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Wrightson, Adams, Simonson, Eisner, Zeck pinups (5/89)



Artists Information

Starting out as an amateur, a meeting with Frank Frazetta at a comic convention in 1967 inspired Bernie Wrightson to pursue his dream of becoming a comic book artist, he began working for DC after contributing work samples to Dick Giordano, in the Silver Age he would illustrate short stories in horror anthologies, in one of those tales he invented the Swamp Thing, who would be granted his own title, which Bernie drew the first ten issues of, then he moved over to Warren, known for their macabre content, and grew his fan base, at one point he was living in the same building as Al Milgrom, Howard Chaykin and Walt Simonson. He left comics to form an artist's collective known as 'The Studio' where he would concentrate on posters and lithographs, portfolios and the like, his adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is commonly regarded as his finest achievement. His pen and ink and brush work on this black and white collection is elegant and emotionally resonant. He also collaborated with Stephen King on adapting his work like Creepshow. In later years he did spot work on comics, while continuing his poster work, notably illustrating the popular Batman: The Cult series. He passed away in 2017 after a long battle with brain cancer.

Will Eisner is an American cartoonist, writer and entrepreneur who's one of the earliest cartoonist to contribute to the comics industry. Will is famous for his experiments in content and form in comics as well as popularizing the term "Graphic Novel". Will Eisner's most recognized works are The Spirit and A contract with God.

Mike J. Zeck (born 1949) is an American comic book artist. He is best known for his work for Marvel Comics on such series as Captain America, Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars, Master of Kung Fu and The Punisher, as well as the “Kraven’s Last Hunt” storyline in the Spider-Man titles. He attended the Ringling School of Art in 1967 and after graduation worked at the Migrant Education Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Zeck began his comics career in 1974, doing illustration assignments for the text stories in Charlton Comics’ animated line of comics, which led to work on their horror titles. During this period, he lived briefly in the Derby, Connecticut area where Charlton was headquartered. In 1977, Zeck started working for Marvel Comics on Master of Kung Fu with writer Doug Moench. In 2010, Comics Bulletin ranked Moench and Zeck’s work on Master of Kung-Fu sixth on its list of the “Top 10 1970s Marvels.” Zeck later worked on Captain America and drew covers for G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. Zeck illustrated the Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars limited series in 1984. For this series, he designed a new black-and-white costume temporarily worn by Spider-Man. The plot that developed as a result of Spider-Man’s acquisition of the costume led to the creation of the Spider-Man villain known as Venom. In 1986, Zeck collaborated with writer Steven Grant on a Punisher miniseries which was later collected as The Punisher: Circle of Blood and an original hardcover graphic novel of the character three years later. Zeck illustrated the 1987 Spider-Man storyline “Kraven’s Last Hunt” written by his former Captain America collaborator J.M. DeMatteis, which is considered to be one of the quintessential stories in Spider-Man’s history, as well as the definitive Kraven the Hunter storyline. DeMatteis remarked, “Because Mike nailed the plot elements so perfectly in his pencils - every action, every emotion, was there, clear as a bell - I didn’t have to worry about belaboring those elements in the captions or dialogue. I was free to do those interior monologues that were so important to the story. If any other artist had drawn “Kraven’s Last Hunt” ... it wouldn’t have been the same story.” In 2004, Zeck’s cover of Web of Spider-Man #32, which depicts Spider-Man escaping the grave into which he has been interred by Kraven, was recreated as a 12-inch-tall resin diorama statue by Dynamic Forces. Zeck has worked for DC Comics as well. He contributed to Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe in the mid-1980s. Zeck drew the covers for the “Ten Nights of the Beast” storyline in Batman #417–420 (March–June 1988) and these covers were later collected in a portfolio. His other credits for the publisher include; Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Legends of the DC Universe, and covers for Deathstroke, The Terminator. In 1999, he collaborated with writer Mark Waid on The Kingdom (illustrating issue #2, with Ariel Olivetti illustrating issue #1), a sequel to Kingdom Come.

Walt Simonson is a hugely influential writer/artist who rose to prominence at DC in the 1970's on various War titles and The Metal Men, it was his work on the Detective Comics back-up feature Manhunter with Archie Goodwin that made readers take notice. He would go on to Marvel where he would draw the X-Men/New Teen Titans crossover and have a groundbreaking run on Thor that is considered one of the finest in the long history of the title. He would go on to work on X-Factor, Fantastic Four, and a host of other titles. His own creation, The Star Slammers is a series he has returned to periodically throughout his career, most recently with IDW.