Frankenstein Monster Meets Dracula

It's a battle of monsters that is a Universal theme, but here is the tale of the first battle of the creation of Frankenstein and the lord of the vampires, Dracula...

...brought to you as only the mighty Marvel could at the time!

The Fury Of A Fiend!

There was a bit of a set up for this, in Frankenstein #7 (November, 1973, by Gary Friedrich, John Buscema and John Verpoorten, with Frank Giacoia).  The Monster, in the later 1800s, fell in with a group of gypsies, falling for the beautiful Carmen Burnemissa.  Working with her grandmother, Madame Marguerita, the Monster went along with them, heading to Transylvania in the Monster's pursuit of the last surviving Frankenstein (as the Monster wanted to end his creator's bloodline).  

Secretly, Marguerita was a vampire, feasting on the village....and bringing down their wrath on the gypsy caravan.  The Madame led the monster to a cave, where she said the last Frankenstein lay dead....but, after the monster cleared the boulder blocking the cave, they found her true goal....the undead body of Dracula!

My Name Is...Dracula--

Here, the battle has truly begun, in Frankenstein #8 (January, 1974, by Gary Friedrich, John Buscema and John Verpoorten, with Buscema inking his own cover).  The Monster, enraged by the trickery of the Madame, ends up fighting Dracula (surprised by the monster's strength, and still weak from his own resurrection).  The sounds of the battle drew Carmen to the cave, where threatened by her own grandmother, the monster slew the madame, revealing to her granddaughter that she was a vampire. 

The battle ended as Dracula disappeared in the melee, with the monster and Carmen discovering that the villagers had slain all the gypsies.  Furious, the monster left to attack the village, leaving an unconscious Carmen behind.  Meanwhile, Dracula searched the village for sustenance, but the villagers were prepared to ward off his attacks.  So, wandering the countryside, Dracula found the unconscious Carmen, and fed.  The monster set upon the village, who were also ready for him, and bound him to a lamppost, building a fire around him to end the monster.

The Vampire Killers!

The battle ends in Frankenstein #9 (March, 1974, by Gary Friedrich, John Buscema and John Verpoorten, with cover inks by Tom Palmer).  The monster is able to escape fiery death as the villagers rush to face Dracula, who was attempting to feed on another female victim.  The villagers rally against Dracula, but fail, as the count goes to secure a new coffin for his cave.  The monster lets the villagers know he will end Dracula, and that they should not attack him.  Back at the cave, the monster encounters the now vampiric Carmen, who attempts to feed on the monster, paralyzing his vocal cords.  

Overcome with grief, the monster ends Carmen's undead experience.  Dracula is angered the monster would end one of his brides, and fights with the monster, with the monster successfully defeating Dracula (for now).  Even better, at the end, the monster comes into contact with the last surviving Frankenstein (Vincent)....but that is a story for another time.

Monsters Meet

Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolfman were among the first monsters who crossed each others path, and while they didn't during the run of Monsters Unleashed...

...here are a pair of covers with one of each, and a good enough reason to review what's past.

Monsters Unleashed #6 (June, 1974) has a cover by Boris Vallejo, and the Frankenstein Monster made it onto the covers for these previously covered issues of Monsters Unleashed.

A werewolf is about to take out the tomb robbers on the cover of the Monsters Unleashed Annual of 1975 (with art by Ken Bald), with werewolves being the feature of previous covers here.

The last issue of Monsters Unleashed, #11 (April, 1975) has art by Frank Brunner and Dick Giordano, featuring devil hunter Gabriel, who would likely have no problem battling Man-Thing or other monsters as well, exorcising this month of monstrous coverage.

Frankenstein Monsters

A couple of artistic covers featuring the Frankenstein's Monster, as the misbegotten monster saves some damsels in distress for Marvel magazines!

Monsters Unleashed #2 (September, 1973) has a cover by Boris Vallejo, with Monsters Unleashed #8 (October, 1974) has a painted cover by Earl Norem.   

Frankenstein Adaptation?

The Universal Monsters saw a bit of an upswing in the 1960s, and Dell was already to cash in on that, with a Frankenstein comic book.

But, Frankenstein #1 (March-May, 1963) wasn't exactly all that it was suppose to be, even though it did sport a painted cover by Vic Prezio, and interior story and art by Don Segall and Bob Jenney.

In this story, Dr. Frankenstein created the monster (with an abnormal brain supplied by Fritz, the hunchback), but he later got control of the monster, and fled Europe, taking the monster, whom the doctor had some hypnotic control of to New York, where the monster got loose and was blamed for a fire started by some careless dock workers....

Of course, this was Shakespeare (or at least Shelley) compared to the second through fourth issues of Frankenstein by Dell.

Issue 2 came out in September, 1966, by D. J. Arneson and Tony Tallarico, and now he wasn't a monster, but a super hero!

The monster was created in an old castle in America in the 19th century, and, after 100 years, a city grew around it.  The creature awoke during a lightning storm, and, finding a human mask (to hide his green skin) went out, taking the name "Frank Stone".  He promptly found a billionaire, who died and left him a fortune.  So, Frank then decided to put his great strength to use, becoming a super hero, with his true identity only known by his butler, William, but suspected by his girl friend, Ann Thorpe.

This continued in his third issue from December, 1966, where he fought an evil duplicate of himself, and the fourth from March, 1967, where he faced the return of a nemesis from the second issue, the diminutive Dr. Freek, who had an assistant of his own, the brutish gorilla Bruto.

Oh, what brave heroes this Dell world must have!

Of course, two other heroes in this were Dracula and the Werewolf, who had equally short comic runs, but more on them later (maybe...or not).

Frankenstein's Monster Has A Heart

It often seems monsters don't have a heart, but here on the cover for Archie's Mad House #24 (February, 1963 by Samm Schwartz), it is shown that Frankenstein's Monster does indeed have a heart....as a matter of fact, it appears at least five plus two as the doctor's x-ray shows!

Lady Monsters In Charge

The Bride Of Frankenstein, Dracula's Wife and the mate of the Wolfman show who's really in charge in this cover of Mad House #105 (November, 1976) from Archie Comics.

Jingle Belle: Santa Claus Vs Frankenstein

Jingle Belle, the teenage daughter of Santa Claus, created by Paul Dini, finds Frankenstein's Monster in the ice in this Top Cow special, Jingle Belle: Santa Claus vs. Frankenstein #1 (December, 2008) by Paul Dini and Stephanie Gladden.

After freeing the monster, Jingle Belle convinces Santa to make monster toys, with the monster doing the work.  

Frankenstein's Monster returns the favor, helping Santa and his crew against a crooked politician who tries to bar Santa Claus from the United States.

This issue also has an alternate cover by artist Greg Horn.

Superman Vs. Dracula and the Frankenstein's Monster

Seems as characters go, a meeting of Superman and Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster was long overdue, but it happened in Superman #344 (February, 1980) under a stunning cover by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.

"The Monsters Among Us!" featured a story by Len Wein and Paul Levitz (who had both previously worked on the Phantom Stranger comic of the 1970s), with interior art by Curt Swan and Frank Chiaramonte.  This story sent Clark Kent and Lois Lane to cover a seance, presided over by the blind medium of Cassandra Craft (who had previously appeared in the earlier mentioned Phantom Stranger series).  Cassandra could sense there was more to Clark Kent that met the eye, but didn't really follow up on it as the group was attacked by the pair of Universal Monsters.   Superman went toe to toe with Frankenstein's Monster, and Dracula and the animated man had to withdraw without finishing off Cassandra, but, Dracula had come to realize that drinking Superman's blood would give him incredible power. 

The two monsters tried again, this time getting closer to finishing the Man of Steel (and convincing him of the potential inevitability of Dracula's victory).. ...when the Phantom Stranger mysteriously appeared and took the two fiends back to the fictional world from whence they came (and without even a hello to his earlier paramour, Cassandra). 

