MattBrady
12-05-2002, 08:08 AM
<img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/krigcov.jpg" width="175" height="237" border="0" align="right">Special to Newsarama by Daniel Robert Epstein
Bernie Krigstein is the best artist you've never heard of. Noted for his drawing style of realism, Krigstein was one of the first comic book artists to bring an intellectual side to his work before he faded into obscurity.
Constant run-ins with Al Feldstein, co-creator of EC Comics, finally prompted Krigstein the leave the business. He returned to DC Comics for a short time in the 1970's, but soon left again, choosing instead to focus on painting. Since the time of his death in 1990 until this year, the general public as well as the bulk of comic readers has had no real knowledge of this legend - only hardcore comics fans kept a focus on him.
All that has changed since Greg Sadowski authored B. Krigstein Volume 1, which was published by Fantagraphics in April. The 250 page book has crossed over, bridging the valley between comic readers and the mainstream public, garnering acclaim from both sides. Sadowski tells the story of how Krigstein broke the rules at a time when the industry was shackled its own self-censorship. The book also reprints many of Krigstein's greatest stories.
One of Krigstein’s most famous stories is “Master Race,” which originally appeared in 1955 in an issue of EC Comics' Impact. One of the first popular culture examinations of the Holocaust, “Master Race” showed a timid man recognizing the man sitting in the subway seat across from him, a recognition which prompts a string of terrifying flashback memories about the Nazis, anti-Semitism, and the death camps. Krigstein’s artistic style lent a particular, subtle horror to the more overt horror of the story itself.
For Sadowski, the book was as much an opportunity to learn more about Krigstein as it was to learn about crafting a book.
Newsarama: How long have you been obsessed with Krigstein?
Greg Sadowski: I first got into his DC Comics in the 70's and I met his wife, Natalie, in 1991 right after he died. Then I got into everything else he did besides the comics. When I went to her house in Queens to buy a sketch there I saw the illustrations and the paintings, and figured there was a book there. By 1995 I got a computer and started working on it seriously. I started teaching myself layouts because I wanted to layout the book myself. I wanted to get out of my previous job.
NRAMA: What were you doing at the time?
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/die1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/die1_t.jpg" width="175" height="246" border="0" align="left" alt="Now I Can Die Easy, illustrated by Krigstein"></a>GS: I was delivering mail. So far it's been working out. I'm working on another book and I've gotten a couple of design jobs. I'm learning the business. It was partly a selfish reason I got into it, really. It wasn't so much an obsession with Krigstein just that I thought he was a great artist and no one had done a book on him before. I knew Fantagraphics was interested so I just decided to do it.
NRAMA: How did you pitch it to Fantagraphics?
GS: I didn't really have to. Gary Groth is into Krigstein and he had already spoken to Krigstein's wife about doing a book. She was just too frail to commit to it. But I when I started I got a lot of information from her. She proofread a couple of my chapters and filled in some anecdotes.
NRAMA:: Are you happy with the book?
GS: Well it's not perfect. I wish I could have spent another year on it.
NRAMA: Were the deadlines coming up after five years?
GS: Fantagraphics was getting worried because they thought I was dragging my feet. What happened was that I was making all these changes at the last minute. It would be about to go to press and I would see a screw up like a date or something small like that. It was a very hairy couple of weeks. I just had to let it go through. Of course after it was out for a couple of weeks I look at it and see ten more things I screwed up. People tell me that's the nature of the publishing business.
NRAMA: While you initially said to Natalie Krigstein that there was a book to be made out of Krigstein's life, was that borne out once you started researching his work?
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/Hor1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/Hor1_t.jpg" width="175" height="246" border="0" align="right" alt="Horror in the Graveyard, illustrated by Krigstein"></a>GS: Actually the more I got into it the more I realized what a book I had. I saw all the conflicts in his life and saw what an interesting story it was with him fighting with all his editors. He had adversaries and that really brought out the character in this guy. He devoted himself to this artform where artists are looked upon as dirt. He tried to go along with it as much as he could but then he just had to leave the business.
NRAMA: Did you think anyone else would enjoy such a specific kind of book?
GS: I sure would hope so. I had never written anything before so I wasn't sure if I was able to pull it off. It just fell into my lap and I could either pull it off or not. That's why it took me five years to finish; I had to learn how to write. I can't do every book I write like this; I'll be an old man.
NRAMA: It's an old story but why do you think Krigstein is one of those guys that's appreciated after his time?
GS: That's just the case with so many artists. I think with him it was that he was an intellectual. He hated superheroes and he never did them. He never did Mad Magazine like many other EC artists did. By the time people were doing Mad he had already moved out of the business and started doing commercial work. He did that for five years but he found that just as stifling because he couldn't get any of his ideas through. He became a teacher in 1972.
NRAMA: Since its release, your book has had it’s critics, as was seen in the article Spiegelman wrote for The New Yorker…
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/last1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/last1_t.jpg" width="175" height="246" border="0" align="left" alt="Last Bullet, illustrated by Krigstein"></a>GS: I was disappointed in that. It was great to get the press but it seemed like he was trying to pigeonhole Krigstein as a comic book artist and everything else he did was junk. I don't believe that. I think he was a master painter. I wouldn't put him up there with Michelangelo but I think his stuff is of high quality. I think he was capable of masterpieces that I hope to show in the second volume. I'm not so sure that Spiegelman saw enough of his paintings to dismiss him the way he did.
NRAMA: Of course, the fact that Spiegelman wrote anything good about the book is a compliment to you.
GS: Yeah he called it quixotic. It almost seemed like he was criticizing me for being so thorough about Krigstein. He said that maybe I should I have just put a volume of his comic book stories and that really bugged me. I started thinking, "Am I wasting my time with this book?" That's what popped into my head.
NRAMA: But at the same time, to be recognized in The New Yorker shows that the book has crossover appeal, while a book of comics would not have.
GS: I'm glad you think so. I'm so close to it that I'm kind of sensitive. Also I think Krigstein treated him shabbily in that meeting they had when Krigstein and Spiegleman met. I think he's kind of nursing a wound from that still. I just felt that he resented Krigstein for treating him that way. I never met Krigstein but he was always rubbing people the wrong way.
NRAMA: In a way , and for his generation, Krigstein seemed almost more ahead of his time than even Will Eisner. What was it that you liked about his work so much?
GS: Krigstein just thought he looked at the work differently than Eisner. As great as Eisner was he thought he resorted to clichés too much. Krigstein was more into something more intellectual or artistic.
NRAMA: After looking at the comics in the book, one can get the feeling a little of Jim Steranko's work - a guy that was breaking all the rules in the 1960's and 70's. I'm sure Krigstein influenced him.
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/nug1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/nug1_t.jpg" width="175" height="246" border="0" align="right" alt="Magician of Murder Creek, illustrated by Krigstein"></a>GS: Absolutely. But what sets Krigstein apart is his draftsmanship. If you look at his earlier work before he started playing with the form his drawings were so masterful. Nobody could even draw a chair like Krigstein. I think he was the only artist with a classical education. Right now I'm putting together a book of about 36 or 37 of his stories.
NRAMA: Speaking of those, one of the surprising pieces you mention in the book is that he never wrote his own stories. Why not?
GS: He tried to adapt stories later on in the 1960's like War & Peace and The Red Badge of Courage. He was also pitching a story to people called The Most Popular Movie in the World. He was trying to write his own scripts but he thought that there were so many good writers around that he didn't need to. He added to the stories a lot, though. When you read a story someone wrote for a different artist then read the same writer as drawn by Krigstein you could see a big difference. He was always engaged in the story.
NRAMA: How does Al Feldstein [co-creator of EC Comics] feel about Krigstein today?
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/self04.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/self04_t.jpg" width="250" height="187" border="0" align="left" alt="self portrait by Krigstein"></a>GS: Feldstein realizes that he should have given Krigstein a lot more freedom if he could have. Everyone was just so anal in the ‘50s. Feldstein definitely admits that Krigstein was right about a lot of things. Krigstein always felt resentment towards Feldstein. Even as great EC Comics was he still had a lot of problems. Sometimes when the artists received their boards to do the art the lettering was already there and they had to work around it. A lot of artists liked working that way because they didn't have to think about. But if Feldstein gave him one panel, Krigstein would break it down into three to get more movement going. The main thing he wanted was more pages. He wanted to take a five-page story and do it in fifteen pages.
NRAMA: It's a fitting tribute that you got Marie Severin to recolor his stories.
GS: He always said she was his favorite colorist.
NRAMA: What's next for you?
GS: Well the book of stories first, and then Volume 2 will be coming eventually. Then a couple of things I don't want to mention. What I really want to do is be a book designer.
The Krigstein Archives can be found at: <a href="http://www.bkrigstein.com/" target="_blank">http://www.bkrigstein.com/</a>
Daniel Robert Epstein lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. He is a contributor to such websites as UGO.com and FilmFestivalreporter.com. He is also a former producer for MetroTV, where he worked on such shows as The Daily Beat, Studio Y and New York Eats. Most recently he worked at E! Entertainment for New York City's Fashion Week.
