Editing Witzend

{{Short description|Underground comic}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:''witzend''}}
{{for|the TV production company|WitzEnd Productions}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox comic book title <!--Wikipedia:WikiProject Comics-->
| italic title        = no
| title               = witzend
| image               = Witzend3wood67.jpg
| caption             = [[Wally Wood]]'s cover illustration for the third issue of ''witzend'' (1967)
| schedule            = 
| format              = 
| publisher           = [[Wally Wood]]<br />[[Wonderful Publishing Company]]
| startyr             = 1966
| startmo             = 
| endyr               = 1985
| endmo               = 
| issues              = 13
| main_char_team      = 
| writers             = 
| artists             = [[Wally Wood]], [[Al Williamson]], [[Reed Crandall]], [[Steve Ditko]], [[Jack Gaughan]], [[Gil Kane]], [[Jack Kirby]], [[Ralph Reese]], [[Roy G. Krenkel]], [[Angelo Torres]], [[Frank Frazetta]], [[Gray Morrow]], [[Warren Sattler]], [[Will Elder|Bill Elder]], [[Don Martin (cartoonist)|Don Martin]], [[Roger Brand]], [[Will Eisner]], [[Richard Bassford]], [[Grass Green|Richard "Grass" Green]], [[Art Spiegelman]], [[Vaughn Bode]], [[Jeff Jones (artist)|Jeff Jones]], [[Bernie Wrightson]]
| pencillers          = 
| inkers              = 
| letterers           = 
| colorists           = 
| creative_team_month = 
| creative_team_year  = 
| creators            = [[Wally Wood]]
| TPB                 = 
| ISBN                = 
| TPB1                = 
| ISBN1               = 
}}
'''''witzend''''', published on an irregular schedule spanning decades, is an [[underground comix|underground comic]] showcasing contributions by [[comic book]] professionals, leading illustrators and new artists. ''witzend'' was launched in 1966 by the writer-artist [[Wally Wood]], who handed the reins to [[Bill Pearson (American writer)|Bill Pearson]] ([[Wonderful Publishing Company]]) from 1968 to 1985. The title was printed in lower-case.

==Origin==
When the illustrator [[Dan Adkins]] began working at the Wood Studio in 1965, he showed Wood pages he had been creating for his planned comics-oriented publication, ''Outlet''. This inspired Wood to become an editor-publisher, and he began assembling art and stories for a magazine he titled ''et cetera''. A front cover paste-up with the ''et cetera'' logo was prepared and even used in advance solicitation print ads, but when Wood learned of another magazine with a similar title, there was a last-minute title change.<ref>[http://www.twomorrows.com/alterego/articles/08adkins.html Thomas, Roy. ''Alter Ego'', Vol. 3, No. 8: "A Dream Come True! A Candid Conversation with Dan Adkins".]</ref>

==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).

==Bill Pearson era==
After the fourth issue, Wood sold ''witzend'' to Pearson's Wonderful Publishing Company "for the sum of $1.00". Wood remained listed as founder and Editor Emeritus. After editing and publishing #5 (1968) by himself, Pearson co-published the next five issues with various other individuals/entities: #6 with Ed Glaser, #s 7, 8, and 9 with [[Phil Seuling]] (founder of the [[New York Comic Art Convention]] in 1968), and #10 with the [[CPL Gang]], a group of artists and writers who were publishing other fanzines such as ''[[Charlton Bullseye (fanzine)|Charlton Bullseye]]'', and ''[[CPL (fanzine)|CPL]]'' (''Contemporary Pictorial Literature''); from #11 on, Pearson was sole publisher and editor. These post-Wood issues edited by Pearson continued to explore new avenues with contributions from [[Vaughn Bode]], Eisner, [[Jeff Jones (artist)|Jeff Jones]], Wood, [[Bernie Wrightson]], Kenneth Smith, [[Alex Toth]], [[Roy G. Krenkel]], [[Mike Hinge]] and many others. Pearson also assembled two theme issues: the final issue #13 (1985) was titled ''Good Girls''—without the ''witzend'' logo on the front cover—containing diverse drawings of women, and #9 (1973) was a non-comics issue profiling [[W. C. Fields]], due to then co-publisher Seuling's extreme interest in the actor and his film works. In 1989–90, he also published two digest-sized issues of ''Witzend Catalog'', that were only partly editorial content, including unpublished Krenkel art, the other part being original art pieces for sale.

==Reception==
[[File:Invadersbass.jpg|right|thumb|350px|The [[Wally Wood]] influence is evident in this [[Richard Bassford]] illustration from ''witzend'' #3 (1967).]]
A critical survey of the magazine, "Wood at His witzend" by Rick Spanier, appears in Bhob Stewart's biographical anthology, ''Against the Grain: Mad Artist Wallace Wood'' (TwoMorrows, 2003). Designer-typographer Spanier once edited a similar graphic story publication, ''Picture Story Magazine'', requested by the [[Museum of Modern Art]] for its collection. After analyzing all 13 issues of ''witzend'' and fitting it into the context of alternative publishing of the period, Spanier concluded that ''witzend'''s "salient point, that comic artists were entitled to more control and ownership of their own work, would eventually be recognized by the publishers of comic books, but it is hard to argue that ''witzend'' itself was a key factor in that development. Like so many other visionary endeavors, it may simply have been ahead of its time".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=D3Up5Fqyc6MC&dq=SPANIER+%22against+the+grain%22&pg=PA187 Spanier, Rick. ''Against the Grain'', TwoMorrows, 2003.]</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{gcdb series|id=26215|title=''witzend'' (Wally Wood)}}
* {{gcdb series|id=26294|title=''witzend'' (Wonderful Publishing Company)}}
* {{comicbookdb|type=title|id=12432|title=''witzend''}}

==External links==
* [http://www.enjolrasworld.com/Richard%20Arndt/Witzend%20Index.htm Index to ''witzend'' issues]

{{Steve Ditko}}
{{Underground comix}}

[[Category:Visual arts magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:Comics anthologies]]
[[Category:Comics publications]]
[[Category:1966 comics debuts]]
[[Category:Magazines established in 1966]]
[[Category:Magazines disestablished in 1985]]
[[Category:Underground comix]]
[[Category:Defunct magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:Irregularly published magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:Magazines about comics]]