Wallace Wood: Against the Grain, part 33 Prior to the Fifties, most comic book artists worked with a degree of anonymity. But Wood’s innovative work for the early Mad, his easily recognizable style of obsessive detail and his unusual signature, combined with the 1952 “Artist of the Issue” page and the self-portrait seen in “My World” (Weird Science 22), made him the first true celebrity among comic book artists. Weird Science 12 was pulled off shelves and reopened to the inside front cover as readers attempted to glean the few available facts: “Wally today stands 5 feet 10 inches high, weighs 145 pounds, has brown hair, blue eyes, and a ‘Frank Sinatra’ build!... As Wally puts it, ‘After being exploited by nearly everyone in the business, I finally found my home at good old EC!... Wally’s hobbies include travel, home movies, collecting records (especially folk-songs) and folk-dancing!... Wally is a fast and prodigious worker...”  ¶ 10:08 AM