Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Marvel Comics | Tagged: bernie wrightson, frank darabont, frankenstein

Frank Darabont Paid Over a Million – You Get a Limited Print of Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein for $150

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2019 14:30:38 -0600

This is a major opportunity for the New Year… an extremely high-quality Giclee print of the late Bernie Wrightson Frankenstein art piece, the original art that appeared on the Marvel Comics adaptation, which recently sold for over a million dollars to Frank Darabont. The 20″ x 30″ artist edition full-size fine-art giclee, limited edition of 300, is just $150, and unlike the sale of the original, the proceeds will go to Bernie's widow, Liz Wrightson.

Earlier this month, the auction house, Profiles in History auctioned "…I Shall Be With You On Your Wedding Night" for a record-breaking $1.2 million dollars. The print was reproduced from a scan of the original artboard, provided by the piece's successful owner Frank Darabont, this is the closest anyone other than Frank can come to owning the original piece.

The piece is of such quality, you can even see the pencil lines under the ink usually only visible on the original art itself, giving you a real sense of Wrightson's process. Here's how the auction house described the original.

Bernie Wrightson's original wrap-around cover artwork for Frankenstein (Marvel, 1983). Accomplished in pencil and ink on large 20×30 in heavyweight art board. Bernie has been called "the greatest horror artist of our time", "the genius who's work has a soul", and "the star who's work other artists chart their courses by". His work exerts profound influence on many of the world's most acclaimed writers, artists, and filmmakers of today. It can also easily be said that the 1983 Marvel publication of Frankenstein is arguably the finest illustrated book of the second half of the 20th century. This adaptation of the novel was painstakingly illustrated over the course of nearly a decade by pen and ink master Bernie Wrightson. We consider this the finest fantasy ink drawing of the 20th century, if not of all time. "…I shall be with you on your wedding night." And with those words, the most chilling line in the novel, came the inspiration for master artist Bernie Wrightson to make that moment in the story the cover image, and the single work he felt would define the artistic level the book would be judged by- a book that was a pure labor of love for him. This would be his Sistine Chapel. The ultra-fine linework detail is, to put it mildly, mind-blowing, with so much of the amazingly delicate work having been achieved through the steady- hand execution of line-by-line via art pen. Looking closely at the face of the monster you can actually feel the mix of his rage and anguish fueled by crazed frustration towards his creator, the cause of his inner pain.

Hand-numbered and embossed in the bottom right corner with Bernie's distinctive "W", this edition is limited to 300 copies worldwide. Printed on archival acid free 100% cotton rag natural white paper, with archival inks, produced in-house at the Nakatomi Print Labs. Prints will ship within 4 weeks of the release date and all orders should arrive by the end of January. The print can be purchased here. If someone is looking to buy you a present for Christmas and is at a loss, why not send them this link?