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#1223047 2017-03-19 2:42 PM
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LEGENDARY HORROR ARTIST BERNIE WRIGHTSON PASSES AWAY: His death was announced overnight on his Facebook page by his wife Liz Wrightson. The artist’s official website now carries his obituary.

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Good! I hated him! Glad he's dead!


"My friends have always been the best of me." -Doctor Who

"Well,whenever I'm confused,I just check my underwear. It holds most answers to life's questions." Abe Simpson

I can tell by the position of the sun in the sky, that is time for us to go. Until next time, I am Lothar of the Hill People!
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It was a jolt to see that Wrightson, of all artists, is dead. At 68, he wasn't that old. In a few weeks I'll turn 54, he was just 14 years older than me.

Wrightson is arguably the best artist that ever came out of the comics field. His decorative linework made almost everything he did, particularly during the 1970's, suitable for framing. And quite a few of those pages are framed and on the walls of several rooms of my home.

Some of the highlights of his career that remain among my favorites are his work for HOUSE OF MYSTERY (1969-1974), his award-winning run on SWAMP THING 1-10 and the preceding one-shot in HOUSE OF SECRETS 92 (1971-1974), his sporadic run of anthology stories and decorative title pages in CREEPY and EERIE magazines (1973-1982), reprinted in beautiful Steve Oliff color in BERNI WRIGHSON: MASTER OF THE MACABRE 1-3 from Pacific comics (1983-1984).
Plus Wrightson's work printed in THE STUDIO art book (with Jeff Jones, Windsor Smith, and Kaluta, of work they each produced while they shared a studio together in the mid/late 1970's, virtually all of which was released as posters, portfolios or limited edition prints. )
And Wrightson's illustrations adapting Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly's FRANKENSTEIN (released in hc and tpb in 1983), and the three limited-edition portfolios in 1977, 1978 and 1980 that preceded its release. Plus the book FRANKENSTEIN: THE LOST PAGES that collects all the pages that were created but not included in the final book, many more beautiful than those in the book itself.

Wrightson also did a CREEPSHOW graphic novel in 1982 with Stephen King, along with production design for the movie, and also did several other collaborative works with Stephen King, doing illustrations for the books CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF and THE STAND. The signed limited editions go for big bucks, as do the limited edition portfolios of those illustrations.
Wrightson also did design work for the movie GHOSTBUSTERS.

Beyond that, Wrightson was one of the most approachable and modest comics creators I ever had the pleasure to meet. He was a remarkably nice guy, particularly for one so talented and revered. By my account, for all his success, it never went to his head.

68 is way too young. But his work will be loved and revered forever.

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From his own site, I liked his wife's tribute and overview of Berni Wrightson's career:


http://berniewrightson.com/


 Quote:

A Message from Liz Wrightson




It is with great sorrow that I must announce the passing of my beloved husband, Bernie. We thank you for all the years of love and support. His obituary is below:

After a long battle with brain cancer, legendary artist Bernie Wrightson has passed away.

Bernie “Berni” Wrightson (born October 27, 1948, Baltimore, Maryland, USA) was an American artist known for his horror illustrations and comic books. He received training in art from reading comics, particularly those of EC, as well as through a correspondence course from the Famous Artists School. In 1966, Wrightson began working for The Baltimore Sun newspaper as an illustrator. The following year, after meeting artist Frank Frazetta at a comic-book convention in New York City, he was inspired to produce his own stories. In 1968, he showed copies of his sequential art to DC Comics editor Dick Giordano and was given a freelance assignment. Wrightson began spelling his name “Berni” in his professional work to distinguish himself from an Olympic diver named Bernie Wrightson, but later restored the final E to his name.

His first professional comic work appeared in House of Mystery #179 in 1968. He continued to work on a variety of mystery and anthology titles for both DC and its principal rival, Marvel Comics. In 1971, with writer Len Wein, Wrightson co-created the muck creature Swamp Thing for DC. He also co-created Destiny, later to become famous in the work of Neil Gaiman. By 1974 he had left DC to work at Warren Publishing who were publishing black-and-white horror-comics magazines. There he produced a series of original work as well as adaptations of stories by H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. In 1975, Wrightson joined with fellow artists Jeff Jones, Michael Kaluta, and Barry Windsor-Smith to form “The Studio,” a shared loft in Manhattan where the group would pursue creative products outside the constraints of comic book commercialism. Though he continued to produce sequential art, Wrightson at this time began producing artwork for numerous posters, prints, calendars, and coloring books.

