Bernie's good...it's Black & White.

Ten years ago if you would have asked me who my favorite artist was, period, I would have said Bernie Wrightson. And that hasn't changed much. If I see something on the rack (as rare as it seems to be) that has the Wrightson name on it, I'll probably be grabbing it to flip through it.

Bernie Wrightson co-created the DC Comics and pop culture icon Swamp Thing with writer Len Wien. He has contributed the illustrations seen in all of Stephen King's illustrated novels (The Stand, Cycle Of The Werewolf, The Gunslinger Series).

Bernie Wrightson not only is a big name in the horror universe, he is also a name amongst names for contributing concept art for the film industry. He has done work for the Spider-Man films, Ghostbusters, and many many b-films.

Bernie Wrightson has a beautiful duality to his work. His black and white work is breathtaking. his claimed "most personal" work was the nearly 50 illustrations he did for a republishing of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. Below are some of the inset plates. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of this, even most public libraries have a copy sitting around. Stare at each picture and I guarantee after hours of looking you'll find things you hadn't noticed before.





The ambidexterous wonder of Wrightson is that when he adds colors he doesn't go for the inkpress pop candy colors that can be seen on any given Superman or Wonder Woman. He leans towards watercolors, dried up markers, etc. I happen to have entire sets of his two trading card series' which is all original art. One example below, shows not only the detail of the almost Frazetta-like illustration but the earthy realistic colors.



Though his work is scant in recent years, he powerfully prevalent in the later 1970's and into the 1980's. Inspired by the timeless EC Comics titles like The Vault of Horror, Tales From The Crypt and The Haunt of Fear Wrightson brought the worlds of Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, and Edgar Allan Poe. With a flair for the almost Hammer-esque trait of making the characters of horror dwell in either the brutally modern world or a world of vague Victorianism that doesn't really exist in time.

Though he started in doing explicitly graphic imagery as in the vampire tearing out the throat of a victim, now he claims that he's more interested in showing the moment before or after the act, allowing the viewer to fill in what happened.

Wrightson has a website to see all examples of his work (some good Spider-Man film work stuff, Swamp Thing stuff, originals) at Wrightson Art.

Here's a video interview I found on Youtube.



Keep Reading!!!