March 10: Frank Cho signing

Frank Cho will be appearing March 10th at 1 pm to sign his Mighty Avengers #1 at Cards, Comics & Collectibles, 1000A Chartley Drive, Reisterstown, MD 21136, 410-526-7410.

Post weighs in on Captain America's putative death

"O Captain! Our Captain! Hero's Day Is Done; Killing Off a Patriotic Icon, Marvel Comics Turns the Page On a Fading American Era" by Neely Tucker, Washington Post Staff Writer,
Thursday, March 8, 2007; Page C01 is our local take on the story that's on the wires.

My take is been there, done that. Bucky's back after being dead for 40 years, Superman didn't even last a year, Aunt May's been dead several times, and don't even start counting villains like Dr. Doom.

And Cap's been dead before, and better drawn by Jim Steranko, as you can see in the accompanying illustration. (And that's Rick Jones in Bucky's costume, not Bucky).

PR: DC Anime Club To Host Video Gaming Days UPDATED WITH NEW DATES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(March 6,2007)

CONTACT: Chris Wanamaker, (202) 262 2083 president@dcanimeclub.org

DC Anime Club To Host Video Gaming Days


The DC Anime Club, an non profit organization whose purpose is to educate the Washington, DC community about East Asian culture through the art form known as Anime (Japanese animation) will host Video Game Days in Room A5 and Room A9 of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, 901 G Street, N.W. on the following dates:

March 24 Room A5
Video Game Day


May 26 Room A9
Video Game Day

July 7 Room A9
Video Game Day


August 18 Room A9
Video Game Day

DC Anime Club will be adding more dates for Video Game Days for the rest of the year. Attendees of the DC Anime Club Video Game Days are encouraged to bring their own games and Game Systems. DC Anime Club will be providing several Television sets as well as an LCD Projector and Screen for the Video Game Days.

This program is free and open to the public. For more information please visit the DC Anime Club website at http://dcanimeclub.org.

About DC Anime Club:
DCAC was established in 2003 to introduce and educate people in the Washington, DC area about East Asian culture, through viewing and discussion of Japanese animation (also known as anime) and Japanese comics (manga). DCAC is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization, contributions to DC Anime Club are tax deductible to the extent allowable under the law.

The club also works to provide a positive, alternative activity to the youth in the area by exposing them to foreign culture, encouraging artistic expression and creativity, and providing opportunities for participation in community activities and leadership.

In addition to our weekly meetings, the club holds an Annual Art Show, an Annual Costume fundraising event, and visits local schools to do presentations on anime. The club also works with the Smithsonian Freer Gallery and DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival on their anime screenings, and has helped locally promote performances for Japanese bands such as Puffy Ami Yumi and Pine am.

DC Anime Club was founded by Chris Wanamaker (President), Jules Chang (Vice President) and Craig Vaughn (Sgt in Arms) on Saturday June 5, 2003. We have a strong membership that continues to grow -- most of which are teenagers.

# # #

--
Christopher Wanamaker
DC Anime Club President
http://www.dcanimeclub.org
202 262 2083

Politics and Prose to carry manga

Their newsletter sent out earlier today announces:

Politics and Prose has officially ventured into the manga market. Manga, originally derived from the name given to a book of artist’s drawings in Edo period Japan, has become the name for entire genre of incredibly popular graphic serials from around the globe. We are beginning to stock a number of series that we love including Loveless, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Kami Kaze, 12 Days, To Terra, and Samurai Champloo. Don’t see your favorite on the shelf? Please let us know—we are continuing to add new series all the time.

This seems a bit late to me as everybody's carrying manga now, and in fact, I've noticed the amount carried dwindling in B. Daltons, and have been told that Big Planet is purposefully carrying much less.

Wish You Were There #2 - IS Art: The Art of Insight Studios

From the International Journal of Comic Art 3-2, we present another WISH YOU WERE THERE, starring Frank Cho, Mark Wheatly, Marc Hempel and a defunct comic store. Is Insight Studios still functioning I wonder?

IS Art: The Art of Insight Studios. Washington, DC: Illumination Arts Gallery of Georgetown / Beyond Comics II, May 12--June 30, 2001.

