Bernie Wrightson, 1948-2017

    This morning I saw the sad news that the world of comics and illustration has lost one of the great ones -- Bernie Wrightson has passed away.

    Way back in the early to mid-1970's, I -- as a comic book geek and aspiring comic book creator -- had the good fortune to be hired by the late, great Norman Witty of Northampton, MA, to work in his used book and comic book store, Omega Books, and even go to a few comic conventions with him as well (my first experiences with such). I got my first original Jack Kirby page at one of these shows, a cool Vince Colletta-inked page from "The Mighty Thor", a piece I still have, and treasure.

    I learned a lot about comics and comic art from Norman during those years, and and although many details of my life back then are a bit fuzzy, one thing I remember very distinctly was his pointing out the artwork of Bernie Wrightson in one of the first issues of "Swamp Thing" from DC Comics, a book which was getting "hot" at that point in time among collectors, with the first issue being a real collectors' item, in large part because of the uniqueness and high quality of Wrightson's artwork. Norman directed my attention to a number of small panels on one page, expressing his opinion that these small panels were lovely pieces of storytelling art in and of themselves, showing more care and artistry in a few square inches than many other comic book artists would put into whole pages.

    And he was right!

    I was blown away by the care Bernie put into his drawing, and especially his inking, which was lush and precise. I became a big fan of his work, and followed it pretty avidly through most of my subsequent comics-buying years. I was even lucky enough to find (if I am remembering correctly, with the help of TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman) and purchase a beautiful full-color piece of his work featuring my favorite dinosaur, Triceratops. It now hangs in my studio.

    As fans of his art know, Bernie went on to do a lot more amazing work. His illustrations for "Frankenstein" probably represent a high point in his career -- imaginative, amazingly detailed and almost superhumanly inked with a fluid precision which still boggles my mind.

    He will be missed. -- PL

    P.S. The illustration I chose for this post is my hand-drawn copy of one of Bernie Wrightson's wonderful drawings from his run on "Swamp Thing", one of a number of such pieces that I did on wood back in the 1970's. I would pick favorite artwork from comics and do my best to carefully reproduce them by hand in pencil, ink and color on 3/4 inch pine boards. Then, using the tools at the UMass wood shop, I would carefully cut out the figures with, typically, a combination of band saw and jigsaw, then cover the edges and back with black ink, finishing with several coats of protective polyurethane.

    This particular example, created circa 1975, was actually owned by the aforementioned Norman WItty, who was a great admirer of the work of Bernie Wrightson. I'm not sure if I sold it to him or gave it to him, but apparently he liked it enough to keep it in his collection until he passed away a few years ago.

    (The photo here comes from an eBay listing for the piece from 2014.)

Norman Witty

A few days ago, I was apprised via emal that my old friend Norman Witty had passed away this week.

Norman (I never called him -- or heard him called -- "Norm") was a collector of and dealer in comics, records, books, magazines, and original artwork, among other things, operating out of his building on upper Main Street in Northampton, MA. I met him during my college years, when I would occasionally come over from Amherst to Northampton to shop for second-hand comics (the ones I could afford, that is) at his store, Omega Books. I remember that Norman was an admirer of Jack Kirby's work, and this led me into conversation with him. Eventually, I guess Norman thought I was smart enough to work for him on a part-time basis as a clerk in Omega Books, which was kind of a dream job for me.

I learned a lot from Norman in those years about comics, and comic art, and things collectible. I remember him showing me old magazines he would buy and sell to collectors, pointing out the beautiful painted artwork by illustrators such as J.C. Lyendecker. The first comic book convention I ever went to was in New York City, and I went there with Norman to work at his table in the dealers' room. I think it was at that convention where, with Norman's assistance (he pointed me in the direction of the dealer who had the art), I got my first piece of comic book art, a page from "The Mighty Thor" featuring artwork by Jack Kirby (inked by Vince Colletta), a page which I still have and still treasure.

I think I worked part-time for Norman for a couple of years, and during that period I would occasionally do drawings for him to be used in advertisements for Omega Books. Norman encouraged me in my pursuit of an illustration career, though he was always frank about when a drawing of mine was substandard, and I appreciated that.

One thing I remember doing for Norman during those years was helping him make the store sign for Omega Books which hung on the facade of his building. At the time, I still had access to the wood shop over at UMass, and I used that access to the power saws there to cut large letters out of masonite, letters making up the words "Omega Books", which would be mounted on a long strip of masonite and painted. (If memory serves, the "O" in "Omega" was actually the Greek symbol for Omega, Ω.) I think that sign stayed on the outside of the building for several years, and I remember looking at it from time to time and wishing I'd been more precise about the cutting I'd done around some of the letters.

When I moved away to New Hampshire and then to Connecticut, I lost touch with Norman, but when I moved back to the Northampton area I would occasionally run into him in town. He was getting increasingly hard of hearing in his later years, so it was harder to have a conversation with him, but it was always worth it, as Norman always had something interesting to say. -- PL

P.S. The photo above is of Kevin Eastman and Norman at a San Diego Comicon, probably in the mid-1980's. I apologize for the poor quality and wish I had a better one of Norman, but that's actually the ONLY one I have of him, as far as I know.