Considering that he was too young to enjoy the first generation of horror comics, Bernie Wrightson could not have come along at a better time to help inspire renewed popularity for the genre.
Thousands of comic book collectors have spent the past three decades searching out Wrightson's intriguing output of horror and fantasy, drawn mostly for DC Comics in a familiar yet unique style that emphasizes shadows and darkness. He is recognized as a master of the B&w medium.
Wrightson was born in 1948--the year Adventures Into the Unknown began its run as the first regularly published horror comic--and was only a first-grader when the classic EC horror comics, along with all others, vanished from the stands in the mid 1950s with the creation of the Comics Code Authority.
But by the time he was 21 years old, longtime comic book figures such as artists/editors Joe Orlando and Dick Giordano decided horror and fantasy might be back in vogue. Wrightson's emerging talents became a hot market in rejuvenated DC titles such as House of Mystery and House of Secrets.
“I think any other artist I ever looked at I studied to one extent or another, and learned something from," Wrightson said for his entry in Ron Goulart's The Great Comic Book Artists (1986). "It's hard to say where anything comes from. It's all this big hodgepodge. And it's hopefully something original by the time I’m done with it." Wrightson, a member of the first generation of comic book fans to become outstanding professionals, acknowledges the influence of DC horror artist supreme Graham Ingels along with masters of the medium such as Frank Frazetta and Al Williamson.
Wrightson became best known in comic fandom for his pioneering work on DC's Swamp Thing in the early 1970s, but collectors and art aficionados now perhaps even more eagerly seek out his earlier work. Wrightson did not create Nightmaster for DC tryout title Showcase in 1969--Dick Giordano and Jerry Grarideneni turned in the first appearance in No. 82—but Wrightson turned in work on the sword-and-sorcery character in issues No.83 and 84 that stunned the comic book community. Jeff Jones and Mike Kaluta, two other artists who joined Wrightson in the pantheon of fantasy artists, contributed inking to Wrightson's pencil conceptions, resulting in two of the finest fantasy comic books of all time.
Wrightson's first professional work actually appeared a bit earlier, in House of Mystery No.179 (March-April 1969), shortly after the title returned to a fantasy/horror format after a five-year flirtation with the mid-1960s boon in superheroes. Nightmaster was indeed "knock-your-socks-off" work for the period, but Wrightson's signature work appeared with the creation of Swamp Thing, which first appeared in House of Secrets No.92 (June-July 1971).
Wrightson did a handful of truly collectible covers and stories until Swamp Thing earned him his own title the next year. Wrightson's art and covers on the first 10 issues of Swamp Thing, written by the young Len Wein, remain among the most popular and collectible of all “Bronze Age” comics.
Wrightson has worked off-and-on in comics during a career lasting more than 30 years, producing hundreds of covers and stories. One of the most treasured of all Wrightson items is the Wrightson-laden issue of DC's 100-Page Super Spectacular No. 4 (1971), in which 23-year-old Bernie drew himself as "Revoltin' Wrightson" in an introductory splash page. Who couldn't relate to the young collector, looking over a trunk filled with old horror comics?
Comic book work, however, is far from Wrightson's only claim to artistic fame. In fact, collectors have counted more than 1,600 publications with his touch, including b&w (with several spectacular efforts for Warren's old Creepy and Eerie titles), various Marvel comics, paperback covers, book jackets and interiors, posters, portfolios, collectible cards (the 44-card Frankenstein set in 1993 is especially noteworthy), graphic novels, and fanzines. The general public got to know Wrightson with his early 1980s work on Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf and Creepshow, along with his Franklin Booth-inspired pen & ink work for Wrightson's version of Frankenstein (1983). All of this followed memorable 1970s book efforts such as his Badtime Stories, Berni Wrightson Treasury and Back for More.
It’s no wonder that at any comic book convention, retailers can count on strong sales of Wrightson’s work. Many young artists who may not feel a particular affinity for early horror comics instead feel that Wrightson is the true master.
