Black and White Wednesday: "Bernice" by Poe and Villamonte
From the Master of Terror, Edgar Allan Poe, comes "Bernice" adapted and illustrated by Ricardo Villamonte for Skywald's Scream #7 (cover dated July 1974)...
Fabulous story, the Horror Mood at its absolute best, Villamonte does full justice to Poe in this adaptation, scripted, no doubt by Hewetson. Thanks for posting this Groove, my favourite Halloween post so far.
Seems Warren beat them to the punch: Poe's "Berenice" was adapted by Archie Goodwin & drawn by Jerry Grandenetti in Eerie #11 in 1967, & redrawn by Isidro Mones in Creepy #70 in 1975. You can see the latter here:
The decision to depict her teeth as rotten fangs is sensationalist and only serves to undermine Egaeus' obsessive compulsion, which is in fact, the crux of the story. For a superior adaptation see either of the aforementioned Warren versions, both are faithful while still offering a unique perspective. And for an adept example of artistic license see Richard Corben's Berenice from Dark Horse Presents #16 which was later collected in Edgar Allan Poe's Spirits of the Dead in 2014.
I wasn't always a big fan of Jerry Grandenetti's stylized art, but his version of "Berenice" is superb, and vastly superior to Villamonte's version. For those interested in checking out Grandenetti's "Berenice", it can be found here:
This story is actually pretty good considering Skywald's rapid decline into poor artwork and unnecessary gore from issue # 7 of Nightmare and Psycho to the end of their publishing.
Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!
Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.
All other commentary and insanity copyright GroovyAge, Ltd.
As for the rest of ya, the purpose of this blog is to (re)introduce you to the great comics of the 1970s. If you like what you see, do what I do--go to a comics shop, bookstore, e-Bay or whatever and BUY YOUR OWN!
Fabulous story, the Horror Mood at its absolute best, Villamonte does full justice to Poe in this adaptation, scripted, no doubt by Hewetson. Thanks for posting this Groove, my favourite Halloween post so far.
ReplyDeleteSeems Warren beat them to the punch: Poe's "Berenice" was adapted by Archie Goodwin & drawn by Jerry Grandenetti in Eerie #11 in 1967, & redrawn by Isidro Mones in Creepy #70 in 1975. You can see the latter here:
ReplyDeletehttps://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/complete-story/isidro-montes-creepy-70-complete-8-page-story-bernice-original-art-warren-1975-/a/7039-92249.s
Best regards,
Chris A.
The decision to depict her teeth as rotten fangs is sensationalist and only serves to undermine Egaeus' obsessive compulsion, which is in fact, the crux of the story. For a superior adaptation see either of the aforementioned Warren versions, both are faithful while still offering a unique perspective. And for an adept example of artistic license see Richard Corben's Berenice from Dark Horse Presents #16 which was later collected in Edgar Allan Poe's Spirits of the Dead in 2014.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't always a big fan of Jerry Grandenetti's stylized art, but his version of "Berenice" is superb, and vastly superior to Villamonte's version. For those interested in checking out Grandenetti's "Berenice", it can be found here:
ReplyDeletehttp://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2014/12/poe-1967-pt-1.html
Thanks for the link! Interesting ink washes from Grandenetti, & some unusual stylisation & cartooning make it genuinely weird on another level.
DeleteRegards,
Chris A.
This story is actually pretty good considering Skywald's rapid decline into poor artwork and unnecessary gore from issue # 7 of Nightmare and Psycho to the end of their publishing.
ReplyDelete