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Bernie Wrightson: A Look Back

post #1 of 10
6/27/10 at 10:25pm
Thread Starter 
This thread can serve two purposes: A catch-all to discuss the amazing work of Mr. Wrightson who basically taught me how to draw as a kid and secondly a chance for me to vent for a second and ask for some advice...




I studied his work in House of Mystery and Swamp Thing religiously as a kid and later on began to notice an advertisement for A LOOK BACK in the back of several zines like Fantastic Films and Fangoria. I lusted after this book. Lusted. The cover image above was flat out hypnotizing to me as a child. I used it for drawing practice and must have sketched it a dozen or more times. Alas, I never actually got the book. Never laid eyes upon the contents within it. Well, until two days ago, that is.

I finally broke down and ordered a copy off of Amazon. A first edition for $133. "One of 250 signed, limited copies bound in oxblood leatherette with matching slipcase and separate signed and numbered plate." Oh my, I thought! I mean, if i'm going to get a copy why not get one from the time I was actually drooling for it.

Got it. Surprisingly good condition for a 31 year old book. A bit of wear on the slipcase...but, it's a misprint. 16 pages from the first chapter are missing and duplicated pages from a later chapter are in their place. Argh! That wasn't in the product description! So that's why it was only $130 when other copies of that limited edition are going for as high as $800..

So now I'm sitting here thinking about what's on those pages and contemplating whether a few missing pages from an introductory chapter are such a big deal considering the rarity of this particular edition. Or maybe I should just return it due to the principal of the thing?

Anyone else got this book? Does pages 16 -38 contain the greatest secrets known to man and the key to enlightenment? I fear that might be the case.
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post #2 of 10
6/27/10 at 10:26pm
Thread Starter 
I must say that it really is a great book and really lives up to my expectations even without a complete first chapter.
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post #3 of 10
6/27/10 at 10:54pm
Wrightson was one of the all-time greats in his prime, no question. Loved his stuff as a kid. Loved it.

Then, like so many greats, he made his masterpiece — Frankenstein — and peaked. Then came all the awful work-for-hire stuff, the superhero crap (The Cult is grotesquely terrible, though writer Jim Starlin — Wrightson's frequent collaborator during those bleak years — is largely to blame. Although it's lazy artwise too, with entire pages given over to the same panel Xeroxed multiple times). Then he broke his wrist and, as he himself says, hasn't been the same since. (Had a look at the first issue of Dead, She Said and that was enough for me. Damn, it looked like a Wrightson imitator.)

But, man, when he was on, nobody could touch him. Frankenstein and his Warren stuff in particular — "Jenifer"? How the Christ does someone come up with that character design? That fucking girl haunted my dreams.
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post #4 of 10
6/27/10 at 11:12pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Blank View Post
"Jenifer"? How the Christ does someone come up with that character design? That fucking girl haunted my dreams.

Yeah, "Jenifer"....jesus. I forgot to mention his work on the Creepsow comic adaptation. Not in any way his best work, but from articles i've read it appears to have been an incredibly rushed job on a tight deadline. It could be either nostalgia (i've got an old copy from around the time of the film's release) or the simple fact that I regard Creepshow as a perfect film, but I have a soft spot for his work on those stories.
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post #5 of 10
6/27/10 at 11:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Abbott & Prospero View Post
I forgot to mention his work on the Creepsow comic adaptation. Not in any way his best work, but from articles i've read it appears to have been an incredibly rushed job on a tight deadline. It could be either nostalgia (i've got an old copy from around the time of the film's release) or the simple fact that I regard Creepshow as a perfect film, but I have a soft spot for his work on those stories.
Yeah, Wrightson on a comics adaptation of a film tribute to EC Comics — that was kind of inevitable. Speaking of his King collaborations, I did dig his Cycle of the Werewolf work, too.

I also like how early Wrightson — like, really early Wrightson, like fanzine-period Wrightson — shows his influences boldly. It's one-third Graham Ingels, one-third Jack Davis, and one-third Frazetta. Even some of his earliest DC work shows it. By the time he started on Swamp Thing, he'd managed to work all of it into a style of his own.

EDIT: To check up on the Ingels comparison, I just re-read "Horror We? How's Bayou?" which may well be the most evil-looking work in horror-comics history. Everett in that second-to-last panel is pure proto-Wrightson.
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post #6 of 10
6/28/10 at 1:37am
I got to hang out with Wrightson for a workshop in college...he had no idea what to do, so we ended up just chatting with him for two hours instead. Very cool guy, very intimidating eyebrows.
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post #7 of 10
6/28/10 at 12:08pm
Thread Starter 
Here's an interesting old interview about his work on Frankenstein:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GZvApCdULE
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post #8 of 10
7/2/10 at 4:44pm
I know most everybody says Frankenstein is the pinnacle of his work, but for me I will always believe his run on Swamp Thing is where he did his best. Each panel is so perfect, so rich in gothic old Universal horror movie beauty. His werewolf story and the way he illustrates Batman in the one issue where he guest stars are incredible.
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post #9 of 10
7/2/10 at 7:08pm
Yeah, I recognize that his Warren and Frankenstein stuff are his technical peak, but Swamp Thing is one of the classic comics runs for a reason, and it isn't Len Wein's sometimes cringe-worthy writing. M'nagalah, for instance, was basically "This month's monster: Great Old One!", but as rendered by Wrightson it scared the piss out of me as a kid.

What else scared the shit out of me: "Nightfall."
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post #10 of 10
7/2/10 at 11:27pm
I wish Wrightson would stop working with Steve Niles. He is a lousy writer.
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