Recently, Tom Spurgeon pointed to the existence of a recent collection of Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein comics. We confess to owning no Briefer comics ourselves, but the bits of his work we’ve seen over the years — most recently in ART OUT OF TIME — have always been very enjoyable. The strip started out as a horror book, but later evolved into a more humorous effort, as the creature got involved in various zany adventures.
To get into the Halloween spirit, a Comics Journal board thread discussing the reprint leads us to this complete scary Briefer story online. Enjoy.
My first briefer story and it was all too brief.
I remember that Frankenstein face! They mention it in the TCJ thread, but some Briefer strips (and apparently some drawn-in-the-style-of-Briefer strips) ran in CRACKED magazine in the late 80’s. I started looking through the website, and I remember that pointy chin and too-high nose.
I love that picture of Frankenstein fighting the alligator.
Read the whole book via your link, Heidi. The melting mannequin made my lower lip tremble…
In the 1940s in Prize Comics (I am unsure if the title was part of the Fawcett stable (my best guess) or DC’s or an independent; I do know Stan Lee had NOTHING to do with it.), Briefer treated the monster as a comedic character, friendly and uninterested in harming a soul. The monster was monstrous only in size.
When the comic book sea changes occurred after WWII, there was, for one, a wave of new mystery, magic and horror titles. Even Captain America briefly became a fighter against black magic! (After fighting real monsters (the Nazis) all through the war.)
Briefer apparently went with the flow and retooled his character to be more like the original. I must say I like the monster when he’s a monster better.
In the 1940s in Prize Comics (I am unsure if the title was part of the Fawcett stable (my best guess) or DC’s or an independent; I do know Stan Lee had NOTHING to do with it.), Briefer treated the monster as a comedic character, friendly and uninterested in harming a soul. The monster was monstrous only in size.
When the comic book sea changes occurred after WWII, there was, for one, a wave of new mystery, magic and horror titles. Even Captain America briefly became a fighter against black magic! (After fighting real monsters (the Nazis) all through the war.)
Briefer apparently went with the flow and retooled his character to be more like the original. I must say I like the monster when he’s a monster better.