Born in Baltimore, Maryland, October 27, 1948
A comic book artist, known mostly for SWAMP THING and his illustrations for Frankenstein, Wrightson has proven to be one of the most influential horror and fantasy artists.
At age 20, Berni attended a Science Fiction convention where he met Frank Frazetta, Hal Foster, Micheal kaluta, and Jeffrey Jones, among others. After showing his amateur work he won the "Best New Talent" award. His first professional work appeared in House of Mystery #179. Two years after that Wrightson co-created Swamp Thing with writer Len Wein. He left working on that book after issue 10, and has since touched comics such as Batman, The Punisher, The Weird, Creepshow, and Heavy Metal. He has also worked in Hollywood on conceptual film designs for such movies as Ghostbusters, Spider-Man, The Faculty, and Galaxy Quest.
Rumor has it that while working on illustrations for Frankenstein, Wrightson developed an allergy to ink. As a result of this his best pen and ink work can be found before the late 1970's, although his paintings are stunning throughout his career. Wrightson has always been my favorite artist. My mother, a big Stephen King fan, picked up the comic book adaptation to the movie creepshow when I was very young. Berni Wrightson did all the illustration work on that book. I must have flipped through that book a thousand times, admiring his art. Thus, a love affair began Wrightson's work is usually painstakingly detailed, with long carefully placed lines. There is a lot of negative space use in his work, as his forte is usually horror there are a lot of large black and red shapes used. his work inspired me to pursue a comic book artist career. Although, later, when I saw a photograph of him using a paintbrush for linework on a piece from Frankenstein, I truely began to realize just how talented he is. I've met Berni Wrightson on a few occasions at comic book conventions, and he's always friendly and eager to talk about his work, or just autograph your copy of " Captain Sternn"