My favorite artist of all time is the late, great Wally Wood. I've had this page taped to the wall above my drawing board for years. When drawing a comic book, you can't go wrong with Wally's "22 panels that always work". I hope that it is of some use to some of you guys!
You are correct, Alec , about Wood not being a Christian. Unfortunately, his references to God and the Bible in some of his work reveal that he had, at one time or another, been exposed to the Gospel, but to all appearences, had rejected it. His final years were dismal as he fought depression and alcoholism. I admired his artistic work, but certainly not the man himself. I have an extensive collection of his work, but have to exclude certain "R" rated material he produced.
It's a good beginning, but the language of visual storytelling in comics, in the very best instances, involves much more precision than the "random variety" that Wood is suggesting here, but what he has shared is an important foundational step nonetheless.
Wood wasn't a born again Christian, but I was very interested to read his quotation from John's Gospel ("Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends") in the 'death of Menthor' storyline published by Tower Comics circa 1966. He also drew an E.C. story from the '50s which has a soldier who is being harassed by his fellow men for being of another race, and he leaps upon an enemy grenade when it unexpectedly tumbles into camp, dying in place of his chief persecutor. In his hand was clutched a Bible when they examined his remains, and you can imagine how guilty and pathetically small the other fellows felt (rightly so) by the story's end. This was scripted by Harvey Kurtzman, and was, in some ways, a precursor to Jack Chick's "Holy Joe" comics tract in some ways.
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Wood wasn't a born again Christian, but I was very interested to read his quotation from John's Gospel ("Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends") in the 'death of Menthor' storyline published by Tower Comics circa 1966. He also drew an E.C. story from the '50s which has a soldier who is being harassed by his fellow men for being of another race, and he leaps upon an enemy grenade when it unexpectedly tumbles into camp, dying in place of his chief persecutor. In his hand was clutched a Bible when they examined his remains, and you can imagine how guilty and pathetically small the other fellows felt (rightly so) by the story's end. This was scripted by Harvey Kurtzman, and was, in some ways, a precursor to Jack Chick's "Holy Joe" comics tract in some ways.
Kind regards in Christ Jesus,
Alec