Thursday, February 5, 2015

Poe 1974, Pt. 5

(Continued from Poe 1974, Pt. 4)

CREEPY 62  /  BERNIE WRIGHTSON: MASTER OF THE MACABRE 1
"THE BLACK CAT"
    
     (COLOR version!)

5 years and 2 months after their last POE adaptation, Warren Publications finally got back into it.  Perhaps someone finally noticed what Al Hewetson was doing with all those Spanish (and South American) artists over at Skywald, and thought, "Hey, why don't WE get some of that action?"  Before too long, they would get back into it-- BIG-time.

Starting off, their 7th POE story was...

     "THE BLACK CAT".

     This was the 12th version of this story, following...
Charlton's YELLOWJACKET COMICS #1 (Sep'44),
EC's THE HAUNT OF FEAR #15 [1] (May-Jun'50),  
St. John's NIGHTMARE #12 (Apr'54), 
Outubro's CLASSICOS DE TERROR #14 (1961),  
Dell's Movie Classic TALES OF TERROR (Feb'63),  
Taika's PAGINAS SINISTRAS #3 (1966)
Novaro's VIDAS ILUSTRES #195 (Oct'68), 
Gino Sansoni's I CLASSICI A FUMETTI #17 (Sep'69),
Ibero Mundial's DOSSIER NEGRO #17 (Aug'70),
Ibero Mundial's MAESTROS DEL TERROR #3 (1970), and
Edrel's REVISTA DE TERRROR #13 (1972)
     ...the last one some 5 years earlier!

The art for this was by one of the great MASTERS of horror comics art of the 1970s and 80s, Bernie Wrightson.  He really made his rep on DC's SWAMP THING, and a decade later, adapted George Romero & Stephen King's anthology film CREEPSHOW as a full-color graphic novel. In between he did a lot of work for a variety of publishers, including Warren.

This version of the story has proven so popular,
it has been reprinted several times.

Pacific Comics was one of the early "independant" comics publishers that was heavily involved in the "Direct Market" in the early 1980s.  One of their mini-series collected the works of Berni Wrightson, with COLOR added!

Does Steve Oliff's color enhance the art-- or smother it? You be the judge...

BERNI WRIGHTSON: MASTER OF THE MACABRE  1
cover by BERNI WRIGHTSON   (Pacific Comics  /  June 1983)
"THE BLACK CAT"  /  Version 12
Adaptation & Art by BERNI WRIGHTSON  /  COLOR by Steve Oliff  /  Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Copyright (C) 1983 Warren Publishing Co.

Scans of BERNI WRIGHTSON: MASTER OF THE MACABRE #1
     from my collection.

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa

For more:
Read about Edgar Allen Poe at Wikipedia.

Read about James Warren at Wikipedia.
Read about Warren Publishing at Wikipedia.
Read about Berni Wrightson at Wikipedia.
Read about Pacific Comics at Wikipedia.

Read about Basil Rathbone at Wikipedia.
Read about THE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER at Wikipedia.
Read about Norman Rose at Wikipedia.

Read about THE BLACK CAT at Wikipedia.
Read the complete story at the Poe Stories site.
See the BLACK CAT Gallery of Illustrations.

     Audio:
Hear the Peter Lorre MYSTERY IN THE AIR episode!
Hear the Basil Rathbone recording!
Hear the Norman Rose CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER episode!


     Comics:
Read the Bill Allison BLACK CAT adaptation!
Read the Johnny Craig BLACK CAT adaptation!
Read the St. John Publishing BLACK CAT adaptation!
Read the Luiz Saidenberg BLACK CAT adaptation!

Read the Fran Matera BLACK CAT adaptation!
 

Read the Juarez Odilon BLACK CAT adaptation!
Read the Editorial Novaro BLACK CAT adaptation!
Read the Gino Dauro BLACK CAT adaptation!
Read the Miguel Gomez Esteban BLACK CAT adaptation!   (coming soon!)
Read the Arturo Arnau BLACK CAT adaptation!   (coming soon!)
 

Read the Claudio Seto BLACK CAT adaptation!   (coming soon!)
Read the Berni Wrightson BLACK CAT adaptation!
Read the Ricardo Villamonte BLACK CAT adaptation!

See my Edgar Allan Poe overview at this very blog!

(Continued in Poe 1974, Pt. 6)

1 comment: