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JEAN SHEPHERD MORE ODDS & ENDS AND ETCETERAS
WALLY WOOD, E.C. COMICS WRITER/ILLUSTRATOR SUPREME
I met Wallace Wood at a cocktail party at the apartment of a friend/coworker. We chatted and he inscribed my copy of his bio in an E. C. comic. The Shep connection is that in the April, 1957 issue of Mad Comics, Shepherd’s monolog (his only appearance in Mad), “The Night People vs ‘Creeping Meatballism’” had been illustrated by Wally. I don’t know if they’d even met or what connection there might have been, but I can credibly believe in the possibility.
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BOBBY FISCHER, WORLD CHESS CHAMPION
Shepherd talked on the air about knowing Bobby Fischer: “By the way, are you aware that one of the very earliest listeners—for those of you who don’t know anything about Bobby, the chess player—used to come up here, you know. Bobby Fischer was one of the very first listeners we had. You know Bobby, the great genius—really. He gave me a chess set one time.”
I encountered in Frank Brady’s extensive book Endgame: Bobby Fischer’s Rise and Fall–From America’s Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness (2011), nearly two pages describing Fischer’s obsession with Shep:
More than a loyal follower of the show, Bobby was a fanatic. When the broadcast—variously described as part kabuki, part commedia dell’arte—started in 1956 on WOR Radio [In 1956, Bobby was about 13 years old], Bobby listened to almost very show when he was in New York….Bobby sent Shepherd notes, attended live performances that the radio host gave at a Greenwich Village coffeehouse called the Limelight, and visited him in his studio at 1440 Broadway. After the show, the two would…walk two blocks north and eat hot dogs…[in] Times Square.
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ODDS AND ENDS AND ETCETERAS
Some of the odds and ends.
- I feel that most artsy people who’d spent time in New York City during their youth would have been Jean Shepherd listeners. But how to contact people in the arts, getting past their gatekeepers? Surely Bob Dylan listened to Shepherd. I wrote to Suze Rotolo’s agent. (Suze and Dylan lived together in the early 1960s, and is pictured with him walking up a snowy New York street on an early album cover.) Got no response. Is anyone out there good friends with Dylan?
- The family who bought Shep’s Maine house in the woods by a pond had no idea what the large, two-sided sign they found there meant until they happened upon my book about him.
I corresponded with them for a couple of years but they never seemed to get around to checking out what Shep materials they’d found in the house and stored in a closet with a relative. (Manuscripts? Early audios?) Will probably end up in a dumpster and/or the grave.
- Having bounced back and forth like a ping pong ball by phone between the defunct Luden’s Cough Drop offices and their now-operating Luden’s Cough Drop offices, trying to find what should have been a small treasury of photos of Shepherd in the Amazon delivering their 500 pounds of sweets to former headhunters—why not even a single slim folder of that magical moment in cough drop history?
- The editor who published Shepherd’s many pieces in Car and Driver told me that Shep was often late in providing material on time. Upon hearing such complaints, Shepherd would improvise his entire article in a phone call.
- In conversation with me, a knowledgeable informant let slip an unmistakable innuendo regarding a significant occurrence related to the creative Shepherd-world I’m obsessed with. When I asked about this, the person requested–and I swore—that I’d never divulge it. I never will. I suppose the info will end up in a dumpster and/or the grave.
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JEAN SHEPHERD Kid Stories–HAM RADIO & (87) ARTSY Graphic Novels Part 9
PART 5. HAM RADIO INTRO
Interest in ham radio begins for Shepherd in grammar school and extends throughout his life. He comments on the air that, “I became, at the age of ten, totally, maniacally, and for life I might point out, completely skulled out by amateur radio.” Shepherd several times speaks on the air about his love of ham radio. He says that in high school, it led to his being chosen to announce a sports program—his first experience with broadcast radio. In these stories he tells about becoming obsessed, getting his ham license, how lightning strikes—and engaging in the ultimate speed-contest, in which he learns an important life-lesson.
His knowledge of ham radio undoubtedly leads to his placement in the Signal Corps during World War II. He would eventually broadcast from Cincinnati and Philadelphia, and then New York City. As an adult he would publicly promote amateur radio and speak at several amateur radio conventions. Even after leaving his career in broadcast radio, at home he would continue his nightly communications on amateur radio for the rest of his life.
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Ham radio stories to come.
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THE ARTISTS OF EC COMICS
Wallace Wood Self-portrait
The artists who wrote and illustrated the EC line of comics, including MAD Comic (later, Mad Magazine), were far beyond any other comic artists in their sophistication, wit, and graphic style. These included Wallace Wood, Harvey Kurtzman, John Severin, Will Elder, Jack Davis, Al Williamson, and others. The prestige awarded these artists in their field by their peers and media was echoed by their young fans, and is shown in the comics themselves by the signing of the artists’ names in the first panel of their illustrated stories. All comic art here is by Wood.
My favorite EC artist was Wallace (Wally) Wood, who, as did the others, drew covers as well as entire stories, and also wrote some of his own illustrated work. Enthusiasts enjoyed the varied styles of the artists, and EC did a series of one-page bios of major artists on the inside front covers. Naturally, I have the Wood bio. Here is the final page of a self-referential story, “My World”:
“My World” in Weird Science 11/12, 1953
Wood was regarded by many as the best artist for EC and best comic book artist ever. There are numerous tributes in books, magazines, websites, etc. Recently, while researching for my essay on Wood and others, I encountered a book of over 300 illustrated pages filled with anecdotes and tributes to Wood. (A new and more elaborate format of that book with color illustrations is being published in two volumes.)
EC war comics included stories about the Civil War, World War I and II, the Korean War, and other conflicts. Wood, in his work for these, also did well-researched stories about much older wars. Also, his wide-ranging mind led to not only science fiction itself, but a Mad comic parody of that form:
A Wood Sci-Fi Cover and Opening Page of his Mad Parody of the Form.
[Note the age-discolored paper of the “Weird Science” cover
from my collection, now over 60 years old.]
EC artists did a variety of graphic art projects before, during, and after work with EC. Among Wally Wood’s projects was his witzend, founded by him, a critically acclaimed comic showcasing some of the best artists of the era, and a series of his about a sexy young thing named “Sally Forth.” Of special interest to Jean Shepherd enthusiasts is that in his only appearance in Mad Magazine, April, 1957, Wood did the art, the first page shown here.
A co-worker of mine had met Wally Wood and invited him, along with me and others, to a cocktail party at her apartment. I brought along his EC back-of-the-cover bio and he inscribed it to me as we chatted.
RIP, Wallace Wood.
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