Staff Picks (March): Creepshow GN

Creepshow is an important and deceptively innovative graphic novel that holds a special place in my heart having grown up in suburban Maryland. Published in 1982, the same year Diamond Comics was founded in Baltimore, and illustrated by Baltimore native Bernie Wrightson (then spelled Berni), Creepshow was meta before meta was even a phrase. It is at once a real comic book and a fictitious comic within a movie plot. It is both a purely promotional movie tie-in to George Romero’s film and an authentic homage to the horror genre and EC Comics.

You need only watch the film’s open credits to compare with Bernie’s work on the graphic novel to see how successful he was. In the movie the opening titles appear over panels from a lurid horror comic created as a prop just for the film and are illustrated by actual EC artist Jack Kamen. Kamen was hired to insure the authentic feel for the movie but it is Bernie Wrightson’s real world version created for sale in comic and bookstores that seems infinitely more authentic and true. Wrightson, was at the top of his career when Creepshow came out. That same year Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing movie also released with Wrightson getting writing credit.

— Trevor Richardson

Publisher: Pocket Books
Item Code: MAR171842
Release Date: 5/10/17
SRP: $18.00