Spawn of Mars and Other Stories (The EC Comics Library, 12)

For me, this really is the sweet spot of EC comics. A lot of people probably think more of their horror thanks to Creepshow but science fiction stories with art by Wallace Wood is the pinnacle for me. Wood’s art starts off strong but within a year reaches a level that few artists in history can match. The detailing in his penciling is breathtaking and the inking is brilliantly executed. I think one of the strengths of this series, and particularly this book, is having the images in black and white to spotlight the inking. In the bio on Wood there is a mention that some critics actually consider him to be the best comic inker of all time.I always find it very sad when incredible artwork is slapped onto a terrible story but the writing here is legitimately excellent. Most of the stories are written by William H Gaines and Al Feldstein and there is some attempt to add intelligence into the science fiction. These stories were written in the early 1950s, so our understanding of space was still somewhat limited. The first person to go into outer space wasn’t until 1961 and the first person to leave a space capsule wasn’t until 1965. However, the interior design of the spaceships and the spacesuits drawn by Wood look believable. The ships were drawn cramped and loaded tight with equipment. Again, this is where Wood’s ability to draw detail really shined. He also excelled at drawing foliage on alien planets.Most of the stories involve travelling to other planets by spaceship and this is where things get a bit fanciful. The writers were cognizant of the incredible distances involved in space travel and in some cases, it took generations to get to their destinations. Mostly, the stories are about a small crew visiting a distant planet that invariably has an atmosphere conducive to living without a spacesuit. The stories are arguably much more realistic than the original Star Trek series where the crew would travel around in relative luxury. On the other hand, one gets the impression that these stories are not intended to take place in the far distant future. There are a few scientific fails that the writers should have definitely caught. In one story, the astronauts land on a planet ten times the size of Earth and yet have no apparent issues with gravity.I like the idea of an EC series focused on specific artists and I think going black and white was a good choice. My one issue is that these books are so easily damaged. This is my fourth one and the paint chips off the covers so easily. Part of the issue is that Amazon did a really lousy job of packing the book but that’s common with Amazon. Overall, I’d say that this is the very best of EC. I haven’t read all their stuff but if I could keep only one EC collection, this would be the one. A lot of these stories are so good that I could see them being made into a half hour episode for some kind of anthology series. They are very much in the vein of Star Trek crossed with Twilight Zone. I give this book my highest recommendation.

I was lucky enough to purchase the Russ Cochran cased reprints of EC Comics' entire sci-fi run (Wierd Science, Weird Fantasy, and later, Weird Science-Fantasy)from the fabulous "golden age" of the 1950s.This was back when they were first offered and were pricey, but not prohibitively so. Recently, you'd have to pay several hundred dollars per set. The full boxed sets are rather inconvenient for fireside or bedtime reading. This (and the other sci-fi compilation of this series, Judgement Day, by Joe Orlando) is a welcome alternative. I keep this handier compilation of Wally Wood's work (imho he and Joe Orlando were the premier illustrators for EC's space-themed works) on my night table for casual reading. It was EC, and more specifically Wood's meticulously depicted space-ships, robots and visions of space exploration, that awakened the sci-fi bug in this 75-year old. I was 12 years old and looking for something a bit more exciting than the usual "boys' adventure" type juvenalia available to pre-adolescents in 1952. Then I caught a glimpse of a Weird Science peeking out from among the "Field and Stream"s and various "man's saga" and True Detective pulps on my local newsstand. The cover was a typical Wood rocket interior, with amazingly intricate dials, panels, piping and gizmos surrounding a spaceship portlight through which a menacing alien was peering. I was hooked. Of course there was some prurient interest, in that WW had a penchant for depicting pulchritudinous female astronauts in revealing skin-tight space suits. It wasn't merely the artistry--thought this was a big part of it. The stories were quite thought-provoking and led me to explore further the writings of Ray Bradbury (a frequent author of the tales), Sturgeon, Clarke, Heinlein, Welles, Verne, and a host of other classic sci-fi authors. Re-reading these caringly illustrated tales some 60+ years later, I am struck by how the promise of space exploration--boldly predicted in the famous Colliers magazine articles of 1952-53, by Wernher von Braun and Chesley Bonestell--kind of fizzled after the Apollo moon landing of July 1969. Sure, we've had robotic probes, landers and rovers but the tales encapsuled in Spawn of Mars thought we'd have men on Mars well before 2015. By this late date, our astronauts would be embarking on multi-generational starship journeys to Earth clones circling Alpha Centauri and kindred solar systems. Ah, well, thanks to this wonderful bit of nostalgia for yesterday's tomorrows, I can rekindle the hope. Even if there's not much chance of seeing it happen in my lifetime, I can nostalgically recollect how it might have been--and still might be generations hence.

