Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Groovy Christmases Past! Black and White Wednesday: "Clarice" by Jones and Wrightson
Season's Greetings, Groove-ophiles! The Groovy Christmas' Past memories keep on truckin' with one of those fabled scary ghost stories of Christmases long, long ago. What better source for such a tale than Warren's Creepy magazine (#77, Christmas 1975), and what better creative duo to supply it than writer Bruce Jones and artist Berni Wrightson? That chill you're about to experience isn't Old Man Winter. It's..."Clarice"!
I don't know if it's a coincidence, or if it were intentional, but the 4 panel grid layout of Wrightson's pages beautifully echoes the four panelled window which is a recurring motif in the story---one of longing, remorse, and expectation. Very effective!
ReplyDeleteGood point, Anonymous - I read this story many times as a kid, but never noticed that.
ReplyDeleteWrightson and writer Nicola Cuti teamed up for "A Martian Saga" in 1976 (published in CREEPY in early '77), and it was similarly poetic and with horizontal panels of equal size to retain the same metre---seems intentional with both stories. Fantastic work!
ReplyDeleteChris A.
ReplyDeleteAs good as Wrightson's post-DC work is for Warren (from 1974-1979), there is surprisingly little of it when you actually track it down. Virtually all of it is collected in the CREEPY PRESENTS BERNIE WRIGHTSON hardcover, and that's only about 140 pages. Which broken down, is 9 stories by Wrightson, that are outstanding Wrightson pencils and inks.
1) CREEPY 62, May 1974, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" 12 pages.
2) CREEPY 63, July 1974, "Jenifer" 10 pages.
3) EERIE 58, July 1974, "The Pepper Lake Monster" 10 pages.
4) EERIE 60, Sept 1974, "Nightfall" 8 pages.
5) EERIE 62, Jan 1975, H.P. Lovecraft's "Cool Air" 7 pages.
6) EERIE 68, Sept 1975, "The Muck Monster" 7 pages.
7) CREEPY 77, Feb 1976, "Clarice" 5 pages.
8) CREEPY 87, March 1977, "A Martian Saga" 6 pages,
and a pin-up page, "Four Classic Martians" 1 page,
plus the cover (panels from "Four Classic Martians")
9) CREEPY 95, Feb 1978, "The Laughing Man" 6 pages.
All of these stories are reprinted in BERNI WRIGHTSON: MASTER OF THE MACABRE 1-3 in 1983, beaautifully colored by Steve Oliff instead of black-and-white, and for my money, in the nicest form.
If you want them in black and white as they originally appeared in the Warren Magazines, you can read them in the CREEPY PRESENTS BERNI WRIGHTSON hardcover (except for "The Muck Monster", which is presented in color as it originally was in 1975 by an unknown colorist, not Oliff colors).
That's 70 pages of stories.
Plus all 33 intro splash pages and covers Wrightson did. Many of them in an odd two-color form, but that is exactly how they appeared in the magazines. A fantastic Wrightson portfolio, many of them suitable for framing.
The remaining 3 are Wrightson inks over other artists, that barely resemble Wrightson's own style. But they are still interesting, both as stories, and as Wrightson collaborations with others.
CREEPY 83, Oct 1976, "Country Pie" Infantino pencils/Wrightson inks, 6 pages
CREEPY 86, Feb 1977, "Dick Swift and His Electric Power Ring", Infantino pencils/Wrightson inks, 9 pages
EERIE 72, Feb 1976, "Reuben Youngblood" Chaykin pencils/Wrightson inks, 10 pages.
In other words, in the end he takes his own life and then she reappears just once, so that he, now in a zombie style, can see her once more... And then, the two of them die forever without being zombies. or anything at all. TRUE?
ReplyDeleteOl Groove here. Your summation makes sense to me, Observing man. I think stories like this (especially in the Groovy Age) were intentionally ambiguous. Same with books and movies at the time.
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