Cannon

If Wood’s fantastically deranged action-porn comic—whose title character is an emotionless, crewcut Manchurian Candidate who never saw a Commie he didn’t kill or a woman he didn’t ravage—were ever filmed, the producers would save a mint on the actresses’ wardrobes (mostly just consisting of unbuttoned blouses and go-go boots), but they’d spend a lot on squibs and explosives. Wood took his own life in 1981 when faced with declining health and difficulties finding paying work, but today he’s revered as a comics master. Cannon was published from 1970 to 1973 in the military tabloid Overseas Weekly. Readers will be hard pressed to find three or four consecutive pages here without a machine-gun massacre or gratuitous nudity. The crude politics in the banana republic settings and the offensive characters (e.g., Chinese dominatrix/sex toy Madame Toy) are torridly retrograde, to the point of self-parody. Wood’s attempts to rope in popular trends fall flat (a killer hippie named Hanson), but the occasional aside to servicemen show a sly intent (“We never interfere with the internal affairs of another country. Oh yeah... I guess I forgot”). For those who admire Wood’s Formula One pacing, cinematic framing, and he-man obsessions, this is a guilty-pleasure keepsake. (Mar.)■