Reading Room: CLASSIC COMICS Frankenstein Part 2

When Last We Left Our Monster...

Victor Frankenstein, scion of a wealthy and well-connected family, becomes obsessed with preserving human life and creating virtual immortality.

After assembling a test subject from the parts of recently-deceased men, he manages to animate the creature, who escapes when Victor is taken ill due to exhaustion.

Weeks later, when he recovers, Victor receives news that his brother has been murdered!

Returning home, Frankenstein sees the Monster wandering thru nearby woods.

Victor believes the Monster is the killer, though circumstantial evidence points to the Frankenstein family's nanny..

...as will we, tomorrow!

For a double-dose of classic horror check out Atomic Kommie Comics™, where we're presenting the first comic adaptation of  Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula!

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Reading Room: CLASSIC COMICS Frankenstein Part 1

You've seen the Golden Age and Silver Age strips which were sequels (however loose they may be) to the Mary Shelley novel.

So here's the Classic Comics (later Classics Illustrated) adaptation of the original story from the mid-1940s!

Find out the frightening truth tomorrow!

BTW, we're simultaneously running the first comic adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel Dracula over at Atomic Kommie Comics™!

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Horror Comics of the 1950s

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Reading Room: PRIZE COMICS "Frankenstein & the Nazis"

Like most Golden Age series, Frankenstein adapted to stay "fresh"...

...as "Bulldog" Denny was dropped in Prize Comics #29, and the Monster reformed to aid Mankind...until this tale in #39!

They didn't have to destroy him.

The Monster was un-brainwashed and defeated his Nazi captors.

You'll note Dick Briefer's art style is taking on a much lighter, exaggerated, tone despite the dramatic subject matter of the story itself.

In our next entry, with World War II over, the stories also become wilder...and funnier!

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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Monster of Frankenstein

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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!

Check out the

Monster of Frankenstein

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