Wrightson spent seven years drawing approximately 50 detailed pen-and-ink illustrations to accompany an edition of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, which the artist considers among his most personal work. Wrightson drew the poster for the Stephen King-penned horror film Creepshow, as well as illustrating the comic book adaptation of the film. This led to several other collaborations with King, including illustrations for the novella “Cycle of the Werewolf,” the restored edition of King’s apocalyptic horror epic, “The Stand,” and art for the hardcover editions of “From a Buick 8” and “Dark Tower V.” Wrightson has contributed album covers for a number of bands, including Meat Loaf. The “Captain Sternn” segment of the animated film Heavy Metal is based on the character created by Wrightson for his award-winning short comic series of the same name.

Characters he worked on included Spiderman, Batman and The Punisher, and he provided painted covers for the DC comics Nevermore and Toe Tags, among many others. Recent works include Frankenstein Alive Alive, Dead She Said , the Ghoul and Doc Macabre (IDW Publishing) all co-created with esteemed horror author Steve Niles, and several print/poster/sketchbooks series produced by Nakatomi.

As a conceptual artist, Bernie worked on many movies, particularly in the horror genre: well-known films include Ghostbusters, The Faculty, Galaxy Quest, Spiderman, and George Romero’s Land of the Dead, and Frank Darabont’s Stephen King film The Mist.

Bernie lived in Austin, Texas with his wife Liz and two corgis – Mortimer and Maximillian. In addition to his wife, he is survived by two sons, John and Jeffrey, one stepson, Thomas Adamson, and countless friends and fans. A celebration of his life is planned for later this year.

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I thought of Wrightson when I saw this Bleeding Cool article on artwork for sale, part of which was the unpublished contents for what would have been WEB OF HORROR magazine 4, if the art had not been stolen and the creators unpaid, including Wrightson and Kaluta. Finally resurfacing after 40-plus years, these pages from then-virtual-unknown artists in comics, are now unpublished lost treasures from grandmasters of the field.


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Another Wrightson art print on my walls, titled "Bitch". Beyond his talent for horror, there's a playful humor in much of Wrightson's art.



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This introduction page from House of Mystery 209, Dec 1972.

Many of these splash pages are suitable for framing, and I did enlarge and frame many of these, including this one. While the splash pages he did for Warren are likewise beautiful, I have a special affection for these earlier HOUSE OF MYSTERY pages, and the host character Cain, as portrayed by Wrightson.


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From HOUSE OF MYSTERY 207, Oct 1972, another framed and on my wall.






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From HOUSE OF MYSTERY 219, Oct 1973.

And here's a larger, clearer black-and-white version, from the original art.




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And here's the 8 X 11" hardcover published in 2011, that collects all of Wrightson's stories and splash pages in one very nice and inexpensive hardcover.

Someone else was nice enough to write a review of CREEPY PRESENTS BERNI WRIGHTSON that I can link here.
That also shows the pre-order cover that, to my knowledge doesn't exist in published form.
I've only seen the above version.




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Aw, what the heck. This image is too nice not to post directly!

"Gentlemen of Adventure" by Wrightson. The cover for CREEPY 113, Nov 1979.
And also released in 1988 as a limited edition print.
Another that I have framed on the wall.

Too bad it wasn't used as the book cover, it actually looks nicer than the published version.
I'm sure they chose the latter to cover-feature the title character, Uncle Creepy.



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 Originally Posted By: Wonder Boy


"Gentlemen of Adventure" ...

Too bad it wasn't used as the book cover,


I wonder if that wasn't in part to avoid people thinking it was "A Sound of Thunder"

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\:lol\:

I see the similarities. As you're probably very aware, there are 2 nice illustrated versions of that Bradbury story, one by Al Williamson(WEIRD SCIENCE FANTASY 25, Sept 1954), and one by Richard Corben.
Both the Williamson and Corben versions are published in RAY BRADBURY COMICS 1.

But Wrightson said it was actually a parody of a series of Arrow Collar Shirts magazine ads running at the time.

The full title of Wrightson's picture is "Gentlemen of Adventure wear Arrow Collar shirts"




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Wrightson's SWAMP THING run was possibly the first series reprinted in its entirety, in DC SPECIAL SERIES, issues:
2 (r 1-2) Sept 1977
14 (r 3-4) July 1979
17 (r 5, 6 & 7) Sept 1979
20 (r 8,9 & 10) Feb 1980

The first two with beautiful new wraparound covers by Wrightson.



And it has been reprinted in at least 6 other versions in its entirety since. While Len Wein is a skilled writer, I can't recall one other series of his that is as well remembered.
It is the Wrightson portion of the team that makes it so sought after.
Much as I love the work on SWAMP THING of both creators.






The cover of DC SPECIAL SERIES 14, reprinting issues 3 and 4 of SWAMP THING, under another Wrightson wraparound cover:









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Good.
Glad he's dead.
Hated that guy.


