Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.20: Bernie Krigstein

No.20: Bernard Krigstein

Despite his relatively brief career in the industry, Bernard Krigstein is widely considered by aficionados of the comic medium to be one of its key innovators – an illustrator who was keen to elevate the medium and the role of the artist to a creator capable of mapping the human condition through multiple panel layouts and stylized, impressionistic work. From the beginning of his career in the 1940s he understood the possibilities within the comic form, and his art, influenced by Munch, Cezanne and Grosz, was already challenging and at odds with convention long before he drew the eight-page story he is best known for, Master Race. Words: Andrew Colman…

Krigstein studied art at college in the 1930s but his comic work was largely based on being self-taught. His artistic efforts from the mid-1940s to the 1950s, across various publishers and genres, saw his style evolve, his use of unusual camera angles and loose, expressionist art already visible, with his work on crime comics in particular allowing him to develop a keen cinematic sense that evoked mood and atmosphere.

Krigstein was an outsider and a maverick, even within this fledgling outsider industry. Having worked at many companies (Harvey, St. John, Hillman, Fawcett, Novelty, Ziff-Davis, Marvel forerunner Timely and DC) his loose, stark art style echoed his inner traumas, while politically he would soon be at loggerheads with those publishers after he decided to form a comic book illustrators’ union. Inevitably work began to dry up, but thankfully for Krigstein (and us) Bill Gaines, recognizing a fellow traveller, took him on board at EC, where he would of course flourish.

Arriving in 1954 as EC was about to enter its decline due to political interests outside and within the industry, Krigstein still managed to produce many stories for the publisher for its New Trend titles, such as Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, Crime Suspenstories, Shock Suspenstories, Weird Science-Fantasy and Two-Fisted Tales. He also contributed to Mad, but his artwork was far more suited to the horror, science-fiction, war and crime books. Many of his tales were subtly psychological, the milieu often Kafkaesque, the protagonists trapped by their own failings. One such story, Key Chain from Crime Suspenstories 25, prefigured Master Race in its use of intricate layouts and consecutive panels detailing microscopic moments of action. The storyline was simplistic, but the art was beguiling, drawing you into the crucial split seconds that provided the pay off.  There were also no speech balloons, with the art providing the story along with narrative captions.

Master Race was created by Krigstein for New Direction title Impact, with EC barely having any time left before the company imploded. By this point Krigstein was given free rein by editor Al Feldstein to create a story about the Holocaust, a subject rarely mentioned in publishing during this era. The eight-page tale focused on a former Nazi death camp guard, who the reader is led to believe is actually the protagonist, before his real identity is revealed after he is spotted by one of his victims on a New York subway. The paranoia, fear, directness of the plot and its outcome are matched by Krigstein’s use of abstraction, his detached narration, and above all panels denoting the slowing down or speeding up of time, as well as motion. With multiple similar images of moving trains and passengers blended with a tableau of horrific scenes from the past, Krigstein had completed his artistic mission, the tale’s climactic page as celebrated and discussed as any in comic history. The story was a huge influence on many artists, notably Art Spiegelman, who claimed that it was almost a template for his career. He averred that the story didn’t just transcend the medium or even cinema, but went further – here was an example of what comic art could achieve that no other art form could. Krigstein’s bleak yet emotive artistic tropes also heavily informed Dave Gibbons’ work in Watchmen.

Krigstein went on to draw a handful of assignments at Atlas before he left the industry to concentrate on painting and fine art, as well as teaching. Despite the excellence of his paintings, it was Spiegelman himself who made sure that he would remain feted as a comic artist, contacting him for a feature in fanzine Squa Tront which consequently led to recognition and a place in the Kirby and Eisner Hall of Fames.

Here’s links through to the other entries in our 101 Greatest so far as well

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.21: Graham Ingels

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.22: Al Williamson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.23: Barry Windsor-Smith

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.24: Alex Ross

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.25: John Byrne

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.26: Mike Mignola

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.27: Basil Wolverton

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.28: Howard Chaykin

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.29: Moebius

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.30: Dave Gibbons

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.31: Creig Flessel

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.32: Milt Caniff

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.34: Burne Hogarth

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.35: LB Cole

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.37: Bill Everett

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.38: Robert Crumb

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.39: Mac Raboy

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.41: Jim Starlin

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.42: Mike Zeck

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.43: Adam Hughes

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.44: Daniel Clowes

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.45: Gene Colan

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.46: George Perez

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.47: Michael William Kaluta

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.48: Cary Nord

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.49: Frank Quitely

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.50: Mike Ploog

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.51: Johnny Craig

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.52: Darwyn Cooke

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.53: Steve Dillon

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.54: Gil Kane

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.55: Michael Zulli

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.56: John Romita

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.57: Joe Maneely

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.58: Marshall Rogers

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.59: John Severin

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.60: Alex Toth

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.61: Brian Bolland

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.62: David Mazzuchelli

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.63 Reed Crandall

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.64 Harry Anderson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.65 Nick Cardy

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.66 Matt Wagner

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.67 Bryan Hitch

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.68 Shawn Martinbrough

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.69 Al Feldstein

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.70 Nestor Redondo

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.71 Tarpe Mills

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.72 Eduardo Risso

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.73 JH Williams III

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.74 Irv Novick

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.75 Dan Zolnerowich

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.76 Gilbert Shelton

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.77 Tommy Lee Edwards

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.78: Sean Phillips

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.79: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.80: Dan DeCarlo

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.81: Marie Severin

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.82: John Paul Leon

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.83: Jim Lee

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.84: Denys Cowan

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.85: Ross Andru

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.86: Paul Gustavson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.87: George Evans

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.88: Michael Golden

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.89: Matt Baker

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.90: Todd McFarlane

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.91: Fiona Staples

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.92: Carl Barks

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.93: Carmine Infantino

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.94: Alan Davis

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.95: CC Beck

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.96: Syd Shores

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.97: Bob Fujitani

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.98: Tim Sale

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.99: Jim Aparo

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