Week #3

I'm in full agreement with pakehafulla on this one: Bernie Wrightson's art was so ubiquitous across early Bronze Age horror covers that it's hard not to be overcome by nostalgia when you see that familiar style turn up in a back issue bin.



But, for me, it's more than nostalgia. My favorite thing about Wrightson is his careful consideration of perspective. Most of his covers are acutely aware of the viewer's perspective, sometimes just resulting in stylized camera angles, as in the example below:



But more often, Wrightson would use that understanding of perspective to play upon primary and secondary focal points that the viewer's eye would move to when observing the cover image. Often-times, you could find entire stories unfolding in a single image, almost convinced you were seeing movement because the story was developing as your eye moved from primary to secondary focus:








I love when a cover tells a story, and I can only think of one horror artist who did that better than Wrightson...

#3 Bernie Wrightson


Shax and I on the same page here!





What's makes Bernie great here?

Bernie in my mind uses motion to express the horror of Solomon Grundy here coming out of nowhere to see revenge on Batman here. The only negative thing about Bernie's work in this carefully picked illustration is his ridiculous length of Batman's ears and that's bothers me a great deal. If he had tone it down a bit - I would be a much better illustration here.

Motion is the key thing about Bernie and I'm a rookie here in Horror Art and this is my 1st time and I have been looking at other art as well and I didn't realize there are so many wonderful art out there and I feel that Bernie Wrightson is one of the better artists that I've seen.

Bernie is also a master of perspective here and without realizing this Grundy here doesn't know that Batman is lurking nearby and therefore in this illustration here is a perfect example of how he uses Batman as the focus point of this picture and without realizing this - he now have two focus points of this picture. Batman in the shadows of Grundy; and Grundy's sudden emergence here along with his sheer determination to destroy the Caped Crusader shows that by his expression of his face in pure evil and horror.

Bernie also uses very little color to his artwork and seeing some of his other works - sorry they aren't in the theme of  the Long Halloween Week - and that's why his art is so good. The only two colors that are Grundy's white hair and the Yellow Moon and that's helps create the scene here in this picture of Bernie Wrightson here.

That's my take on Bernie!

Pfff... Whrightson at 5th, 4th or 3rd?... You guys...

#3 Duncan Fegredo

I discovered him at the dawn of my comic interest with Enigma, qiuckly followed by his previous Kid Eternity and subsequent Face.
Face is one of the best horror stories I ever read, a great entry from Milligan, but you can't undermine Fegredo's role. He started out with the typical UK 2000AD ground that you can find with the Dillons, Bond, McNeil, Ormston, etc... You could see early on he wasn't gonna mimic Bisley as many other but took an interest in one of Bisley's influence : Bill Sienkiewicz. What was really cool wit hhis early work is you could see him evolve with giant leaps from issue to issues. Even if most of his stuff back then wasn"t pure horror, it was at least always moody and somewhat creepy. With his later stard-making runs on Hellboy, he probably became more eerie/spooky then creepy, but that qualifies as horror, right? Anyhow, he obviously became a master of his craft and his horror material or horror related always managed to creep into my mind, whether I wanted it or not.











Oops some spooky batman related stuff!




Mignolaverse

Fegredo is unknown to me, or was until your excellent write-up. That's powerful, visceral stuff. Great pick. 

WEEK 3
NUMBER 3- JILL THOMPSON

Fans probably know Jill's work with Neil Gaiman and Sandman but Jill's a good master of spooky and scary.  Her own creation of Scary Godmother is one of the most charming and delightful books about Halloween and all things that go bump in the night.  Like my number 3 selection, Thompson's blend of whimsy and cute scary are a delight to read.





Thompson can be serious with her horror as well.  The critically acclaimined Beasts of Burden series written by Evan Dorkin and drawn by Jill is some of the most innovative and amazing scary stories in the past 15 years.  The city of Burden Hill is crawling with paranormal activity and its protected by a group of intellegent dogs (and one cat) to keep the baddies from popping up.  The stories by Dorkin are beautifully written and so powerful.  Jill's contribution to the book drives home the beauty and the horror of the title.  I can't recommend this book enough








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Thanks for the Fegredo pics AGS. I had only know him from his Hellboy universe works. But those images and your write-up show him to be capable of some truly horrific stuff!