Berni Wrightson & Michael Kaluta in Birmingham, England, 1979 : Pieces of the Past

On a wet and windy night in the autumn of 1979,

I got to share the company of Berni Wrightson and Mike Kaluta,

in a lightly attended book signing for 

The Studio.

Arranged by the Andromeda Bookshop, 

Rog Peyton & Company,

and held in a small and intimate venue, 

a wine bar, at the lefthand end (as one faced Andromeda) of

Summer Row, in Birmingham, England.

Jeff Jones was there too but he never left the far corner of the bar and the woman he was talking to.  A great shame, since I would have liked to have had the opportunity to talk to him but at least he was there.  The fourth member of The Studio, Barry Smith, this was before the Barry WINDSOR Smith days, had apparently refused to leave London!  At least, that is what I was told at the time and so, he wasn't there at all.

Berni and Mike were the best,

they chatted away, answering questions and being very polite and charming.  It was a magical night.

Rog Peyton got a Wrightson sketch for the cover of his next Andromeda Catalogue and I believe, that Berni was actually drawing it as the photograph below was taken.

When I find that cover again, I will post it here too.

The master of "feathering",

Berni Wrightson 

as he looked that day.

Here it is, as promised, the sketch that

Berni was drawing when the photograph,

above, was taken.

For those who delight in the details,

Berni dated the sketch and that ties 

my "wet and windy night in the autumn of 1979",

to the 23rd of October, 1979.

I guess that my memory isn't as faded as I thought!

The Shadow was never drawn as well as it was by

Michael Kaluta

although, he has drawn a lot of stories and beautifully, since 1979.

Thanks go out to 

Rog Peyton,

a wonderful man and much under-appreciated by

the much younger me.