Edition from IDW Publishing. You offer me a choice between a single issue or a trade paperback versus a giant book and I’ll take your oversized hardcover collections, your giant omnibuses, and your novelty display tomes. I like to joke, and so do my co-workers, that the bigger the book, the better.
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