B. Krigstein Volume 1
Comic-book artists are slowly receiving at least a modicum of regard from a traditionally disdainful public, yet one of the most accomplished is still largely unknown, even to most fans. Bernard Krigstein drew comics for less than a decade 50 years ago but in that brief time created some of the most innovative stories the medium has ever seen. In the first of two volumes on him, Sadowski shows that the fine-arts-trained Krigstein entered comics out of expediency. Refusing, however, to accept traditional distinctions between high and low culture, he quickly committed himself to the medium. Krigstein's reputation is based mainly on his stories for the EC comics, but Sadowski shows that his other work is also extraordinary. Superb reproductions, including six complete stories, display Krigstein's talent better than the cheaply printed periodicals in which it emerged ever did. Too strong-willed and idiosyncratic to last long in the highly commercialized comics world, Krigstein left it in 1957. Sadowski makes one believe that comics might have evolved differently had he stayed.Gordon FlaggCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved