Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
Truly, this surfeit of Modern Prometheusness can only be a cue for me to look at another stab at bringing the monster to life.
And, this time, it's one from fifty years ago.
It's strange to think that when I first saw the Universal take on the tale, that film was only forty years old but seemed far more ancient then than this take does now - even though this take is, at present, fifty years old. What madness is this?
The take is, of course, Marvel Comics' Monster of Frankenstein #1, a natural bedfellow for the company's early 1970s Dracula and Werewolf comics. Several years ago, I reviewed issue #15 of this series but have reason to believe the first issue's a very different beast to that book.
This Walton clearly has an unerring sense of direction because no sooner have we met him than he's found his quarry, encased in a block of ice in the Arctic where it, presumably, resides beside the blocks of ice that hold the Thing From Another World and Captain America.
No sooner have the vaguely rebellious crew got the ice cube aboard than Walton starts to explain its back-story to the cabin boy.
Needless to say, the creature didn't greet that plan with good grace and proceeded to murder Victor's brother and frame an innocent for the deed, causing her execution.
Deciding cowardice is the better part of valour, Victor flees to the mountains but the monster catches up with him and, now confronting him, is about to reveal what it's been up to since he last encountered it.
But that's where our flashback must end, as Walton's ship is suddenly gripped by the mighty fists of a storm that threatens to sink it and its crew.
At this point, the vaguely rebellious crew becomes determinedly rebellious and demands to throw the creature overboard.
But unbeknown to them all, even as they clash, in the ship's lower quarters, the storm's turmoil has shifted the block of ice too close to an open fire and, now, that ice is starting to melt...
As we all know, the original novel's a classic but how does this interpretation stand up?
It's OK but it does suffer from the decision to tell the tale of the monster's creation in flashback.
It also seems, at times, as though story elements have gone missing. For instance, we're told of the murder of Victor's brother William and the subsequent trial of Justine Moritz for the slaying but, apart from a single panel, early on, we've never been introduced to these characters, giving them an air of the shoe-horned.
Mike Ploog's artwork is suitably Ploogy and he admirably captures the sense of being storm-tossed, although this story is the first time it's ever struck me just how similar to Herb Trimpe's his style could be at times.
Meanwhile, Mike Gary Friedrich's script is, in all honesty, unremarkable. His dialogue often dominated by attempts to plaster over gaps and cracks in the visual story-telling.
So, overall, it's an unexceptional comic about which I don't have a lot to say.
I will comment, however, that its cliffhanger does make me want to read the next issue. So, I suppose that, in that sense, the comic's succeeded in doing its job.
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22 comments:
Tt was written by Gary Friedrich, Steve, not Mike.
If you hurry you can change it - and delete this comment - before anyone else gets here. I won't tell if you don't.
-sean
I've now made the necessary edit, Sean. I like to think I've done it on a way that no one will ever notice.
Great review, Steve!
Perhaps the monster's ice-cube saved those rebellious sea-dogs' lives, by dousing the flames of the stove, preventing the ship's timbers from igniting, as the vessel flipped around!
Next issue, the bride of Frankenstein ought to be Justine, who'd marry the monster, then get revenge on him for framing her, by leading him a dog's life for the rest of their marriage! Every time they'd have a row, she'd bring up, "And what about the time you framed me for murdering Victor's brother?"
Phillip
Smooth, Steve. Very smooth.
-sean
I hold Marvel's Monster of Frankenstein in some esteem.
Was it a great comic? Nope, not really. Frankly (no pun intended) Marvel didn't know what the heck to do with the character.
It was an uneven mess that lurched around with no direction, not unlike its title character. And at some point, Stan Lee, possibly somewhat exasperated, said something like "just freeze him in an iceberg for a while and have him thaw out in the present day, so he can fight Spider-Man."
In other words, quit dickin' around.
It's regrettable, the treatment the poor monster got not only from torch-wielding villagers but also Marvel management.
Still, that woebegone comic was part of Marvel's 70's horror line, so I have a sentimental attachment to it. A spooky decade demanded spooky comics.
M.P.
...for spooky kids!
-sean
Is this the movie with Abbott and Costello?
...in my case, that's definitely true, Sean! I was a spooky kid back then. I was looking for Bigfoot behind every tree and ghosts in every cellar, the Devil himself in every dark empty room or lonely path at night.
Still am. I'm not about to let my guard down now. If SOMETHING is going to get me, I'm ready.
Ready to haul balls in the opposite direction, at any rate.
M.P.
In the novel (yes, I have read it) the monster just wants to be accepted but he is constantly rejected and his bitterness drives him to murder first Frankenstein's brother then his wife. At the end of the novel the monster builds a funeral pyre and climbs onto it, accepting that there is no place for him in this world.
Hmmm, according to Wikipedia the novel ends with the monster vowing to kill himself and then drifting away on an iceberg never to be seen again.
Steve, I haven't seen Kenneth Branagh's 1994 version of Frankenstein but, according to Wikipedia, it comes closest to the original novel than any other film. But in the Branagh film the monster kills Frankenstein's wife and then Frankenstein sews her head onto Justine's body which definitely wasn't in the book!
'Closest' is a relative term, Colin. Branagh's version does have a bit more in common with the original than, say, the James Whale or Hammer versions... but thats not really saying much.
Btw, you weren't completely off on the novel's end, but you mis-remembered. The monster says he's going to the north pole alone, to build himself a funeral pyre and end it all - in fire and ice! - but it finishes with him just heading off (as it has to, what with the conclusion being narrated by Walton).
