Bernie Wrightson

Bernie Wrightson, ca. 1994

**Bernie Wrightson** was the interior illustrator of the Complete and Uncut Edition of the novel *The Stand.* By 1990, he was already known as "the Master of Horror Comics."

## Biography (Before *The Stand*)

Bernie Wrightson was born in Dundalk, Maryland and studied art largely from the EC horror comics of the 1950s, such as *Tales from the Crypt*, *The Haunt of Fear* and *The Vault of Horror*, which featured such legendary artists as Frank Frazetta, Basil Wolverton and Wally Wood. He was also an avid fan of the TV artist Jon Gnagy, and as a teenager, he took a correspondence course through the Famous Artists School in New York, which was founded by - among others - Norman Rockwell.

His first paid work was for *The Baltimore Sun*, but after meeting Frazetta at a comics convention in 1967, he began focusing on comics work. He would soon become known as one of the premier DC and Marvel Comics horror artists of the 1970s, especially after his hand in co-creating the popular character Swamp Thing - a scientist who becomes a monster after bonding with swamp plant life - for DC in 1971. In 1974, he left DC to work for Warren Publishing, where he drew his own graphic versions of both original stories and adaptations of works by writers such as H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe.

Early in his career, he signed his name "Berni Wrightson" to avoid confusion with an American Olympic gold medalist diver in the 1968 Mexico City games of the same name, but by the end of the 1970s, he had restored the final E to his first name.

His first collaboration with Stephen King came in 1982, when he did artwork for the film *Creepshow*, King's first screenplay, which was directed by George A. Romero of the original zombie film *Night of the Living Dead*. The film was an homage to the EC comics which inspired Wrightson, King and Romero alike, and King played Jordy Verrill, a farmer who - like the various incarnations of Swamp Thing - is transformed into a mossy plant-man, although Jordy's botany is derived from an alien meteor, not a combination of scientifically-made chemicals and a terrestrial swamp. Wrightson also drew the graphic novel adaptation of the film.

A year after *Creepshow*, Wrightson illustrated the King novella *Cycle of the Werewolf*, about a small Maine town terrorized by a werewolf every full moon. In 1985, King and Wrightson again worked together on the one-shot *Heroes for Hope*, a benefit comic published by Marvel for victims of famines in Africa. King did not contribute to Wrightson's DC project that year, *Heroes for Hope*.

Wrightson's past collaborations with King made him the natural choice to make original illustrations for the 1990 Complete and Uncut Edition of the novel version of *The Stand*, which he did, providing a dozen full-page interior illustrations which define that definitive version as much as any restored scenes written by King.

## Biography (After *The Stand*)

Wrightson would continue to illustrate comics, album covers and collectible card games throughout the 1990s to mid-2010s. He also did concept art for Hollywood, including the 2001 film *Spider-Man* based on the iconic Marvel hero, 2005's Romero-directed *Land of the Dead* about zombies attacking Pittsburgh, and the 2007 film *The Mist* based on a King novella about a small Maine town hit by a strange mist containing monsters after a power outage.

He also illustrated two more King novels: *From a Buick 8* in 2002, about an inoperable classic car with evil supernatural powers, and *The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla* in 2004.

In 2012, he received a National Cartoonist Society's award for his illustrations for the novel *Frankenstein Alive, Alive!* written by Steve Niles. (In 1983, he had illustrated the original Mary Shelley novel *Frankenstein* for Marvel. King wrote an introduction to the illustrated version.)

In January 2017, Wrightson announced his retirement due to his battle with brain cancer. He died the following March 18 in Austin, Texas, where he was living with his second wife, Liz Wrightson.

## Illustrations

Larry Underwood cares for his mother Alice, who is sick from Captain Trips (Chapter 19)A victim of Captain Trips found in a restroom in Central Park in New York City (Chapter 27)Fran Goldsmith carries her Captain Trips victim father Peter's body downstairs to bury him in the garden (Chapter 28)A starving Lloyd Henreid, trapped in the Maricopa County Jail, pulls the leg of the nearest prisoner, Trask, who has died of Captain Trips, closer to him for a possible meal (Chapter 39)Mother Abagail fends off the weasels who serve the Dark Man (Chapter 45)The Kid is menaced by wolves who serve Randall Flagg (Chapter 48)Randall Flagg arrives to punish Bobby Terry for disobeying his orders and killing The Judge (Chapter 61)Dayna Jurgens escapes Randall Flagg's clutches (Chapter 62)Larry Underwood and Kojak try unsuccessfully to stop Stu Redman from falling down the washout on I-70 (Chapter 72)Trashcan Man returns (Chapter 73)Stu Redman, Tom Cullen and Kojak snowmobile back to the Boulder Free Zone (Chapter 75)Randall Flagg finds new followers (Epilogue: The Circle Closes)