Best of Witzend

Best of witzend by Wallace Wood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Witzend was a self-published black and white magazine created by Wally Wood in 1966 to showcase artists doing whatever they wanted in magazine format, free of the constraints of the comics code. This volume contains 40+ works by various artists.

There are no super heroes in here. There are horror, science fiction, and science fantasy stories within, along with pinups, funny animals, and various other genres. It reminds me of a huge EC comic.

I don't want to spoil too much of the contents but luminaries like Al Williamson, Steve Ditko, Gray Morrow, Alex Toth, and others decorate the pages. Reed Crandall does several Edgar Rice Burroughs pieces. Walt Simonson contributes a dwarf pinup that wound up being one of my favorite pieces in the collection. My absolute favorite story in the collection is he Care and Feeding of Geks by Nicola Cuti and Mike Zeck, kind of an EC take on Sea Monkeys.

There are also interviews and essays about witzend. Wally Wood hated the comics code and wanted to show what comics might be without it. I have to think he succeeded to some degree.

Best of witzend is 250 pages of creator owned goodness from the silver and bronze ages of comics. Four out of five bits.

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