by
Armand Cabrera
Comics legend Bernie Wrightson passed away this weekend. His impact on the comic book world and horror comics cannot be overstated. Anyone growing up reading comics and especially things like the old Warren comics will be familiar with his work. He was co-creator of Swamp Thing for DC along with writer Len Wein and had a long award-winning career.
In 1975 Wrightson was a co-founder of the studio with artists Jeff Jones, Michael Kaluta and Barry Windsor-Smith. Wrightson worked outside of the comics industry too, producing posters and calendars, working as a concept artist for films like The Thing, Cycle of the Werewolf, and The Mist and illustrating books and album covers.
One of his crowning achievements was a graphic novel version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Wrightson spent seven years creating the fifty pen and ink images for the book. Wrightson’s work on the project is reminiscent of other pen and ink greats of the early 20th century like Franklin Booth and Joseph Clement Coll.
Wrightson was one of those artists that helped kindle my early love of art. The work he and the other artists of the Studio did for comics was always a cut above their contemporaries. He will be missed.