He has also worked on such feature films as Tromeo & Juliet by the Troma studios and Dinner and Driving. He loves referring to himself in the third person.
Bernie Krigstein is the best artist you've never heard of. Noted for his drawing style of realism, Krigstein was one of the first comic book artists to bring an intellectual side to his work before he faded into obscurity.
Constant run-ins with Al Feldstein, co-creator of EC Comics, finally prompted Krigstein the leave the business. He returned to DC Comics for a short time in the 1970's, but soon left again, choosing instead to focus on painting. Since the time of his death in 1990 until this year, the general public as well as the bulk of comic readers has had no real knowledge of this legend - only hardcore comics fans kept a focus on him.
All that has changed since Greg Sadowski authored B. Krigstein Volume 1, which was published by Fantagraphics in April. The 250 page book has crossed over, bridging the valley between comic readers and the mainstream public, garnering acclaim from both sides. Sadowski tells the story of how Krigstein broke the rules at a time when the industry was shackled its own self-censorship. The book also reprints many of Krigstein's greatest stories.
One of Krigstein’s most famous stories is “Master Race,” which originally appeared in 1955 in an issue of EC Comics' Impact. One of the first popular culture examinations of the Holocaust, “Master Race” showed a timid man recognizing the man sitting in the subway seat across from him, a recognition which prompts a string of terrifying flashback memories about the Nazis, anti-Semitism, and the death camps. Krigstein’s artistic style lent a particular, subtle horror to the more overt horror of the story itself.
For Sadowski, the book was as much an opportunity to learn more about Krigstein as it was to learn about crafting a book.
Newsarama: How long have you been obsessed with Krigstein?
Greg Sadowski: I first got into his DC Comics in the 70's and I met his wife, Natalie, in 1991 right after he died. Then I got into everything else he did besides the comics. When I went to her house in Queens to buy a sketch there I saw the illustrations and the paintings, and figured there was a book there. By 1995 I got a computer and started working on it seriously. I started teaching myself layouts because I wanted to layout the book myself. I wanted to get out of my previous job.
NRAMA: What were you doing at the time?
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/die1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/die1_t.jpg" width="175" height="246" border="0" align="left" alt="Now I Can Die Easy, illustrated by Krigstein"></a>GS: I was delivering mail. So far it's been working out. I'm working on another book and I've gotten a couple of design jobs. I'm learning the business. It was partly a selfish reason I got into it, really. It wasn't so much an obsession with Krigstein just that I thought he was a great artist and no one had done a book on him before. I knew Fantagraphics was interested so I just decided to do it.
NRAMA: How did you pitch it to Fantagraphics?
GS: I didn't really have to. Gary Groth is into Krigstein and he had already spoken to Krigstein's wife about doing a book. She was just too frail to commit to it. But I when I started I got a lot of information from her. She proofread a couple of my chapters and filled in some anecdotes.
NRAMA:: Are you happy with the book?
GS: Well it's not perfect. I wish I could have spent another year on it.
NRAMA: Were the deadlines coming up after five years?
GS: Fantagraphics was getting worried because they thought I was dragging my feet. What happened was that I was making all these changes at the last minute. It would be about to go to press and I would see a screw up like a date or something small like that. It was a very hairy couple of weeks. I just had to let it go through. Of course after it was out for a couple of weeks I look at it and see ten more things I screwed up. People tell me that's the nature of the publishing business.
NRAMA: While you initially said to Natalie Krigstein that there was a book to be made out of Krigstein's life, was that borne out once you started researching his work?
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/Hor1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/Hor1_t.jpg" width="175" height="246" border="0" align="right" alt="Horror in the Graveyard, illustrated by Krigstein"></a>GS: Actually the more I got into it the more I realized what a book I had. I saw all the conflicts in his life and saw what an interesting story it was with him fighting with all his editors. He had adversaries and that really brought out the character in this guy. He devoted himself to this artform where artists are looked upon as dirt. He tried to go along with it as much as he could but then he just had to leave the business.
NRAMA: Did you think anyone else would enjoy such a specific kind of book?
GS: I sure would hope so. I had never written anything before so I wasn't sure if I was able to pull it off. It just fell into my lap and I could either pull it off or not. That's why it took me five years to finish; I had to learn how to write. I can't do every book I write like this; I'll be an old man.
NRAMA: It's an old story but why do you think Krigstein is one of those guys that's appreciated after his time?
GS: That's just the case with so many artists. I think with him it was that he was an intellectual. He hated superheroes and he never did them. He never did Mad Magazine like many other EC artists did. By the time people were doing Mad he had already moved out of the business and started doing commercial work. He did that for five years but he found that just as stifling because he couldn't get any of his ideas through. He became a teacher in 1972.
