Creepy Presents Bernie Wrightson
Just The Best
by Bill Love
Creepy Presents Bernie Wrightson
Dark Horse Comics
HC, b&w and full color 140 pages
horror anthology $19.99
Recently Dark Horse Comics has been reprinting the long out-of-print black and white horror stories from the Warren magazines. Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella all had long runs following in the vein of EC Comics pre-code scary short story format. (Vein, you got it, right? Labored puns were an important part of the horror host repertoire.) The Dark Horse Archive series has been reprinting these titles in complete chronological format. They are essential books for classic horror comics fans. They, like the original publications, are anthologies of short stories. And here we find the problem for the more casual fan.
Like most all anthologies, some stories are hits, some misses. Some have great art, sometimes you wonder who ever told that guy he could draw comics. Thing is, personal opinions being what they are, both personal and opinions, different people like different things. If only you could take the best artists and put all of their Warren output in a single book dedicated to them! Dark Horse got the message.
Creepy Presents Bernie Wrightson is (hopefully) the first such volume to focus on a single creator. During the seventies Wrightson was at the peak of one of the most fruitful periods of his long career. Warren Publications freed him from the restraints of both the comics code and the limitations of the four-color printing of the time. He provided them with some of the most beautifully detailed and atmospheric artwork ever to grace the comics page. They ranged from original stories to adaptations of classic Poe and Lovecraft tales.The stories were some of the, (well I've got to say it), creepy in comics history and still remain so to this day. All of his Warren work is included in this book, including collaborations with Howard Chaykin, Carmine Infantino and writers like frequent partner Bruce Jones. There are also color full page drawings and the color story, "The Muck Monster", a rarity for the time.
As I said earlier, hopefully this is only the first in a new series. There are many other masterful artists who graced the pages of the Warren Magazines. Steve Ditko, Neal Adams, Richard Corben, Gene Colan and Paul Gulacy are only a few of the names that come to mind. These and many other artists best known for their more mainstream output did some of the best work of their careers for Creepy, Eerie or Vampirella. Some were not as prolific as Wrightson but could be paired together to form a book. I'll leave that decision to the editors. Who should get to be featured in the next Creepy Presents? Depends on your personal opinion. My advice? Just pick the best, of course.
blog comments powered by Disqus
