Came The Dawn And Other Stories (The EC Comics Library, 2)

Wallace Wood was one of comics' best and most tragic artists. He was one of the top talents at EC in the 1950's, before the anti-comics hysteria shut the company down. He did notable work at DC and Marvel and at other companies. Sadly, declining health is thought to have led to his 1981 suicide at the age of 54. Came the Dawn is a collection of stories he illustrated for EC and if you wish to develop an appreciation for Wallace Wood's art, this is the book you need. Bill Mason, in his introduction, notes that Wood is best remembered for his work on EC's science fiction and with Mad, "(b)ut the stories in this collection are the crucible in which Wood's skills as a master of visual narrative and scrutinizer of mid-20th century American life were forged." The art is excellent in terms of atmosphere and portrayal. The stories, which were written by others, are of varying quality. Al Feldstein of EC wrote stories of social consciousness and while they were well-intentioned looks at prejudice, some can come across as a tad overwrought. However, when the stories succeed, they are powerful. "The Bribe" is about a fire inspector who relaxes his ethics for his daughter's sake with tragic (and ironic) results. "...So Shall Ye Reap!" is told from the perspectives of a father and mother and their son, who is awaiting execution. "Confession" is a chilling tale of a man accused of a terrible crime and the ending packs a punch. "Came the Dawn" is about a man who finds a beautiful woman in his hunting cabin, falls in love and then he hears a news report about an insane woman running loose in the area. "Fall Guy" is the saga of a man who loves a woman who loves money (she looks like an evil Bettie Page) and what happens when he has a chance to steal a fortune . When I saw this book advertised, something told me it was worth reading and it lived up to expectations.

Amazing book that I’ve been really looking forward to getting for a long time. Unfortunately, it arrived with a damaged cover. This is the second book I’ve received with damage like this.

Another great Fantagraphics book. Excellent Black and White art from the legendary Wally Wood. Not one of the Fantagraphics books of the '...and other stories' series have failed to impress me yet and I highly recommend all of them. The old style vintage burlap covers are a plus too and look great on a bookshelf!

This books representation of Wally Wood's early work is priceless. The quality of the art is reproduced clearly , and the stories are gripping. A great buy for the price and addition to the EC Comic Library collection.

This is like a wonderful book! It contains most of Wally Wood's fantastic EC work. Bring on his Science Fiction ones next. I think it's a bit odd that they started with his drama work first.

Very details artwork in B&W that showcases the EC/ pre-code stories of murder and vengence that were so popular. A great colelction, nicely packaged!

What more can I say? One of the best artists in the history of the medium working on pre-code stories. Scary good!

Wood

Wallace "Don't call me Wally" Wood may not have been the best comic book artist of all time (he's definitely in the top 10), but he was probably the most versatile. This book collates his work for EC Comics in the horror and crime/suspense genres: let's hope there are follow-up volumes covering his war/adventure, humour and, above all, SF art for the great publishing house.The first 13 stories here are all horror stories from the dawn of Wood's time at EC and are, frankly, apprentice work, with the earliest stories, in collaboration with then-partner Harry Harrison (yes, that Harry Harrison), being particularly crude. Some of it barely looks like Wood's work at all. It doesn't help that the early stories are rather muddled too. About halfway through the horror stories, Al Feldstein starts scripting, and Wood starts to draw like Wood, and things improve markedly, though even by the end of this run of stories neither writer nor artist have hit top form. Feldstein did better horror work later, with other artists: Wood's best work with Feldstein was on SF titles, and on their crime/suspense collaborations.Which, thankfully, form the second half of the book, which compiles the 13 "preachies" Wood and Feldstein created for the Shock Suspenstories magazine. The "preachies" were remarkably bold and uncompromising assaults on social ills such as racism and corruption, and unlike anything else not just in comics but in any mainstream media at the time. They're still hard-hitting now, sixty years on, because of their passionate, unsentimental stance and the craftsmanship displayed by both Feldstein and Wood. Feldstein's stories have relentless narrative logic leading to the inevitably grim denouements, and the caption-heavy writing (so unfashionable with fans of today's mainsteam comics, but what do they know?) adds immensely to the pace and atmosphere.But enough of Feldstein. The book is devoted to Wood, and this is some of the best work of his career. The stories tend to take place in small towns and mundane environments and the action is on a tiny scale compared to the usual comic-book bombast, but Wood makes them as exciting as anything more obviously eventful. He does this through a full range of artistic skills: brilliant staging, attention to telling details, clear characterisation, and expressive use of lighting. His figure work is very fluid (it became stiff in later years) and his female characters are devastatingly sexy. And above all, you know, when good drawrings are drawrn, they'll be drawrn by Wood. His sheer draftsmanship is virtually unrivalled in comics history.As with other books in Fantagraphics' EC Comics Library series, the art is presented in monochrome on high-quality matt white paper that shows it to the best possible advantage, with Wood's inking seen to be particularly lush and sumptuous. The stories are supplmented with some helpful editorial material on the stories, Wood's overall career, his collaborators here and EC Comics overall. That and the nicely-designed hard cover and the good price all makes for a very high-quality package.I can't recommend this book unreservedly due to the patchy horror work, but for any fan of Wood's work it's an absolutely essential purchase and for anyone else with a genuine interest in comics, you should give it serious consideration.

As I already have the entire EC libray, plus all the volumes put out of the sadly defunct EC Archives I had to think fairly long and hard before purchasing this book.But because it collects a lot of Wally Woods best EC work between two covers I took the plunge and I'm glad I did.I have always preferred the EC stuff in black and white. The quality of the artwork really shines through in monochrome.Wally Wood was one of the greatest artists ever to commit his work to the pages of EC and this volume is a true testament to his artistic genius.Highly recommended.

As a fan of this kind of work from 50s these books are a little like marvels essential volumes covering work in B&W by selected writers or artists at a more affordable price than their colour counterparts a good read

In this great collection of crime and horror stories from legendary publisher EC we see a young Wood in 1950 metamorphose from typical comics artist emerge a short 4 years later as one of the masters of the form.The stories are a sometimes clunky, sometimes goofy product of their time, others are incredibly daring for their attacksagainst racial intolerance and antisemitism. Things that Hollywood would tackle... But more than a decade later!But we're here for the artist, and outside a second volume of just his science fiction EC work,It doesn't get much better than this.