Wally Wood was such a tragic figure.

There has always been plenty of uncirculated Heroes Inc around. I picked up new copies in the 90s for 50 cents and less. This era of Wood he was pitching animated shows with a tenuous connection to Ralph Bakshi, there are sketches from that time of these characters. Eventually Bakshi lifted characters for Wizards from the pitches. Always been a fan of Wally Wood. Once you go down the rabbit hole of his work you can see he touched every medium. Not only comics......illustration, pulps, trading cards, commercials, self publishing. His Topps stuff was everywhere in the 70s. I finally tracked down the second issue of Heroes Inc, it's in magazine format, different paper, which presents Wood's work better.

I just finished collecting that original oversized 4 issue run of Cannon, which is SO much better. It’s basically one long ‘graphic novel’ split into 4 issues, and the B&W with use of duotone/screen tones honestly looks fantastic and really shows off Wood’s draftsmanship.

I remember that these were given out for free at the door during a Big Apple Comic Con I attended either in 1999 or 2000.

These are everywhere... A seller on Ebay would give you a free copy everytime you ordered

you should do a few episodes of the former assistants of Wood. I am thinking specifically of Wayne Howard who had a lot of Wood in his work. He did a Charlton comic called Midnight Tales. I would love to hear from you guys about him.

Found about 6 or 8 of these in the used book repository on my ship USS Peoria in 1987. I took a couple and left the rest for other people to find later on. I think they'd laid untouched since they were first distributed in 1969 (the Peoria was a 'Nam Era LST). Wonderful find!

"The story content is nonsense." Brutal!

This makes me so sad. The Comics Industrial Complex, for so long, would eat their creators and shit them out. There were no Patreons or Instagrams back then. Wally Wood, at his best, was among the all -time greats in comics and illustration and I don't think he ever made a decent living, with the possible exception of his EC days. Even then, I'm really not sure. 😕

I had 20 or so of these part of a larger find from an army warehouse that I got when I picked up a collection. Eventually, one rabid collector bought all of what I had left -- maybe 15 -- at a bargain price. Certainly an oddity. So odd, I'd be curious if the kayfabe effect drives up the price even in the short term.

(1) Wood was not the publisher, but he did pitch the idea to Overseas Weekly. His correspondence, selling the idea to the publisher as well as details of how the warehouse copies were found are recounted by Roger Hill in Volume 2 of the Life and Legend of Wallace Wood, which Ed wrote an introduction to. Along with a ton of undistributed comics and back issues of the newspaper, Wood's originals were found in the building, just laying in a random box. (2) Wood did independently publish the first Cannon and Sally Forth oversize compilations as part of an effort to support his own work when he formed the Friends of Odkin. He got a ton of memberships for the first year, but support fell off after that, per a Williamson fanzine interview at the time. (3) The Ditko/Wood collaboration produced a lot of beautiful pages for Thunder Agents, Jungle Jim, the Destructor and some others I'm forgetting. The anti-hero Andor, who resembled many of Wood's outcast half-human protagonists, was first penciled by Ditko and inked by Wood in an issue of Dynamo and wandered nomadically through several of the Thunder strips, with at least one also inked by Ditko. Most of the Tower characters were somewhat generic, but Andor, like Wood's Animan, seemed pretty personal.

Ditko and Wood also collaborated on the Atlas character the Destructor, whose costume looks to be an inspiration for Clowes' Death Ray.

it all looks great. especially like the Misfits. wish he would have done more misfits stories.

and bought it! thanks for showcasing this. CAn't wait to read it.

@cartoonistkayfabe Would you or have you guys done an in depth video of the business side of things? How would you go about getting an Art Agent? Do you need one? Would you recommend self publishing or going through a publisher like Dark Horse or Image? Since comics don't have medical insurance, how difficult is it paying for medical insurance out of your own pocket in this day and age? How would you go about selecting the right printer to print your own book? What makes a good ad to sell your book? I don't really see a lot of comic professionals talking about this too much. I don't know if it's taboo. I'd like to see you guys tackle this if you can.

I own the Fantagraphics 2014 Cannon hardcover and it’s my favorite Wally Wood art. Gorgeous work. If you see it available for purchase, I can’t recommend it enough.

Proto Fukitor art style

More Cannon please!

🔥🔥🔥🔥

That characters origin sounds like Winter Soldier’s. I wonder if they read this book for “inspiration”.