One of the better '70s Marvel Horror titles Back in the 1970s, Marvel had a line of horror comics, many of which are now being re-released in Marvel's Essentials books. Up to now, my feelings of these horror comics have been mixed: while I have enjoyed The Essential Dracula, I have been far less impressed with the Essential Werewolf by Night and Essential Marvel Horror. So it was with a bit of wariness that I picked up The Essential Monster of Frankenstein, but I found myself pleasantly surprised. While not great, it is a decent collection.
Despite all the issues within featuring Frankenstein's Monster, there are actually two separate Monsters appearing in different storylines. In the issues of Monster of Frankenstein (later titled Frankenstein's Monster), the story begins in the late 1800s, with the Monster being thawed out and his story recounted. The Monster, like in Mary Shelley's novel, is actually intelligent but has a major chip on his shoulder. After an encounter with Dracula, he loses his ability to speak and is eventually refrozen and awakens in modern times, where he tries to track down Frankenstein's last descendants. This storyline ends inconclusively.
We then get the storyline of Monsters Unleashed, featuring a Monster who is of subhuman intelligence and entangled in a plot involving brain switches, animated corpses and other twists. While still savage, this Monster is also not as angry at the world.
Even within the storylines, we get inconsistencies, especially in the first one, where the Monster somehow loses his intelligence in the later issues. In general, the parts of this volume are better than the whole: the individual issues are often fun to read, but taken in its entirety, there is a bit lacking. With that caveat, I still recommend this collection for fans of the Marvel horror comics.
A patchwork monstrosity - the comic not the monster Trying to cash in on the monster boom of the sixties and seventies, as well as the success of Warren's black and white horror comic magazines CREEP and EERIE, Marvel Comics launched a wave of monster titles in both comic and magazine form. Mummies, werewolves, zombies, vampires and even Satan's son mingled with Spider-man and the Hulk at the newsstand.
THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN starts off as a worthwhile endeavor, but because of the frequent rotation of writers, artists and inkers, the comic, like the monster himself, quickly morphs into a slow-moving, lifeless patchwork mess. The persona of the monster rapidly looses focus simply because the writers cannot decide weather he is a sympatric hero or vindictive villain. Devoid of personality and purpose, Frankenstein is relegated as a second rate character in his own book.
Most of the narrative for the comic series is supplied by those who come in contact with the monster, weather it be a Satanic cult, killer robot, or a troupe of circus freaks. Their motivations shape the storylines as an unaware Frankenstein, mute and directionless, is eventually usurped thematically by the flamboyant supporting characters around him.
In the fifties, Dick Briefer created the ultimate Frankenstein comic,The Monster of Frankenstein. Because the Comic Code Authority was not in effect, Briefer was free to portray Frankenstein as a sadistic brute with animal cunning ever vengeful at the world that feared him. He was a force of nature with his own sinister desires, which usually led him into conflict with the police, Russian spies, mad scientists, the military, werewolves, mummies, zombies and ghouls, all with devastating results. It is a pity that the stable of Marvel Comic writers never saw Dick Briefer's comic, they would have learned a great deal from it.
Collection ranges from true classics to true drek. This mammoth black-and-white reprint volume features some of very best comics plushing by Marvel... and some of the very worst. Basically, the tales within these pages that have Gary Friedrich credited as writer are true gems of comic story-telling, from the fabulous adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel, through the inevitable battle between horror gothic horror titans Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster, through the tragic conclusion of the monster's quest to find the Last Frankenstein, the first 11 issues of the Monster of Frankenstein comic book are indeed "essential" reading. The stories are well-crafted, the 19th century setting refeshing (and particularly fun if you're a lover of Hammer films like me), the characters all interesting, and the illustrations for those tales, primarily by Mike Ploog and John Buscema, are also among some of the finest work those artists ever did.
The same is true of the first few reprints featuring Frankenstein's Monster from the pages of Monsters Unleashed. The saga of Frankenstien's Monster is moved into the modern day as an obsessive mad scientiest discovers the inert creature in a traveling sideshow and revives him with bizarre and tragic consequences. The initial stories were written by Gary Friedrich and illustrated by John Buscema, and these, again, are true comic-book classics.
But once Friedrich leaves as writer, the quality goes down the drain. With the exception of the final story in this collection, the episodes penned by Doug Moench are just plain awful, with Frankenstien's Monster facing off against a silly secret criminal organization and even sillier by-products of the efforts of modern-day monster-builders. I hate to say that Moench turned in bad work for the series, as he has written some of my favorite comics(Master of Kung-Fu, Six From Sirius, his run on Catwoman), but there is just nothing redeeming about his efforts on the Frankenstien series. (Except the very last story from Legion of Monsters. Moench and the artist he was teamed with on the strip, Val Mayerick, do their only decent work on that one.
All in all, about 1/3rd of this book is trash, but the good parts are really good, and I say it is a worthy addition to any fan of horror comics' bookshelf. Just skip the material that originally appeared in The Frankenstein Monster issues 12-18 and Monsters Unleashed issues 6-9.
Sadly short-lived series. Having missed the 70s Horror Comics Boom, I was happy to see that Marvel Comics would be releasing Essential collections featuring tales of two of the most famous monsters in every possible medium: Count Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster.
The Monster of Frankenstein series deserves far more recognition and praise than it usually gets, despite the fact that it did not last as long as the more-renowned Tomb of Dracula series. In many ways, the first four issues are more faithful to Mary Shelley's story than any of the films produced, including Boris Karloff's and Peter Cushing's widely-accepted classic portrayals of creature and creator, respectively.
