Wallace Wood Presents Shattuck

Wallace Wood Presents Shattuck by Wallace Wood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wallace Wood Presents Shattuck contains the original art of every Shattuck strip that was produced.

I picked this off the unread pile for Western Comics Month. I grabbed this during the same Fantagraphics sale that netted me Cannon. It has similar origins to Cannon in that it was produced for a newspaper geared toward overseas servicemen. Merle Shattuck is a gunslinging cowboy. He goes from being a cowhand to a sheriff, back to a cowhand, and finally a bank robber before the strip abruptly ends. The formula of the strip starts as "boobs, gunplay, boobs" but the strip gets more serious toward the end and the formula becomes "gunplay, boobs, gunplay."

The division of labor on this isn't quite clear. Nicola Cuti writes some of the strips and Wood writes others. Wood does layouts and lettering and inks some of the strips. Young Howard Chaykin and young Dave Cockrum do the pencils. Jack Abel does the inks on Cockrum's work. Syd Shores was involved somehow and Alan Kupperberg drew one panel. Like I said, the division of labor is muddy.

Even though Chaykin and Cockrum were barely out of diapers, the art is great. I normally like my Westerns looking grittier than this but it really works for me. They prove to be equally adept at rendering western towns, sleazy gunfighters, and the many, many women in states of undress.

Picking this up from the unread pile, I wondered if it would be as dirty as Cannon. It was. Cockrum said the object of the strip was getting the women out of their clothes as soon as possible. Since Shattuck frequented a whore house in the early half of the strip, it wasn't difficult. One thing I found hilarious is that the only places I saw corrections done with whiteout were on breasts. I have to think Wally was saying "Damn it, Chaykin, I said perky!"

I was a little disappointed that the strip ended when it did. Merle's balls deep in a back robbery and Karen is the hostage of another robber. For a breast oriented adventure strip, things Merle's character has a pretty good arc, going from cowhand to sheriff and back again before falling in with some bank robbers.

Wallace Wood Presents Shattuck is the best T&A oriented western comic I've ever read. Four out of five stars.

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