Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein (E-Book) (1983)

For those of you who aren't familiar with Bernie Wrightson, prepared to be blown away by some of the most detailed pen-and-ink illustrations you have ever seen. In 1983 "Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein" was released, leaving artists and fans alike picking their jaws up off the floor after beholding Bernie Wrightson's absolutely brilliant cross-hatch pen-and-ink renditions of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

The majority of Bernie Wrightson's professional work has been devoted to the comic book industry, particularly the genres of horror, science-fiction and weird fiction. Bernie Wrightson is considered a living legend within the comic book industry. His unimitable style has made him a sought after artist within the industry, and inspired the awe and envy of many of his contemporaries. Although he has worked on numerous titles for various different publishers since he broke into the comic book industry in 1968, he is best remembered for the work he produced for DC and Warren during the 1960s and '70s.

The two titles which Wrightson's artwork appeared in the most were DC's "House of Mystery" and "House of Secrets." He made his debut in the pages of House of Mystery #179 in 1968. Wrightson would eventually produce artwork for more than 23 issues of House of Mystery from 1968 to 1978, which is far more than he produced for any other single title. He is also known for co-creating the character of "Swamp Thing" along with with writer Len Wein. Wrightson introduced the character in House of Secrets #92 in 1971. The next year DC asked Wrightson and Wein to create an ongoing series. Wrightson went on to illustrate the first 10 issues, and received numerous industry awards for his work. He received a Shazam Award for Best Penciller three years in a row (1972-1974), Best Inker in 1973, and two awards for Best Individual Story for Swamp Thing #1 and #6.

In 1974 Wrightson left DC to work for Warren Publishing. From 1974 to 1978 Wrightson appeared in six issues of "Creepy", four issues of "Eerie", and two issues of "Vampirella". He produced a series of original work along with several short story adaptions, such as Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" and H.P. Lovecraft's "Cool Air." Although his output from the Warren years didn't begin to approach the amount of art he produced for DC, many believe that he produced some of his finest work during this period.

In 1975 Wrightson, along with several fellow artists, started to pursue work outside of the comic book industry. Although he would continue to create artwork for the comic industry, he also started producing artwork for posters, prints, calenders, and magazines. During his time between these projects he started working on on the illustrations that would appear in "Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein". His Frankenstein illustrations were not for a professional project, but created for his own personal satisfcation. In fact, he has described it as his most personal work, and it is easy to see why. Here is what he had so say during an interview regarding the time he spent working on the illustrations:

"I've always had a thing for Frankenstein, and it was a labor of love. It was not an assignment, it was not a job. I would do the drawings in between paying gigs, when I had enough to be caught up with bills and groceries and what-not. I would take three days here, a week there, to work on the Frankenstein volume. It took about seven years - Bernie Wrightson"

"Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein" consists of 45 full-page black & white pen-and-ink illustrations. The first illustration that I saw from this book absolutely floored me. It was a picture of Dr. Frankenstein standing over his creation, layed out on a table in the lab. They are surrounded by an immense amount of scientific equipment and various other objects. It contains some of the most intricate pen-and-ink work that I have ever seen, and an insane amount of detail. Rather than attempt to continue to find the words to describe the sheer awesomeness of his illustrations, I will simply allow you to see some of them for yourself. I will start with the illustration I described above, and follow it up with a few other favorites. I encourage you to click on the pictures to see these high-resolution scans in full size, which will give you a better understanding of the amount of detail he injects into his illustrations.

Update: I forgot to mention that the file in the RAR archive is in .cbz format, a Comic Book Reader file. I recommend using either CDisplay or ComicRack if you don't already have a comic book reader program. If you would prefer, you can simply change the extension to .rar and extract all of the images to a folder.

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Download: Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein
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