IS Art displayed original art of Insight Studios, founded in 1978 by Mark Wheatley, and artistically now consisting of him, Marc Hempel and Frank Cho. The exhibit is based on the book of the same title (by Allan Gross, Baltimore: Insight Studios Group, 2001. ISBN 1-89317-11-X; $29.95) which includes a history of Insight; the title of both is undoubtedly a play on words reflecting the general perception of comic art as a lowbrow form. There was a checklist for the show, but no explanatory exhibit text except for captions; presumably the book was intended to fulfill the viewer's possible desire for further information. Due to his syndicated comic strip, Liberty Meadows, and his penchant for drawing beautiful women, Cho is undoubtedly the main attraction of the Studio. In this show, held in an unused upper floor of a comic book store, very few of Cho's strips were displayed. However, instead he was mostly represented by his fanzine work on E.R. Burroughs' Tarzan and Mars series. Hempel included many of his early 1980s paintings of women, cover paintings from his 1990 DC Comics series Breathtaker, and cartoons from his self-published comic book Tug & Buster. His current work, of increasingly-stylized caricatures in ink and watercolor, harkened back to art of the 1920s and 1930s. The twenty-year span of Hempel's career exhibited here provided an interesting view of his artistic evolution. Wheatley has frequently worked on material derived from pulps and magazine illustration. His gouaches for IS's publication of Talbot Mundy's Jimgrim and the Devil at Ludd, clearly having evolved from his comic book work, displayed a strong sense of color and composition. The exhibit, although obviously not done by art gallery professionals (artwork not used in the show was still leaning in piles under a window), was an enjoyable look at a trio of local creators.

Undercover Brother: John Ridley

"Undercover Brother: John Ridley" is an interview by Scott Rosenberg in the online version of March 4th Express. Like the Molly Crabapple story of last week, it wasn't in the physical paper which just had a small pic of Ridley. Ridley's wrote a comic series for DC's Wildstorm imprint, The American Way, which is being collected now.

Wish You Were There #1 - Comics exhibit reviews 2000-2001

The following are reviews for DC exhibits from 2000-2001. They were originally published in the International Journal of Comic Art 3:1.

Blondie Gets Married! Comic Strip Drawings by Chic Young. Harry Katz and Sara Duke. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, June 22-September 16, 2000.

Herblock's History: Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millennium. Harry Katz, Sara Duke, and Lucia Rather. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, October 17, 2000--February 17, 2001.

Al Hirschfeld, Beyond Broadway. David Leopold. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, November 9, 2000--March 31, 2001.

At the turn of the millennium, Harry Katz and Sara Duke continued to make the Library of Congress one of the premier spaces for the display of comic art. These three exhibits examined different aspects of comic art: comic strips, political cartoons, and caricature.

Blondie, beginning in 1930, has evolved with the comic strip. Early strips were large and had continuity, but by the 1972 strip in the show, the size had shrunk and Young made it a gag strip. The exhibit of 27 strips out of a donation of 150 had minimal labeling and was divided into typical tropes: naps, courtship, wedding, family, mailman, food, work, love, homemaking, and baths. Young used a delicate line in the 1930s, typical of some cartoonists of the era, that is a pleasure to see in the original. His 1931--1933 courtship and marriage strips were wildly popular during the Depression and Young's artwork conveys now a vivid sense of the time. In the 1938 Sunday dream strip, "We'll be back in a few hours," Young was playfully surrealistic while still drawing the pretty girls he was known for. While an exhibit devoted to original art, not commentary or history, needs few labels, an explanation of the blue penciling seen on many strips over the regular graphite pencil would be helpful; the blue was used to indicate where mechanical tones and shading needed to be added by the syndicate. "All quiet on the Bumstead's front!" from 1945 contained clear marginal instructions about the shading, and showed an interesting piece of comic history now that computers handle all such details. A good brochure was distributed at the show with articles by Duke and Young's daughter, and an electronic version of the exhibit can be seen at http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/blondie/.

