(Last updated July 11, 2005)
Dear art lovers, book lovers, and Frankenstein
fanatics everywhere,
Darkwoods Press is extremely proud and excited to
announce an important and (we feel) long-overdue event in publishing.
Darkwoods will be pulling out all the stops to create a very
high-quality limited edition of Mary Shelley’s classic novel
Frankenstein, with breath-taking illustrations by artist Bernie
Wrightson.
Yes, it’s been published before. So why this
edition? How will it be different from what came before? What makes it
so special? The answer is…everything. There are many reasons to
do this, but primary among those reasons will be the unprecedented,
no-holds-barred quality of the book…especially when it comes to
the reproduction of the art itself.
If you are familiar with Bernie’s illustrations of
Mary Shelley’s novel, then you are aware that these 60 or so pen & ink
masterpieces stand as the high-water mark of his amazing career: they
are his masterwork, his magnum opus, his Sistine Chapel. Get some art
lovers in a room talking about Frankenstein, and you’ll see a
level of devotion to an artist and a reverence for his work that can
only be described as obsessive and rare.
But even those who love Bernie’s Frankenstein art
may not be aware how poorly this amazing body of work has been presented
in the past. Those of us lucky enough in life to have seen any of the
originals with our own eyes have always bemoaned how badly they’ve
appeared in past editions, all of which were cheaply done books with the
art reproduced indifferently at best (a polite way of saying really
crappy). These past editions were clearly more concerned about saving
money in printing and production costs than actually doing honor to
Bernie’s art or giving the art lovers and book collectors something
truly spectacular.
Well, we’re going to right that wrong at long last.
We’re going to blow all previous editions of the book into the trash
where they belong. We’re going to do justice to Bernie’s greatest work
in a way that will take your breath away.
To mark the 25th Anniversary of the
original publication, Darkwoods will release an extremely high-quality
limited edition book featuring brand new reproductions taken from
the original art. Instead of the “line repros” we’ve been
subjected to all these years (which makes the art look like a bad black
& white Xerox), the new reproductions will employ the latest in
scanning technology. This is the same technology used to create "Giclée"
prints, which are absolutely incomparable in their ability to reproduce art faithfully—in
fact, it’s often impossible to tell the difference between a Giclée
print and the original art, even when viewed side by side!
The art in the book will be half-tone offsets from
these new scans, which will give us nuances and gray tones you’ve never
even suspected existed in Bernie’s Frankenstein pieces. You’ll be able
to see subtle variations in those black areas you’ve never seen before,
you’ll find complexity and detail in his delicate line work that has
previously been missing—in short, you’ll feel like you’re seeing the art
for very first time.
Oh, and here’s another thing that’ll blow your
mind: the new reproductions will be done at the
actual size of the originals, making for a HUGE and gorgeous
book. While previous editions have provided us reduced versions of the
art, the Darkwoods limited edition will present them at the same size
that Bernie drew them: 11 by 16 inches. (The book itself will measure
roughly 15 by 20 inches!)
And here’s the other stunning thing we’ve got up
our sleeves that totally justifies calling this the ULTIMATE edition of
Frankenstein: unlike previous editions—which excluded about a
third of the finished pieces—the Darkwoods edition will include
every piece Bernie ever did for the project! The entire body of work!
That means all the previously unpublished pieces will appear here for
the first time alongside the published ones! Some of these
unused pieces (several of which are hailed by collectors as the best
pieces Bernie did, period) appeared in A Look Back, some
were done as prints in the three Frankenstein portfolios
published years ago, some can be glimpsed in The Lost Frankenstein
Pages paperback…but they will all be included in this
Darkwoods edition, together in one place for the first time! It will be
a dream come true for the purists and completists among us!
In addition to Mary Shelley’s novel and Bernie
Wrightson’s art, the Darkwoods edition will expand into new territories
undreamt of by previous editions. There will be an addendum section
featuring a slew of additional never-before-seen Frankenstein art by
Bernie: half-finished pieces, concept sketches (some of which are fine
finished pencils—works of art in themselves), figure studies and
layouts, even some art Bernie did when he was a kid…in short, anything
and everything “Frankenstein” by Bernie that we can get our hands on! We
are encouraging art collectors who have any of this material to get in
touch with us so that we may consider including their pieces—we need
your help putting this book together! (We’ll talk more about that later
in the announcement, but we promise you’ll be impressed by the people
who have already volunteered their art for inclusion!)
The book will also include an in-depth essay
written by Bernie Wrightson about his life-long love of Frankenstein,
the experience of doing this project, the challenges and frustrations
involved, the satisfactions derived. This will be a very rare and very
intimate look into the mind of an incomparable artist examining his
life’s finest work.
While it is still too early to determine the exact
number of books in this edition, we are considering the following print
run (these numbers may be subject to change as we get closer to the
publication date):
400 signed and numbered cloth-bound copies, with
slipcase.
