A review by jackb_93
"came the Dawn" and Other Stories by Wallace Wood

Fascinating look into mid-century pulp art, the stories are lurid and high pitched, but sometimes surprisingly subtle. The art is so good that it has encouraged me to dive down a Wallace Wood rabbit hole. The suburban homes and rain soaked streets are lushly detailed in a way that provides genuine intensity, aiding the economical story structures by loading each panel with just enough intrigue. I must say that the presentations of these stories in black and white, without their original colouring, really adds to the Noirish starkness of the stories in the latter half of the book. The fact that this collection is sort of lopsided by design is something I’m in two minds about. The fact of the matter is that this book starts off a bit slowly because the earlier stories (the first 5-6) have the principles involved still finding their feet. This resulted in me starting this book then giving up on it for a while, before picking it up again. Very glad that I did! However the argument in favour of this ‘lopsidedness’ is that the stories are presented in chronological order so you can track the development of the creators involved, something I am a sucker for. If chronological presentation results in a slow start to the volume then so be it. This is fine work after all, and you appreciate the good stuff more if you work up to it. Will be checking out Wood’s science fiction stuff next, reportedly his most creative work