{"id":33574,"date":"2025-08-17T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T08:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=33574"},"modified":"2025-08-15T16:48:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T16:48:25","slug":"cannon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/08\/17\/cannon\/","title":{"rendered":"Cannon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Wally Wood<\/strong> & various, introduction by Howard Chaykin<\/strong> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-60699-702-4 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

As with any historical perspective addressing popular mass-entertainments and evolving societies, a look back often finds uncomfortable material that can jar some modern sensitivities and set today\u2019s collective hackles rising. That\u2019s especially true of this lovely but confounding collection compiling seldom seen material by one of the industry\u2019s greatest stars…<\/p>\n

This is quite frankly a lovely book of beautiful work that I now find hard to recommend to a general audience. That\u2019s more to do with how society has evolved rather than its admittedly always deeply flawed and often unsavoury content…<\/p>\n

We all carry within us the seeds of our own destruction and probably none more so than troubled comics genius Wallace Allan Wood (June 17th<\/sup> 1927 – November 2nd<\/sup> 1981): one of the greatest draughtsmen and graphic imagineers our art form has ever produced. Woody was a master of every aspect of the business. He began his career lettering Will Eisner\u2019s Spirit<\/strong> newspaper strip, readily moving into pencilling and inking as the 1940s ended and, ultimately into publishing. After years working all over the comic book and syndicated strip markets, as well as in book illustration, package-design and other areas of commercial art, he devised the legendary T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents<\/strong> franchise and even predated and anticipated the counter-culture\u2019s Underground Commix phenomenon by launching in 1965s one of the first adult-oriented, independent comics: Witzend<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The troubled genius was frequently his own worst enemy. Woody\u2019s life was one of addiction (guns, booze & cigarettes); traumatic relationships; tantalisingly close yet always inevitably frustrated financial security; illness and eventually, suicide. It was as if all the joy and beauty in his existence stayed on the pages and there was none left for real life.<\/p>\n

Although during his time with EC Wood became the acknowledged, undisputed Master of Science Fiction art in America, he was equally adept, driven and accomplished in the production of all genres. He was a lusty man and was a pioneer of sexually explicit, ultra-violent (but always beautiful) and titillating comics where sex played a major role. Remember, even if everybody loves comics, it\u2019s not always about superheroes and cosmic quests. Men like sexy comics and cartoons. I\u2019m not saying that it\u2019s right or proper to ogle women, but it is a sad fact of life and has made many publishers rich for centuries. This customer base especially likes looking at beautiful naked women and amongst so very many cartoonists over the decades, Wood was arguably the paramount exponent of the subgenre…<\/p>\n

Remarkably and without in any way seeking to apologise for it, I can confirm that this gritty strip was made to entertain REAL-MEN!! It abounds with naked, nude, undraped and forcibly undressed women (and men, but not as many or as often as the women). Somehow less controversially it also heavily features mega violence, and both physical and psychological torture because that\u2019s what the audience wanted. If you don\u2019t believe me go and rewatch Goldfinger<\/strong> (1964) but this time watch and listen closely…<\/p>\n

Cannon<\/strong>\u2019s inbuilt misogyny is a feature not a bug with levels of abusive behaviour and conduct that seldom exceed those of any 1960-1970s Bond<\/strong> or Man from U.N.C.L.E. <\/strong>movie. There\u2019s practically no gadgets either, but loads of fast flashy cars, planes and boats… and much sublimely rendered, awesomely accurate ordnance because that\u2019s one thing your average GI or swabbie will spot instantly if fudged…<\/p>\n

This cartoon series captures a moment in history that was deeply, deeply unfair to women, even if – for its time – the feature was uncharacteristically racially & socially diverse and most equitable in its treatment of African-American, Hispanic, Arabic and Asian guys. This was probably as much about the target readership – the desegrated but still mostly male US Military Service personnel – as Woody\u2019s views on the Civil Rights movement. Wally was always utterly professional and diligent in all his work commitments and liberated from all editorial constraints, but his own experience gave the audience exactly what they wanted…
\n\"\"
\nFollowing Howard Chaykin\u2019s \u2018Intro\u2019<\/em> confirming the best and worst of the legends, the strip unfolds in one unbroken stream of non-stop blockbuster action heavily seasoned with geopolitical themes and contemporary headline fodder. It\u2019s fitting to note here that Woody utilised and mentored dozens of guys who went on to their own notoriety. If you\u2019re a fanatic, you\u2019ll spot many of them – Pearson, Reese, Wenzel, Hama et al – as characters in the strip, but in-jokes aside, this one\u2019s all about satisfying manly urges.<\/p>\n

