witzend Hardcover – July 8, 2014

This collection is wonderful in every way. Love was obviously poured into this book when it was originally created, and again when it was collected and reprinted. I'm a fan of Wood, but a bigger fan of this whole cast of creators together. I haven't read every story yet but I'm so excited to have this much material by these legends which I haven't read a million times already. And it's great stuff!!! Thank you FB for bringing material like this back into print in such good quality. Even if the price is high for you, put a few bucks aside a week and make room in your budget for this book. This is top shelf awesome comics! Thanks universe for making a planet where comics like this could be produced and reprinted for me to see.

This is as essential volume for fans of the EC scifi artists. The sheer amount of unseen artwork printed here is staggering. The printing is excellent and the art work appears to be shot from the negatives and is clean and clear!

In 1966 Wally Wood had an idea to publish a magazine that would give artists an outlet to publish material they couldn't get published elsewhere. In an interview it was clear that Wood was completely down on mainstream publishing referring to Marvel and DC as "fascists states". Wood was convinced that an artist, free of editorial control, would produce his or her best work. It might sound great in theory but the unstructured manner of the magazine was probably one of the main sources of its failure to generate a profit. After 4 issues Wood sold Witzend to Bill Pearson who would become editor (and a fairly decent writer/artist) and the series somewhat improved as it became a bit more structured.An example of the failure of Witzend was Animan, a character Wood had developed as a child but failed to sell. As self publisher this was his chance to make the rules but Animan only survived two issues IN HIS OWN MAGAZINE and left with no resolution. Quite frankly it probably didn't survive because besides the always great Wally Wood artwork it really wasn't that good. There are a lot of issues with Witzend which is ironic since in its 19 years of existence Witzend only produced 13 issues. Instead of artists using the opportunity to create something personal or non-mainstream it seemed like a lot were offering up leftovers. I also get the impression some of these entries were created by artists who were enjoying some serious hallucinogenic.Orion, by Gray Morrow, is a perfect example of how the lack of structure hurt. It’s not a riveting story but it’s set up as the first installment but nothing follows in subsequent issues. This kind of thing happens quite frequently. Frank Frazetta wrote a story called Last Chance, which I couldn’t tell whether it was supposed to be serious or a parody, but at least it was an interesting start. Like Orion, however, there was no follow up story. There was a 3 page preview of a series called Adventure of Talon by Jim Steranko but the actual series never materialized. Animan ended without resolution replaced by the vastly superior Pipsqueek Papers also created by Wood.There is a lot of poetry that frankly I found quite dull and Wally Wood presents some stories that are almost entirely text with few illustrations. To say that Wally Wood’s main strength was in art, not writing would be an understatement. In a later issue Wood submitted a story called The Spawn of Venus which has arguably the best art in the entire series. If you ever want to know why Wally Wood is considered one of the greatest comic artists ever just look at this story. Unfortunately it's a very commercial piece that looks and reads precisely like something from EC comics Weird Science. Wood also offers up Sally Forth, a sort of soft core porn series that showed the artistic chops that he demonstrated with Mad magazine. In fact it was clear that in 1978 Wood hadn't lost a step but the story wasn't written by Harvey Kurtzman and Wood just doesn't have the same comedic touch with most of the jokes being extremely obvious and stale.What initially interested me in Witzend was the first appearances by Steve Ditko’s Mr. A. Mr. A is Ditko’s Magnum Opus of an Objectivist hero. He is a nightmarish example of pitiless, black and white justice. Although I entirely and vehemently disagree with Ditko’s world view I find Mr. A to be a fascinating character even though Ditko’s storytelling abilities pale in comparison to his artistic skills. Following Mr. A was The Avenging World and Ditko dropped all pretense of a story and simply wrote a full throated Objectivist rant that likely left a vast majority of readers scratching their heads in confusion. Hilariously in the same issue that contained Ditko's second Avenging World, editor Bill Pearson including a scathing parody called Mr. E. Given that Ditko famously has zero sense of humor over his Objectivist beliefs it comes as no surprise only one more Ditko piece was ever used in Witzend; a one page funny animal comic that looked nothing like his usual art style.Witzend is one of those collections where I really have to ask if it was worth the effort Fantographics put into it because this really is a gorgeous pair of books. There were only 13 issues and one of them was an entirely failed tribute to W.C. Fields with nothing more than photos of Fields and descriptions of his films. Another issue was just sketches of "Good Girls" which were women in various states of undress. I don't mind naked women but a WHOLE ISSUE devoted to it? The collection has skyrocketed in price and I managed to get it below retail price which seems completely impossible now. If I had paid the current price I would be really disappointed because I was far from blown away by the material. It’s a very interesting look at one of the pioneers of fanzine but more often than not it’s a mess as even the two writers in the introduction suggest. I would say that Wally Wood and Steve Ditko are the stars of the show here. Wood because his art remains some of the greatest ever and Ditko because it’s hard to believe what you’re reading.

A MUST for any Wally Wood fan. This anthology is hefty to say the least and the reproduction is first rate. It will take me about 18 years to read through this massive collection. Great job Fantagraphics publishing!

This 2 volume set has everything for everybody. I'll read it piecemeal so I can savor every little bit. A great piece of history. Thank you Fantagraphics.

Beautifully reproduced. Some big names! The stories are not exceptional. The styles vary in quality. It's a brick of work. Pretty good. I was looking for lots of wally wood work. But this is not his best stuff. Good but not great.

WoW. Never gets better than this Witzend collection. If you love EC material....this is right up your alley...slipcased as well. Love it.

Here lies the entire run of Witzend,a completely unhinged magazine from my youth, by the genius Wally Wood.

Great book

Great!!