Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein is an illustrated edition of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus with full-page illustrations by American artist Bernie Wrightson.
Publication history
Wrightson used the revised 1831 text of the novel by Mary Shelley and spent seven years drawing over 60 detailed pen-and-ink illustrations. The illustrations themselves are not based upon the Boris Karloff or Christopher Lee movies or any other films, but on the actual book's descriptions of characters and objects. Wrightson also used a period style, saying "I wanted the book to look like an antique; to have the feeling of woodcuts or steel engravings, something of that era" and basing the feel on artists like Franklin Booth, J.C. Coll and Edwin Austin Abbey.[1]
Wrightson has said that it was an unpaid project.
To help fund this labor of love, Wrightson released three portfolios of his Frankenstein illustrations in 1977, 1978, and 1980 in advance of the publication of the full book in 1983.[2][3]