Editing Bernie Wrightson (section)

===Swamp Thing===
[[Image:Swampthingart.jpg|right|thumb|''Swamp Thing'' #1 panel, original ink art by Wrightson]]
With writer [[Len Wein]], Wrightson co-created the muck creature [[Swamp Thing]] in ''[[House of Secrets (DC Comics)|House of Secrets]]'' #92 (July 1971) in a standalone horror story set in the Victorian era.<ref>McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 146: "'Swamp Thing' was the name of Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson's turn-of-the-century tale, and its popularity with readers led a modernized version of the character into his own series a year later."</ref> Wein later recounted how Wrightson became involved with the story: "Bernie Wrightson had just broken up with a girlfriend, and we were sitting in my car just talking about life – all the important things to do when you're 19 and 20 years old. [''Laughs''] And I said, 'You know, I just wrote a story that actually kind of feels like the way you feel now.' I told him about Swamp Thing, and he said, 'I gotta draw that.'"<ref name=WeinDaddy>{{cite journal|last1= Ho|first1= Richard|date=November 2004|title= Who's Your Daddy??|journal= [[Wizard (magazine)|Wizard]]|issue= 140|pages= 68–74}}</ref>

In summer 1972, Wrightson published ''Badtime Stories'', a horror/science fiction comics anthology featuring his own scripts and artwork (from the period 1970–1971), each story being drawn in a different medium, including ink wash, tonal pencil drawings, duoshade paper, and screen tones, along with traditional pen-and-ink and brushwork.<ref name="tcj-interview">{{cite web |url=https://www.tcj.com/the-berni-wrightson-interview/ |title=The Berni Wrightson Interview |last=Groth |first=Gary |date=March 22, 2017 |website=[[The Comics Journal]] |access-date=March 22, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170323053407/https://www.tcj.com/the-berni-wrightson-interview/ |archive-date=March 23, 2017}}</ref> He and writer [[Marv Wolfman]] co-created [[Destiny (DC Comics)|Destiny]] in ''[[Weird Mystery Tales]]'' #1 (July–Aug. 1972), a character which would later be used in the work of [[Neil Gaiman]].<ref>McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p.152 "The host that was first presented in a framing sequence by scribe Marv Wolfman and artist Bernie Wrightson received further, imaginative development in Neil Gaiman's ''The Sandman'' series decades later."</ref>

In the fall of 1972, the Swamp Thing returned in his own series, set in the contemporary world and in the general DC continuity.<ref>McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 153: "Following his debut in ''House of Secrets'' #92 in 1971, the Swamp Thing grew into his own series, albeit with a reimagining of his origins by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson."</ref> Wrightson drew the first ten issues of the series.<ref name=WeinDaddy/> [[Abby Holland|Abigail Arcane]], a major supporting character in the Swamp Thing mythos was introduced by Wrightson and Wein in issue #3 (Feb.-March 1973).<ref>McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 154: "Scribe Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson left Swamp Thing some company...the woman who would become Swamp Thing's soul mate, Abigail Arcane."</ref>

Wrightson had originally been asked by DC to handle the art for its revival of [[The Shadow]], but he left the project early on when he realized he could not produce the necessary minimum number of pages on time, along with his work on ''Swamp Thing''.<ref name="cooke-cba-5" /> [[Michael Kaluta]] illustrated the series, but Wrightson did contribute much to the third issue in both pencils and inks, as well as inking the splash page of issue #4.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tcj.com/bernie-wrightson-1948-2017/ |title=Bernie Wrightson, 1948-2017 |last=Ringgenberg |first=Steven |date=March 21, 2017 |website=The Comics Journal |access-date=March 21, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170321141104/https://www.tcj.com/bernie-wrightson-1948-2017/ |archive-date=March 21, 2017}}</ref>