A Comic Book Dream of Mine Came True Retroactively

Wally Wood is one of the best comic book inkers of all time; you would have a difficult time finding a comics fan who would dispute this statement. I am also very fond of his pencilling but there wasn't nearly as much of that and so he's not as well remembered for it.

But his inking? Beautiful. I own a Jack Kirby Sandman page inked by Mr. Wood. And pages he inked over Steve Ditko and Walt Simonson and Gil Kane and Garcia Lopez and Bob Brown (among so many others) were some of the most beautiful artwork produced by those artists.

You remember that Gene Colan crossed the street to work for DC Comics after an editorial dispute with Marvel Comics back in the early 1980s. He was given Batman and Wonder Woman series to draw, and I started daydreaming. Wouldn't it be a fabulous teaming, I thought to myself, if Wally Wood were to ink Gene Colan? Either on Batman or Wonder Woman or anything. I just wanted to see a collaboration between the men. I waited and waited, but it never happened. We've lost both gentlemen now, and I've regretted for years that my curiosity could never be sated. But wait!

There was a discussion on the Ditkomania yahoogroup last month regarding unusual penciller and inker pairings. I learned that John Severin inked a couple of Gil Kane covers back around 1970; I hadn't known of those previously and it was interesting to look up the covers online.

I posted my wistful dream about Gene Colan and Wally Wood and, guess what? What I had been wishing for did happen! A follow-up post on the message board pointed out that the two gents got together for Captain America #127 back in 1970. It occurred a decade before I started wishing for it and I would never have known that my dream had come true if not for that internet bulletin board. I think the internet is so great!

Lickety-split I ordered Cap #127 on ebay, and paging through the comic is an interesting (if eerie) experience. I display the splash page above, and here is the great page 18, and here (while it lasts) is the original artwork to page 18 that went for a pretty penny on ebay a couple of weeks ago.

What's your comic book dream? Make sure you have one or else it won't be able to come true!