THE "FRIGHT" OF DRACULA

FRIGHT FEATURING THE SON OF DRACULA
Vol. 1 No. 1
Cover date: June 1975
Indicia date: August 1975
Atlas Comics
Editor: Larry Lieber
Writer: Gary Friedrich
Art: Frank Thorne
Cover art: Frank Thorne
Pages: 36
Cover price: 25 cents

Larry Leiber, brother of Stan Lee, pulled off a few unpolished gems during his editorship at Atlas/Seaboard. Unfortunately, this is not one of them. Gary Friedrich's (b. 1943) script goes from melodramatic to histrionic in just a few short pages in this whacked-out tale starring the undead Count. You see, just as The Prince of Darkness is about to put the bite on his latest beautiful victim, he finds out she is a long-lost relative! The sappy saga continues to its cliched, "Is this the end or the beginning?" conclusion in this, the only issue of the series titled, FRIGHT that was published.

Thankfully, the book is saved by some excellent artwork by Frank "Dirty Old Man" Thorne (b. 1930), who produced some uber sexy artwork for Marvel's RED SONJA: SHE-DEVIL WITH A SWORD. Nevertheless, SON OF DRACULA is worth a trip down memory lane with the upstart line of comics that dared attempt to nudge the Mighty Marvel and DC a little further down on the spinner rack. Like this try at a Dracula comic series, it was to no avail.

BONUS! FRANK THORNE ORIGINAL ART

FRIGHT #1 front cover original art by Frank Thorne.

Frank Thorne original watercolor of Red Sonja (1975).

Frank Thorne original artwork cartoon for PLAYBOY (undated).

TEN POUNDS OF MARVEL MONSTERS!

The second (and final) volume of the MARVEL MONSTERBUS books is another giant tome that collects the work of scripters Stan Lee, his brother, Larry Lieber, and illustrator Jack "King" Kirby. The two volumes together weigh in at a hefty 10 pounds! The comics that these stories appeared in were published before the great superhero renaissance that began with the first issue of the legendary Lee/Kirby collaboration, FANTASTIC FOUR, published by Marvel Comics in 1961.

Lee and Kirby went on to a career of comic book greatness that remains popular today. The late Jack Kirby has been rightly crowned the "King of Comics", as he churned out thousands of pages of art work and became known for his dramatic use of foreshortening which added a dynamic touch to the comic panel.

Kirby's work on the Marvel Atlas "monster" titles, such as STRANGE TALES, JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY, TALES OF SUSPENSE and TALES TO ASTONISH shows his artistic evolution that burst into full bloom with the advent of the so-called "Marvel Age" of comics. The examples below are typical of the unbounded imagination that he put to each sheet of illustration board for decades.