Though little explanation of where Frankenstein's Monster or Dracula came from in Superman's world, it was still quite the great one issue story!

Bizarro Meets Frankenstein

The title of Superman #143's cover story (drawn by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye) seems simple enough..."Bizarro Meets Frankenstein".  But the February, 1961 story by Otto Binder, Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye has a little more of twist to it.

True, the cover tells you it isn't Frankenstein's Monster that Bizarro is crashing in on, but instead an actor playing the monster.  Bizarro is upset that the actor is getting more attention than him, so he continues to hang around, but gets laughter instead of fear.  Superman helps his imperfect duplicate get fear, so #1 will go home to Bizarro World.

There, Bizarro acts like any father, presenting his kids with a gift, a puppet of Superman, which scares them!  Perfect logic for the Bizarro family!

Universal Monsters Cavalcade of Horror

Reprinting old stories is nothing new, and sometimes the stories even come from a long time ago...

...so, take a look at this collection of classic Universal Monsters from Dark Horse, with the Universal Monsters: Cavalcade of Horror from January, 2006, with a cover by Eric Powell.

These stories all originated from their movies, and from a run of comics by Dark Horse in 1993.

Frankenstein

First up was the adaptation of Frankenstein in June, 1993, by Den Beauvais, which is an airbrushed piece, harkening back to the birth of Frankstein's Monster...


...reading this will make you feel "it's alive!"....



...or make you run out to see the original movie.

Creature From The Black Lagoon

Truly, the best of the Dark Horse adaptations, with adapted story by Steve Moncuse and art by Art Adams and Terry Austin, this tale came out in August, 1993...


...with action so real, you'll get wet when reading it....


...so remember to bring along your scuba gear so you can catch a breath reading of the Creature From the Black Lagoon!

Dracula

Straight from the wilds of Transylvania, the Count was adapted by writer Dan Vado and artist Jonathan D. Smith who painted the story of the world's most famous bloodsucker...

..giving deeply rich backgrounds to look at...

...making you feel like Dracula and want a drink of something as well after you read this adaptation from October, 1993!

The Mummy

Deep in the heart of a tomb in Egypt, the Mummy's movie was brought to life in November, 1993 by writer Dan Jolley and artist Tony Harris...

...this tale with keep you wrapped up in suspense...

...at least long enough to finish the tale.  

Sadly, the planned volume for the Wolfman never saw the light of the moon.

Arrgh!

For the life of me, I couldn’t think of anything to write. And it made me go…Arrgh!



And, Arrgh! was a 5 issue horror spoof comic from the Marvel Comics Group, and it ran from December 1974 to September 1975.

A Horror Spoof

Marie Severin drew the first couple of covers…Alfredo Alcala the third, Tom Sutton the fourth, and Ross Andru and Mike Esposito the fifth (who also did the interiors of #5…

...interior artists for some of the other issues included the early Justice League of America artist Mike Sekowsky and Sub-Marinerr creator, Bill Everett, as well as Tom Sutton, Howard Post, Joe Maneely and Jerry Grandenetti; some stories reprinted from the humor magazine of the 1950s, Crazy).

It was some light-hearted fun at the Universal Monsters' expense...

…and some goofy humor you could use to pass a slow afternoon…or fill a column when you have writer’s block, the scariest monster of them all!

So there, writer’s block....a little fun, and Halloween related as well!

Spider-Man’s Amazing Movie Team-Ups!

Spidey’s kept up an amazing run over the years, meeting with various other Marvel heroes in Marvel Team-Up (and, well, just about any title Spider-Man has been in).

With his latest movie, the Amazing Spider-Man, Spidey’s all ready to take over the big screen again!  But….it doesn’t seem likely he’ll be teaming up with the Dark Knight (sort of obvious, Batman’s DC and Spidey’s Marvel), or sadly, even with his fellow Avengers (Spidey had been a part of the team in the comics) as the Amazing Spider-Man is being produced by Columbia Pictures (and it was Paramount Pictures that brought us the Avengers, and its movies, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: the First Avenger)…and Spidey’s fellow New Yorkers like the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Elektra, the X-Men and the Punisher are spread out as well!  (The less said about the travelling Ghost Rider….and, well, there’s Howard the Duck as well….and the approaching Guardians of the Galaxy).

