Bernie Wrightson

[MRP]

One of my favorite comic/horror artists is Bernie Wrightson. He has recently been suffering from poor health, having a mild stroke last year and now scheduled for brain surgery at the end of the year for a tumor that has reoccurred.

I hope others will join me in keeping him and his family in their thoughts, but in these types of situations, I prefer to celebrate creator's life and works. To that end, I just won a Wrightson print inthe September auction at mycomicshop.com to add to the horror vibe of my office decor for Halloween, a great werewolf piece that should be delivered next week...



I adore Wrightson's work with Len Wein on Swamp Thing and in all the horror/mystery mags DC did. I keep discovering new works by Wrightson, and one of my grails is the graphic album he did adapting Shelly's Frankenstein (I was $5 short of winning it in a silent charity auction at a con a couple of years back and haven't run into another copy in the wild since). I have the 3 issues of the semi-sequel he is doing with Steve Niles (Frankenstein, Alive, Alive) from IDW, (the adorn the wall of comics in my comic room) but a new issue hasn't come out in over a year because of Bernie's Health issues.

one of my favorite pieces from the Shelley adaptation...



the IDW comic...




If you are a fan of Bernie's work, I'd love to see what some of your favorites are as well...maybe I will discover something else new I will need to track down at the next con I go to..


-M

[emeraldknight47]

I was reading about Bernie Wrightson's health issues the other day and I'm definitely sending prayers and good vibes in the direction of himself and his family. Love all of his work; the man is a genius when it comes to drawing pretty much anything. I've met him a few times at some cons and he is one of the kindest, humblest, and sometimes downright funniest, people I've ever had the pleasure of speaking with.

[johnnystorm]

Cycle of the Werewolf is great. Bernie did the illustrations for it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_of_the_Werewolf

A couple other favorites...

3109204-dc+masterworks+series+of+great+comic+book+artists+#3+(1983)+-+page+1.jpg House-of-Secrets-92.jpg

[cjefferys]

I've been a big Wrightson fan since a teenager and am very sorry to hear about his health issues. I met him at a comic convention back in the 80's, really nice guy. His illustrations for Frankenstein are gorgeous and insanely detailed. That cover for House of Secrets 92 is one of my favorite DC covers. Along with Cycle of the Werewolf, Bernie did some other cool stuff with Stephen King including illustrating the Creepshow adaptation and providing illustrations for the extended edition of The Stand and the fifth volume of the Dark Tower. One recent purchase that I really like is Dark Horse's hardcover compilation of all the work Wrightson did for Creepy and Eerie, it's a nice book!

[Starroid Raiders Dagon]

Bernie is talented beyond measure. I had a Pocketbook collection of his Swamp Thing stories in black and white that I read and reread countless times because his art was so amazing. Really sorry to hear of his recent health issues. I had heard about the stroke, but not the more recent problem.

[Hedji]

I love Bernie Wrightson. My first exposure was as a wee lad with the Swamp Thing / Batman team up in the Batman's Strangest Tales Treasury edition. But I will never forget the profound impact his artwork had on me at 10 years old, in the book department of JC Penney. I picked up the graphic novelization of Creepshow. I swear, his artwork just snapped my little brain in half.



I stood there and read the entire book front to back. I'm not even sure I was aware it was a movie right away. I so wanted to see the movie, but knew at only 10, my parents would never go for it. I think having seen his artwork first made me enjoy the film that much more, having his images swirling in my head, filling in gaps, and augmenting the experience of seeing the movie.

There's a very nice interview with Bernie Wrightson on the recently released blu-ray of Just Desserts: The Making of Creepshow. He is very modest regarding his work on Creepshow. He mentions that it was a very fast job for him, and he is incredibly humble about it. He remarks that fans who want him to sign their Creepshow comic are just fans of the film. Not as far as I'm concerned. It's his vibrant and fanciful work that even made me want to see that film, my favorite horror movie of all time.

[Blue Meanie]

So sorry to hear about his health issues. One of my favorites in the horror/sci-fi/Fantasy realm of art. Had the pleasure of meeting him 3 times. I had him autograph the Frankenstein book above. To this day, I don't know why because it's not his most well known art, I think of Captain Stern from Heavy Metal when I hear Bernie's name mentioned. Hoping he get better soon.

[samurainoir]

[MIB41]

I've met Bernie may times over the years. Great man, superb artist. My heart and prayers go out to him.

[comicmike]

This run of Swamp Thing is an example of, 'did a comic ever creep you out to the point of being uncomfortable reading it'. Man, amazing work: A good example of my own challenges with duality (I am less &less into violence & horror, but Wrightson's Swamp Thing will always be a guilty pleasure).