Wrightson's Warren Days Bernie Wrightson talks about his great b-&-w work Conducted by & © Jon B. Cooke From Bernie Wrightson is the penultimate comic book horror artist (after Graham 'Ghastly' Ingels) and one of the first superstars of the field to emerge in the 1970s, acclaimed primarily for his work on DC's Swamp Thing comic series—but his best work for comics could very well be his handful of black-&-white horror tales done for Warren Publishing during that same decade, including the renowned tale of murder and obsession (written by Bruce Jones) 'Jenifer.'

(The artist's recollections of his '70s work for DC will be covered in the next issue of CBA.) Recently relocated to the Los Angeles area, Bernie gave this interview via telephone on January 24, 1999, and subsequently provided the final copyedit. Comic Book Artist: You grew up in Baltimore and were obviously a fan of EC Comics. When did you first realize that Warren was publishing horror comics?

Ora lupo ita. Bernie Wrightson, Master of the Macabre PDF Book by Bernie Wrightson 1983 ePub Free Download. 5-Issue SeriesTurn your mind back to the 1950s: Eisenhower was in the White Hou.

Bernie Wrightson: I was actually there for the first issue of Creepy in 1965. I was buying Famous Monsters and they were advertising Creepy so I was keeping an eye out for it—and, oh God, I loved it! I thought it was great. I read ECs as a kid in the '50s and they disappeared. Then in the mid-'60s Ballantine Books came out with the paperback-sized reprints of ECs and that was around the same time as the first Creepy. It was just a thrill to read Creepy.

Frazetta's story in the first issue (which was the last comic book story he did) was incredible as was just everybody in the magazine. There was Frazetta, Al Williamson, Reed Crandall, Angelo Torres, Gene Colan—all of those guys. Frazetta was absolutely my favorite. I had been following his work for a few years with the Ace Edgar Rice Burroughs paperback covers. CBA: So you became an avid reader of the Warrens?

Bernie: Absolutely. In 1966, I had my first published work on a Creepy fan page. When I saw it printed, you could have knocked me over with a feather! I couldn't afford to buy more than one issue—those things were expensive at 35¢!—but I showed it around to everybody. I stayed reading Warrens until they started with the reprints and then all the Spanish work—which didn't appeal to me and kind of all looked the same.

When the American comic book veterans started to disappear I lost interest. CBA: You didn't even consider submitting work to Warren when you started your professional career?

Bernie: No because by that time it didn't seem as though he was hiring American guys. It was just full of the Spanish work and DC was doing the House of Mystery back then and that was what Ireally wanted to break into. DC was as close to EC as I thought I was ever going to come with full-color horror stories. CBA: Did you want to work in black-&-white? Bernie: I guess I always did.

Color was never completely satisfying. Ialways felt that the color would obscure the linework and it was hard to see my work. That was always a problem. When I finally started to work for Warren, it was great. I knew that every line I drew was going to be reproduced. CBA: You did work in b-&-w in the early '70s with a magazine called Web of Horror?