Top Ten Favorite Artists. 1st artist featured was Tim Vigil. These are in no specific order, that would be impossible for me to do.
Bernie Wrightson. Whenever I see, hear and think of Swamp Thing or Frankenstein I can’t help but think of the images created by Bernie Wrightson. When I was younger, I traded a whole short box of ‘hot’ comics for a copy of House of Secrets #92 (1st appearance of Swamp Thing with Len Wein script) because I loved the cover and fell in love with the 1st Swamp Thing series, so getting the 1st appearance of Swamp Thing was a must.
Over 30 years later, I still have my House of Secrets #92 and amassed a sizeable Wrightson collection that includes his Frankenstein portfolio, black & white prints and his various works. What is incredible about Bernie Wrightson is he put out quality work late in his career.
Horror comics took a back seat in the early 2000’s, but Wrightson stuck with the genre and put out incredible work with Steve Niles. Check out the Ghoul, Dead She Said, City of Others & Doc Macabre and you’ll see that Wrightson continued to deliver top-notch, detailed art. I purposely put interior work here to show how much attention was given to the entire book, not just the covers.
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I was lucky enough to meet him at a NYC comic-con many years ago and had him sign a copy of The Weird #1 (I know, probably the oddest comic to get him to sign), but it was newer at the time, 1988. I can’t say I remember much of the interaction, but what I do remember is that he opened the comic to the 1st page and signed down in the bottom margin because he didn’t want to ruin any of his cover art with his signature. I still have the comic today and will occasionally flip open The Weird #1 to check out his signature.
Finally, my mom was a fan of Bernie Wrightson too. She was looking to adorn her new place with some cool art and we looked through my collection of portfolios and prints. She stopped me at Bernie Wrightson’s Momentos autographed print and said, “that’s the one.” Check out the image below. It still hang over her dining room table and is a topic of conversation for various reasons. Coolest mom ever.
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