From the August – Sept 1954 issue of Frankenstein #32
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
The Beautiful Dead
Dick Briefer’s legendary Frankenstein series ran for 33 issues from 1945 to 1954. The first 17 issues were fun, silly stories drawn in a very cartoony manner (an example of this era Frankenstein to be posted here in early November), while the remaining issues of the series turned somber and grim, and more realistic to fit in with the darker 50’s pre-code horror tone that was all the rage at the time. Our post today is from this vengeful era, featuring one of the more disturbing and violent glimpses into the tortured existence of Briefer’s infamous Frankenstein creation. (Thanks to The Monster of Frankenstein co-author Ed Robinson for the scans!)
From the August – Sept 1954 issue of Frankenstein #32
From the August – Sept 1954 issue of Frankenstein #32
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11 comments:
wow wow wow!!
FOUR WOWS AND AN AMAZING!
Superb! The final panel is a really disturbing!
Great stuff!last time i saw this was on LAST OF THE SPINNER RACK JUNKIES website,but it was a bitch to download and soon i had to log off,great to have it here.what a great,depressing,melancholily beautiful story,Briefer could sure draw girls sexy,even dead decaying ones!
Well shoot, if I had known this was already posted elsewhere I would have put up another story. I even have LAST OF THE SPINNER RACK JUNKIES bookmarked but never noticed this one on there for some reason. Is this site still active? Doesn't seem to be any new updates since last June.
Super story with great artwork! Did anyone else notice how similar the monster and the corpse was colored and rendered in the last two panels – especially with reaction lines around both of them? Could it be that Briefer was trying to give the reader some insight into the damaged emotional state of the monster as a self-loathing beast that finds a mate but is repulsed when she changes into his mirror image? Just a thought.
>Did anyone else notice
Excellent observation! This era Frankenstein run is definitely loaded with mucho self-loathing and shattered emotions...
And FYI: early in November I'm planning a duel Frankenstein post so everyone can see how this character evolved from a whimsical cartoon into a ferocious killer.
There was at least one other pervous version of the Briefer frankenstein - the WWII superhero verison, and there may have been two - from his run in Prize Comics from 1940-48. I have a few of the superhero strips but I've heard that for the first few issues (he 1st appeared in #7) it was actually a horror strip then became a monster superhero, then a humor strip, then back to a horror strip but I don't know if this is true.
If you have #7, I'd be interested in seeing if any of this is true (some of the superhero ones are available for download on the Golden Age Downloads site).
This comic is sinister! I love how Briefer drew the two tramps who partied with Frankenstein’s wax dummy. They remind me of the grave-robbers that freed the wolfman from the Talbot crypt. Also, I liked how the corpse looked as if it was laughing at Frankenstein’s shocked reaction in the last panel.
>If you have #7, I'd be interested in seeing
I wish I had some of the early WW2 Briefer stuff, but alas I rarely ever see that stuff offered on ebay within an even remotely accessible price range.
>I liked how the corpse looked as if it was laughing
Yeah, definitely one of the all-time greatest final shock panels of all time!
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