Although I may pick up a comic book occasionally, I have not been a big fan since I was a kid decades ago. Although much artwork in comics is marginally interesting, the stories are juvenile in spite of occasionally mature subject matter and are dull, uninspired and cliched (yes, including "Dark Knight Returns" and "Batman: Year One"). However, the stories in "Spawn of Mars" are a pleasure. The title story and "Transformation Completed" are particularly good, and would have been downright consciousness expanding had I read them as a child of 8 or so. This is the only "comic" that I recall ever having read as an adult that I savored every story and hoped that the volume would not end. Some of the stories may be predictable to anyone who is well-read in science fiction, but they are unique as a comic. Even though I eschew most current comics, I have taken lessons in drawing comics with a brush. In this respect, the work of Wood excels, and his style has an intricate, sensual, realistic style and is inspiring.

This is my first time purchasing a book like this it's kind of the size of a notebook not really big and it has smaller comics that run back to back and it's all in black and white so if you're into it and you love wollywood and the storytelling of the old school it's pretty nice The quality of the book overall is very sturdy and industry quality

Brilliant art from the EC days of comics, Wallace Wood was the guy to go for when a science fiction comic needed that extra sense of wonder, along with teamates Frazetta, and Williamson the results were always spot on, this book is amust along with all the others in this collection.

Fantastic, grapics and stories

Du fait d'une carrière plutôt erratique et courte, l'un des principaux artisans de l'industrie des comic books qu'est Wallace Wood (1927–1981) reste me semble-t-il relativement méconnu en France, malgré la publication des premières aventures de Daredevil dans le mensuel "Strange" et les quelques rééditions réalisées pour un public averti dans les années 1970 (cf. "Sally Forth"). Depuis quelques années, les éditeurs étatsuniens IDW et Fantagraphics rééditent - voire, le plus souvent, proposent pour la première fois sous forme d'album - les oeuvres principalement dessinées (mais souvent également écrites) de Wally Wood, à l'instar de ce recueil de courts récits initialement publiés en comic books en 1950, 51 et 52 par l'éditeur EC Comics, alors spécialisé dans les comics de "genre" : guerre, western, horreur ou - comme ici à titre principal - science fiction. Sauf pour les dessins, ces récits n'étant pas signés et les archives d'EC ayant disparu, Fantagraphics a fait un travail d'identification de "qui a fait quoi" pour chaque : idée, écriture et dessins. Wood est bien entendu le plus souvent le dessinateur, sauf pour quelques récits présentés à la fin, qui sont dessinés par son associé de l'époque, Harry Harrison. Mais Wood est aussi parfois celui qui a trouvé l'idée de l'histoire ou même qui en rédigé les textes.Les textes sont d'une manière générale abondants dans chacune des cases de ces récits, les auteurs traitant en 6-8 pages de comic book ce que d'autres pourraient étirer en 44 pages de BD... ou en 150 pages de roman de SF. Mais ces textes ont été pesés au trébuchet et il n'y a pas un mot de trop. De plus, les dessins ne souffrent pas de cette forte présence des textes. Ceci provient en particulier de l'excellence du découpage du récit ("breakdowns") et de la composition des cases. La qualité formelle des planches, en noir et blanc parfaitement maîtrisés, tient à l'influence inévitable à l'époque des dessinateurs Alex Raymond et Hal Foster. Mais, comme la présentation chronologique des récits dessinés par Wood nous le montre, ce dernier - âgé d'à peine 23 ans pour les premiers récits et doté de moins de deux années d'expérience dans les comics -, prend vite son envol individuel et présente des signes de maturité et d'innovation graphiques véritablement bluffants. Wood réussit particulièrement ses "monstres" et ses créatures extra-terrestres, point qui par exemple n'a jamais été le fort d'un génie du crayon de la même époque tel que Joe Kubert.Les récits proprement dits gardent aujourd'hui une part de fraîcheur en ce qu'ils nous invitent, pour la plupart, à décentrer nos raisonnements et nos perceptions en jouant sur divers paradoxes et fausses évidences. Par ailleurs, comme avec tout récit d'anticipation ancien, il est loisible de procéder à l'exercice du décompte des prévisions vérifiées. A cet égard, l'un des récits nous propulse dans le futur que représentait l'année... 1985.Un texte introductif de présentation du contenu de l'ouvrage, une biographie de Wood et des EC Comics, divers agrandissements de cases dessinées par Wood (impressionnants au sens que même sous la loupe aucun trait n'est grossier ou loupé !) accompagnent cette réédition remarquable dont le seul loupé me paraît être la fragilité du papier-imitant-une-texture-toilée de la couverture. L'absence de film plastique protecteur fait que les différents coins ont vite tendance à s'abîmer.

excellent read!