Bernard Krigstein (; March 22, 1919 – January 8, 1990), was an American illustrator and gallery artist who received acclaim for his innovative and influential approach to comic book art, notably in

EC Comics Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950 ...

. His artwork usually displayed the signature B. Krigstein. His best-known work in comic books is the eight-page story "

Master Race The master race (german: Herrenrasse) is a pseudoscientific concept in Nazi ideology in which the putative " Aryan race" is deemed the pinnacle of human racial hierarchy. Members were referred to as "''Herrenmenschen''" ("master humans"). T ...

", originally published in the debut issue (

cover-date The cover date of a periodical publication is the date displayed on the cover, which is not necessarily the true date of publication (the on-sale date or release date); later cover dates are common in magazine and comic book publishing. More unu ...

d April 1955) of EC Comics' ''

Impact Impact may refer to: * Impact (mechanics), a high force or shock (mechanics) over a short time period * Impact, Texas, a town in Taylor County, Texas, US Science and technology * Impact crater, a meteor crater caused by an impact event * Impac ...

''.

Biography

Born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

household, Krigstein studied art at Brooklyn College. Krigstein's earliest confirmed work in comics is

penciling A penciller (or penciler) is an artist who works on the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with a focus on the initial pencil illustrations, usually in collaboration with other artists, who provide inks, colors ...

and

inking Inking may refer to: *Inking (attack), act of throwing ink on other person *Inking, a defensive activity of certain cephalopods and sea hares * Inking (comic book production) *Pen computing Pen computing refers to any computer user-interface using ...

the 10-page, patriotic "kid gang" feature "The Liberty Lads" in

Harvey Comics Harvey Comics (also known as Harvey World Famous Comics, Harvey Publications, Harvey Comics Entertainment, Harvey Hits, Harvey Illustrated Humor, and Harvey Picture Magazines) was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by A ...

' ''Champ Comics'' #25 (

d April 1943). He went on to draw for Harvey and for

Prize Comics A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.

through 1943, during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Following his service in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he returned to comic books in 1945, working for publishers including

Fawcett Comics Fawcett Comics, a division of Fawcett Publications, was one of several successful comic book publishers during the Golden Age of Comic Books in the 1940s. Its most popular character was Captain Marvel (DC Comics), Captain Marvel, the alter ego of ...

(1947–48), Novelty/Premium/Curtis (1947), and

Hillman Periodicals Hillman Periodicals, Inc., was an American magazine and comic book publishing company founded in 1938 by Alex L. Hillman, a former New York City book publisher. It is best known for its true confession and true crime magazines; for the long-runni ...

(1948-51).Bernard/Bernie Krigstein
at the

Grand Comics Database The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information useful ...

. In 1952, Krigstein spearheaded an effort by himself and fellow comics artists Arthur Peddy, George Evans and Edd Ashe to found the comics industry's short-lived attempt at a labor union, The Society of Comic Book Illustrators. Peddy served as vice president under Krigstein, with Harry Harrison as secretary, Larry Woromay as treasurer, and Ross Andru, Ernie Bache, John Celardo, Morrie Marcus and Bernard Sachs as members-at-large. The organization went defunct shortly after publication of its third and final newsletter in June 1953. Krigstein began getting less work from his two mainstays — National Comics (the future

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

) and Atlas Comics (the future

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

). But during his presidency of the Society, the politically like-minded publisher of

William Gaines William Maxwell Gaines (; March 1, 1922 – June 3, 1992), was an American publisher and co-editor of EC Comics. Following a shift in EC's direction in 1950, Gaines presided over what became an artistically influential and historically import ...

, began giving him work (heeding the advice of editor Harvey Kurtzman). At EC, Krigstein "would produce the most acclaimed stories of his career between 1953 and 1955." Krigstein's best-known work in comic books is editor Al Feldstein's story "

", originally published in the debut issue (April 1955) of EC Comics' ''

''. 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 the New York City Subway. This story was remarkable for its subject matter, since the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

was rarely discussed in popular media of the 1950s, as indicated by the controversy that same year surrounding

Alain Resnais Alain Resnais (; 3 June 19221 March 2014) was a French film director and screenwriter whose career extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included ...

