Sunday, March 18, 2007
Wallace Wood: Against the Grain, part 38
Wood’s page rate climbed from $45 for the comics to $200 per page for Mad. Still, he made occasional rounds looking for additional magazine illustration assignments, and this led to an encounter with Leo Dillon, art editor at West Park Publishing. Leo and Diane Dillon, who then lived in a railroad flat at 106th Street and Second Avenue, were just beginning as an illustration team, and in 1957 the Dillons and the Woods became friends. Tatjana recalled, “One day he went in, and somebody said to Leo, ‘A Wally Wood is here.’ Leo was a fan of Wallace’s work, and he rushed out and met him. Wallace liked Leo too, so he decided to invite them over for dinner some day. They came, and little by little, we saw each other more, and we got to be close. The Dillons are my closest friends.”
¶ 10:33 AM 
