The Wrightson Completionist: Part 11

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

What do you do when you've bought all the Bernie Wrightson stuff, except for the stuff that's really expensive (S&N The Stand book, weird-ass Nakotomi prints they made five of) or impossible to find (Nozdrovia, Gothic Blimp)? The answer is you start buying foreign editions of his work, which I've spent a lot time doing the last couple years.

Here's an Italian edition of Wrightson's masterwork: the illustrated Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus by Mary W. Shelley. It's smaller than the Dark Horse edition or the original Dodd-Mead edition, about 7" x 9 3/4". It has the full endpapers and all the illustrations. Like the Dark Horse edition, there are small greyish vignettes from the illustration on the previous page.

Nothing here you haven't seen before, but if you're a nut about this like me, it's worth getting. As of this writing, it's available on the Italian Amazon page, your regular Amazon user name and password will work. It ended up costing me about $35 with postage. It took about two or three or weeks to get it in the mail. The book is published by a company called Oscar Ink. It's a hardcover and is 302 pages.

Ciao everybody!

The Wrightson Completionist: Part 10

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

As part of my public service, I like to highlight weird items I've had trouble finding in my 25 years of collecting Bernie Wrightson's artwork. This installment features an item listed on Wrightson checklists as "DTFF Progress Report, 1972." I've never seen one of these for sale and I was lucky to pick this up last week from a good friend of mine. It probably belonged to his older brother who would have gone to this convention. It is an eight page (two sheets, folded over) flyer on the progress of the 1973 Detroit Trip Fan Fair Comic Convention. You can see Bernie's contribution to the flyer below.




This drawing was also used as bookplate in the limited hardcover edition of The Reaper of Love.

The Wrighson Completionist: Part 9

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

Toodlum Tales was a small monthly publication for the people of Saugerties, New York. It contained news and profiles of people and places in the area. The October 1979 issue featured a profile of then-resident Bernie Wrightson and reprinted one of his best Frankenstein illustrations. Below is a reproduction of the article on Bernie. Click on it for a larger view.

The Wrightson Completionist: Part 8.

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

Swamp Thing is likely Bernie Wrightson's most famous creation. Along with writer Len Wein, Wrightson chronicled the adventures of the muck monster over the course of one short story and ten issues of the Swamp Thing comic book. The creature first appeared in House of Secrets #92 (June-July 1971). The first incarnation was more of gothic romance/monster story with the setting and character's dress seeming more in place in the 19th century.

For the debut issue (October 1972), the origin story was retold and updated. Bernie's run on the series lasted until issue #10 (May 1974). Along the way, Swamp Thing encountered many of the tropes of horror movies and literature: a werewolf, aliens, a Lovecraftian horror from the depths, zombies, and Frankenstein's monster in the character of The Patchwork Man. Oh, and he had a run-in with Batman too.

Wrightson's run on Swamp Thing has been reprinted numerous times over the years. One of the more unusual reprints (at least in this American's view) is a series of Danish graphic novels reprinting the first five issues of the comic and the House of Secrets origin story. The stories are reprinted in glorious black and white on heavy white stock, and the reproduction is superb. The linework stands out better than any of the other reprints.


A panel from Swamp Thing #4, "Monster on the Moors."


Volume #1, Alex Hollands Saere Skaebne reprints Swamp Thing #1 and the origin story from House of Secrets #92. It was published in 1979. Printed the same year was Patchwork Manden reprinting Swamp Thing #2 & 3. Patient Danish readers had to wait until 1981 to read the next installment: Varulvens Nat. This volume reprinted Swamp Thing #4 (the issue with the greatest werewolf drawing in the world) and the Ravenwind Witch story from #5.


Swamp Thing is assaulted by Arcane's Un-Men in Swamp Thing #2.


I don't know if there were any more of the graphic albums published. I got a hold of a Danish comic book store catalog in the mid-1980's and these were all they had for sale. I've seen references to these three volumes, but never any others. They were all published by a company called Rune Press. Below are the covers. Keep your eyes open for these, you are in for a treat to see all this art in black and white.

The Wrightson Completionist: Part 7

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

In 1988 Bernie Wrightson illustrated a four issue Batman mini-series titled The Cult. The story was written by Jim Starlin. It was printed in the popular squarebound "prestige" format made popular by Frank Miller's Dark Knight series. The item below is 6" x 9" cardboard cardboard standup. I guess it was meant for a counter display or it would fit in a comic rack. I recall the image of Batman running as being the same drawing of him being chased through a sewer that was released on a large poster. I flipped through the comics and I don't believe it is an image from the books.

Although this isn't one of my favorite works by Bernie, I recently picked up this display item and figured it was worth featuring in The Wrightson Completionist. Pencil/Ink Comic Artists Blog reviews all four issues of The Cult here.





