Colouring Book Theatre: Bernie Wrightson's Monsters

Turning over the reins to the ever talented Rob Kelly, creator of the Aquaman Shrine among many other awesome comic related blogs such as All in Black and White for Seventy Five Cents which explores Warren publications, which is what we have here today. Take it away Rob!

Will Eisner’s The Spirit Coloring Book wasn’t the only odd coloring book offered for sale in the back of Warren mags:.

Always solicited alongside Eisner’s effort was a coloring book from another comics master, this one at the very eve of his career: Berni Wrightson.

Berni Wrightson, with his intricate line work and obsessive cross-hatching, seems like an odd choice to headline a coloring book, but again, like Eisner’s, this book was clearly aimed at the older, comics collector audience. And if the cover didn’t tell you this book wasn’t made for kids, maybe the opening page would:

“…Mommy, what color is the inside of someone’s skull?”
The book is made up of fifteen “plates”–single-sided, page-size illustrations highlighting a particular gruesome character. There’s a Ghoul:

A, ahem, “Swamp Creature”:

As well as a vampire, a glob, a mummy, a werewolf, a cyclops, Frankenstein, a plant monster, a zombie, goblins, the creeping dead, an axe-murderer(fun!), a witch, and my favorite, a gun-totin’ alien:

Each piece also comes with a little goofy poem describing each creature. Since the opening page says the text is copyright comics pioneer Phil Seuling, I have to assume he wrote these wonderful, EC-style ditties:

The book measures a whopping 11×17″, which is a perfect size to enjoy all of the detail Wrightson put in his work. It makes me long for a classic Swamp Thing treasury comic–that would’ve been a sight to behold!

A very fun book, and I guess perfect for a kid who loves monsters and horror. Though at the prices this book commands on eBay, I don’t think anyone would hand this treasure over to some crayola-mad tyke.

Got a colouring book you’d like to guest review? Drop me a line!
Previous Colouring Book Theatre Entries can be found here.
Coming Next Week: Superman! (perhaps?)

Links of Interest: 1982 Ben Cooper Catalog

Treasury Comics dot com (another RK production which catalogs all the tabloid sized comics of the 70’s)