Muchos kudos to Joel Johnson, who not only saved from obscurity the original paste-up of Wally Wood’s 22 Panels that Always Work, but scanned it and made it available for the Universe. Way to be, Joel!

According to Larry Hama, (one of Wood’s assistants in the 70’s), Wood was always trying to kick himself to put less labor into the work! He had a framed motto on the wall, “Never draw anything you can copy, never copy anything you can trace, never trace anything you can cut out and paste up.” He hung the sheets with the panels on the wall of his studio to constantly remind himself to stop what he called “noodling.”

By the way, my introduction to Wood was via early Daredevil comics and Astonishing Tales. When I asked about Wood at the occasional comic book swap market held in Albuquerque (circa 1975), one of the dealers turned me on to Wood’s E.C. stuff and his zine called Witzend. It was a shock to hear of Wood’s suicide in 1981.

More on Wally Wood. Good luck trying to find a copy of his biography: