Fred Van Lente pays tribute to the late, great artist, who was born 94 years ago… — UPDATED 6/17/21: One of the industry’s greatest illustrators, the late Wally Wood was born 94 years ago — June 17, 1927. This piece by columnist Fred Van Lente first ran in 2020 but it’s obviously the perfect time to present it again. Dig it. — Dan — By FRED VAN LENTE Wally Wood was a unique artist by his era’s standards as well as our own. It makes sense he was most associated with science fiction, as he was clearly heavily influenced by the illustrators of classic SF pulps in the same way as the only other artist I can really compare him to, Jack Kirby. For lack of a better word, Kirby and Wood’s art was muscular — it carried weight, even as their characters hurtled through weightless space. Wood lacked Kirby’s facility for character-driven action, though, and as the Kirby style took over the Marvel Age, Wood got more work as an inker than as a penciller, deploying his robust blacks to empower other artists’ lines. Little wonder Kirby asked Wood to ink him on the King’s singular (and singularly disastrous) foray into newspaper comic strips, Sky Masters of the Space Force. Wood, of course, made his name in the EC science-fiction books of the pre-Wertham purge. Science fiction was the “It” comic book genre in the 1950s after the superheroes had waned and romance remained strong but had peaked. EC’s SF books were considered the gold standard, inspiring SF-agent-turned-DC-editor Julie Schwartz to introduce competition in titles like Mystery in Space (the lead feature of which, Adam Strange, I took a loving look at in another column). Though EC poobah and writer/editor Bill Gaines, a giant SF fan, burst with pride for his space titles, I am going to make the heretical assertion that of all the EC books they have aged the worst, with their formulaic premises and predictable twist endings. They’re a case study in why being a fan of a thing doesn’t qualify you to create the thing, any more than the average Bleacher Creature should start for the Yankees. Tales from the Crypt holds up better by being not quite as self-important, as well as genuinely funny, thereby taking the reader to unexpected places. But Wood...