Frightful Frankenstein Friday!

By Beth Davies-Stofka
October 22, 2010 - 00:01

Dick Briefer's Frankenstein drops October 26, bringing timely treats of Franks-n-Steins for World Series and Oktoberfest fanatics alike. And isn't there a little something coming up called Halloween?

Produced by the soon-to-be-infamous Yoe Books! imprint at IDW, this is the inaugural volume in "The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics!" Frank-o-phile Craig Yoe presents a broad sample of the comic and horror gems of auteur Dick Briefer, originally published in the 1940s and 1950s before the Comics Code Authority poked its disapproving nose into the business.

Briefer's Frankenstein is sometimes dark and grisly, sometimes comical, always drawn with a sure and certain knowledge of what threat, pathos, dread, greed, irony, and satisfaction look like. "Now here's some great cartooning!" exclaimed John Kricfalusi (Ren and Stimpy). It's some great cartooning for real, packaged in a stunningly-designed book that gets better from being held and read.

Have you ever wondered, for example, just what caused all the fuss in those long-ago Senate Subcommittee hearings? What on earth was so horrible about those horror comics? Here's your chance to find out, because when Dick Briefer's Frankenstein was a cruel, vengeful monster, the outcome was pretty awful. We're inured to it now, perhaps, but honestly, some of it creeped me right out.

And on the other side, Briefer's goofily humorous Frankenstein is full of snide fun, and you'll get a kick out of seeing the big lug -- with a nose smack between his eyebrows -- having girl trouble, going on adventures, and getting into the occasional totally surreal mess.

This stuff would be lost forever if not for the Frankly Fannish Yoe devoting his hours and inks to producing knock-out reprints in this affordable single volume. In honor of the occasion, The Comic Book Bin is joining forces with sixteen respected bloggers to create the latest Web-wide event: Frightful Frankenstein Friday!

Each blogger is highlighting a different Dick Briefer's Frankenstein story today, either from this book, or from the blogger's own collection. I highly recommend spending your evening visiting each of these blogs and reading these stories. This is an unprecedented sneak preview of the book's contents -- so be sure to wait until night has fallen! We'll take care of you, easily transporting you from one blog to the next, filling you up with Frightful Frankenstein treats. The list is just below.

Want your own copy? Of course you do! You can order it from Amazon, but even better, how about making this an occasion for some local fun? Go over to the nearest comic book store, and trick them into selling you this awesome treat! (Don't know the location of the nearest comic book store? There's an app for that!)

Whatever else you do these holidays, enjoy our gift to you. And be safe!

And Everything Else Too

Frankensteinia: The Frankenstein Blog

Magic Carpet Burn

Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine

Random Acts of Geekery

Sekvenskonst

Sequential Crush

Stephen Bissette’s Myrant

The Big Blog of Kids Comics

The Fabuleous Fifties

The Horrors of It All

The ITCH Blog

Rating: 9 /10

Last Updated: January 17, 2025 - 08:20

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