Wrightson - Captain Sternn and the Space Pirates - Alien Spaceship Panel

When I first saw this come up on eBay, I tried to find out something more about the art, but fell short other than the seller's description. The piece is fairly small measuring only 9" x 9", but fully inked and signed.

I had put in a higher bid, but no one else bid at all so I got it for a pretty fair opening price, of course... that's if you can ever really determine what's fair!

Well, for me, this was fair when I base it against other pieces I've purchased, seen sell, and offered currently. Then, on top of this, I found this piece published on page 353 of "Bernie Wrightson: A Look Back". Given the publishing date and the immediately following quote from Zavisa, I'd think it safe to place a date on this around 1978-79....

"Inspired by Star Wars, Wrightson set out to write and illustrate his own 32 page space opera. The book was to be published in color and issued by Tyrannosaurus Press. CAPTAIN STERNN AND THE SPACE PIRATES was also to be a pleasant diversion from the serious work of illustrating FRANKENSTEIN. Wrightson completed about eight pages and decided that by the time he could finish it, the STAR WARS craze would have long vanished."

In my book, Wrightson is an awesome visionary, but I think his vision may have fallen a little short regarding the impact Star Wars would have on the world. Not that I can blame him, it was some ten years after the films release before I saw any of the pictures myself.

Of the eight pages shown in "A Look Back", this is the only page I've ever seen come up for sale and I'm very proud to have this opportunity to add it into my collection.

The picture on eBay which I'm using here was fairly small, so I'll get a larger definition picture of this up here sometime after I get the art in hand.

Merry Christmas to all,

-Vaughn

Update 12/27/2013:

Received this today having been put in the mail to me on Christmas Eve. Per David's original description, there is some light penciling discernible on the panel, but in a way it adds to the overall picture. David also went on to tell me he and several of his friends picked up the majority of the panels which had already been dissected from a larger format board.

He happened to still have the original nearly full splash of the main page "Captain Sternn and the Space Pirates". Since the reference in "A Look Back" had the eight panels Zavisa displayed in a panel by panel format, it's hard to tell when the dissection to place, but being nearly 9" x 9", this must have been a fairly significant piece of the Bainbridge style hardboard it's drawn on?

It's all a mystery to me, except for this panel... which is all I could have hoped for...

Very cool... :)