"My friends have always been the best of me." -Doctor Who

"Well,whenever I'm confused,I just check my underwear. It holds most answers to life's questions." Abe Simpson

I can tell by the position of the sun in the sky, that is time for us to go. Until next time, I am Lothar of the Hill People!
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 Originally Posted By: Wonder Boy





Another Wrightson art print on my walls, titled "Bitch". Beyond his talent for horror, there's a playful humor in much of Wrightson's art.


\:lol\:

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Another of my favorites, this early offering from THE SPECTRE 9, April 1969, a 9-page story where the Spectre intervenes to try and save a man who has made a contract with the devil. Story by Dennis O'Neil.

This was in the first few months Wrightson had just turned pro and begun working for DC. Along with his early assigments for SHOWCASE (issues 83 and 84, the latter 2 of 3 issues featuring Nightmaster, if I recall Wrightson's first pro work), HOUSE OF MYSTERY (beginning with issue 179), HOUSE OF SECRETS, WITCHING HOUR, and THE UNEXPECTED. For me this Spectre story was the single best of his early stories.
Also reprinted shortly after in HOUSE OF MYSTERY 224.

Why DC hasn't done a collected edition of the first SPECTRE series (the first issue along with a few prior SHOWCASE issues by Murphy Anderson, issues 2-5 by Neal Adams, and this one-time treat by Wrightson) is a complete mystery to me.


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The above SPECTRE 9 story, and another story in HOUSE OF MYSTERY 179, are both cover-dated March-April 1969. So both are his first published pro work, although I think HOUSE OF MYSTERY 179 slightly preceded the other on the stands by a week or two.

"The Man Who Murdered Himself" a 3-page story, is written by Marv Wolfman.

Another bonus with this link is the photo of a very young 20-year-old Berni Wrightson.


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Another early Wrightson story "In A Far-Off Land", from WITCHING HOUR 3, June-July 1969, Wrightson's 5th story published by DC.

This is early Frazetta-esque work, but I'm amazed how despite Wrightson's minimal output, he quickly rose to be one of the grandmasters of the field. The development of his work between 1971 and 1972 is particularly remarkable.

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This discussion topic has an extensive display of Wrightson pages, from his comic book work for DC and Warren, portfolios and limited edition prints.

It occurred to me at some point that most of what Wrightson is best known for, from the 1972 to 1980 period, he did before he turned 30 years old!

I'd break his career into a few distinct periods:
1) the fanzine and early DC years from 1968-1971,

2) his SWAMP THING years when he reached the peak of his talent (1972-1974),

3) the Warren magazine period from 1974-1979, collected in the CREEPY PRESENTS BERNI WRIGHTSON book, and in color in the BERNI WRIGHTSON: MASTER OF THE MACABRE series 1-5 (the last 2 issues with some of his earliest fanzine work and self-published BADTIME STORIES).

4) his "The Studio" period from 1975-1979 where he shared a studio with Kaluta, Jones and Windsor-Smith producing limited edition posters and prints, and

5) his "Frankenstein" period, doing ornately detailed illustrations for the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley novel from late 1975-1983. And the FRANKENSTEIN: THE LOST PAGES book (1993) that collected the pages not included in the final FRANKENSTEIN book (1983). Several portfolios, FRANKENSTEIN (1977), FRANKENSTEIN II (1978) and FRANKENSTEIN III (1980) have many pages that were otherwise not seen in the final book, until published in the LOST PAGES book.

There is some crossover between these periods. For example, Wrightson's "The Muck Monster" for Warren led to him immersing himself in illustrating the Frankenstein novel. And the Frankenstein period coincides with the Studio period and his Warren work, different creative outlets that all came out at once. And simultaneously in the late 70's/early 80's, Wrightson also did movie concept work for Heavy Metal (1981), Ghostbusters (1983) and other movies. And collaborative books and portfolios adapting work of Stephen King, who was close friends with Wrightson, and whose work was greatly admired by Wrightson.

After that, roughly the last 35 years or so of his career :

6) Wrightson had done the work he was passionate about, and continued doing work, but a bit half-hearted, relative to the work he'd done prior. A few illustrated editions of Stephen King books, some occasional covers and stories, and eventually in the late 80's back into doing comics, such as CAPTAIN STERN, THE WEIRD, BATMAN: THE CULT, PUNISHER: POV, and the SPIDERMAN: HOOKEY graphic novel. But a pale shadow by the late 1980's and 1990's of the work he'd done prior.

But I recall at a booksigning appearance in 1995, one guy commissioned Wrightson to do a drawing of "The Crow" and gave Wrightson a reference movie still to work from. And that page when finished was on a par with the best of his 1970's work. So Wrightson still had it in him, when he felt the inspiration.

In the link I provided above, the unfinished FRANKENSTEIN ALIVE, ALIVE he was working on at the time of his death looks like inspired work.


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A collection of Wrightson images, and as extensive as my Wrightson collection is, there's at least 20 beautiful pieces here I haven't ever seen before.

https://www.pinterest.com/luquesilva00/bernie-wrightson/

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I love this Wrightson commission piece, of his famous HOUSE OF SECRETS 92 cover...



...re-worked with the Simpsons!





Wrightson used Louise Jones as reference to draw the girl (then Louise Jones, wife of Jeffrey Jones, now Louise Simonson, married to Walt Simonson).




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This Solomon Kane pin-up by Wrightson is something I don't even consider when compiling a list of Wrightson's work. But like so much of Wrightson's work, even a single pin-up page like this is suitable for framing, and worth picking up the book for.

From KULL AND THE BARBARIANS 2, July 1975. A short-lived 3 issue magazine that came out the year after SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN's success.



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 Originally Posted By: Wonder Boy


This Solomon Kane pin-up by Wrightson is something I don't even consider when compiling a list of Wrightson's work. But like so much of Wrightson's work, even a single pin-up page like this is suitable for framing, and worth picking up the book for.


Nice. I like how it's atypical of his work in that it uses a simpler chiaroscuro effect, rather than his usual cross-hatching.

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There's two recent books from Dark Horse that collect the entire Solomon Kane run of stories previously published by Marvel.

One is titled THE SAGA OF SOLOMON KANE, that collects all the stories that appeared in black-and-white Marvel magazines, spanning a 20-year period. About 60% are Robert E. Howard story adaptations, with a few new/original stories. Plus dozens of beautiful pin-up pages, including this one by Wrightson. A tremendous collection of artistic talents drawing the character: Gene Day, Ralph Reese, Al Weiss, Neal Adams, Pablo Marcos, Mike Zeck, Howard Chaykin, Sonny Trinidad, Rudy Nebres, David Wenzel, Dan Bulanadi, Steve Carr, Al Williamson, Colin MacNeil, Jim Fletcher, Bob Gould, John Buscema, John Byrne. And Wrightson. Ranging from pin-ups to full stories, but nicely interpreted, either way.

A second thinner volume, CHRONICLES OF SOLOMON KANE, collects all the color Solomon Kane stories done for Marvel, a 1976 two-issue Thomas/Chaykin story done in MARVEL PREMIERE 33 and 34 (adapting Howard's "Red Shadows"), and a six-issue 1985 miniseries, 4 of which are Howard adaptations.

Between the two volumes, they adapt 13 of the 16 Howard stories, some of them adapted twice, by different hands. 4 of the 16 are incomplete story fragments by Howard, one loosely adapted and expanded on freely, the others not adapted. Two of the four Howard fragments were expanded and adapted in separate new books by Dark Horse, CASTLE OF THE DEVIL, and DEATH'S BLACK RIDERS about 10 years ago, that I found not overly satisfying reading. The first at least had very ornate art.
I liked the Howard fragment stories better in a Robert E. Howard text paperback edited by Ramsey Campbell, collecting all 16 Howard stories, I think for the first time (1995), where Campbell I thought did a far superior job of expanding them into full stories that were good reading.



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From WITCHING HOUR 5, October 1969, "The Sole Survivor" .

Wrightson's 8th story for DC, and the only one I don't have the actual issue of in my collection.

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One of my favorite Wrightson pages, from the FRANKENSTEIN III portfolio (1980). One of the best purchases I ever made.

Also reprinted in the FRANKENSTEIN: THE LOST PAGES book.





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Merry Christmas, Berni Wrightson style.

Intro splash page from CREEPY 77, February 1976.


_____________________________

1-10-2018. I actually like this black and white version better:

http://art.cafimg.com/images/Category_13461/subcat_164846/tjLYrF8R_2703152147101.jpg



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Wrightson's 6th story for DC, "The Siren of Satan", from HOUSE OF MYSTERY 181, July-August 1969.

The longest HOUSE OF MYSTERY story Wrightson had done up to that point.

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The whole 3-issue "Nightmaster" story, from SHOWCASE 82-84:

The first issue,
SHOWCASE 82, March-April 1969, is by Dennis O'Neil, with art by Grandenetti/Giordano.

Parts 2 and 3, in
SHOWCASE 83, May-June 1969(Wrightson's 4th story for DC)
and
SHOWCASE 84, July-Aug 1969 (Wrightson's 7th story for DC), are the first two book-length stories Wrightson did. And the only ones for about three years, from 1969-1972.
Uncredited, Wrightson was assisted on the art by Jeff Jones and Michael Kaluta.


The third full-length story Berni Wrightson illustrated was the award-winning "Dark Genesis" in SWAMP THING 1, November 1972!


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I thought I'd include this profile of Wrightson, since it told me a number of things I didn't know:

http://www.like2do.com/learn?s=Berni_Wrightson


It also has an exhaustive list of Wrightson's work, including comics and books.

Such as his involvement in THE SHADOW comic series, and why he ended up not being the series penciller he was promoted as.
There was a full-page house ad in KAMANDI 2 (Jan 1973) and other titles that month that made it appear Wrightson would be doing the series, and for reasons not clear at the time, that series went to Kaluta instead.

Sometime over the last year, I learned that his first wife, Michelle Wrightson, was previously underground comics artist Michelle Brand, and was a colorist for mainstream comics as Michelle Wrightson, mostly coloring Berni's work.


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Wrightson's first mainstream work for someone other than DC was for three issues of a short-lived WEB OF HORROR magazine:

In WEB OF HORROR 1, Dec 1969, he contributed "The Game that Plays You", a 6-page story, where an arcane shop keeper sends a guy into a monster-filled world. Wrightson's 10th published mainstream story.


WEB OF HORROR 2, Feb 1970, has two Wrightson stories:
"Mother Toad", 5 pages about scientifically evolved frogs.
and
"Breathless", a 7-page story of astronauts who have crash-landed and fight among themselves to survive. Wrightson's 12th published mainstream work.

WEB OF HORROR 3, April 1970, has the story "Feed It", a 6-page offering that is more in the same style as Wrightson's DC work, a gothic story in an old mansion with a creature in the basement. Wrightson's 13th published mainstream work.

Part of these and many of Wrighson's pre-professional fanzine stories and pin-ups are collected in the books BACK FOR MORE (1978), THE MUTANTS (1980), and in their entirety in THE REAPER OF LOVE (1988).


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Out simultaneously for DC, "Ball of String", a 2-page story in UNEXPECTED 116, Jan 1970.

Wrightson's 11th published mainstream story.


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What the heck, one more. Wrightson's "Secret of the Egyptian Cat", from HOUSE OF MYSTERY 186, May-June 1970, a 10-page story. Wrightson's 14th published mainstream story.

It was tough to find by itself, this link is where someone published the entire contents of WELCOME BACK TO HOUSE OF MYSTERY, July 1998, a DC editor's pick of her greatest hits from DC's early 70's mystery titles. And while not exactly my pick, is still a good selection. In particular, Wrightson's "Secret of the Egyptian Cat" (on page 37).
And Neal Adams' "Nightmare" (on page 25), both of which are from HOUSE OF MYSTERY 186.

Jumping the gun in my chronology a bit, it also reprints "The Gourmet" from PLOP 1, Aug 1973 (on page 9), 6 pages.
Wrightson's 33rd published story. And won an ACBA award for "Best Humor Story" for 1973.

And "Molded In Evil" from PLOP 5, June 1974 (on page 87), also 6 pages.
Wrightson's 40th published story.

Plus several intro pages by Wrightson from House of Mystery 203 (inside cover), June 1972.
And an intro page from HOUSE OF MYSTERY 219, Nov 1973 (used as contents page in this version, with new text).
And a new 1998 cover by Wrightson, roughly 20 years before he died.

You can see in the contents of this collection how much his art evolved from 1969-1970 up to 1972-1974. From talented amateur to grandmaster.



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I've been trying to list Wrightson's mainstream work in order.

But I tripped over this index of Wrightson's fanzine work that lists all the stuff I didn't cover.

If you're a completist like me and want to know where the stuff is sourced from in reprint form, this at least details where the stories are from, if not the pin-up pages. Some beautiful covers displayed too.

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To review and consolidate the Wrightson stories I've listed into a clear chronology:


HOUSE OF MYSTERY 179, "The Man Who Murdered Himself", 3 pages, March-April 1969.
Wrightson's first published story, for DC.

THE SPECTRE 9, "Abraca-doom", 9 pages, April 1969.
Wrightson's 2nd story for DC.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY 180, "Scared to Life", 3 pages, May-June 1969.
Wrightson's 3rd published story for DC.

SHOWCASE 83 "Nightmaster" part 2 (of 3), May-June 1969, 23 pages.
Wrightson's 4th story for DC

WITCHING HOUR 3, June-July 1969, "In A Far-Off Land", , 8 pages.
Wrightson's 5th story published by DC.


HOUSE OF MYSTERY 181, July-August 1969. "The Siren of Satan", 10 pages.
Wrightson's 6th story for DC.

SHOWCASE 84 "Nightmaster" part 3 (of 3), July-Aug 1969, 23 pages.
Wrightson's 7th story for DC.

WITCHING HOUR 5, October 1969, "The Sole Survivor" , 7 pages.
Wrightson's 8th story for DC.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY 183, "The Dead Can Kill", 3 pages, Dec 1969.
Wrightson's 9th story for DC.

WEB OF HORROR 1, Dec 1969 "The Game that Plays You", 6-pages.
Wrightson's 10th published mainstream story.



UNEXPECTED 116, Jan 1970, "Ball of String", 2-pages.
Wrightson's 11th published mainstream story.

WEB OF HORROR 2, Feb 1970, two Wrightson stories:
"Mother Toad", 5 pages.
and
"Breathless", 7 pages.
Wrightson's 12th published mainstream work.

WEB OF HORROR 3, April 1970, "Feed It", 6-pages.
Wrightson's 13th published mainstream work.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY 186, May-June 1970, "Secret of the Egyptian Cat", 10-pages.
(Complete issue, including second story and cover by Neal Adams, and even ads!)
Wrightson's 14th published mainstream story.

UNEXPECTED 119, "Mirror, Mirror...", 8 pages, July 1970.
Wrightson's 15th published story.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY 188, "House of Madness", 8 pages, Oct 1970.
Wrightson's 16th published story.



Some stories I previously skipped, since they (the ones not linked) are not printed in their entirety online to read.



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Wrightson's first of a handful of stories for Marvel:

CHAMBER OF DARKNESS 7, "Gargoyle Every Night", 7 pages, Oct 1970.
Wrightson's 17th published story.

Wrightson also did covers for this issue, and for CHAMBER OF DARKNESS 8, Dec 1970, TOWER OF SHADOWS 8 and 9, Nov 1970 and Jan 1971.
And WHERE MONSTERS DWELL 8, March 1971 (Marie Severin pencils/Wrightson inks).

Plus a story for DC a month later, in UNEXPECTED 121, "The Hound of Night", 1 page, Nov 1970.
Wrightson's 18th published story.

Then Wrightson did 7 pin-up introductory pages for various stories in DC 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR 4, Jan-Feb 1971.
https://comiconlinefree.com/dc-100-page-super-spectacular/issue-4
Despite being number 4, it's the first of DC's 100 pagers, all reprint material except for Wrightson's contribution. Wrightson also did the cover, his first cover for DC.
Wrightson's 19th published mainstream work.

And CREATURES ON THE LOOSE 10, featuring Robert E. Howard's Kull, in "The Skull of Silence", 7 pages, March 1971.
Wrightson's 20th published mainstream work.



And While it's still in season, HOUSE OF MYSTERY 191, "Night Prowler", 3 pages, April 1971. Wrightson's 21st published mainstream story. A prelude to greater work by the Wein/Wrightson team.
Wrightson's 21st published mainstream story.

Followed in HOUSE OF SECRETS 92, "Swamp Thing", 8 pages, June-July 1971.
Wrightson's 22nd published story. And at only his 22nd story, Wrightson rose to superstardom as a comics artist. This was the single best selling DC title for that month, and editors were clamoring for Wein and Wrightson to continue the story and turn it into a series. Wein finally came up with the idea to follow the same theme with similar characters in a new series, while leaving this initial offering a stand-alone story.

After this, Wrightson only did another 18 stories for DC in this era, 10 of which were the award-winning SWAMP THING series (plus a lot of decorative covers and introductory splash pages), up till June 1974. Before he jumped ship and started working for the Warren magazines.


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Wrightson did very little work for Marvel. In the 1980 book, A LOOK BACK, collecting his work and retrospective of his career to that point, he explains why:

 Quote:

"When I first came to New York for a convention, I went up to Marvel's offices and showed them my samples. I really didn't care for the way they treated me. I wanted to see someone in charge --someone who could get me work. Instead they sent some flunky out of the office to talk to me. He must have been some lower level person who assisted in writing advertising, or some such thing. This guy comes out with the glad hand, back slapping. Everything was 'Oh yes, yes, very nice very nice.' He then asked me to do something with Marvel characters in it. By this time, I was very offended; even though as a green kid I wasn't in much position to be offended. I just did not like their attitude. "

"After I was at DC for awhile, I had trouble getting a raise, and they would not let me color my own work. I didn't like what DC was doing with a lot of their color. I ran into Marvel editor Roy Thomas at a party, and mentioned the problem. He told me to come over to Marvel and he would let me do my own coloring. I went over to Marvel's offices and made an appointment to see Marvel's founder, Stan Lee. I talked with him, and he said, 'Well, we like your work, but we will expect you to work in the Marvel style.' He explained that they liked things with thicker lines, big things in the foreground to draw you into the picture, lots of junk and facial expressions. He wanted me to take the type of facial expressions used in early silent movies and magnify that by twenty times. Again, it was a lot of smiles and back slapping and pep talk. I felt I was on a football team or something."

