“Curse of the Sea Witch” is from Dark Mysteries #1 (1951). Art identifier extraordinaire Jim Vadeboncouer, Jr says that Joe Orlando and Wood collaborated on the cover, and qualifies his opinion on who did the art on the story by listing it as by “Wood and ?” I agree with Jim, and I think other hands worked on the story with Wood, but he did a substantial amount of it, enough to give it that “Wood-veneer.” The story for “Sea Witch” is credited to Arthur Framson. Checking Jerry Bails’ Who’s Who I see that Framson is credited with only a couple of comics in the same period, so it could have been a pen-name, or he just had a really brief career in comic books.
Wood’s artwork shouts at us with his creative use of display lettering. I like his horror effects,* blood-dripping letters and such. He also designed the logo on the cover, which was used though issue #10, before it was re-designed.
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*More Wood lettering effects. Just click the picture.
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