American comic book artist legend Wally Wood created a set of 22 panel layouts that he used as his go-to when he needed inspiration while drawing his comics. The idea was to have 22 ready-to-go ideas when he had two characters just talking to each other or needed to come up with something visually interesting at the last minute.
The “22 panels” we know today were assembled by one of Wood’s assistants, Larry Hama: “When I was starting out as an editor at Marvel, I found myself in the position of having to coach fledgling artists on the basics of visual storytelling, and it occurred to me that the reminder sheets Woody made would help in that regard.”
According to an auction listing for the panels, “[Hama] ran off 50 copies, and handed them out to potential pencilers. Pretty soon, other editors were sending pencilers and even some old pros down the hall to get copies from him. Eventually, he had more master copies made and gave them to other editors so they could make their own copies to pass out… Second, third, fourth, tenth and twentieth generation copies continued to be made and handed down.”
from https://cloudfour.com/thinks/22-panels-that-always-work-wally-woods-legendary-productivity-hack/
You can find copies of the collection here, and below YouTuber FizzPop’s amazing set of videos will walk you through each panel and how they’re used with lots of great examples. At one time, Wally Wood was the highest paid man in the comic book industry, and watching these videos gave me a real understanding of why.
