Renegade Game Studios; $20.00

Wally Wood’s cover for EC’s Weird Science Fantasy #27 is widely – and correctly, if you ask us – regarded as a masterpiece of its era, and now it’s a beautiful, 1,000-piece puzzle from Renegade Game Studios as part of their EC Comics Puzzle Series.

The finished puzzle is approximately 19.7” x 27.6” and depicts the three astronauts, alien creature, and the rocket ship that – along with Wood’s impressive skills – made the cover so memorable. In puzzle terms, there’s not a ton to review, but the pieces feature sharp, well-formed edges and fit together nicely. Since I generally pick a puzzle based on the image, those are about the only criteria I have by which to evaluate one.

In EC science fiction comics, it’s hard to get more iconic than Wood.

Wood, of course, came into his own at EC.

His work on EC’s Weird Fantasy and Weird Science followed covers on Avon’s Attack On Planet Mars, Flying Saucers, Earth Man on Venus, Space Detective and Strange Worlds. Later he’d be touted by Stan Lee on the cover of Daredevil #5 and would create the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, among many other accomplishments.

The offerings in Renegade’s EC Comics Puzzle Series are available at comic shops through Diamond Comic Distributors and directly from Renegade.

– J.C. Vaughn