Still, this doesn’t stop the comics from teaming them up, or even having your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man meet with other movie franchise stars, even as part of his regular comic book appearances.  So, let’s take a look at a few of those!  And, wouldn’t any of these be the blockbuster of the summer?

This Bites

One of the earliest meetings of these type was when Spider-Man confronted Dracula in Giant-Size Spider-Man #1 (July 1974, by Len Wein and Ross Andru), where the characters cross…on a boat.  It’s a little more serious than that (Peter was there to help Aunt May with an illness…), but still pretty basic (and though the cover implies differently, Spidey and Dracula never meet).  Dracula had been added to the Marvel Universe with Tomb of Dracula back in April 1972 (by Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas and Gene Colan), and had been encountering the occasional Marvel character as time progressed (as well as having a few created there as well, such as Blade, who fronted his own movie franchise of the daywalking vampire with Wesley Snipes as the titular character).  Not an actual tie-in to any specific Dracula, but I’ve always felt he looked a little like the Christopher Lee version from the Hammer Films (though with a bit of the classic Bela Lugosi thrown in)…Marvel’s version of Dracula was one of the stronger ones, and most of the better adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Gothic character had something of this look involved.

Pieces Get Together

Dracula wasn’t the only classic Universal Monster Spidey ran into.  Frankenstein Monster’s rose to meet the webslinger in Marvel Team-Up #36 (August 1975, by Gerry Conway and Sal Buscema).  Frankenstein’s Monster was in an issue of Silver Surfer, but started in earnest with The Monster of Frankenstein #1 (January 1973, by Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog), and lasted for 18 issue (with the title switching to The Frankenstein Monster with issue #6) until he ran into the Amazing Spider-Man.  Or, more accurately, Spidey and the Monster were kidnapped by Baron Ludwig von Shtupf to help create a new breed of monsters (under the baron’s control, of course).  The two worked together (as they also faced Spidey’s werewolf foe, the Man-Wolf, who had returned from the moon) and the Mary Shelley’s Universal Monster shambled off to pop up here and there (as a member of the undead Avengers foes, the Legion of the Unliving, or with Iron Man fighting the Dreadknight, a distant relation of the Black Knight), and this Frankenstein’s Monster looks like an amalgam of the earlier versions, having longer hair than and a thinner look than the classic version by Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi or even Glenn Strange. who met Bela Lugosi‘s Dracula (along with Bud Abbott & Lou Costello in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein).

Pulp Muscles

Spidey didn’t just encounter old monsters, but those that fought them as well.  Spidey met another guy with big muscles, the old pulp hero, Doc Savage in Giant-Size Spider-Man #3 (January 1975, by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru).  Lester Dent‘s Man of Bronze first appeared in Doc Savage Magazine in March 1933 and Clark Savage Jr was a “perfect human being”, at least in terms of strength, speed and mental abilities, and he and his band of compatriots fought criminals and spies.  Marvel started comic book adaptations of his stories with Doc Savage #1  (October 1972, by Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart and Ross Andru) which lasted eight issues.  Sadly, Spidey and Doc don’t actually meet in the Giant-Size either, but both spend their time working against blue alien babe named DeSinna in their own times (Marvel at least kept Doc set in the 1930s when they used him).  Doc does meet a later Marvel star, the Fantastic Four’s Thing, in Marvel Two-In-One #21 (November 1976, by Bill Mantlo and Ron Wilson).  Though the movie came out in June 1975, Andru‘s Doc Savage does have a “Ron Ely” quality (Ron Ely being the actor to portray Doc in Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze).  And, Hollywood plans more with a new Doc Savage movie to come.

