Against the Grain: Mad Artist Wallace Wood

Rating:
Summary: This is looking the gift horse in the mouth, but...
Review: Although it had been promised to be a "definitive biography" by the publisher, Against the Grain: Mad Artist Wallace Wood continues the piecemeal format of everything that has been available about Wood and his contemporaries (Severin, Elder, Ingels, Crandall, Williamson, Craig, Davis, et al) for the last 40 years. -Which is to say it's a rambling book of personal essays/reminiscences, panel discussion excerpts and brief, fan-flavored interviews. The books one undeniable saving grace is that it is very generously embellished with samples of the artist's work. But overall, it feels like a blow-out issue of Squa Tront.

This will scratch the itch of the diehard and casual fan who wanted a coffee table browser on the subject. For those, like me, who hoped, finally, to see the subject's life drawn in one cohesive portrait by an insightful Boswell, it's a letdown, or "more of same."

I hope the book does well. It is, perhaps, an urgently needed Wood intro for newer generations who lack a sense of history. It is a welcome public reminder/declaration of Wood's place in The Comic Pantheon, where he clearly stands shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Roy Crane, Milt Caniff, Walt Kelly, Al Capp, Chester Gould and, dare one utter it, the Great Charles Schulz. Honest, it's not a bad little read. But I wish it had offered something new on the subject, or at least somehow extended the genre of fan appreciation/criticism established by Squa Tront during the 60s and 70s. As it is, this book has an odd way of making me feel that an entire generation, my generation, never really grew up.

Rating:
Summary: A Worthy Look At Wood's Work
Review: I've been reading "Against The Grain" on and off since late
December and, if you're a fan of comics art, this is a must-get for your collection: the late Wallace Wood was one of the comics field's greats, both as an illustrator and a cartoonist.

Like Wood's work, this is a beautiful book, well worth having; editor Bhob Stewart (assisted by Bill Pearson and Roger Hill), has done a great job. There are 35 essays by people who knew the artist, covering every aspect of his varied career. The selection of art does that as well: I have a fairly comprehensive collection of Wood's work, but there's quite a lot here that I was aware of and hadn't been able to obtain, as well of material I never knew about but was glad to see (like his illustrations from "Planet Stories," and his roughs for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"). There's his early work when he was just learning his chops, his roughs, his pencils, his cartoons, his comic book work, his illustrations --all done in variety of different techniques and mediums, all (save for the early material) displaying Wood's beautifully crisp line style.

Rating:
Summary: A Worthy Look At Wood's Work
Review: I've been reading "Against The Grain" on and off since late
December and, if you're a fan of comics art, this is a must-get for your collection: the late Wallace Wood was one of the comics field's greats, both as an illustrator and a cartoonist.

Like Wood's work, this is a beautiful book, well worth having; editor Bhob Stewart (assisted by Bill Pearson and Roger Hill), has done a great job. There are 35 essays by people who knew the artist, covering every aspect of his varied career. The selection of art does that as well: I have a fairly comprehensive collection of Wood's work, but there's quite a lot here that I was aware of and hadn't been able to obtain, as well of material I never knew about but was glad to see (like his illustrations from "Planet Stories," and his roughs for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"). There's his early work when he was just learning his chops, his roughs, his pencils, his cartoons, his comic book work, his illustrations --all done in variety of different techniques and mediums, all (save for the early material) displaying Wood's beautifully crisp line style.

Rating:
Summary: Blazing Colors!
Review: This is the penultimate guide on an artist who changed the way comic art is rendered today. This gargantuan exercise on artist Wallace Wood is an absolute for those who grew up with Woods magnificent style as well as the modern aspiring artist. Everything we see in comic art today can be traced in some shape or form to this master of pencil and India ink. The hand which so elegantly wielded the brush has been expertly brought back to life by Bhob Stewart. The text is written with a panache and flair almost completely missing from modern journalism on a subject so sadly underreported these days. Thanks to this wonderfully illustrated labor of love, the art of Wally Wood shall continue to live on for generations to come. All of today's modern heroes would not, could not exist had Wood's artistic creations not covered the span of decades. He was a true 20th-century Renaissance Man. "Against The Grain" is a work to be savored, embraced, shared by all serious artists who desire to know where it all began, and the man who rendered a new direction for a new century, Wally Wood.