Herbert "Herblock" Block has cartooned through nine decades, won three Pulitzer Prizes, and coined the word "McCarthyism." This exhibit was drawn from 119 cartoons that he gave to the Library. The show was mounted in a grand space on either side of the Jefferson Building's great hall on red, white, and blue panels. It was divided into roughly chronological sections except for overarching ones like "Herblock's Presidents." Herblock's masterly use of pencil, ink and crayon can be seen throughout the show, although correction overlays become more common and his latest work resembled collages. Seeing the evolution of Herblock's style and subjects over 70 years was fascinating. Although the exhibit was excellently done and displayed the breadth of his career, Block's work can be fairly easily seen in other media. He has published many collections of his work, and this exhibit has a short catalogue produced by the Library. One clever idea made this show especially interesting. The Library solicited caricatures of "Herblock by Other Cartoonists" and displayed them at the end of each panel. Fifteen colleagues like Mike Peters, Ann Telnaes, Jules Feiffer, Signe Wilkinson, and Mike Luckovich produced pointed, but obviously respectful, drawings of Block, frequently with his bete noire Richard Nixon. Katz, Duke, and Rather deserve credit for a truly fine exhibit.
The exhibit on Hirschfeld is somewhat problematic because it was designed to be. When faced with a career even longer than Herblock's, guest curator and Hirschfeld archivist David Leopold chose to focus not on Hirschfeld's well-known pen-and-ink entertainment caricatures, but rather on his other artistic pursuits. Exhibiting 24 pieces, many donated to the Library by the artist, Leopold produced a wide-ranging survey of works in all media, especially including some early art. The result was an interesting and ambitious show, but not a complete success since Hirschfeld's best work is his caricatures. Leopold included obscure material like drawings of North Africa from 1926 -- material that was reminiscent of magazine illustration of the time. Other early work like a 1923 gouache advertisement for Woman to Woman magazine recalled Szyk's work in miniatures, and his 1931 lithograph Art and Industry owed much to Daumier. Hirschfeld's color caricatures, usually for magazine covers like "Walter Lippman" for American Mercury in the 1940s, show that he could have continued doing similar work and had a full career. Recently, printing advances have made it possible for him to use color for caricatures and one from the New York Times in 2000 is in the show. The exhibit, accompanied by a well-done brochure, was an interesting example of Hirschfeld's lesser abilities, but not a major view of his career.

Politics in Black and White: Local, State, and National Cartoons and Caricatures. Dan Voss and Ellen Vartanoff. Rockville, MD: Montgomery College VCT Department Gallery, October 10--November 10, 2000.

This small exhibit was aimed at students in the College's graphic arts department. According to Voss, the "idea was to be topical and to bring in a little bit more local connection than you would expect." With eight artists (Joe Azar, Chip Beck, Steve Brodner, Chris Curtis, Kevin "Kal" Kallaugher, Marcia Klioze-Hughes, and Lucinda Levine) and 55 pieces in the exhibit, students and other visitors saw a wide range of comic art. The only label in the exhibit was a short introductory panel with brief biographical information. Azar (a conservative political cartoonist for the Legal Times and the Washington Times), Kal, and Curtis (cartoonist for the Gazette chain of local newspapers) all produce standard "modern" political cartoons; while competent, no cartoon displayed was particularly memorable. Caricaturists were well represented. Levine's work looked like that of unrelated David Levine. Klioze-Hughes' color work caricatured historical figures like George Washington. Beck's pieces were unfortunately reminiscent of the cartoonists working in chalk in shopping malls. Brodner works for national publications like the New Yorker, Time, and Newsweek and his distinctive style was well represented. "We hope to bring [the students] the real thing," Voss stated, and the exhibit succeeded in being an engaging look at the styles and ability of a small range of working professional cartoonists.


Cartoons and Campaigns. Arlington, VA: The Newseum, October 7--November 12, 2000.

Pens and Needles: The Editorial Cartoons of Joel Pett. Arlington, VA: The Newseum, November 10, 2000--January 7, 2001.

"Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus." Arlington, VA: The Newseum, December, 2000.

