A little on the esoteric side, Wallace Wood's (he didn't like to be called "Wally") CANNON was a spy/adventure strip for adults that ran -- as near as I can tell -- from 1971-1974. It was published out of Germany in a non-official military newspaper called the OVERSEAS WEEKLY which was distributed to various U.S. military bases near the tail end of America's involvement in the Vietnam War.
The strip's main character, John Cannon, was a synthesis of a secret agent, mercenary hit man, and military operative with a dash of super-hero thrown in. His first mission is to rescue General Hassan Okat, the leader of the fictitious middle-east country Ismiria and his gorgeous wife Nadia from the also gorgeous -- but ruthless -- Communist Dragon Lady, Madame Toy (shades of Milton Caniff's TERRY AND THE PIRATES!). Toy wants Okat to give up his democratic rule and threatens to torture Nadia if he fails to comply.
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| Zipatone was used to great effect for shading . . . and nylons! |
Like any secret agent worth his salt, Cannon arrives just in the nick of time to rescue them and we are off on an adventure filled with action, violence and lots of nudity. After all, this was tailored for the overseas military and they lapped this type of stuff up quicker than a six-pack of Pabst.
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| How convenient! |
Wood's art is very similar to his earlier work with Tower Comics and Cannon looks like he could be Dynamo's twin brother to me. He no doubt at some point relied on some assistants in order to crank out a weekly strip like his other weekly strip during the same perioud, SALLY FORTH. Woody used Nicola Cuti, Larry Hama and Paul Kirchner on that, so it's likely they also helped out on CANNON. The late, great Gaspar Saladino lettered about 20-percent of the strips.
I have a small pile of CANNON and SALLY FORTH pages from the OVERSEAS WEEKLY stashed somewhere and when I come across them again, I'll scan a few and share them so you can see what the originals looked like. One thing that I failed to come across in the scant info about this newspaper is that it also included full-page bikini pinups, a lot of them on the reverse of Wood's strips!
To be continued . . .
Cannon is those vintage men's magazine covers made into a narrative. Wild indeed. Sally Forth is a ton of fun and I wish I had more. I have the large tabloids of both (incomplete in Sally's case). The Fantagraphics reprint is great. They didn't do the same for Sally for some reason.
ReplyDeleteThe adult version of Sarge Steel! These kept food on the table for Wallace & Co. I bet.
ReplyDeleteI definitely enjoyed seeing these; I really love Wally-- pardon, *Wallace* Wood art!
ReplyDeleteOne amusing thing is that the last panel in the fourth-to-last strip posted-- an establishing shot depicting "Rapid Falls, Iowa"-- is a near-exact lift of a Reed Crandall splash panel for "Hot Spell" in CREEPY #7, depicting "Warrenville" somewhere in New England.
Main difference is that in Crandall's original, there's a *burning man* running screaming from the gas station into the intersection, in about the same place Wood puts a dog in his version.
Thanks for posting them, John! Looking forward to the followup!
-- hsc
Interesting observation -- if your'e gonna swipe from someone, might as well swipe from the best!
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