-sean
Sean:
‘He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance.’ Yeah.
Colin:
I saw Branagh’s 1994 adaptation in the theatre — just the once — and I found it an almost complete misfire. DeNiro’s Creature makeup was supposedly inspired by Wrightson’s classic illustrations, but he doesn’t project any sense of uncanny menace. Everyone screams and flees when they see him even though he just looks like an ugly guy with some stitches. Looking for a ‘novel’ source of electricity to re-animate the Creature, Branagh and his collaborators have him brought to life with electric eels (it’s as goofy as it sounds). Branagh himself looks way too buff and hearty to be a properly tortured aesthete (he’s shirtless a LOT). Etc etc. Wikipedia be damned — the movie didn’t feel all that faithful to the novel, IMO, nor was it suspenseful , or scary, or emotionally compelling. Strangely enough, Elizabeth’s grotesque resurrection was the best sequence in the film (or at least the most nightmarishly memorable).
Steve:
Nice save with that Friedrich attribution ;)
M.P. :
I have a soft spot for the Friedrich / Ploog Frankenstein comic too. I like the 3 issues drawn by Big John Buscema too (tho they’re significantly less atmospheric and ‘spooky’ than Ploog’s run). My all-time favorite Frankenstein comic though, is Tom Sutton’s utterly bonkers ‘Frankenstein Book II’ series in Skywald’s PSYCHO mag.
b.t.
Speaking of Frankenstein, I remember, in the late 1970s, one Sunday evening, ITV broadcast a drama based on the book. It centred around the section in which Frankenstein's taken aboard the ship and tells the captain about the creature. The USP in this one was that the monster could change shape and adopt the appearance of anyone it met. This meant it was almost certainly on board the ship and passing itself off as a crew member. Clearly, whoever wrote it had decided it'd be a good idea to mash together Frankenstein and Who Goes There?
I asked about it on Twitter, a few years ago but no one seemed to have any recollection of it. This does seem odd, as it was on ITV at a time when there were only three channels, meaning everything on ITV got millions of viewers, meaning this particular drama must have had millions of viewers.
Anyway, does anyone on here remember it? Googling for it has produced no trace of it.
Oh — and of course fidelity to the original source material really has nothing to do with whether a Frankenstein movie (or comic book, or stage play or whatever) is any good or not. James Whale’s two Universal movies are still my favorites and they resemble Mrs. Shelley’s book only in the broadest of strokes. Conversely, there is a 1977 Swedish / Irish co-production called TERROR OF FRANKENSTEIN which everyone swears is the most faithful film adaptation ever — but I’ve also heard that it’s dull and kind of a chore to sit through (haven’t seen it myself, so I couldn’t say).
I also quite like FRANKENSTEIN THE TRUE STORY, which, despite the misleading title is no more ‘true’ to the novel overall than, say, ANDY WARHOL’S FRANKENSTEIN or any of the various Hammer takes on the story.
b.t.
Steve, it’s not ringing any bells. Sorry.
b.t.
Nor with me. But then I wasn't familiar with Tom Sutton's Frankenstein either. Although I am now, having just been reading it online, so thanks for the pointer b.t.
Its more gonzo Universal than Shelley - sort of what you'd hope a Marvel version would have been, but knew it couldn't because of the Comics Code (that, and the editors at Skywald obviously being more twisted) - and pretty entertaining.
My favourite Frankenstein comic is still Bernie Wrightson's 'The Muck Monster' though, even if it is only six pages. And er... not actually Frankenstein (a mere technicality).
https://aeindex.org/reviews/bernie-wrightsons-the-muck-monster-artists-edition-portfolio/
Wrightson's illustrated book is surely the last word in visual adaptations of the original novel.
-sean
Steve, I don't remember that ITV version of Frankenstein at all but if it was broadcast on a Sunday night I'd probably have been in bed by 9pm ready for school the next day.
bt, I first saw 'Frankenstein: The True Story' on TV around 1976 and at the time I assumed it was called the "true" story because it was faithful to the original novel, only discovering years later that it definitely wasn't. I watched 'The True Story' again on YouTube (or was it BBC iplayer?) a few years ago and although it wasn't as fantastic as I'd remembered, it was still enjoyable enough.
PS if anyone else is interested, episodes of Sutton's Frankenstein are at
https://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/search/label/sean%20todd
(Seems he drew them under the pseudonym Sean Todd)
-sean
I think I've previously mentioned that T'Pau's 1987 song 'China In Your Hand' was about Frankenstein but it only becomes clear in the album version's extra lyrics which were omitted from the re-recorded 7" single version. Anyway 'China In Your Hand' stayed at #1 in the UK for 5 weeks so it was definitely a "monster" hit...ho, ho.
B.T.-
That Tom Sutton story sounds very intriguing. I'm gonna look it up.
...anybody remember the video for Back Off Bugaloo? I'm glad Ringo and the monster could settle their differences with a nice walk and a picknick in the park.
Much nicer than floating away on an iceberg.
M.P.
Steve - The only late 70s Frankenstein related UK tv show I've found, is something called Supernatural + "Night of the Marionettes", from 1977. However, it doesn't sound like the one you've described. Moreover, it stars Gordon Jackson - and I'm sure you'd remember him. Can you remember any actors in the show? If so, searching would be much easier.
Phillip
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