| Bernard Krigstein | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 22, 1919 Brooklyn, New York |
| Died | January 8, 1990 (aged 70) |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Artist |
| Pseudonym(s) | Bernie Krigstein, B. Krigstein |
Bernard Krigstein (aka Bernie Krigstein) (March 22, 1919 – January 8, 1990), was an American illustrator and gallery artist best known for his groundbreaking work in comic books. His artwork usually carried the signature B. Krigstein.
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Brief overview
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Krigstein was trained as a classical painter. He is best remembered for his contributions to EC Comics during the early 1950s. At a time when many comics artists regarded their work as disposable, Krigstein struggled to expand the boundaries of what could be possible in the comics medium. Influenced by the Futurist painters and other aspects of fine art, Krigstein was one of the first comics illustrators to experiment with panels of different sizes and shapes in order to portray the passage of time. As he told a 1962 interviewer, "It's what happens between these panels that's so fascinating. Look at all that dramatic action that one never gets a chance to see. It's between these panels that the fascinating stuff takes place. And unless the artist would be permitted to delve into that, the form must remain infantile."
Krigstein also used different art styles on occasion, when he felt it would match the emotional content of stories and characters.
"Master Race"
Krigstein's most famous work in comic books is the short story "Master Race," originally published in the debut issue (March-April 1955) of EC's Impact. The protagonist is a former Nazi death camp commandant named Reissman who had managed to elude justice until he is spotted ten years later riding a New York subway. This story was remarkable for its subject matter, since the Holocaust was rarely discussed in popular media of the 1950s.[1]
The story was also remarkable for Krigstein's experimental layouts. Krigstein sometimes chafed at the limits of the material EC gave him to illustrate, and he challenged his editor's expectations by expanding what had been planned as a six-page story into an eight-page one. (He had wanted to make it 12.) The results were so striking that the company reworked the issue to accommodate the two extra pages. Krigstein had stretched out certain sequences in purely visual terms; repetitive strobe-like drawings mimic the motion of a passing train, and Commandant Reissman's final moment of life is broken down into four individual poses of desperate physical struggle. Art Spiegelman described the effect in the New Yorker: "The two tiers of wordless staccato panels that climax the story... have often been described as 'cinematic'. a phrase thoroughly inadequate to the achievement: Krigstein condenses and distends time itself. ...Reissman's life floats in space like the suspended matter in a lava lamp. The cumulative effect carries an impact - simultaneously visceral and intellectual - that is unique to comics."[2]
Mad
Krigstein also did humor, such as "Crash McCool" in Mad #26 and "From Eternity Back to Here" in Mad #12. "Bringing Back Father" (Mad #17) has been included in Art Spiegelman's slide show lectures about the greatest creations in the history of comics; the piece alternates between Will Elder's cheery mimickry of George McManus' popular knockabout cartoon strip, and Krigstein's gruesomely realistic images of the real life injuries that the characters would suffer.
By the early 1960s, Krigstein became frustrated by the artistic compromises demanded by the comics industry. After leaving comics, he drew and painted illustrations for magazines, book jackets and record albums, eventually turning away from commercial assignments in order to focus on fine art. In 1962 he took a position at the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan, where he taught for 20 years.
Awards
He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2003, and the Hall of Fame of the Harvey Awards (1992) and the Eisner Awards (2003). Greg Sadowski's book B. Krigstein, Vol. 1 won the Harvey Award for Best Biographical, Historical, or Journalistic Presentation in 2003, and it was also nominated for the Harvey Special Award for Excellence in Presentation in 2003.
References
Notes
- B. Krigstein: Comics by Bernard Krigstein, edited by Greg Sadowski. Fantagraphics Books, 2004. ISBN 1-56097-573-3 A collection of comics stories by Krigstein.
- B. Krigstein, Vol. 1 by Greg Sadowski. Fantagraphics Books, 2002. ISBN 1-56097-466-4 Illustrated biography of Krigstein, complete with eight graphic stories.
External links
- The Krigstein Archives, his work in multiple media.
- Essay on Krigstein from The New Yorker, by Art Spiegelman
- Comic Book Awards Almanac
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