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The Spawn Of Venus And Other Stories

Brief Description
This mouth-watering collection features the finest (and rarest!) science fiction stories Wallace Wood ever drew—more than two dozen! Wood's meticulously detailed, genre-defining brushwork introduces you to breathtaking planetary vistas, terrifying aliens, and sleek rocket ships surging with the power to conquer the stars. Our title story... Read More
Format: Hardback
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The ultimate collection of Wallace Wood's finest science fiction stories. Includes Wood's "My World," adaptations of three classics by Ray Bradbury, a "lost" 3-D story -- and a story rejected by the Comics Code, restored and published here for the first time.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

This mouth-watering collection features the finest (and rarest!) science fiction stories Wallace Wood ever drew—more than two dozen! Wood's meticulously detailed, genre-defining brushwork introduces you to breathtaking planetary vistas, terrifying aliens, and sleek rocket ships surging with the power to conquer the stars.

Our title story is a rarity that never appeared in any EC comic. Written and drawn for a 3-D comic that was canceled before it could be printed, we present it here in easy-on-the-eyes 2-D. Then, Wood's most iconic story, My World, is a stunning showcase of the preternatural talent and technique he brought to all his stories.

Also included are his trilogy of Ray Bradbury adaptations—Home to Stay, There Will Come Soft Rains..., and Mars Is Heaven!—plus He Walked Among Us, a 'what if...?' variation on Bradbury's The Man from The Illustrated Man.

But that's not all! An incredible science fiction bonus: Al Feldstein wrote many stories of people reaching from the beyond to right a wrong, but with this volume, in a twist worthy of the best of EC, he does the same himself! In 1955, the Comics Code rejected the second page of You, Rocket and forced EC to completely rewrite and redraw it. When the original art for that rejected page was rediscovered, one panel was missing. But Feldstein, in a middle-finger gesture to the Code and its heavy-handed censorship, wrote a new panel, restoring You, Rocket to what it was always meant to be. Sadly, he passed away before his final EC writing assignment was published. But here it is now, for the first time anywhere. Justice from beyond the grave.

26 stories in all, most scripted by EC legend Al Feldstein, plus in-depth commentary by EC experts Thommy Burns, Grant Geissman, and Jon Gothold. The Spawn Of Venus And Other Stories is the ultimate EC Wallace Wood science fiction collection.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9798875000393

Publisher: Fantagraphics

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 30 September 2025

Country: United States

Imprint: Fantagraphics

Illustration: 232 Illustrations

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 185.0mm

Height: 264.0mm

Weight: 300g

Pages: 232

About the Author

Wallace Allan Wood (1927-1981) is widely considered to be America's greatest science fiction cartoonist. But Wood could -- and did -- do it all: humor (a founding cartoonist of Mad), crime, superheroes, romance, war. He was also a pioneering alternative/underground cartoonist/publisher with his magazine witzend. Among many other honors, he was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1992. Albert B. Feldstein (1928-2014; Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame, 2003) was a triple-threat writer, artist, and editor, renowned for his work on such titles as Weird Science, Tales From the Crypt, and Mad magazine. He received the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. Ray Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois, in 1920. Growing up during the Great Depression, Bradbury began writing at the age of 11. Unable to join the military in World War II due to his poor eyesight, he began publishing science fiction stories. In 1947 he married Marguerite McClure and they had four daughters. His career as a writer included such notable works as Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, and I Sing The Body Electric. Primarily known for his successes in science fiction, Bradbury also worked on various horror and mystery stories, as well as screenplays and television scripts. During his lifetime he received numerous awards, including a Pulitzer in 2007. Bradbury passed away in 2012. Grant Geissman is the four-time Eisner Award-nominated author of several books related to the EC comics and Mad magazine, the most recent being The History of EC Comics (Taschen). He is also an Emmy-nominated guitarist and composer (for co-writing the theme to Two and a Half Men), and his most recent solo album, BLOOZ, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2022. He lives in Los Angeles. Thommy Burns is the founding administrator of the EC Fan-Addict Club on Facebook, appears frequently as a speaker on pop culture and comics-related podcasts and livestreams, and co-hosts the EC Fan-Addict Podcast and YouTube channel. He lives in Southern California. Jon Gothold resides in California and writes regularly about comics and comics creators. He is an admin for the EC Fan-Addict Club on Facebook. He has contributed to several Fantagraphics collections and to the recent History of EC Comics by Grant Geissman.

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