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Berni Wrightson: A Look Back
(1979/1991 - Land Of Enchantment/Underwood Miller)

(edited by Christopher Zavisa) Note that this book's title preserves his "Berni" name that he adopted at the beginning of his career (reportedly to distinguish him from the Olympic diver already-famous-at-the-time). This iconic collection first appeared at the end of the 1970s and was re-packaged by Underwood Miller a decade later with seemingly no new material. Critically, I think this single volume is almost twice the thickness it should be - it's heavy and not easily manageable. We're talking 360 pages with 220 of them each dominated by singular featured displays which are mostly Wrightson's drawings, but with color work generously woven in (a healthy portion of those are themselves large extracts pulled from presented works). Another 30 pages each gather together multiple images. Only three exhibits are laid across the book's central gutter, but all remain acceptable. 70 of the remaining pages is text that detail an engaging biography with loads of commentary about the artistic milieu he created in. Indeed, the chapters here are: Introduction, Baltimore, The Comics, Swamp Thing, Purple Pictography, Towards Independence, The Monster Parade, Warren, Christopher Enterprises, Frankenstein, and The Studio. There was even room for artists Graham Ingels (2), Jeffrey Catherine Jones, Michael Kaluta, and Barry Windsor-Smith to each have a 'well-presented' exhibit as well. This book is pricey and still in high demand, due to the veneration held for this artist that stayed active for several more decades before his relatively recent passing. (I'd suggest that it's time for a couple of more manageable volumes to comprise a new and whole-life review…)