Spawn Of Mars And Other Stories!

EC Comics are notorious even in the modern day for their rambunctious and often lurid images, images which served stories which usually depended on a twist or an ironic ending for their juice. Spawn of Mars and Other Stories focuses on the sci-fi stories illustrated by Wally Wood with his then partner Harry Harrison. There's even a section in this collection which features those few stories Harrison drew by himself for EC. 

In a Wally Wood story of that era (or any era really) the reader can count on a few things -- a handsome hero (usually male following the societal expectations of the time), a hideous monster or alien, and a buxom beauty of the most delicious sort. In these stories all of that is present. Some of the stories push the boundaries, not of good taste, but of radical thought. One tale has a heinous doctor administer gender-bending drugs to a young man because he doesn't want to lose his daughter. That of course doesn't work out. In the titular story a young woman weds not the man of her dreams but a close approximation with potentially blockbuster results. Either of those stories would be hair-raising in the extreme in the modern world, which has descended back into the backward notions which ruled it decades ago. 

But Wally Wood stories also celebrate man's conquest of space. (Whatever that means. As if to simply arrive somewhere, even on the perimeter suggests "conquest'.  We are a rather fucked up bunch aren't we.) Shiny slender spaceships loaded with dials and knobs and buttons, whip through the darkness loaded with good-looking people in marvelous form-fitting outfits, outfits which informed the grammar of space of travel in comics. The technology is often superior to men in these stories, suggesting we are good at making stuff, but don't really have the capacity to deal with its consequences. Also on display is quite a bit of human hubris, as men are consistently outwitting themselves to escape the consequences of their own handiwork. There's a real cautionary aspect to many of these EC classics. 

This volume also celebrates the work of Harry Harrison and presents four stories he did for EC in collaboration with Wood. Harrison's touch reminds me of Johnny Craig. More on Harry Harrison tomorrow. 

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