Bernie Wrightson

Illustration of Marvel Comics' character "Starlord" by Bernie Wrightson.

New York Comic Arts Gallery

Exhibit Flyer from the New York Comic Arts Gallery, 1977. Art by Michael Kaluta, Ralph Reese, and Jeff Jones.

Rip in Time

The covers for Rip in Time. Written by Bruce Jones and art by Richard Corben. Fantagor Press, 1986-1987.

The Art of Al Williamson

The Art of Al Williamson by James Van Hise was a treat back in the days before everyone had an “Art of” book out. Even today, with a lot of comic and fantasy artists having retrospective and omnibus collections out, this book still stands up and is worth the prices people ask for it on the secondary market.

First published by Blue Dophin Enterprises in 1983, this book reprints a wide spectrum of Williamson's published and unpublished work. Complete stories include: “The Hunted!” from Two Gun Kid #25 (1955); “The Little Earth” from Blast Off #1 (1965); “The Vicious Space Pirates” from Danger is Our Business #1 (1953); “The Lizard” from Mystery Tales #51 (1957); “When the Creature Escapes” from World of Suspense #7 (1957); “The Gun-Slinger!” from Kid Slade Gunfighter #7 (1957); two weeks of unpublished Star Wars dailies; and a complete Secret Agent Corrigan sequence.

This book is also packed with unpublished sketches, sample pages, and panel reprints. It also has a pretty good checklist and short interview/appreciations of Williamson by George Evans, Archie Goodwin, Frank Frazetta, Ray Bradbury, Angelo Torres, and Bill Gaines to name a few. (Looking my copy of this book, I knew I had Williamson sign it, but my copy is also signed by Archie Goodwin, George Evans and Angelo Torres!).

When The Art of Al Williamson came out it had a cover price of $7.95. At some point they were like 3 for $10 from the Koch brothers, I think that's where I got mine. This book is a great thing to have, I'm still amazed at how much is packed in 144 pages.

As usual, Mr. Door Tree provides lots of Williamson treats here.

Williamson posts on Pencil/Ink.

Betty & Wilma

From a 1990's reissue Marx Flintstones set.

Maxfield Parrish

Some Maxfield Parrish magazine covers.

The Wrightson Completionist: Part 4

The fourth in a series of posts highlighting oddball Bernie Wrightson items in my collection.



Back in my early Bernie Wrightson collecting days, something called "Heritage Mailing Label" was always showing up in Wrightson checklists. I figured I'd never get that, and wasn't even sure what it was. By this point I was getting lists from various dealers and buying obscure fanzines and Wrightson portfolios and prints. But who would save a mailing label? And why do these people torture me by putting stuff like this on checklists? I later found out it was used as a label by the publishers of a fanzine called Heritage.

Sometime in the late 1980's, a friend of a friend was liquidating his collection. I came over with lots of cash in hand and picked up a bunch of Wrightson and Kaluta fanzines at decent prices. In this box of the guy's stuff was this padded envelope, with a Heritage Mailing label on it, complete with Bernie Wrightson artwork. I don't even remember if the guy charged me for it. I bought both of his Heritage fanzines and I think he just threw it in there with them. Above is an image of what was once a middling holy grail for me. Unfortunately, a little piece of the image is torn. If I ever see another one for sale in better condition, I'd probably have to buy it.

Doug Murray and Richard Garrison published two fine issues of the fanzine Heritage in 1972. Both issue were dedicated to Flash Gordon.

Pictured below is Bernie's contribution to Vol. I, issue 1B.



Al Williamson and Gray Morrow's cover for Heritage Vol. I, issue 1B.

Will Eisner

Below is the only Will Eisner original I own (and probably the only one I ever will). It is from a syndicated newspaper panel Eisner did in the 1970's. Sometime in the late 1980's Eclipse Comics was selling these things for $5 or $10 a piece. A friend of mine got a few of them and gave me this one. My very own drawing of a Will Eisner locust. Below my drawing are a couple of images by Eisner of The Spirit and the femme fatale character P'Gell.

Esquire Girl!

Battle Stories

Battle Stories #3, May 1952.




Battle Stories #4, July 1952.




Battle Stories #5, Sept. 1952.




Battle Stories #9, May 1953.

N.C. Wyeth

The World of Music: Song Programs for Youth: Treasure
Ginn and Company, 1938.



The Feast of Raymi



The Cobbler



Queen Astrid Comes No More



The Enchanted Wood



River of Sleep



In a Strange Land

N.C. Wyeth

The World of Music: Song Programs for Youth: Discovery
Ginn and Company, 1937.



Discovery



A Gypsy Sings to His Pony



Indian Prayer



The Prince



Sea Fever

N.C. Wyeth

The World of Music: Song Programs for Youth: Adventure
Ginn and Company, 1938.



Cap'n Storm-Along



Song of the Reapers



The Cowboy's Life



The Air Mail

Comix!

I am still amazed that my small town library had a copy of Comix: a History of Comic Books in America back in the 1970's. At that time I was about 10 or 12 years old and this book was fascinating, lurid, and felt somehow naughty to a kid who read Marvel superheroes and DC war comics. Looking at the book now, I realize it was one of the earliest books to take a serious look at the American comic book.

This book features reprints of complete stories by most the medium's greats. The ones that made the biggest impression on me were Harvey Kurtzman's "Big If" from Frontline Combat, and George Tuska's "Baby Face Nelson vs. the U.S.A." from Crime Does Not Pay. Just the reprints from Warren Publishing line of horror magazines made this book a terrifying treat from my young eyes: "The Success Story," Archie Goodwin's and Al Williamson's classic tale of comic strip artist makes a few too many compromises to meet those deadlines, Goodwin and Joe Orlando's graphic Vietnam war tale "Landscape," and Wally Wood's "The Curse." Yes, Wood's art in that is a step down from his 1950's heyday, but it shines nonetheless. I think the naked girl cavorting through the story appealed to me too. The final page page of Reed Crandall's "The Squaw" (below) gave me nightmares. There was also a chapter on undergrounds that was my first exposure to Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton.

Another standout that freaked me out was Jim Steranko's masterwork "At the Stroke of Midnight" (from Marvel's Tower of Shadows #1). This book also supplied my first (knowing)exposure to Carl Barks with a great story about Uncle Scrooge and his money bin.

All the stories in Daniels' book just whetted my appetite for more. But back in 1973-1975 I wasn't even aware of comic fandom or the back issue trade. They didn't carry any of this stuff at the local 7-11. Later on, when Russ Cochran's EC Library volumes became available and I discovered a comic shop with back issues of Creepy and Eerie I was able to glut my appetite for this stuff. But until then, this was heady stuff for a 12 year old kid, and I'm grateful to the librarian who ordered this book and put it on the shelf where I could get to it.

Thomas Canty

A couple of images by Thomas Canty.