Tomb of Dracula #43 - mis-attributed Bernie Wrightson cover

Bernie Wrightson
Tomb of Dracula v1 #43, 1976Bernie Wrightson, an undisputed master of horror comics, sadly under-performs on this gothic romance-themed cover. His brilliant use of shadows to increase depth and interest is noticeably absent. Dracula's outstretched arm is clumsily foreshortened and oddly proportioned. Comic book guides credit Wrightson with the entire cover, but the figure drawings are inconsistent with his style (the penciller is more likely Ed Hannigan). Adding to the confusion is Wrightson's sole signature on the bottom right corner. Other artists in this issue include Gene Colan and Tom Palmer. This is 1 of 1 Tomb of Dracula issues by Wrightson. /// Wrightson gallery
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Wrightson cover inks (Ed Hannigan pencils) = *

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Tomb of Dracula #43 - mis-attributed Bernie Wrightson cover Tomb of Dracula #43 - mis-attributed Bernie Wrightson cover Reviewed by Ted F on 9:44 AM Rating: 5

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think Wrightson did this alone. The female's hair is not at all his style, nor is the drapery on the Count. He probably wanted to foreshortened the arm, but another artist 'corrected' that when inking Drac's cape.

Britt Reid said...

Many of the Marvel covers in this period were modified in-house, usually by art director John Romita Sr or Marie Severin.
It wasn't unusual to see even Kirby's Captain America or Thor faces altered.
In this case, the woman's face is clearly Romita.
The left arm and cape isn't in Wrightson's style, though the hand is.

John said...

My first thought was a Romita revision, too. There's too many careless aspects to this image for it to be all Wrightson. Good post!

Nick Caputo said...

I believe this is solo-Wrightson, but as others have mentioned, alterations by Romita are apparent. It is also possible that this looks like someone other than Wrightson on pencils because he was following a cover preliminary by another artist, likely Romita or Dave Cockrum, which was the standard at that time.

Nick Caputo said...

Wrightson is also solo credited as artist in The Comic Reader # 126.

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