Messages in a Bottle Paperback by B. (Bernard) Krigstein

Product Details

• Publisher: Fantagraphics (2013-03-20)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 272 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781606995808
• Item Weight: 368.55 grams
• Dimensions: 0.0 x 0.0 x 0.0 cm

This compilation of “cartoonist’s cartoonist” Bernard Krigstein’s comics for EC and many other publishers spans many genres.

Bernard Krigstein began his career as an unremarkable journeyman cartoonist during the 1940s and finished it as a respected fine artist and illustrator — but comics historians know him for his explosively creative 1950s, during which he applied all the craft, intelligence and ambition of a burgeoning “serious” artist to his comics work, with results that remain stunning to this day. Krigstein’s legend rests mostly on the 30 or so stories he created for the EC Comics, but dozens of stories drawn for other, lesser publishers such as Rae Herman, Hillman, and Atlas (which would become Marvel) showcase his skills and radical reinterpretation of the comics page, in particular his groundbreaking slicing and dicing of time lapses through a series of narrow, nearly animated panels. Greg Sadowski, who has previously written and designed a Harvey Award-winning biography of Krigstein, has assembled the very best of Krigstein’s comics work, starting with his earliest creative rumblings, through his glory days at EC, to his final, even more brilliantly radical stories for Atlas Comics — running through every genre popular at the time, be it horror, science fiction, war, western, or romance (but no super-heroes). Legendary EC colorist Marie Severin, in her last major assignment before her retirement, has recolored 15 stories for this edition. The remainder has been taken from printed comics, digitally restored with subtlety and restraint. This edition reprints the out-of-print 2004 hardcover B. Krigstein Comics, with a number of stories re-tooled and improved in terms of reproduction, and several new stories added. It also contains an extensive set of historical and editorial notes by editor Greg Sadowski. Page stats from Krigstein’s personal archives and a comic book checklist of the artist’s entire body of work round out this substantial volume.

About the Author

Bernard (B.) Krigstein (1919–1990) was trained as a classical painter, but early on he recognized the artistic potential of the comics medium. He worked for major publishers including Harvey, Fawcett, Atlas (Marvel) and National (DC), in 1952 he moved to EC Comics, where his work is widely recognized as among the most innovative in comics history.

Comic book historian Greg Sadowski has produced more than a few books for Fantagraphics, including landmark volumes on Alex Toth, Bernard Krigstein, and Basil Wolverton. He resides in Asbury Park, NJ, where he looks after the B. Krigstein archives and plays the music of Django Reinhardt with his acoustic trio, OG Swing.


Marie Severin (1929-2018) joined EC as their first and only in-house colorist to work on Kurtzman’s war books. She had no art schooling, no production experience, and was color-blind, but her bold and creative work immediately delighted Kurtzman. Her work ethic saw her develop enough skills that she went on to decades on staff at Marvel as a colorist and production artist, with many assignments as a penciller or inker – including for Marvel’s own MAD rip-offs, Not Brand Echh and Crazy magazine. Her last regular assignment before retirement saw her return to coloring, on DC’s Superman Adventures from 1996 to 2002.