Reading Room: ONE-SHOT HEROES SpookMan

Before continuing with more Frankenstein fun, let's look a character who only appeared once...

...but bears some uncanny similarities to a couple of later (and more famous) characters!

As we said, SpookMan appeared only once, in Charlton Premiere #1 (1967), written and illustrated by Pat Boyette, a writer/artist with a distinctive style and almost 900 stories to his credit from 1966 to 1998, mostly at Charlton Comics, which explains why most fans today are unaware of him, except as the creator of The PeaceMaker, now owned by DC Comics. and the inspiration for The Comedian in Watchmen!

As to Spookman's similarities to other characters, let's see...

Art/antiques dealer with a white streak in his hair who turns into a demonic figure (1972)...

Jason Blood aka The Demon by Jack Kirby

Supernatural figure garbed in Puritan/colonial garb operating in the present (1975)...

Matthew Dunsinane aka The Grim Ghost by Ernie Colon

And, both of them are currently being published!

In addition, the character was initially called SandMan, but both Marvel and DC had (non-supernatural) characters with that name, so...the name was changed before publication to the extremely-odd and not very accurate SpookMan.

A sorta-supernatural Sandman would come along in 1974...

..and finally, a really-unearthly Sandman debuted in 1989!

...and that's a story for another time...like next Halloween!

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Reading Room: PRIZE COMICS "Frankenstein Meets Bulldog Denny"

And now, the Golden Age origin of "Bulldog" Denny...

...as presented in Prize Comics #11 (1941).

Note that Dick Briefer is no longer using the "Frank N Stein" pseudonym.

...and thus does Bulldog Denny take over from his mentor in the task of capturing the Monster!

Oddly, the previous stories gave no indication that they took place a decade earlier (1931)!

But this tale clearly moves the action to the (then) present day of 1941 with Dr Frankenstein now no longer able to continue the battle against his creation!

Perhaps the first example of a retcon in an ongoing comic book series?

Denny continued to battle the Monster until Prize Comics #29.

The Monster continued in Prize Comics for several more years, reforming, then becoming involved in World War II when the Nazis captured and brainwashed him.

Eventually, he freed himself and returned to America.

After the end of the war, the series changed focus, becoming more humor-oriented and introducing a plethora of other friendly monsters.

It proved popular enough for the Monster to gain his own book for three years.

Both his strip in Prize and his own title were cancelled in 1949.

But that's not the end of the story...

We'll be presenting more Frankenstein fun throughout October, so bookmark this blog and watch for another tale of the Monster!

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Reading Room: Silver Age FRANKENSTEIN "Origin"

Before we present the Golden Age origin of Frankenstein's nemesis, "Bulldog" Denny...

...we jump ahead to the Silver Age for a slightly-different version of the Monster of Frankenstein as seen in the Swinging '60s, when everyone in comics was either a spy, a superhero, or both!

Will the Monster use his powers for Good instead of Evil?
And how the heck did this whole thing come about, anyway?

In 1964, Dell Comics published a line of comic adaptations of Universal Monster movies to tie in with their successful revival on tv.

(We just presented the Frankenstein adaptation over at our brother blog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™!)

Two years later, Dell decided to take the monsters' base concepts and rework them into then-trendy superheroes and spies!

Frankenstein and Dracula became superheroes while WereWolf (the name Wolf Man was trademarked) was a secret agent (albeit one with a "stealth" suit to avoid detection).

Yeah, it was as dumb as it sounds, and none of them ran more than three issues.

This was part one of the Silver Age Frankenstein's three-part origin tale from Frankenstein #2, illustrated by Tony Tallarico, who did a lot of work for Dell and Charlton in the 1960s.
(Frankenstein #1 was the previously-mentioned movie adaptation.)

We'll be presenting the other two parts of the origin in the near future
Here's Part Two with Part Three to come shortly...

You'll get a better look at how Dell shamelessly ripped-off both Superman and Batman by taking elements from both of them for this series.
Scary, eh?)

But, first: we'll return to the Golden Age for the intro tale of the Golden Age Monster's greatest nemesis...the Man called Bulldog!

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Reading Room: PRIZE COMICS "New Adventures of Frankenstein"

You have seen the Prize Fighters capture the Monster of Frankenstein...

...now learn why they (and others) were in pursuit of the creature, and how he ended up in (then) present-day America!

Talk about motivation...

This story in Prize Comics #7 (1940) was the Monster's second comic book appearance ever.

(The first had been a comic adaptation of the movie Son of Frankenstein in Movie Comics #1 [1939].)

Dick Briefer both wrote and drew this tale under the name "Frank N. Stein", which was dropped several tales into the series.

With the concept firmly in place, the stories would follow the format of the Doctor trying to stop his progressively-deadlier creation, until a new hero would enter the battle...

Next week, 
The End of Dr Frankenstein!
and 
The Origin of the Monster's NEW Nemesis...
"Bulldog" Denny!

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Reading Room: PRIZE COMICS "Frankenstein vs the Prize Fighters"

Before the Justice Society!

Before the Avengers!

There were the Prize Fighters!

And who are these other paragons of justice (all of whom had their own strips in Prize Comics)?

"Well known"?

Most of them recently appeared in the Project SuperPowers series from Dynamite Comics, but beyond that...

Anyway, on with the action!

While the characters did appear in the next issue, it was in their individual strips, not in Frankenstein.
There is a mention of him being subdued by a group of heroes in the next issue's Frankenstein tale, but that's it.

This one-time team-up of the various characters, though historically-important, didn't even make the cover of the issue (Prize Comics #24).
Not even a blurb!

Note: We've covered a couple of the characters in separate entries including The Black Owl (both of them), The Green Lama, and The Monster of Frankenstein himself.
As to who Bulldog Denny is, we'll be explaining (and showing) who he is and how he came to be the Frankenstein Monster's nemesis in future entries during October.
For the record, the super-hero group never had an official name.
Several historical articles in print and on blogs gave the team the "Prize Fighters" moniker, and it seems like a good fit, so we're using it as well.
Frankenstein artist Dick Briefer did a good job trying to match several different art styles including the "bigfoot humor" look of the General & the Corporal strip.

Oddly enough, a cover from several issues (#20) earlier seemed to telegraph the events of this story four issues later...

...even though there was no reference in any of the stories in #20 to an attempt by a group of heroes to capture the Monster, he's clearly shown bound and helpless in the second car!

Of course, the concept of a group of heroes beating up on one misunderstood monster wouldn't catch on...

Art by Marie Severin & Sam Grainger

Art by Herb Trimpe

Art by Jack Kirby & Sol Brodsky

 Uh...yeah...won't catch on...

More Monster of Frankenstein later this week...

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