Cartoons and Campaigns added political cartoons to Every Four Years, an exhibit on press coverage of the Presidential campaign. The cartoons, a mixture of originals and reproductions, totaled approximately 40 pieces of art. Included in the show were originals by Luckovich (who still uses tone shading), Breen, Conrad, Wilkinson, Horsey, Borgman, Peters, and reproductions by Marlette, Toles, Handelsman, Chip Beck, Morin, Higgins, Kal, Pett, Gorrell, Gerner, Telnaes, Bok, Benson, Herblock, and Szep. The show presented a snapshot of election cartoons, and was enjoyable in a casual sense, but did not add anything significant to the study of comic art.

Pins and Needles was a significantly better exhibit in terms of learning. Ten original cartoons with commentary by Pett were displayed, unfortunately in a hallway leading to a movie theater. Seven reproductions from the twenty cartoons that Pett submitted to win the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning were also included. Pett's commentary on his process of cartooning included exhibiting three drafts and the final cartoon. This was a minor, but interesting show.

"Yes, Virginia..." is the Newseum's annual show of Thomas Nast's Harper's Weekly engravings of Santa Claus. The exhibit included artwork from 1863, 1865, 1866, 1871, 1879, 1884, and 1885 and showed how Nast's artwork and concept of Santa progressed through a twenty-year period. According to Nast, by 1884 Santa was answering telephone requests. Since Santa Claus is so deeply embedded in American culture, an annual show devoted to the cartoonist who created him helps keep Nast's work alive.


The Art of John Cederquist: Reality of Illusion. Washington, DC: National Museum of American Art's Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, March 31--August 20, 2000.

John Cederquist stretches the definition of comic art. He creates artistic wooden furniture. Cederquist is influenced by Popeye cartoons and he has copied two-dimensional furniture from the cartoons to produce three-dimensional pieces. Although this show, organized by the Oakland Museum of California, did not include any of his Popeye works among its thirteen pieces, the influence of cartoons could still be seen. "Tubular" (1990) appeared to be a bookcase made of shipping crates but had a Hokusai-style wave rolling out of the top. "Steamer Chest III" (1995) looked as though it was a coiled pipe, supported by stacked wood, with puffs of Crumb-like smoke emerging from each end of the pipe. Cederquist's titles were puns that helped define the piece -- words and pictures working together -- leading to the beginning of the definition of a cartoon. The exhibit provoked thought on what comic art really is.

Richard's Poor Almanack

It's still not online, but yesterday's Post cartoon by Richard Thompson was another finger puppet - this time of Smithsonian big-spending Secretary Lawrence Small. My collection grows by leaps and bounds!

Also, he did an awesome caricature of Stalin as a home-improvement contractor in today's Post Magazine, as well as the illo for Joel Achenbach's column where he declined to illustrate the phrase "A nightmare for your consideration: epidemics of genital shrinkage."

None of this is online, of course. I guess the Post doesn't pay for digital repro rights for illos.

Wrightson followup

Joel and I are a bit disappointed that nobody's commented on our posting of a 20-year old barely-seen interview - for those who didn't follow the wikipedia link in the first posting, here's another look at Wrightson's career.

Virgin Comics profile in today's Post

Haven't read it yet, but here's the story: "Deepak Chopra And a New Age Of Comic Books: Author Is in Venture to Create Made-for-Movies Superheroes" by David Segal, Washington Post Staff Writer, Saturday, March 3, 2007; Page C01.

Actually I haven't read any of these Virgin Comics yet either. Anybody? Are they any good?

March 5 - What's Opera, Doc? showing

This is one of Chuck Jones' absolute best Bugs Bunny shorts.

At the Goethe-Institut Washington, 812 Seventh St. NW, Washington, DC. Further information: 202-289-1200 or www.goethe.de/washington.

Wagner in Hollywood Film Series

In conjunction with the Washington National Opera's performance of Die Walküre, part two of Wagner's Der Ring, we present Hollywood classics featuring his music.

Monday, March 5, 6:30 pm

Introduction by Michael Jeck, Programming Manager, Films, MhZ Networks; Programmer emeritus, American Film Institute

What’s Opera, Doc?
USA, 1957, 16mm, 7 min., color, Director: Chuck Jones

What's Opera, Doc? is a short animated cartoon directed by Chuck Jones in which Elmer Fudd chases Bugs Bunny through a seven-minute operatic parody of Wagner's operas, particularly The Ring of the Nibelung (Der Ring der Nibelungen).

