Neither Man Nor Beast!
One of Wally Wood's most personal creations is the ferocious Animan. That's shown by the fact that Wood saved Animan for his independent publication witzend!
Animan appears in the first two issues of witzend. The splash above is clearly inspired by this Hal Foster panel from the earliest adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes.
(This is my favorite Tarzan image and arguably my favorite book cover.) |
It's possible that Frazetta was inspired by it for Tarzan and The Lost Empire and then Wood by him.
It was a pose which clearly made a powerful impact on Wood, as he used it in other places as well. Here it's the cover of a volume of Sally Forth comic strips.
Animan even appears here as part of the advertisement for issues one and two of witzend. The drama of this panel is potent indeed.
There are sketches of a figures much like Animan found on pages from Wood's earliest days . Clearly this was a figure he felt deeply about.
To read the both parts of the Animan story from witzend #1 and #2 go here.
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The half-human, superhuman man between worlds, not belonging to either, was a recurring theme for Wood; it may have been how he felt about himself. I think he did his mainstream version of Animan with Andor, the anti-hero who didn't have his own feature , but who had a continuing series of sorts running through various Thunder Agents strips.
ReplyDeleteI always thought of Andor as the ultimate super beatnik, but I rather like this comparison.
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