Bonus: random undated Bernie Wrightson drawing of Batman.

The Wrightson Completionist: Part 6

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


In the early 1980's, Marvel and DC began releasing a lot of "Special Editions." These were reprints of classic runs of superhero comics. I remember them reprinting a lot of Neal Adams comics in this format: X-Men, Green Lantern/Green Arrow, and the Avengers Kree-Skrull war saga. They were usually about 64-60 pages, printed on higher quality "baxter" paper and sold for the then high price of $2.50. In March 1982 Marvel reprinted Steve Engelhart and Frank Brunner's classic Silver Dagger storyline from the first four issues of Doctor Strange. Bernie Wrightson was logical choice to produce the wraparound cover for this collection (if Brunner wasn't go to do it). Brunner's art had a Wrightsonesque quality to it with his lush brushwork and skillful use of shadows. Bernie produced a well-composed spread of Strange in the gullet of the Stealer of Souls: a writhing mass of flesh, tortured souls, and skeletons.

Marvel produced a 12" x 18" promotional poster for this book. It featured the the cover artwork printed on ivory-colored paper. That is the subject of this segment of The Wrightson Completionist. I don't remember where I got mine. Either from Todd (who gets all the stuff nobody else can) or perhaps Dave Hutzley, of the late great Dave's Comics in Royal Oak Michigan gave it to me. I'm glad I've hung on to it all these years, I've never seen one for sale.


click on the images for large versions




A scan from the original art:




The published comic book cover:

The Wrightson Completionist: Part 5

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

This is the back page of the Alterna-Con Spring 1985 Convention program. It was at this con I first met Michael Kaluta and took this photo. This Wrightson drawing was on the back page of the program and needless to say I was disappointed when I learned Bernie was not going to be a guest at their fall convention. The drawing is obviously of Uncle Creepy and was probably intended as an inside front cover illustration for Creepy magazine. I don't recall this drawing being used for a Warren magazine and I've never seen it anywhere before. If anyone has seen this printed elsewhere please let me know.

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.

The Wrightson Completionist: Part 3

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


Bernie Wrightson's Freak Show has convoluted publishing history. First published as a serial in Heavy Metal magazine in 1982, it was subsequently published in graphic novel format in France, Spain, and Denmark just to name a few. Image Comics took a shot at it also..

The above harcover edition was printed in the Netherlands in 1997. It reprints the interior artwork very nicely on high quality paper. The text is all in English. It also includes all of Bernie's illustrations for Stephen King's The Stand plus the portrait of Randall Flagg that was only included in the limited edition portfolio. This hodgepodge also contains an "Incomplete Bernie Wrightson Checklist" (which is very incomplete, I'm not sure why they bothered to print it) and a small color reproduction of the painting "The Meltification of the Fish." This hardcover edition also includes the plate reproduced below. This book is a nice, and slightly schizo, package of Bernie Wrightson art.





Freak Show, by Bruce Jones and Bernie Wrightson.
Houthaven Publications, 1997.
ISBN:90-73508-15-0

The Wrightson Completionist: Part 2

The second in a series of posts highlighting oddball Bernie Wrightson items in mine (and this case Todd Adams) collection.





Above is a bookplate drawn by Bernie Wrightson. I'm told he did for a book signing he did at a comic book store. I don't have one of these, thanks for the scan Todd.



Title page to Stephen King's Creepshow by Bernie Wrightson, the likely inspiration for the bookplate.








The above two images are an ink stamp ripped off based on the bookplate. Running across this ink stamp at my house is what inspired this post. You can still buy it at Stamp Francisco.

The Wrightson Completionist: Part 1

During the period from about 1983 to 1994, I decided I wanted to own copies of everything Bernie Wrightson ever drew or painted. Life and some other stuff got in my way I lost the dream in the mid-1990's. But I can pretty safely say I have about 95% of Bernie's output up through 1990 or so.

This post is the first in a series where I hope to highlight some of the more oddball Wrightson items in my collection.

First up: some items associated with Bernie Wrightson's cover artwork for Meat Loaf's 1981 album Dead Ringer.



Picture Disc for Dead Ringer, Epic Records, 1981. A seven inch picture disc of "Dead Ringer for Love b/w "More Than You Deserve" was also released in Europe. It featured a cropped version of Bernie's cover art.



Backstage pass for 1981-1982 World Tour (thanks Todd)



Here's something you haven't thought about for awhile. Chu-Bops bubblegum. Holy mother of God, there's a website. Apparently Bernie's entry is in Series 7.


Strangely enough, I don't think I ever bought the plain old record. I'm sure it was a regular in the $1 bin at used record stores.