Sexy Swordplay

Keeping with the idea of the old pulps, Spidey met the female barbarian lead, the Red Sonja in Marvel Team-Up #79 (March 1979, by Chris Claremont and John Byrne).  Red Sonja came from the pages of Conan the Barbarian (#23,  February 1973, by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith) and was based loosely on Red Sonya from Robert E. Howard‘s “The Shadow Of The Vulture” short story from January 1934 (not originally a Conan story, which led to an eventual separation in the rights between owning Red Sonja and Conan), ending up with 7 issues of Marvel Feature, and 3 series of her own at Marvel (lasting 15 issues, 2 issues and 13 issues).  This story did have the two characters meet, more or less, using a bit of magical trickery (needed to fight Red Sonja’s old magical foe, Kulan Gath, who manifested in the here and now).  A delightful story of Spidey fighting along side the metal-bikinied red-head, along with a surprise or two here and there (look for a mild mannered Daily Planet reporter to make a cameo).  Red Sonja’s now a big franchise at Dynamite Comics, and they worked with Marvel to make a Spider-Man/Red Sonja mini-series (more or less following up on the idea in this story…running a bit too long, but still having some fun with the idea).  Sadly, less fun was the 1985 Red Sonja movie with Brigette Nielsen as the main character (with Arnold Schwarzenegger playing a Conan-like character in the movie, but not Conan, as back then it was still rare for movie franchises to crossover).

Look, Up In The Sky!

Though not in a normal comic, but in a large Treasury edition, Spider-Man encountered Supeman in a historic Marvel and DC team-up!  True, DC and Marvel worked together the year before to produce a treasury sized (that mean larger than normal comic) adaptation of “The Wizard of Oz“, but in January, 1976, we readers were treated to Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man….”the Greatest Superhero Team-Up of All Time!” by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru (with help from Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Terry Austin, Josef Rubinstein and Bob Wiacek….hey, something this big needed an army of artists!  As well as words from Stan Lee and Carmine Infantino as well).  In this story, Superman tosses Lex Luthor into prison, as Spider-Man does to his own foe, Doctor Octopus.  Just so happens, for this story, the two end up in prison together, and are able to escape.  Though the machinations of the villains, the two heroes fight each other (part of those plans included the kidnapping of Lois Lane and Mary Jane Watson, the paramours of the titular heroes), figure out that they were tricked, and then team-up to save the girls and defeat the bad guys.  Oddly enough, it had been suggested to Lee and Infantino to do a movie detailing this battle, but it was Superman – the Movie (with the iconic Christopher Reeve as Superman, that eventually came out in December 1978) and a few Spider-Man TV movies (with lesser known Nicholas Hammond in the later 1970s).  Reeve went on to play Superman three more times, and, Superman has been a regular presence in the movies and television for decades, even making it to Saturday Night Live on occasion…which is ironic!

Live From New York

Lastly, Spidey met up with one of his strangest team-ups ever….meeting the real life stars of Stripes, the Blues Brothers, Coneheads, Invaders From Mars, Haunted Honeymoon and Car Wash…or at least the actors who played characters in those movies when Spidey teamed up with the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players in Marvel Team-Up #74 (October 1978, by Chris Claremont and Bob Hall).  Taking the idea that Stan Lee would be able to host SNL (and, hey, why’s that so hard to believe…well, it’s easy now, but Stan hadn’t been guest-starring in Marvel movies back then…), and a little postal problem…the villainous Silver Samurai ends up trying to fight John Belushi for a ring mistakenly delivered to the comedy star…and Spidey ends up having to work with the cast to keep John safe (and the show on the air).  It does sound like this is a really odd idea, but the story works (and leads to a multi-issue crossover a little later in the series, where Spider-Man works with Nick Fury and Black Widow (who have been a few movies together recently) as well as Shang-Chi (the son of Fu Manchu)….and Fu Manchu, there’s a fellow who has been in some old movies as well!

At least Saturday Night Live didn’t forget one Avenger that the big screen Avengers did…the Ant-Man!

(Hey, he retains the strength of a human…at ant-size!  Just ask him!  It’s poor Garrett Morris as Ant-Man, John Belushi as the Hulk…and Dan Aykroyd as the Flash…).