Marvel Team-Up #36: Spider-Man and the Frankenstein Monster in "Once Upon A Time, In A Castle..."

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Undoubtedly one of the oddest characters to appear regularly in comic books, the Frankenstein monster was created, in more ways than one, in 1818 in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus. In the book Dr. Victor Frankenstein cobbled the monster together from parts he gathered and gave him life. The patchwork man proved indestructible, living throughout the nineteenth century in numerous reprints. He survived into the twentieth century, and in 1931 Universal Pictures adapted him to the screen. In 1940, the Frankenstein monster lurched into comic books to make the first of many appearances.

Artist/writer Dick Briefer introduced him in Prize Comics #7 (December 1940), modeling him after actor Boris Karloff, who'd appeared in three Frankenstein movies by then. Since the novel was in public domain and Karloff wasn't, Briefer was careful to state at the start of each comic-book episode that it was "suggested by the classic of Mary Shelley." He updated the story, gave it an American setting, and showed his hulking , dead-white monster rampaging through streamlined urban settings. Within a few months he began calling the monster Frankenstein, explaining "the name is universally accepted to be that of the ghastly creation."

A man with a strong though perverse sense of humor, Briefer gradually tired of doing all the ghastly stuff straight. By the middle 1940s, he had converted Frankenstein into a comedy feature. He kidded the whole horror genre, made fun of such current fads and foibles as quiz shows and crooners. The monster became the star of Prize and in 1945 also began appearing in a bimonthly magazine of his own. Briefer afterward admitted that the funny Frankenstein was the favorite of all his comic-book work. "I look back into the old comic mags of Frankenstein," he said, "and really marvel at most of the art and ideas and scripts that I turned out."

The humorous Frankenstein ended in the late 1940s, but the character came back in the early 1950s in a new, grim version that lasted until late in 1954. Also from the Prize Group, it was written and drawn by Briefer.

Back in 1945, Classics Illustrated had offered an adaptation of the novel. Packaged by the Jerry Iger shop, it had artwork by Bob Webb. In 1964, Dell issued a one-shot Frankenstein in their Movie Classics series, offering the Universal version with the slogan "The Monster Is Back!!!" Two years later, in an example of flop-oriented thinking, Dell introduced a new Frankenstein who was "the world's newest, greatest, and strangest superhero!" This unlikely combination of horror and heroics managed to struggle through only three quarterly issues.

Marvel came up with The Monster of Frankenstein in 1973—"The most famous, most fearsome MONSTER of all!" Drawn initially by Mike Ploog and later John Buscema and others, the magazine ended in 1975 after eighteen issues. The monster rose again in guest spots and comic-book novel adaptations.


Credits

Script: Gerry Conway
Pencils: Sal Buscema
Inks: Vince Colletta
Colors: Al Wenzel
Letters: Charlotte Jetter


















Click here to read the conclusion in Marvel Team-Up #37.