Who amongst you actually believed I would finish out June with a scary She-Beast? Ohhh, how little you know me... why, clearly the only way to truly seal the coffin lid on a month, (as well as a "Lurid Ladies" theme) is with a She-Monster! Dynamic Dick Briefer returns to THOIA now, delivering his own vicious version of the eternally flawed Bride of Frankenstein, via the January 1954 issue of Frankenstein #28. It's quite a beautiful work of art, honestly, all of this mad monster science at its most maddening! And THAT, my friends, is the way you close out a month of posts, and a terrifically terrifyin' theme! More jolts in July-- stay tombed!
10 comments:
Briefer hands in a fine bit of art here. Right from the splash with it's very cool camera angle, the leering faces, and how kind of evil he makes the she-monster without resorting to making her Frankenstein's Monster like.
He pulls that great line between cartoon and realism, and actually makes things a little more shocking but how he poses stuff in frames (page 5, panel 1 for instance.) You don't see anything, but you can feel the horror there.
I feel sorry for the scientist. He's not evil in this! He is misguided, by a mile, but is actually trying to do something right and discover something that could help out people. Of course, he's a screw up, and that bomb plot was another in his long line of bad ideas!
The she-monster is this weird intersection between good girl and evil monster art. Briefer really had a truck load of talent.
"I didn't like her murderous attack on me last night."
Crikey, I wonder why?
All Professor Mad Scientist had to do was gone Mrs Monster a doll, just a regular one. That's all! But, no, he had to go and bomb it up. Sad!
I keep forgetting that somewhere along the line of this series, the title character went from this goofy humorous monster to a silent horror version more reminiscent of the original film.(in the novel, the Creature spoke and was intelligent) Out of all the dead bodies to reanimate, why do the scientists always pick the murderers? Because no one would bother looking for them afterwards? Because this one was perfect for the scientist to bring back to life due to not having been embalmed? Because he thought he could “fix” her? It’s interesting that the monster himself is the one trying to destroy the new creation at first, sort of a reverse of Victor destroying the new bride for the Creature before any more terror could occur. It’s an intelligent thought actually since in the end, the lady monster does have a tragic existence. The creepy thing here is that when the lady monster brings home an actual baby, she announces that she’ll teach him to have fun. If she got to keep the little guy, would she have taught him how to kill? The part where the scientist brings the baby back to the village and just dumps it there hoping that someone will recognize him and bring him back his family-if they’re still alive is unintentionally hilarious to me. So is the bomb inside of the doll. Although it’s not played for laughs, the idea is definitely something out of a cartoon.
Really love the art. I also get a little of a Jack Cole vibe from his work.
>somewhere along the line of this series, the title character went from this goofy humorous monster to a silent horror version
Yep, plenty of examples to choose from in the THOIA Archive too-- just use the handy dandy search engine, or tags located in the sidebar or at the very top of the page :)
Both artists indeed possess the same level of manic energy for sure, most notably in the faces and interesting body poses / camera angles.
>Briefer really had a truck load of talent.
A convoy of trucks, actually, good buddy! 10-4
Well, everybody loves an explosive ending
This is a treat. Briefer is most definitely a top favorite. The man could do anything. The economy of his line is rich and evocative and deceptively simple, never too spare and never too cluttered and never lacking in nuance or texture. Everything reads both careful and effortless at once. He's definitely one of the best cartoonists to ever draw.
But not only that, he's also one of the best who ever wrote too. This story is just packed with tasty, creepy ideas. They come one after the other so fast that I kept thinking, cripes, he could have developed five or so stories out of the material here. Ms. Frankenstein could have a had a miniseries of her own had Briefer fleshed-out the horror of her contact with the village, their animals and children, her own body's murderous past, her own monstrous romance. None of this is given short shrift here, but it is all interesting enough to expound on.
I just love the bottom two panels on page six (so dynamic and brightly colored! So textured!), and the fourth one on page nine (stopped in her tracks, and even with the doubling shadow, Briefer didn't need to draw the monster's hand on the weapon), and everything on page two, of course.
Just incredible stuff.
Singularly unsettling, as always. Roger Brand and his underground horror comix always reminded me of Mr. Dick Briefer. There was no way to tell where this story was going, except that you knew that every character involved would come out all the worse for it. Fun, thanks Mr. K!
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