THE IMMORTAL HORROR ART OF BERNIE WRIGHTSON
I have been trying to find lots of images online lately. I ran across a huge collection of Warren Magazine material and old mystery comics. The stuff got me thinking of one of my old comic book artist heroes Bernie Wrightson and I decided to finish a post I had began when I started this website. Most people who have a peripheral knowledge of comics know that Wrightson was known chiefly, if not almost exclusively, for his horror comic work. Influenced by the styles of EC Comics artists like “Ghastley” Graham Ingels and Frank Frazetta he would begin doing unique covers and interiors for DC in the late 60’s then would go on to do some fine work for Warren Magazine’s Creepy and Eerie. I grew up on these stories and was thrilled to find some of them online (though the versions I have are only in Spanish) and want to share one of them here. I have another story to accompany a review of Dario Argento’s Jenifer film (for the Masters of Horror TV series) and will have that up soon.
Probably the one project that has defined Wrightson’s career more than any other single thing is his magnificent pen and ink renderings for Mary Shelly’s Frankentsein. It took him some seven years to complete the drawings and they are stunning to behold. I found some decent scans online and tweaked them a little with resizing and sharpening. The style looks painstaking and is reminiscent of the types of book illustrations form the 19th century. He seemed to make a career of doing mainly horror comics, an incredible achievement really considering how fickle the field can be. He did do some Batman issues and they were fantastic, thought the best Batman he did was the one where the Caped Crusader appeared in an issue of his immortal Swamp Thing. Outside of Neal Adams Batman never looked so good.
I don’t keep up with comics much anymore. I wish I could say I outgrew them, but the reality is that the price of the things outgrew me. I remember saving my lunch money and going up the store and getting six comics for a buck and after a few days getting the latest Warren mags or Castle of Frankenstein film book. Those are the halcyon days of yore my friends. Now when I do glance over the stuff (online only since in China there are no comic books) I tend to gravitate back towards the giants I grew up with who influenced my thinking and even life in many ways and Bernie Wrightson was definitely a part of my formative years.
Expect some posts soon on Barry Windsor Smith, Frank Frazetta as well as samples from Warren Comics such as Blazing Combat and Vamprella. I also will be doing some posts on Robert Crumb eventually simply because he is so great, though a little outside the theme of the Café, but I am flexible on those matters.
FROM MARY SHELLY’S FRANKENSTEIN
FROM VARIOUS COMIC BOOK PROJECTS
A STORY SELECTION FROM WARREN’S CREEPY MAGAZINE
The story here is not complete and in Spanish, but I feel it fairly well represents Wrightson’s singular narrative style that has made him a legend in the field.
A SELECTION FROM WIGHTSON’S “STUDIO” PERIOD
This piece was dated 1977 and puts it at the time Wrightson was working with Barry Windsor Smith, Jeff Jones and Michael Kaluta in a shared loft they came to call The Studio. It was was a place they could meet and work on private projects away from their comic book jobs. The work that came out of the studio was some of the best the men have ever done in their careers and really helped to change what was to follow in the entire field of comic book art, if I may be so bold.
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