Frankenstein (Prize Comics)

In one of the many comic book adaptations of the Frankenstein monster created by Mary Shelley in her 1818 novel "Frankenstein", writer-artist Dick Briefer presented two loosely based versions in the Prize Comics series "Prize Comics" and "Frankenstein" from 1940 to 1954. The first version represents what comics historians call American comic books' first ongoing horror feature.

Publication history

Comics' first horror feature

In "Prize Comics" #7 (Dec. 1940), writer-artist Dick Briefer (using the pseudonym "Frank N. Stein" in the latter role) introduced the eight-page feature "New Adventures of Frankenstein", an updated version of 19th-century novelist Mary Shelley's much-adapted Frankenstein monster. [ [http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=1155 Grand Comics Database: "Prize Comics" #7 (Dec. 1940)] ] Considered by comics historians including Don Markstein as "America's first ongoing comic book series to fall squarely within the horror genre", [http://www.toonopedia.com/franken1.htm Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Frankenstein (1940)] ] [Watt-Evans, Lawrence: "The Other Guys", "The Scream Factory" #19 (Summer 1997), reprinted at [http://www.watt-evans.com/theotherguys.html Watt-Evans.com: "The Other Guys"] . In this history of pre-Comics Code horror comics, the author notes, "...there were no horror comics as such in the earliest days. The first real horror series seems to have been the 'Frankenstein' series by Dick Briefer, in "Prize Comics" ... [which was] a superhero title, featuring the Black Owl, the Green Lama, and the like, except for this one aberration".] the feature, set in New York City circa 1930, starred a guttural, rampaging creature actually dubbed "Frankenstein" (unlike Shelley's nameless original monster).

In "Prize Comics" #11 (June 1941), Briefer dropped the "Frank N. Stein" pen name of the previous three stories and introduced Denny "Bulldog" Dunsan as Frankenstein's ongoing antagonist. "Prize Comics" #24 (Oct. 1942) pitted the monster against Bulldog and publisher Prize Comics' superheroes the Black Owl, the Green Lama, and Dr. Frost; the non-superpowered teens Yank and Doodle ("America's Fighting Twins"); and the namesake characters from the humor feature "General and the Corporal". [ [http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=2462 Grand Comics Database: "Prize Comics" #24 (Oct. 1942)] ] As with many comics characters of the time, the monster found himself in the European theater of World War II fighting Nazis.

Humor feature

Briefer's better-known version of the Frankenstein monster, however, developed upon the monster's return from the war, in "Frankenstein" #1 (undated, 1945), [ [http://www.comics.org/series.lasso?SeriesID=428 Grand Comics Database: "Frankenstein Comics"] (Note: Series title per its postal indicia and all covers except that of #1 is simply "Frankenstein")] appearing roughly concurrently with the eight-page story "Enter Frances Stein" in "Prize Comics" # 53 (June 1945), [ [http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=4417 Grand Comics Database: "Prize Comics" #53 (June 1945)] ] which followed "possibly the last 'first version' story of Frankenstein" in "Prize Comics" # 52 (April 1945) [Indexers Lou Mougin/Tony R. Rose, [http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=4319 Grand Comics Database: "Prize Comics" # 52 (April 1945)] ]

Now, like many returning veterans, Frankenstein settled into small-town life, becoming a genial neighbor who "began having delightful adventures with Dracula, the Wolfman and other horrific creatures. The only two times he was featured on the "Prize Comics" cover (both in 1947), he was referred to as 'The Merry Monster'". Brief, with his trademark "loose and smooth ink and brush skills" began telling stories that would "straddle some amorphous line between pure children's humor and adventure and an adult sensibility about the world". [http://www.eeweems.com/artandartifice/dick_briefer.html Weems, Erik. "Dick Briefer"] "Art & Artifice" (undated, 2004)]

Author Dan Nadel, who included Briefer in his book "Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries 1900-1969" (Harry N. Abrams, 2006, ISBN-10 0810958384, ISBN-13 978-0810958388), described Briefer as,

Briefer's humorous Frankenstein ran through "Prize Comics" #68 (March 1948), and his humorous "Frankenstein" ran through issue #17 (Feb. 1949). Three years later, Briefer (1915-1980) revived the series with his original, horrific Frankenstein from #18-33 (March 1952 - Nov. 1954).

Following the cancellation of "Frankenstein" during an era that put much pressure on horror comics and other violent comic books, leading to the creation of the Comics Code, [Hajdu, David. "The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008) ISBN-10 0374187673, ISBN-13 978-0374187675] Briefer left the comic industry for commercial advertising art. [http://lambiek.net/artists/b/briefer_dick.htm The Lambiek Comiclopedia: Dick Briefer] . Source erroneously lists death date as 1982.]

Reprint collections

Briefer, Dick. "The Monster of Frankenstein" (Idea Men Productions, 2006) ISBN-10 1419640178, ISBN-13 978-1419640179

ee also

* Frankenstein (comics)

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.chancefiveash.com/frankenstein32cover.htm "Frankenstein" #32 (vol. 5, #4 per indicia): "The Battle of the Monsters"] and [http://www.chancefiveash.com/frankenstein32p11.htm "The Beautiful Dead"] (reprinted stories)