NRAMA: Since its release, your book has had it’s critics, as was seen in the article Spiegelman wrote for The New Yorker…
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/last1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/last1_t.jpg" width="175" height="246" border="0" align="left" alt="Last Bullet, illustrated by Krigstein"></a>GS: I was disappointed in that. It was great to get the press but it seemed like he was trying to pigeonhole Krigstein as a comic book artist and everything else he did was junk. I don't believe that. I think he was a master painter. I wouldn't put him up there with Michelangelo but I think his stuff is of high quality. I think he was capable of masterpieces that I hope to show in the second volume. I'm not so sure that Spiegelman saw enough of his paintings to dismiss him the way he did.
NRAMA: Of course, the fact that Spiegelman wrote anything good about the book is a compliment to you.
GS: Yeah he called it quixotic. It almost seemed like he was criticizing me for being so thorough about Krigstein. He said that maybe I should I have just put a volume of his comic book stories and that really bugged me. I started thinking, "Am I wasting my time with this book?" That's what popped into my head.
NRAMA: But at the same time, to be recognized in The New Yorker shows that the book has crossover appeal, while a book of comics would not have.
GS: I'm glad you think so. I'm so close to it that I'm kind of sensitive. Also I think Krigstein treated him shabbily in that meeting they had when Krigstein and Spiegleman met. I think he's kind of nursing a wound from that still. I just felt that he resented Krigstein for treating him that way. I never met Krigstein but he was always rubbing people the wrong way.
NRAMA: In a way , and for his generation, Krigstein seemed almost more ahead of his time than even Will Eisner. What was it that you liked about his work so much?
GS: Krigstein just thought he looked at the work differently than Eisner. As great as Eisner was he thought he resorted to clichés too much. Krigstein was more into something more intellectual or artistic.
NRAMA: After looking at the comics in the book, one can get the feeling a little of Jim Steranko's work - a guy that was breaking all the rules in the 1960's and 70's. I'm sure Krigstein influenced him.
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/nug1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/nug1_t.jpg" width="175" height="246" border="0" align="right" alt="Magician of Murder Creek, illustrated by Krigstein"></a>GS: Absolutely. But what sets Krigstein apart is his draftsmanship. If you look at his earlier work before he started playing with the form his drawings were so masterful. Nobody could even draw a chair like Krigstein. I think he was the only artist with a classical education. Right now I'm putting together a book of about 36 or 37 of his stories.
NRAMA: Speaking of those, one of the surprising pieces you mention in the book is that he never wrote his own stories. Why not?
GS: He tried to adapt stories later on in the 1960's like War & Peace and The Red Badge of Courage. He was also pitching a story to people called The Most Popular Movie in the World. He was trying to write his own scripts but he thought that there were so many good writers around that he didn't need to. He added to the stories a lot, though. When you read a story someone wrote for a different artist then read the same writer as drawn by Krigstein you could see a big difference. He was always engaged in the story.
NRAMA: How does Al Feldstein [co-creator of EC Comics] feel about Krigstein today?
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/self04.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/self04_t.jpg" width="250" height="187" border="0" align="left" alt="self portrait by Krigstein"></a>GS: Feldstein realizes that he should have given Krigstein a lot more freedom if he could have. Everyone was just so anal in the ‘50s. Feldstein definitely admits that Krigstein was right about a lot of things. Krigstein always felt resentment towards Feldstein. Even as great EC Comics was he still had a lot of problems. Sometimes when the artists received their boards to do the art the lettering was already there and they had to work around it. A lot of artists liked working that way because they didn't have to think about. But if Feldstein gave him one panel, Krigstein would break it down into three to get more movement going. The main thing he wanted was more pages. He wanted to take a five-page story and do it in fifteen pages.
NRAMA: It's a fitting tribute that you got Marie Severin to recolor his stories.
GS: He always said she was his favorite colorist.
NRAMA: What's next for you?
GS: Well the book of stories first, and then Volume 2 will be coming eventually. Then a couple of things I don't want to mention. What I really want to do is be a book designer.
The Krigstein Archives can be found at: <a href="http://www.bkrigstein.com/" target="_blank">http://www.bkrigstein.com/</a>
Daniel Robert Epstein lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. He is a contributor to such websites as UGO.com and FilmFestivalreporter.com. He is also a former producer for MetroTV, where he worked on such shows as The Daily Beat, Studio Y and New York Eats. Most recently he worked at E! Entertainment for New York City's Fashion Week.
He has also worked on such feature films as Tromeo & Juliet by the Troma studios and Dinner and Driving. He loves referring to himself in the third person.