Guaranteeing sex, death and horror and NAKED WOMEN in almost every episode, Cannon<\/strong> by Wood and his ever-shifting studio ran from 1970-1973 in three separate editions of The Overseas Weekly<\/strong>: a tabloid specifically created and disseminated to US military personnel stationed overseas. He & Steve Ditko later recycled the character in an abortive indie publishing venture Heroes, Inc., which we\u2019ll cover at the end.<\/p>\n

John Cannon<\/em> was a U2 pilot captured and tortured by the Red Chinese. Broken and turned into their assassin, he threw off the ministrations of their top brainwasher Madame Toy<\/em> but suffered a psychological collapse that left him a relentless, emotionless living weapon pointed by the CIA at any target that needed killing.<\/p>\n

His successes didn\u2019t affect him at all but did make him a permanent target of the Chinese and Soviet governments. The latter tasked beautiful lethal killer Sue Smith<\/em> to remove him by any means and at all costs, but her attempts were as frequent and futile as Toy\u2019s, who doggedly and repeatedly seeks to recapture or kill him. Both curvaceous killers spent as much time shagging Cannon as shooting, stabbing, electrocuting, drowning, poisoning, bombing and running over the implacable agent.
\n\"\"
\nEncountering and exterminating hundreds of spies Cold War spies and assassins, Cannon saves US-friendly middle-Eastern Ismiria from infiltration and insurrection; defends US ally Israel from subversion; shatters the schemes (and sleeper agent army) of Comrade Gorsk<\/em> and saves Latin American San Sierra from both Red-backed rebels and the incumbent US-friendly fascist dictatorship. He even gets to save a few lives along the way, like his own Uncle Fred<\/em> back in Iowa and charming conman\/serial bigamist\/accidental hitman Charles M. Fogarty<\/em>…<\/p>\n

At home, Cannon eradicates gangsters and spies as his conditioning begins to fade. No longer a reliable asset, he tries to retire to his old family home but trouble follows and the CIA soon re-recruit him. With Toy & Sue Smith perpetually hunting him and \u201ccat-fighting\u201d each other, Cannon even clashes with killer hippies in a murder commune and an ultra-conservative millionaire with his own private militia seeking to set the nation back on the Right path. John even has a couple of shots at true love and a Happy Ever After, but inevitably learns over and again that \u201cwomen are just no damn good\u201d…<\/p>\n

Along the way he experiences every kind of action from scuba combat to aerial dogfights, and even battles a killer cyborg, He\u2019s particularly adept at ferreting out leftover Nazis and dodges more than his fair share of atomic detonations. This is a strip very much of its time and for adults if not grown-ups, so like many of his audience, our hero even has to face up to the consequences of his actions when one paramour falls pregnant. The wedding is an utter disaster…<\/p>\n

As much a document of art history as an expertly-targeted wank-book, Cannon<\/strong> comes with fascinating bonus features for comics fans, beginning a voluminous Appendix <\/em>section with a brace of long lost cover paintings.
\n\"\"
\nThese augment the Roger Hill\u2019s essay \u2018The Overseas Weekly<\/em> Discovery\u2019 <\/em>detailing the bizarre circumstance that led to the retrieval of the material forming this book, and compliments a<\/p>\n

\u2018Letter by Wallace Wood\u2019<\/em> exhorting how the industry must change. These are followed by the tamed down, general audience full-colour Cannon story by Wood & Ditko as seen by almost nobody in 1969\u2019s Heroes, Inc.<\/strong> Presents Cannon<\/strong>, and another similar but monochrome lost Wood & Ditko treat from Heroes, Inc. No. 2<\/strong> (1976) once again kicking the stuffing out of stubborn Nazis by Wood & Ditko. The experience ends as it should with a fulsome and fair \u201cBio\u201d<\/em> of Wally Wood by J. David Spurlock.<\/p>\n

Fast, furious and ferociously unreconstructed and sexist, this can be a hard read: one packed with pitfalls, but undeniably honest in its intent and delivery. If you like this kind of thing you\u2019ll love it, and if you find it offensive, you\u2019re still free enough for the moment to reject and not buy it. However, if you do feel the urge to condemn, do us all the courtesy of reading it first…
\n\u201cIntro\u201d \u00a9 2014 Howard Chaykin. \u201cThe Overseas Weekly Discovery<\/em>\u201d \u00a9 2014 Roger Hill. \u201cBio\u201d \u00a9 2014 J. David Spurlock. Photos \u00a9 Bhob Stewart & Paul Kirchner. All other contents \u00a9 2014 Wallace Wood Properties LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Wally Wood & various, introduction by Howard Chaykin (Fantagraphics Books) ISBN: 978-1-60699-702-4 (HB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. As with any historical perspective addressing popular mass-entertainments and evolving societies, a look back often finds uncomfortable material that can jar some modern sensitivities and set today\u2019s collective hackles rising. … <\/p>\n

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