AND

The Scarlett Empress
USA, 1934, 35mm, 104 min., b/w, Director: Josef von Sternberg

Young Princess Sophia of Germany is taken to Russia to marry the half-wit Grand Duke Peter, son of the Empress. She dutifully produces a son of questionable fatherhood. After the old empress dies, Sophia engineers a coup d'etat, does away with Peter, and becomes Catherine the Great.

The Scarlett Empress’ soundtrack included part of Richard Wagner’s The Valkyrie (Die Walküre, 1856).

March 8 - Japanamerica author at JICC

I met Christopher Wanamaker, DC Anime Club President (202 262 2083) at the Shojo Manga exhibit, and he's passed along this press release. I think I'll attend as the book's been getting good press.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Japan Information and Culture Center, Embassy of Japan presents: Roland Kelts
Author of: Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the US
Thursday March 8th, 2007, 6:30 pm

In the past two decades Japanese culture has become as omnipresent in America as the West is in Japan. Why does Japanese culture speak to Americans today? Roland Kelts is the half-Japanese American author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the US. He will examine the relationship between America and Japan and the influence they have on each other’s pop culture.
Mr. Kelts is also an editor of the literary journal A Public Space and a lecturer at The University of Tokyo. His articles, essays, and fiction have been published in Playboy, The Village Voice, Zoetrope: All-Story, Newsday, DoubleTake, Cosmopolitan, The Japan Times, Vogue Japan, Gunzo and Red Herring, among others. His essays on Japan appear in two recently published collections, Gamers and Kuhaku. He was the recipient of a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship in Writing and a winner of the Playboy Fiction Contest. He was a story consultant on the BBC's six-part series Japanorama, and he has just completed his first novel, Access, which will be published next year. He has lectured at New York University, Rutgers University, the Saint Ann's School and Philips Exeter Academy. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Oberlin
College, and currently splits his time between New York and Tokyo.

Japan Information and Culture Center Auditorium
Reservations are required for this event: jiccrsvpwinter07@embjapan.org
Japan Information and Culture Center, Embassy of Japan
Lafayette Center III 1155 21st Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
Farragut North and West Metro
202-238-6949
www.embjapan.org/jicc

March 28 - Stagger Lee signing at Big Planet

Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix, writer and artist of the new comic Stagger Lee will be at Big Planet Comics in Bethesda from 2-4 pm on Wednesday, March 28th. As the flyer says, wear a Stetson, get a gift. I have no idea what that means.

Big Planet is at 4908 Fairmont Ave, in the Woodmont Triangle, and the phone number is 301-654-6856.

On April 11th, Bryan Talbot will be there in the evening for his new book Alice in Sunderland. Anyone who's unfamiliar with Bryan's work should run out and buy Tale of One Bad Rat, his Beatrix Potter-influenced story, and then work up to the glorious new wave madness of Luther Arkwright.

Rob Ullman covers Washington City Paper

'Savage Love' cartoonist Rob Ullman also illustrates the cover and main article of the new City Paper.

Robert Graysmith Was a Cartoonist Until the Zodiac Case Drew Him In

I haven't read this yet - "A Killer Obsession: Robert Graysmith Was a Cartoonist Until the Zodiac Case Drew Him In" by William Booth, Washington Post Staff Writer, Thursday, March 1, 2007; Page C01.

Missed Molly Crabapple in person, and this interview too

Somehow I missed this article by Darona Williams - "Sexy Sketchy: Molly Crabapple," Express (February 26, 2007) and thus her appearance in DC, but read the interview anyway.

Here's another interview as well - "Someone's Sketchy" by Adrian f. Zettlemoyer, Broken Frontier (February 26, 2007).

March 3 - Tug of War exhibit

Glenn Dixon interviewed Annie Adjchavanich, curator of the exhibit Tug of War at the Hemphill Fine Arts gallery. The exhibit includes animators like Glen Barr (pictured above) who's worked on Ren & Stimpy and Gary Baseman, who's worked for Disney and may be most familiar as the artist for the game Cranium. The gallery is at 1515 14th St, NW. The exhibit opens on Saturday from 6:30-8:30, and there's a signing (of something - the article doesn't specify) on Sunday at 3-5 pm. It's open through April 7th and the phone number is 202-234-5601. The press release is here.