The extra money at Marvel was a little better, with the extra $3.50 or $4.00 a page for the coloring. The first story I did for them was a horror story, "Gargoyle Every Night". The second one was a Kull story, 'The Skull of Silence' ".

"I heard that Marvel was going to do CONAN, so I did some samples. They told me that was very nice, but not quite what they had in mind, not quite enough of the superhero. I was sitting there turning blue. What it all boiled down to was they just did not like my work on Conan. They gave me the excuse that they had promised the book to Barry Smith, but I found out later that the book hadn't been promised to him. He was getting the same runaround. They kind of threw me a bone and offered to let me do the King Kull story. I was not as excited about it as I was about doing Conan, because the character of Kull was not that clear. I never thought he was that great of a character. It was not my type of stuff with all the armies, royalty and palace intrigue and all. I was very much into the blood and guts thing at that time."

"But for some reason, I did the Kull story for them. I spent a lot of time on it, using all kinds of zip-a-tone, and leaving a lot of things in just rough outline, planning to do a lot of rendering with the color. I knew just exactly what I wanted to do with it. One of the features of the story was a skull which, when the door is opened, robs all sound. This thing drains everything of sound. How are you going to do this in a comic book? Since you cannot play with sound effects in a comic book, I figured out a way --slowly drain away the color until the scene ended up being black and white."

"I used a lot of craftint board on that job, especially the panels on pages 4 and 5. By the time the reader got over to page 5, the effect would be all black and white. The top panel on page 6 would be black and white, and then a large panel would explode into color. As the thing progresses, the whole point is that the color, symbolizing sound, slowly drains out. I thought it was a pretty good idea. Especially, since these were color comics, and the use of black and white would be very stark, very different. So, I colored the job that way until I was very pleased with it. It looked great."

"I took the completed job into Marvel and was told it was fine. Months later, the comic comes out, and everything has color on it. This despite my explanation to them of the purpose of black and white, and their complete agreement on the concept. After I complained, Roy Thomas said, 'Well, after all, these are color comics and we can't go on having black and white in color comics. We needed color in it, so we gave it to someone to color.' "

The whole job was printed badly, they must have colored and printed from poor photo-stats. I never got the originals back. I was told something happened to them. All the zip-a-tone and effects of the craftint board was cheapened and all my work was lost. All I ever received from Marvel was half-hearted apologies; that the whole thing would never happen again. It didn't, since all I did for them after that was a few covers. You couldn't get me to do another story for them."




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I'd like to finish the section on Wrightson's DC stories, so I'll move it along.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY 195, "Things Old, Things Forgotten", a 10-page story, October 1971.
Wrightson's 23rd published mainstream story.
Plus the cover, and the preceding covers on HOUSE OF MYSTERY 193 (August 1971), 194 (Sept 1971).

The first cover Wrightson did for DC was DC 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR 4, Jan-Feb 1971 that I listed above. Maybe the covers he did for Marvel (beginning Oct 1970) pressured DC to let him start doing covers for them as well.

Then UNEXPECTED 128, "There's More Than One Way To Get Framed", a 9-page story, Oct 1971.
Wrightson's 24th published mainstream story.

Then BADTIME STORIES, a collection of 6 stories by Wrightson in a self-published book sometime in early 1972. To look at these stories, it certainly appears he spent a lot of time on them and experimented with different styles and genres, and on this group of stories his art improved immensely, to what we now think of as the fully formed Berni Wrightson style. They are dated on the stories as 1970 and 1971, then published in early 1972. So without editorial pressure, Wrightson spent a lot of time on them, and the labor he put in clearly shows in the visible improvement of his art in them. Wrightson's 25th published work.
Reprinted in many places, I like them best in the color versions, in BERNI WRIGHTSON: MASTER OF THE MACABRE 3, 4 and 5, two stories each issue:

"King of the Mountain Man" 8 pages, in BERNI WRIGHTSON 3, August 1983
"The Last Hunters" 7 pages, in BERNI WRIGHTSON 3, August 1983

"The Task" 8 pages, in BERNI WRIGHTSON 4, Aug 1984
["Reaper of Love", though without a printed title], 8 pages, in BERNI WRIGHTSON 4, August 1984.

"Ain't She Sweet", 7 pages, in BERNI WRIGHTSON 5, Nov 1984
"Uncle Bill's Barrel" 8 pages, in BERNI WRIGHTSON 5, Nov 1984



And the last story Wrightson did before his SWAMP THING series, HOUSE OF MYSTERY 204, "All In The Family", 9 pages, July 1972.
Wrightson's 26th published mainstream story.