's ''

Night and Fog ''Nacht und Nebel'' (German: ), meaning Night and Fog, was a directive issued by Adolf Hitler on 7 December 1941 targeting political activists and resistance "helpers" in the territories occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, who were to ...

'' (1955). Krigstein, who sometimes chafed at the limits of the material EC gave him to illustrate, expanded what had been planned for six pages into an eight-page story The results were so striking that the company reworked the issue to accommodate the two extra pages. In his expansion, 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 Art Spiegelman (; born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman on February 15, 1948) is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel '' Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines ''Arcade'' and '' Ra ...

described the effect in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'': "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."

''Mad''

Krigstein also did humor, such as "From Eternity Back to Here" in '' Mad'' #12, "Bringing Back Father" in ''Mad'' #17 and "Crash McCool" in ''Mad'' #26. In the early 1960s, Krigstein left comics in order to draw and paint illustrations for magazines, book jackets (notably, the first edition of

Richard Condon Richard Thomas Condon (March 18, 1915 – April 9, 1996) was an American political novelist. Though his works were satire, they were generally transformed into thrillers or semi-thrillers in other media, such as cinema. All 26 books were writte ...

's ''

The Manchurian Candidate ''The Manchurian Candidate'' is a novel by Richard Condon, first published in 1959. It is a political thriller about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy. Th ...

'') 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 The High School of Art and Design is a career and technical education high school in Manhattan, New York City, New York State, United States. Founded in 1936 as the School of Industrial Art, the school moved to 1075 Second Avenue in 1960 and mor ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, where he taught for 20 years.Sadowski, Greg. ''B. Krigstein, Vol. 1''. Fantagraphics Books, 2002. As Krigstein 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."

Book illustration

Krigstein illustrated: *

Lloyd Alexander Lloyd Chudley Alexander (January 30, 1924 – May 17, 2007) was an American author of more than 40 books, primarily fantasy novels for children and young adults. Over his seven-decade career, Alexander wrote 48 books, and his work has been tran ...

, ''Border Hawk: August Bondi'',

Farrar, Straus and Cudahy Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...

, (1958). * Evelyn Sibley Lampman, ''Rusty's Space Ship'', Doubleday, (1957)

Awards

Lloyd Alexander's novel, ''Border Hawk: August Bondi'' won the National Jewish Books Award for Children's Literature in 1959. Krigstein was posthumously inducted into the comic book industry's

Jack Kirby Hall of Fame The following is a list of winners of the Harvey Award, sorted by category. In 2017, the Harvey Awards decided to skip the 2017 awards ceremony and to reboot the ceremony for 2018 in order to give fewer awards by focusing on works instead of indivi ...

in 1992 and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2003. Greg Sadowski's book ''B. Krigstein, Vol. 1'' won the

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that we ...

for Best Biographical, Historical, or Journalistic Presentation in 2003, and was also nominated for the Harvey Special Award for Excellence in Presentation in 2003. The book also won the 2003 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Publication (Periodical or Book).2000-2009 Eisner Award winners
Comic-Con International San Diego
Archived
from the original on February 1, 2015.

Personal life

Krigstein's wife, Natalie, wrote

romance comics Romance comics is a comics genre depicting strong and close romantic love and its attendant complications such as jealousy, marriage, divorce, betrayal, and heartache. The term is generally associated with an American comic books genre published t ...

. They had a daughter, Cora, in 1949.

References

External links

Bernard Krigstein
official website. "About" pag
archived
on November 20, 2020.
The Krigstein Archives
former official website, archived on October 11, 2007.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krigstein, Bernard 1919 births 1990 deaths Jewish American artists Jewish painters American comics artists 20th-century American painters American magazine illustrators Mad (magazine) cartoonists People from Brooklyn Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees EC Comics 20th-century American Jews