The article can be read at the Express website by clicking on 'download print edition' and selecting March 1, and then going to page E2, or the 'On the Spot' column.

Anybody want to meet at the booksigning?

March 15 & 22 - Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind anime showing

I got this press release today - Miyazaki is great!! This is at 21st & M St, NW.

The Japan Information and Culture Center, Embassy of Japan

Presents:

As part of the 15th annual Environmental Film Festival

March 15th and 22nd, 6:00 pm

In the JICC Auditorium

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: One thousand years after the “Seven Days of Fire,” an event that destroyed human civilization and most of the Earth’s original ecosystem, scattered human settlements survive. They are isolated from one another by the “Sea of Corruption,” a lethally toxic jungle of fungus swarming with giant insects that come together to wage war. Nausicaa is a charming young princess of the peacefull Valley of the Wind who is humane and peace-loving but also a skillful fighter noted for her empathy toward animals and humans. The Valley of the Wind becomes threatened when two rival states, Pejite and Tolmekia, battle to possess the “God Warrior,” a lethal giant bioweapon, that has landed in the Valley, and the fighting escalates out of control. The story holds a deeper meaning beyond war, however. Even the insects seem to be working toward some secret harmony and the lethal fungal forest seems to have a vital role in Earth’s new dominant ecosystem. As she helps prisoners, villagers, enemies and mutant insects, Princess Nausicaa becomes a Joan of Arc figure- a warrior maiden inspired by a vision to defend all life against destruction. Directed, written and illustrated by Hayao Miyazaki. Produced by Rick Dempsey and Isao Takahata. Original release, Japan 1984. 116 minutes In English Reccomended for children 10 years and older. Supported by the DC Anime Club.

The film will be introduced by Mr. Tom Vick, Tom Vick is the film programmer for the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution. His book, ASIAN CINEMA: A FIELD GUIDE will be published by HarperCollins Publishers in 2008.

Interview with Bernie Wrightson 3 (and last)

...continued from part 1 and part 2 and courtesy of Joel Pollack.

JP: What do you think of Bill Sienkiewicz?

BW: Bill runs hot and cold. I either really like his stuff, or it goes right by me. He does some things that make me very, very jealous. I wish that I could take some of those chances; I’m from an entirely different school of art. When you take chances like that, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Even when it doesn’t work, when he falls flat, I still have to admire him for taking the chance.

JP: He’s surpassed Neal Adams.

BW: Oh, god yeah. Neal really doesn’t have any surprises left. For me, Neal poured everything into the Superman – Muhammed Ali book. That is just one of my all-time favorite comics. Sometimes when I’m feeling really low and depressed, and it’s wintertime and the snow is up to the windowsills, I’ll pull that thing off the shelf and read it; it always brings me up again.

JP: This sounds like “true confessions.”

BW: Oh yeah, I love it, it’s really wonderful. Good storytelling, good drawing. Neal really poured his heart and soul into it, more than anything else he ever did. I think that Neal was a commercial artist, first, last, and always; and sort of dabbled in comics. He’s been more of an influence on comics in the 1980’s than anyone else.

JP: Of course, your work has been a strong influence in the eighties.

BW: Not nearly as much as Neal’s, and nothing like Jack Kirby. We’re talking about the giants of the industry. These are the guys who influenced the people who do the real bread-and-butter comic book stuff, which is, of course, the super heroes. Outside of these couple of graphic novels, I don’t do super heroes. The Spider-Man graphic novel is less of a Spider-Man story than it is a Berni Wrightson monster story with Spider-Man in it.

JP: Would you like to work with Alan Moore or Frank Miller?

BW: I’d like to work with Alan Moore. In fact, I’ve been toying with the idea of approaching DC Comics with a Swamp Thing graphic novel. If I could work with Alan Moore, and have total control over how it looks…

JP: Have you met Alan Moore?

