Editing Witzend (section)

==Wally Wood era==
Wood launched ''witzend'' in the summer of 1966, with a statement of "no policy" and a desire to give his friends in the comics field a creative detour from the formulaic industry mainstream.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wells |first1=John |title=American Comic Book Chronicles: 1965-1969 |date=2014 |publisher=TwoMorrows Publishing |isbn=978-1605490557 |pages=102–103}}</ref> During this same period, editor [[Bill Spicer]] and critic Richard Kyle began promoting and popularizing the terms "graphic novel" and "graphic story", and in 1967 Spicer changed the title of his ''Fantasy Illustrated'' to ''[[Graphic Story Magazine]]''. Kyle, Spicer, Wood and Pearson all envisioned an explosion of graphic narratives far afield of the commercial comic book industry.
[[File:Witzend1976wood.jpg|left|thumb|450px|Wally Wood's cover of ''witzend'' #10 (1976).]]

Advertisements described ''witzend'' as "intended for fans and collectors of science fiction, comics, satire, S+S and related fields" with "the work of the world's best cartoonists and illustrators", mentioning [[Al Williamson]], [[Jack Gaughan]], [[Frank Frazetta]], and [[Reed Crandall]].<ref name="wood196706">{{Cite magazine|last=Wood|first=Wallace
|date=June 1967|title=Witzend|url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v25n05_1967-06_modified#page/n65/mode/2up
|magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction|pages=102|type=advertisement}}</ref> The magazine's first issue had Wood's "Animan" and "Bucky Ruckus", and Williamson's science fiction adventure "Savage World". Crandall illustrated [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]], along with pages by [[Steve Ditko]], Gaughan, [[Gil Kane]], [[Jack Kirby]], [[Ralph Reese]], [[Roy G. Krenkel]] and [[Angelo Torres]]. The issue finished with Frazetta's back cover portrait of [[Buster Crabbe]].

The second issue displayed a front cover by Wood and a back cover by Reese. [[Gray Morrow]]'s "Orion", which began in this issue of ''witzend'', was completed in ''[[Heavy Metal (magazine)|Heavy Metal]]'' in 1979. Two pages of "Hey, Look!" by [[Harvey Kurtzman]] were followed by "a feeble fable" from [[Warren Sattler]], "If You Can't Join 'em... Beat 'em" and more ERB illustrations by Crandall and Frazetta. The center spread presented poems by Wood, Reese and Pearson. Following a [[Will Elder|Bill Elder]] cartoon, "Midnight Special" by Ditko and "By the Fountain in the Park" by [[Don Martin (cartoonist)|Don Martin]], Wood offered another "Animan" installment.

In the third issue, between a Wood front cover and a Williamson back cover, were Ditko's first "[[Mr. A]]", "The Invaders" by [[Richard Bassford]], Wood's "Pipsqueak Papers", more "Hey, Look!" pages and "Last Chance", a previously unpublished 1950s EC New Direction story, drawn by Frazetta and rewritten and edited by Bill Pearson. The issue also featured work by [[Roger Brand]], [[Will Eisner]], [[Grass Green|Richard "Grass" Green]] and [[Art Spiegelman]].

With ''witzend'' number four, Wood began a serialization of his epic fantasy, "The World of the Wizard King". These installments of illustrated prose fiction were co-authored with Pearson. Shifting from illustrated text to a comics format, Wood continued the storyline in his later graphic novel, published in two editions (one b/w, one color)—''The Wizard King'' (1978) and ''The King of the World'' (Éditions du Triton, 1978).