52 signed and lettered copies bound in goatskin,
with traycase. (Lettering will be A through Z, then AA through ZZ.) For
this rarer and more deluxe edition, we’re considering adding a
never-before-seen color piece tipped in by hand—it’s the only
color prelim Bernie ever did for the project, and is taken from his
original 70’s-era sketchbook of Frankenstein ideas and layouts.
PLUS: We will be doing an ultra-limited
edition in goatskin with Roman numerals, not for sale to the
public. There will be only a handful of these made as presentation
copies exclusively for the art collectors who are kind enough to loan us
their Frankenstein originals for reproduction. Instead of just a
signature, these few books will have a personal handwritten inscription
of thanks from Bernie to each individual collector who helped make this
book happen.
Which brings us to the people we’ve dubbed The
Frankenstein Group—namely, the art collectors who are helping make this
dream a reality:
The people who have thus far generously agreed to
loan us their original Frankenstein art for reproduction are Stephen
King (author), Guillermo Del Toro (filmmaker), Frank
Darabont (filmmaker), Kevin Kutchaver (visual effects
artist), Joe Maddelena (owner of Profiles In History auctions),
Albert Moy (art dealer), Ken Danker (art dealer), Tom
Horvitz (art dealer), Mike Shields (teacher), Scott
Williams (comic book inker), Jim Young (software designer),
Ted Latner (business analyst/project manager), David Mandel
(screenwriter), Bill Howard (slayer of dragons, rider of
Harleys), Henry Baba (computer trainer/installer), Allen
Spiegel (artist representative/publisher and teacher), Henry Huie,
Sam Hughes, John Stangeland and Conrad Eschenberg.
(UPDATE! We’re welcoming the following new members who have
joined us very recently:
John Stangeland,
Hari Naidu, M.D.,
John Yon, Stephen John Ferzoco, M.D.,
Michael Kaluta, M3 Sweatt, and Al Milgrom. Our
deepest thanks to them!)
The response so far has been tremendous and,
actually, quite moving. Every single collector we’ve found has jumped on
board without hesitation. Everybody wants to see this happen—not only
for love of this art, but also for Bernie’s sake. Everybody wants to see
his finest work honored in this way. In fact, he’s sort of like George
Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life…everybody’s rushing in to help
and show him how much they love him.
And here’s the good news: even though we’ve
just gotten started, we already have 46 of Bernie’s finished
Frankenstein pieces (published and unpublished) accounted for and
committed for reproduction—that’s over two thirds of the sixty or so
pieces we’re looking for!
Obviously, a project of this scope requires an
enormous amount of effort on our part to track down all the original art
for reproduction. It’s a huge undertaking, and may take us the next few
years to get it done (hopefully not, though—we’d love to publish the
book just as soon as all the art is found!). And we could certainly use
your help.
If you own any Bernie Wrightson Frankenstein
originals, published or not, we are anxious to hear from you! Please
join The Frankenstein Group (it’s a pretty exclusive club, as you can
see) and help make this dream a reality! Your art will be handled like
the Crown Jewels—as art collectors and lovers ourselves, we know how
precious these pieces are and we will treat them accordingly…the way
we’d want our art treated.
Whether you own any originals or not, please help
us spread the word on the art collector grapevine. Beat those jungle
drums! Send up those smoke signals! If you know people who have
originals, please ask them to get in touch with us, or drop us a line
and let us know how we can get in touch with them. In short—if
you see a Frankenstein original surface at auction, or your pal in Des
Moines owns one, or one falls out of a tree and bonks you on the head…let
us know!
Our contact info:
Liz Wrightson can be reached at:
mail@wrightsonsfrankenstein.com
Denise Huth can be reached at:
query@wrightsonsfrankenstein.com
(please contact only if you have information regarding a Frankenstein
original)
Either of these ladies can help you, but please
send your email to both of them to make sure we don’t miss your
message.
Finally, please be aware that we are not
taking orders at this time. It is still early in what will be a
very long process of compiling materials, and it is impossible to say at
this point exactly what the book will cost in either the cloth-bound or
deluxe goatskin editions. An announcement will of course be made down
the road once the question of cost is determined, at which time we will
be in a position to take orders for the book.
However...
If you would like to put your name on a “yes, I
think I might be seriously interested in buying one when the time comes”
list, please let Liz know. There would be no obligation on
your part to purchase a book…but if you’re serious about considering it
(and please bear in mind, they will be expensive), give Liz your
name, email address and phone number, and ask her to put
you on the list. (This list may also prove helpful to us in trying to
determine the number of books we’ll be producing.)
Thank you all! We hope you share our excitement at
the prospect of Bernie Wrightson’s FRANKENSTEIN: THE ULTIMATE EDITION
becoming one of the most beautiful and highly prized limited-edition
books ever produced!
Sincerely yours,
Darkwoods Press
|