The Monster is played as the multi-layered and tragic character he was always intended to be. Intelligent, wise, articulate, and lonely, he seeks to discover his place in a world that has rejected him since his birth.
The subsequent stories written by Gary Friedrich (known also for his writing chores on Marvel's The Incredible Hulk, a character who owes his creation in part to the Frankenstein Monster) are the real meat of this collection. The Monster is given a genuine pathos, and manages to maintain it even after he is rendered mute. Doug Moench, by contrast, turns the Monster into more of a lumbering simpleton, as if loss of voice equates to loss of intelligence. Bill Mantlo, who wrote the final issue before the series' all-too premature cancellation, gives a most bizarre portrayal of the Monster. Mantlo, also of Incredible Hulk fame (among many other comic books), introduces a Monster who talks and acts an awful lot like..... the Hulk. On the other hand, Mantlo also introduced some very interesting supporting characters, and it's a real shame that he wasn't given the opportunity to explore and develop them further.
Also featuring memorable battles with Dracula (something actually seen on the screen only once, in one of the most infamously "bad" movies of all time no less), and Werewolf By Night (another staple of Marvel Horror who must be given the Essentials treatment), The Essential Monster of Frankenstein is a treat for fans of horror, comic books, and Mary Shelley's immortal novel. It's alive!
Marvel's turn to tell tales of the Frankenstein monster Once upon a time there was a comic books company named E.C. that published a whole line of comics, including "Tales from the Crypt," "The Vault of Horror," and "The Haunt of Fear." Then Dr. Frederick Wertham, a medical doctor and psychiatrist published his infamous "Seduction of the Innocent" in 1954, which claimed comic books contributed to making children delinquents (and worse). Even Superman was attacked for "arousing fantasies of sadistic joy in seeing others punished while you yourself remain immune." The industry was forced to adopt the Standards of the Comics Code Authority for editorial matter (the "Good Housekeeping" seal of approval on the cover.
General Standards Part B of the Code originally adopted reads as follows: "(1) No comic magazine shall use the word "horror" or "terror" in its title. (2) All scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism shall not be permitted. (3) All lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated. (4) Inclusion of stories dealing with evil shall be used or shall be published only where the intent is to illustrate a moral issue and in no case shall evil be presented alluringly nor so as to injure the sensibilities of the reader. (5) Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited."
So it was that for many years the only place future delinquents could read comic book horror stories were in such black & white magazines published by Warren as "Creepy" and "Eerie." However, in 1971 the Comics Code Authority relaxed its strictures on the horror genre and the following year Marvel comics released "Werewolf by Night," "Ghost Rider," "Man-Thing," and "Tomb of Dracula." Once you get to the King of Vampires can the Frankenstein monster be far behind?
"The Monster of Frankenstein" was not on the same level as "Tomb of Dracula," which is one of the great horror comics of all time, but it does have its moment. Originally written by Gary Friedrich and drawn by Mike Ploog (who made his artistic reputation on "Werewolf by Night" and "Ghost Rider"), the comic book took a different approach from "Tomb of Dracula." Whereas Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan were dealing with the historical and literary figure of Dracula in contemporary times (with a supporting cast that included descendants of the characters in Bram Stoker's gothic novel), Friedrich and Ploog began by adopting Mary Shelley's novel in the first four issues.
The adaptation is the best part of "The Monster of Frankenstein, Volume 1" collection, very close to Mary Shelley's novel, especially in comparison to any of the Universal or Hammer movies you have ever seen. However, once you get past those first four issues the stories do seem a lot like those Hammer movies (e.g., #6 "--In Search of the Last Frankenstein"). The big difference is that this Frankenstein monster (remember, the Frankenstein of Shelley's title is the doctor as "the Modern Prometheus" and not his creation) talks and he talks a lot. Granted, this is faithful to Shelley's conception, but the more the monster talks the stranger it gets (and the word balloons for the creature's thought are really weird to me).
The monster does have an encounter with Dracula way back when (#7-9), drawn by John Buscema, and then we get back to the Last Frankenstein bit (#10-11). But at that point the comic book undergoes a radical change. Doug Moench becomes the writer, with Val Mayerik the primary artist with a revolving door policy on the inkers (I like Vinnie Colletta and Mayerik inking his own work the best with Jack Abel at the other end of the spectrum). More importantly, the monster falls into a glacier, gets frozen in ice, and (presto) the monster now walks among us in the present day.
At this point I really lost interest in the comic book. There was an effort to lessen the monster's vocabulary but the abrupt shift to the present really set the character adrift. When Bill Mantlo took over the scripting chores things did improve (e.g., #18 "The Lady of the House") and what we get in the issues of "Monsters Unleashed!" are the best of these stories, written by Moench, but more in keeping with what Mantlo put together (having a supporting cast of recurring characters was helpful). Ironically, to bring things full circle we are back to black & white magazines and not four-color comic books.
Ultimately, "The Monster of Frankenstein, Volume 1" is of more interest to those familiar with the Frankenstein myth more than to fans of horror comic books. This is primarily because of the extension of Mary Shelley's original vision of the monster created by Frankenstein. All of the Frankenstein movies have been primarily concerned with telling the original story in a slightly different way. Making the creature a leading character turns out to be extremely problematic, but that only makes the attempt more interesting. With "Monster of Frankenstein" #1-5, "Frankenstein Monster" #6-18, "Giant-Size Werewolf" #2, "Monsters Unleashed" #2 & #4-10, and "Legion of Monsters" 31 (with the Neal Adams cover), this is pretty much the complete Marvel Frankenstein.
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