Romero, King, and Wrightson in a single volume: A review of Creepshow

By Diego Vilchis

Punished by his father for reading a horror comic, Billy (Joe King) is visited by a ghostly figure identical to the one on the comic's cover. From here, five stories unfold, all of them drawn from the pages of that volume. Creepshow (United States, 1982), known in Mexico as Cuentos macabros, is a film directed by none other than the iconic George A. Romero (Night of the living dead, 1968) and written by horror master Stephen King.

If this collaboration alone is already delightfully special for bringing together two of horror's most important figures, that same year the film was adapted into a comic book, drawn by the hand of artist Bernie Wrightson, who, among other works, is the co-creator of the character Swamp thing, from DC Comics (House of secrets, no. 92, 1971), which recently got a television adaptation in 2019.

Now, forty years after both the film's release and the original publication, Editorial Planeta, under its Planeta Comics imprint, brings back, in a 68-page hardcover color format, those panels drawn under Wrightson's vision, which captured and adapted the sinister nature of the stories written by King and directed by Romero:

A family anniversary, a crime… and a presence yet to come, in Father's Day.

Something that fell from the sky begins to bloom and grow, in The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill.

Kept under wood and chains, a lethal secret waiting to escape, in The Crate.

An infidelity that crosses boundaries, in Something to Tide You Over.

A lethal infestation, in They're Creeping Up on You.

Bringing together the creative vision of George A. Romero, Stephen King, and Bernie Wrightson, important figures in film as well as literature and comics, turns Creepshow into a unique volume that captures the attention of graphic novel and comic book collectors, as well as horror fans looking to have a volume on their shelves that brings together the art of the genre's masters: a collectible object that deserves a place on the shelves and bookcases of macabre works.