And lateral to that, WEIRD WESTERN 12, "A Time to Die", 4 pages, July 1972. A back-up story, written by Cary Bates, Neal Adams pencils, Berni Wrightson inks. It's non-canonical Wrightson, but still really cool to look at.
Neal Adams (doing both pencils and inks) did two more backup stories with the same El Diablo character:
WEIRD WESTERN 13,
and
WEIRD WESTERN 15.

Wrightson also inked Adams in :
GREEN LANTERN 82, March 1971 (page 13. 1 single page inked by Wrightson, of a 22 page story).
And
GREEN LANTERN 84, July 1971 (22 pages, the entire issue inked by Wrightson).
And an Adams/Wrightson cover on BATMAN 241, May 1972.



The 27th Wrightson story would be the first of his SWAMP THING series...





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Finishing up the stories Wrightson did for DC, his peak work for DC that won him numerous awards and award nominations from 1972-1974:

SWAMP THING 1, "Dark Genesis" 24 pages, Nov 1972
(Wrightson's 27th published mainstream story)

SWAMP THING 2, "The Man Who Wanted Forever", 24 pages Jan 1973
(28th published story)

SWAMP THING 3, "The Patchwork Man", 23p, Mar 1973
(29th published story)

SWAMP THING 4, "Monster On The Moors", 23p, May 1973
(30th published story)

SWAMP THING 5, "Last of the Ravenwind Witches", 23p, Aug 1973
(31st story)

SWAMP THING 6, "A Clockwork Horror", 20p, Oct 1973
(32nd story)

PLOP 1, "The Gourmet", 6 p, Oct 1973
(33rd story, an ACBA award winner. Reprinted in WELCOME BACK TO HOUSE OF MYSTERY on page 9, that I linked earlier.)

SWAMP THING 7, Night of the Bat", 21 p, Dec 1973
(34th story)

HOUSE OF MYSTERY 221, "He Who Laughs Last..." 8 pages, Jan 1974
(35th story, initially looks like Wrightson pencils and Kaluta inks, but it is far more intertwined than that. There are pages and panels fully pencilled and inked by each)

SWAMP THING 8, "The Lurker in Tunnel 13", 20 p, Feb 1974
(36th published story)

THE SHADOW 3, "Kingdom of the Cobra" 20 p, Mar 1974
(37th published story. And again, not as simple as Kaluta pencils/Wrightson inks, a full collaboration that needs a page-by-page breakdown to fully explain)

SWAMP THING 9, "The Stalker From Beyond", 20 pages, April 1974
(38th published story. And uncredited, Kaluta and especially Jeffrey Jones partially inked the latter half of the story.)

SWAMP THING 10, "The Man Who Would Not Die", 20 p, June 1974
(39th published story)

Plop 5, "Molded In Evil", 6 pages, June 1974
(40th story, and last for DC in this era) Reprinted in WELCOME BACK TO HOUSE OF MYSTERY on page 87, that I linked before.



The one I regret I couldn't find a link to the complete story for is THE SHADOW 3, since it's such an interesting collaboration between Wrightson and Kaluta, ranging from full pencils and inks on parts by Wrightson, to full pencils and inks by Kaluta on parts, and everything in between.

Beyond these stories, there are dozens of issues where Wrightson just did a cover or splash page, or both, for issues of HOUSE OF MYSTERY, HOUSE OF SECRETS, WEIRD MYSTERY, DC SPECIAL SERIES (wraparound covers of SWAMP THING reprints), KONG (of all things), and possibly a few others I can't recall offhand.

But now at the height of his talent, he would put his full energy into arguably his best comics work yet for Warren.



___________________________

UPDATE: I added a link I found to the full story for THE SHADOW 3.
From Wrighson's own account in A LOOK BACK, here's a detailing of who did what in this Wrightson/Kaluta collaboration:

cover : Kaluta pencils and inks
page 1 and 2 : Kaluta pencils and inks
p 3 : Kaluta pencils, Wrightson inks
p 4 : Kaluta pencils and inks
p 5, 6, 7 : Kaluta pencils, Wrightson inks
p 8 : Wrightson pencils and inks
p 9 : Kaluta pencils, Wrightson inks
p 10, 11 : Kaluta rough pencils, Wrightson tight pencils, Kaluta inks
p 12 : Kaluta pencils, Wrightson inks except on last panel
p 13 : Kaluta pencils, Wrightson inks
p 14 : Kaluta pencils, Wrightson and Kaluta inks
p 15 : Wrightson pencils, Kaluta inks
p 16 : Kaluta layouts, Wrightson pencils, Kaluta inks
p 17 : Kaluta pencils, Wrightson inks.
p 18 : Wrightson pencils, Kaluta inks
p 19 : Wrightson pencils and inks on figures, Kaluta pencils and inks on backgrounds.
p 20 : Wrightson pencils and inks.


_____________________________

**2nd UPDATE:

I added links for all the remaining stories.




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