BW: I only know him through his work, and this marvelously flattering thing he wrote for the third Swamp Thing reprint. It’s almost embarrassing for me, it’s so flattering. I felt so good when I read it. I’d really like to work with him. I don’t think there’s anyone in the field writing horror, who’s ever written horror, as well as Alan Moore. His stuff is genuinely creepy. I’ve gotten shivers from a number of his things that I’ve read. I can’t say that about anyone else.

JP: Any comments on DC or Marvel as publishers?

BW: DC and I had a falling-out for a while; it was more of a misunderstanding on everyone’s part. I’ll work for them again. I’d like to work with Julius Schwartz. Marvel is also a good publisher. They tend to want a little more control over their people. I’ve always been outside of that, because I’ve never been a mainstream artist for either company.

JP: Comments on Warren Publishing?

BW: I really admired Jim Warren. I walked into his office and said, “I want to work for you.” And he said, “Here’s my conditions: You work for me and I’ll give you back your originals. I own the printing rights, I’ll always own the printing rights, now and forever. You don’t have a thing to say about what happens to the printing rights. Forget about the rights, you don’t have any rights. On top of that, I’m going to pay you the best money you’ve ever made.” And it was true. He was paying me over $100 a page, which I wasn’t getting from any of the other companies. The money was there when I delivered the work. Maybe the best thing was I didn’t have to worry how the work was going to look when it was printed. They did it in black and white, and the printing was always good. Jim Warren was always fair to me. I wish the man well.

JP: How about Chris Zavisa (Land of Enchantment)?

BW: Never a problem with Chris. I think Chris is gearing up to getting out of the publishing business.

JP: I had heard that his last book (Twilight Eyes) was quite successful.

BW: I thought that it was great. It was very well written. The fellow who illustrated it is just marvelous. He’s still young and he could work a bit more; it’s fundamentally all there. He did some things that I was jealous of in that. The packaging was just beautiful; Chris is essentially a packager. He could take anyone’s work and make it look good. He’s a real stickler about reproduction.

JP: Is Berni Wrightson mellowing?

BW: Sure. Sure I am. I’ve got a beautiful home in the country, I’ve got two cars , got a dog, got a little boy, got a mortgage, I’ve got medical insurance, life insurance…

JP: Sounds like there are still a few more horror stories left in there.

BW: Yeah, I think so.

JP: A Wrightson anthology?

BW: I talk about it from time to time. I’d rather put the energy into one long, sustained story. This anthology stuff – too often you’ve got one really good story, and then several weak stories to fill it out. I think I’d rather work on one long, epic opus. I’ve already got 1 ½ graphic novels under my belt; the second one is coming along much more smoothly than the first one.

JP: And yet, you’re putting more work in.

BW: Exactly. I think the graphic novel is my medium in the comic book business. I’m certainly got going to do the newsstand books again. The reproduction is too iffy, and it’s a little too ephemeral – a throwaway thing. Graphic novels are nice. The reproduction is good. I can color the originals, which I really like. You can stretch that as far as you want; you can take it to a full-scale painting if you want to. The best thing about it is, it has an almost indefinite shelf life. If there’s a demand, it’s reprinted. On a second printing, my percentage goes up. (On Hooky) I heard the advance orders are 60,000. The Death of Captain Marvel is still their champ. That did so incredibly well in the first year, that Starlin couldn’t even believe it. He was rolling in money.

JP: Yet he’s not working for Marvel anymore.

BW: He had a lot of problems with Marvel. There’s something strange going on at Marvel. They’re losing their best people. They’ve lost Starlin, they’ve lost John Byrne, they’ve lost Frank Miller.

JP: What does that leave for Marvel?

BW: It leaves the New Universe (Loud laughter)

JP: Tell us about your future projects.

BW: This is the first time in recent memory that I haven’t had anything looming on the horizon.

JP: Because of your commitment on the Thing-Hulk graphic novel?

