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Take a look at this version of the same page, but by Wrightson alone:
https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?Piece=310068&GSub=0&GCat=25829&UCat=25829
I've also seen a third drawing of the driver with the horse and carriage by Wrightson, but at a greater distance, and with rats in the foreground. Makes one wonder why he attempted this page three times, then never finished the story.
I suspect yours is the first attempt at this story by Wrightson, but take a look at this version of the same page:
https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1611012
I've also seen another Wrightson drawing of the driver with the horse and carriage, but at a greater distance away, and with rats in the foreground. I wonder why he had three attempts at the same page, then never finished the story?
This page appears to be entirely pencilled and inked by Berni Wrightson. Jones did not work on every page of #9, but helped out when Berni fell behind on deadline.
Great page! While I loved Wrightson's lush brushwork, he used a lot of pen and ink on this issue, because he felt he had fallen into some rendering patterns with brush that were becoming stale (for him). I see this issue as a bridge to his Warren work, especially considering the intricate pen-and-ink work he did on Poe's "The Black Cat," his first solo story for Creepy #62 in early 1974.
As I understand it, Berni helped Mike Kaluta with a lot of pencilling and inking on The Shadow #3 as well as House of Mystery #221's "He Who Laughs Last", and for reasons not quite clear, Swamp Thing #9 was late (because of whom or what?), so Wrightson pencilled and inked the first ten pages, and Jeffrey Jones helped him with much of the inks in the following ten pages. This one appears to have been entirely inked by Jones. While Jones was a great artist, I miss some of the lush rendering Wrightson would have put into a page like this.
Beautiful find, but I suspect it was actually the original splash for "Dark Genesis" in #1. Why? For starters, Wrightson stopped adding the little cut next to Swampy's nasal cavity after #7. In #8, 9, & 10 is is no longer there. Secondly, the rendering on his forearms is more reminiscent of what Berni did in #1. He didn't really use that kind of horizontal hatching on the character's forearms and hands after #1. Hope this helps!
Actually, Berni Wrightson drew this in 1975, and it appeared in the "Dear Cousin Eerie..." letters column in Eerie #72, cover dated February, 1976. He did a lot of Creepy and Eerie portrait heads in 1974 and 1975 which were often in the opening of other artists' stories for the Warren magazines.
Best regards,
Alec
Great to see this in black and white! It was published in color (see link below) and the linework was obliterated (uncharacteristic for Warren's printing, I must say) on the title page of this Rich Corben story for Eerie #62, cover dated January, 1975 (so that means Wrightson drew this Eerie piece in late 1974):
https://tinyurl.com/4nmezd54
Best regards,
Alec
Why this sort of piece was left unfinished is a mystery to me. Wrightson was certainly not working on spec at this point in his career. Perhaps he put it aside to concentrate on the BADTIME STORIES anthology. It is interesting to note that there is no work number on this page (like J-295, for instance, if it had been slated by editor Joe Orlando for inclusion in an issue of HOUSE OF MYSTERY).
This story was first mentioned in the lettercol of a 1971 issue of HOUSE OF MYSTERY as an upcoming Wrightson piece. It must have been shelved, then brought back out when Kaluta worked on it with Berni (shortly after their collaboration on THE SHADOW #3 in 1973.
Thank you for your kind comments. I drew this 16 page story in two weeks back in March, 1993. These days I publish Christian graphic novels under my Calvary Comics imprint: www.calvarycomics.com Best regards, Alec <><
