FRANKENSTEIN By Bernie Wrightson

Bernie Wrightson’s masterpiece has long been one of the most collectible of his works and out of print for many years. 44 black and white plates accompany the full text of Mary Shelley’s classic novel, featuring the original 1982 introduction by Stephen King. Margaret Brantley contributes a lengthy essay on Shelley’s life, a chronology of her life and work, and a piece on the historical context of Frankenstein. Plus Shelley’s own introduction to the 1831 edition! Few works by comic book artists have earned the universal acclaim and reverence that Bernie Wrightson’s Frankenstein met with upon its original release in 1983. A generation later, this magnificent pairing of art and literature is still considered to be one of the greatest achievements made by any artist in the field. This includes the complete text of the original groundbreaking novel, and 44 (two double page, plus an illustrated title page) original full-page illustrations -- created over a period of seven years -- that continue to stun the world with their monumental beauty and uniqueness. The illustrations themselves are not based upon the Boris Karloff or Lee films, but on the actual book’s descriptions of characters and objects. Wrightson also used a period style, saying “I wanted the book to look like an antique; to have the feeling of woodcuts or steel engravings, something of that era” and basing the feel on artists like Franklin Booth, J.C. Coll and Edwin Austin Abbey. Wrightson has said that it was an unpaid project: “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.”