Marvel Mini-Books, 1966

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Befitting my endless fascination with outré and small narrative delivery systems, I finally added a set of these wonderful little gumball prizes to The Collection: produced in 1966, the Mini-Books won the Guinness World Record for the smallest books ever made, an honor which I believe they still hold. In the pics below, you can see just how small these little things are. Ordered the recent Abrams facsimile set (featuring Mark Evanier commentary) so I can actually peruse them without worry of them falling apart. Beautiful little examples of comics – and the Marvel Age of comics – history.

Berni(e) Wrightson's FRANKENSTEIN

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Roamed an antique mall yesterday and, in one of the packed booths, saw the left side of a book that said “Frank” and “Ber”. Key-bearer opened the case, and there it was: an original edition of Bernie Wrightson’s 1983 “Marvel Illustrated Novel” labor-of-love version of Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN:

"I've always had a thing for Frankenstein, and it was a labor of love," the artist said. "It was not an assignment, it was not a job. I would do the drawings in between paying gigs, when I had enough to be caught up with bills and groceries and what-not. I would take three days here, a week there, to work on the Frankenstein volume. It took about seven years." ... Wrightson was influenced by the pen and ink masters of the early 20th and late 19th centurie,s and Wrightson named artists like Franklin Booth, Jason Cole and Edwin Abbey."I wanted the book to look like an antique; to have the feeling of woodcuts or steel engravings, something of that era," said Wrightson.

Thrilled to have this beauty in The Collection (not only of comics, but of Frankenstein). If you haven’t read it, Bernie’s collaboration (along with Kelley Jones, who finished the project after Bernie’s death) with Steve Niles, FRANKENSTEIN ALIVE, ALIVE, is considered a sequel to this piece of comics passion unleashed.