The great Wally Wood, one of the world's best-loved comic book artists, a cannibal??!!
It's true, I'll show you...
In the wonderful world of comic books, artists use certain terms specific to their medium, such as:
SWIPING - To 'borrow' poses, backgrounds, or even whole scenes already drawn or created by another artist, either by stealing or copying the work to the degree that a side by side comparison readily proves the obvious influence of the original art; (We shall reveal many of these in days to come...)
CANNIBALIZATION - This is simply the act of swiping art from your own previously published work. Sometimes when the well is dry, an artist has to find inspiration wherever they can find it.There's no crime or offense involved when you steal from yourself, and Wood had years of amazing work to borrow from!
YOU BE THE JUDGE
Here are two panels by Wally Wood, both for Marvel Comics. The first is from possibly Wood's most famous Marvel comic, DAREDEVIL #7, April 1965. The second is from ASTONISHING TALES #1, August 1970, featuring Dr. Doom.
Do you notice any similarities? A little bit? The truth is that Wally Wood's cannibalized art is still better than most artists original stuff! Tastes even better re-heated!
If you want to find out more about Wally Wood, click here.
It makes me want to put my fingers in my ears and go LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!
ReplyDeleteDan Adkins (i think it was) at the 1967 SF Worldcon in NYC, said that Wood (to whom he had been an assistant) taught him three rules:
ReplyDeleteNever draw what you can swipe.
Never swipe what you can trace.
Never trace what you can cut out and paste in.
This was after it had bee pointed out to Adkins that he had *blatantly* swiped two panels from a story Johnny Craig had done for "Eerie" - and hadn't even *tried* to make them match his Wood-derived style.
ReplyDelete