B. Krigstein, Volume 1

From Booklist
Comic-book artists are slowly receiving at least a modicum of regard from a traditionally disdainful public, yet one of the most accomplished is still largely unknown, even to most fans. Bernard Krigstein drew comics for less than a decade 50 years ago but in that brief time created some of the most innovative stories the medium has ever seen. In the first of two volumes on him, Sadowski shows that the fine-arts-trained Krigstein entered comics out of expediency. Refusing, however, to accept traditional distinctions between high and low culture, he quickly committed himself to the medium. Krigstein's reputation is based mainly on his stories for the EC comics, but Sadowski shows that his other work is also extraordinary. Superb reproductions, including six complete stories, display Krigstein's talent better than the cheaply printed periodicals in which it emerged ever did. Too strong-willed and idiosyncratic to last long in the highly commercialized comics world, Krigstein left it in 1957. Sadowski makes one believe that comics might have evolved differently had he stayed. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Comic Shops News, Cliff Biggers, 8 January 2002
[T]he most comprehensive analysis of one man's comic art career that the industry has ever seen.


S. A. Bennett, Comics Buyer's Guide, 7 December 2001
Indispensable and definitive, this is the last word on the subject....Grade: A.


Robert Scott, Comics Buyer's Guide, 7 December 2001
This book should be mandatory reading for anyone wishing to be a "professional" artist. Grade: A+.


Jeremy Schorr, Comics Buyer's Guide, 7 December 2001
[W]ell-deserved and long overdue. Essential reading. Grade: A.


Atomic, Fall 2002, Lloyd Chesley
[C]opious writings by Krigstein and interviews with many peers, friends, and family...a fine art book about a fine comics artist.


Austin Chronicle, Marc Savlov, 16 August 2002
[S]uperb and lavishly illustrated biography....Krigstein finally gets his due in spades, and it looks damn snappy on the coffee table.


Library Journal, 1 September 2002
In this lavish, over-sized, full-color hardcover, Sadowski presents a biography of Krigstein and a critical assessment of his work....Highly recommended.


Tony Isabella, "Tony's Tips," Comics Buyer's Guide #1493, 28 June 2002
Once you start reading, you won't want to put it down....[A] masterpiece.


Book Description
The first comprehensive retrospective of one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century, who began his career as one of the most innovative comic book creators of his generation. A gigantic retrospective/biography/critical assessment of one of the most important cartoonists in the history of comics, who went on to become a renowned fine artist and teacher in New York. The author had full access to Bernard Krigstein's archives and files and has written a compelling biography of the artist from his childhood in New York to his days as a comics artist from the late '40s to the early '60s, and through his post-comics career as a fine artist, commercial illustrator, and teacher. Krigstein is renowned as one of the great innovators working within the commercial comics industry: his story about a Nazi commandant, "Master Race," published by the legendary EC Comics, is studied in college courses and considered one of the most fascinating formal experiments in comics. This book reproduces many of Krigstein's comics stories as well as many of his commercial assignments (such as the line of paperback covers he did for the reissues of Joyce Cary's novels) as well as his fine art paintings. Most of this work has never been seen outside its original publication. Most of the comics stories are obscure and have not been reprinted since their initial publication (mostly from the '50s) and his fine art has only appeared in galleries and exhibitions. Krigstein (1919-1990), classically trained in Fine Art, was a Brooklyn-born painter who was one of the first practitioners who approached comics with the respect, integrity, and psychological depth of a serious artist. After an innovative and contentious decade, he was forced to abandon the field due to its narrow-minded and formulaic tendencies, which continue to this day. This first of two volumes traces Krigstein's groundbreaking comic-book work at Hillman, Atlas, DC, and EC, as well as his parallel development as an illustrator and painter.


About the Author
Greg Sadowski is a freelance designer and typographer and lives in Hoboken, NJ. This is his first book.


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[T]he most comprehensive analysis of one man's comic art career that the industry has ever seen.


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