Along with Wallace Wood’s trademark 1970s Sally Forth and Cannon strips that ran in the Overseas Weekly military newspaper, Wood created a super-rare third strip, a sexy western, produced in 1972, named Shattuck. Wood originally conceived of, co-wrote (with Nick Cuti), and drew the layouts for Shattuck as a vehicle for his studio-mate, Golden Age Captain America artist Sid Shores, but turned it over instead to two young up-and-comers —Howard Chaykin (American Flagg!, Black Kiss) and the now-legendary X-Men artist, Dave Cockrum. Shattuck, the historic, very first credited ongoing feature for both Chaykin and Cockrum, has never been re-published or collected since it first appeared in Overseas Weekly more than 40 years ago. Full of gun-toting femmes fatale, fastdrawing lawmen, and snarling outlaws, Shattuck is a Western romp published in the same format as Fantagraphics’ bestselling Wood production of Cannon. As a bonus, while appearing to be in black and white, the entire book has been scanned from the carefully preserved originals in full-color to mimic as closely as possible the experience of viewing the actual original art, complete with paste-overs, notes, art corrections, etc. Previously enjoyed only by American servicemen in the Vietnam era, Fantagraphics Books and The Wallace Wood Estate and proud to present the missing link in Wood’s oeuvre in a beautifully designed and affordable format.

• TPB
  9/26/2018