Hannes Bok is the pseudonym for Wayne Woodard. He was born July 2, 1914 in Kansas City, Missouri. He was a self-taught artist with no professional art training.
After graduating high school in 1932, he contributed unsolicited illustrations to science fiction fanzines, under the pen name Hannes Bok, which is a clever phonetic derivation of the famous composer's name, "Johann S. Bach."
In 1939 the artist moved to NYC and began his long creative association with Weird Tales, where his work continued to routinely appear until 1954.
Weird Tales also published several of his short stories and poems. He wrote several unpublished novels.
His illustrations appeared in Cosmic Science Fiction, Imagination, Startling Stories, Stirring Science Stories, Unknown, Amazing Stories, Other Worlds, Marvel Science Fiction, Fantasy and Science Fiction, as well as numerous books of fantasy and science fiction.
He wrote articles on astrology for Mystic Magazine and eventually became obsessed with the occult to an unhealthy degree. He grew increasingly reclusive, malnourished, and disfunctional, as he wasted away in poverty.
Wayne Woodard died of a heart attack at age forty-nine on April 11, 1964.
© David Saunders 2009 |
