Out of all the stuff we came out of Comic-Con Baltimore with this weekend, the crown jewel has gotta be our chat with horror powerhouse and hometown hero Bernie Wrightson.  It’s not just honor to talk to this man, but a privilege.  Since beginning his career as an illustrator for the Baltimore Sun forty-two years ago, Wrightson co-created Swamp Thing, and drawn the likes of Batman, The Hulk, Spider-Man, and the Shadow, and done adaptations of work by Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft.  Lately, he’s also done a fair bit of work with writer Steve Niles.  Wrightson’s biggest achievement, however, must stand as his illustrated accompaniment of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  Wrightson’s career has also crossed over into film, as he’s helped create and design monsters for Ghostbusters, Joss Whedon’s Serenity and Frank Darabont’s The Mist.  Yeah, we know you wanna read on…  Check out the interview below.

What are you working on these days?

I’m going to be starting on a three-issue miniseries for IDW with Steve Niles, it’s called The Ghoul, and I’m going to start working on that as soon as I get back from the show.  In the first week of November, the new 25th anniversary silver edition of Frankenstein is coming out from Dark Horse, and it will be for the first time available at book stores like Barnes & Nobles.  I’ll be doing some signings locally in L.A. where I live.

You’ve worked with Steve Niles a good deal lately.

We did “City of Others” for Dark Horse, then we did Dead, She Said, now we’re doing The Ghoul, and maybe once we get enough characters together we’ll do a monster rally or something.

Can you comment on your designs used in The Mist?

I worked on most of the monsters in the movie.  I thought the movie was great.  We tried to make them (the monsters) as alien as possible.  I’m a monster movie fan, so is the director, Frank Darabont, and we were just trying to do something different.

Do you prefer the black-and-white or color version of the film, both of which can be seen on the new Blu-ray DVD?

I prefer the black-and-white.  From the first time I read the story, for some reason reading it black and white, it played out in my head like a ‘50s monster movie.  Color just doesn’t figure into it.  When I did the conceptual art, it was all in pencil, all in black-and-white.  None of the color choices were mine.  I think Frank felt the same way, I think Frank wanted to make a black-and-white movie, but he knows commercially you can’t make a black-and-white movie anymore.

What is your perception of the current scene in horror?

Personally, I really don’t go to the movies that much anymore.  There’s nothing out there that seems to appeal to me.  I’ve never seen any of the Saw movies, because from the trailers they look like torture films.  I suppose there’s a big audience for them but I’m not one of them.

What is your greatest fear?

In real life I’m afraid of the IRS taking all my money, and being thrown out of my apartment and having to live under a bridge.  I worry about getting sick, seriously ill, or my loved ones.  My fears are very real.  I’m not afraid of the boogeyman.  I know there’s nothing under the bed, or in the closet, or in the dark.  My fears are very real.