BW: Right. Part of the problem I had with the Spider-Man graphic novel was a lot of other things kept getting in the way. I had to finish Cycle of the Werewolf; I stopped for a couple of months and work on Ghostbusters; I did some of The Stand drawings; I kept breaking away from the graphic novel. With the Thing-Hulk graphic novel, I haven’t had to do that. One thing that has come along – I’ve met three guys that are special effects makeup people. I’ve done some storyboards with these guys for a movie called My Demon Lover, a horror comedy. It’s a low-budget thing. They want good demons and monsters for practically no money, and we’re trying to come up with that.

JP: So movies are in your future?

BW: I hope so, yeah. It would be fun.

JP: You’re not going “Hollywood” on us?

BW: I wouldn’t go to Hollywood. I’ve never been there, but everybody I’ve ever known who’s been there has just kind of gone and never been seen again. We lived in Florida for a year; it got very depressing. There’s no change of season – everything is constant. I just kept thinking California is probably like this, this changelessness. I really couldn’t take it. I like having a really stinking hot summer, followed by a beautiful fall, and then, an extremely hard winter. I enjoy that. It’s kind of purging.

JP: Any other new projects?

BW: This is really amazing. I didn’t think about it until you mentioned it, but there’s just nothing in the works. I’m sure in the next three months, I’m going to be scrambling for something.

JP: Thank you, very much, Berni, for the interview.

BW: Just in time (for Cheers).

And there it ends, almost 21 years later.

An Interview with Berni Wrightson part 2

continued from part 1

JP: Why haven’t you continued to do the covers for The Roots of the Swamp Thing Series?

BW: Initially, because they wouldn’t let me do paintings, and how many times can you deal with those same situations, and make them different and interesting. It’s leftovers, and I really would rather not deal with leftovers.

JP: Yet on your cover for TROTST #1, you went well beyond anything you had done before.

BW: Yeah, I had fun, because they were letting me do something different. I could play with it and experiment; jump in and do something that didn’t have a black line around it and lots of fancy feathering. I could just use a big brush and have fun and play with color. Everything is a learning process. If you don’t learn, you don’t grow.

JP: You start repeating yourself.

BW: Which I’ve been doing a lot of in the last few years, I’d be the first to admit.

JP: There’s a balance between art and commerce.

BW: Yeah, well, I take things on for the money, because I do this for a living.

JP: You’ve been known to get over-committed before.

BW: Oh yeah. I try to help people out sometimes. Like Creepshow was more of a favor to Stephen King.

JP: It must have been a nice shot in the arm for your career?

BW: Not really. It was certainly not my best work. I think it was several cuts below. I really can’t bear to look at it any more. There were a lot of restrictions; we didn’t have a lot of time.

JP: Have you seen Chaykin’s Shadow?

BW: Very briefly – I’ve only seen one issue. I thought it was pretty entertaining, but it wasn’t the Shadow. I’m not as into it as Kaluta, or the real hardcore fans. I’m sort of indifferent, but still, Chaykin’s thing wasn’t the Shadow. I don’t think the character can be updated.



JP: How about Miller’s Dark Knight?

BW: I saw the second issue, the one with the wrinkled Batman on the cover. I enjoyed that. That was a lot of fun. That was Batman. Batman with teeth. That’s a little bit more like what the character should be. I always thought that Batman fought all of these weird psychos, the Joker, the Penguin, and Batman himself is a psycho. Nobody’s ever really explored that in any depth, and Miller’s got a handle on that.

JP: What do you think of Moonshadow?

BW: Moonshadow I find pretty enjoyable. It tends to ramble a lot; it doesn’t hold my interest a whole lot. Maybe I prefer something with a little more punch. You either like fairy tales or you don’t, and I suppose I don’t. Can’t fault Jay’s art. Even in some of the stuff where he’s obviously rushed, he still pulls it off. He still has that assurance to bring it over.
JP: Kaluta and Lee’s Starstruck?

BW: I find it really fun to look at, as all of Michael’s stuff is; I find it difficult to read. Reading it is fun, and it is well written, but I don’t really think I understand it. I know a bit more than the guy on the street because I know Michael and Elaine, and we talk about it. I’ve seen the play. But even with that background, a lot of it is completely lost on me. I get the feeling, sometimes, that Michael doesn’t understand it. Anything that Michael works on is just wonderful.

to be continued in part 3

Images courtesy of the the Grand Comic Book Database.