Frankenstein Day!

Berni Wrightson was born on this date in 1948. Wrightson made his mark in the fanzines and later at DC where he brought a stylishness to his work on the ghost books. He went on to do outstanding for Warren Magazines as well. He's likely most famous for his breakthrough work on DC's Swamp Thing. His epic work though was his detailed illustration of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. 

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein is one of the most influential novels in history. It's impact on culture is enormous generating plays and adaptations almost from the very beginning in the 19th Century. In more modern times adapting the story to film has been almost a requisite. There are countless film adaptations of the story from Edison's early attempt in the teens to the iconic Universal version in 1931 which along with its sequels and imitators catapulted the story into myth. I've read the novel a half dozen times at least and taught it in school many times as well. It's a lush story of one man's startling obsession to conquer death by bringing the reassembled remains of many dead back to some sort of shambolic existence. It is the story of a man's obsession to conquer nature and the cancel even the thought of God from the equation of man's time on this planet and beyond. The novel is a cornerstone of both science fiction and horror and more besides. And it was the lifelong love of another artist, a chap named Berni Wrightson. 

As an artist who was often called on to illustrate horror tales, Wrightson did many takes on the Frankenstein myth such as "The Patchwork Man" in Swamp Thing and "The Muck Monster" for Eerie Magazine.  But it's here, illustrating the original Shelley narrative that we see how much he is ideal for the work. It was a true of passion, something he worked on between paying jobs for Marvel and DC and others. It took seven years to create the artwork which would serve to draw the reader into the world of Frankenstein more completely. As can be seen readily Berni lavished time and effort into each of the carefully rendered pages, each capturing a single moment from the novel. Reading the novel again for the first time in several years I was struck by the venal nature of Frankenstein, his absolute self-absorption is stunning but alas exceedingly modern. If anything Wrightson elevates him to a more heroic status with his idealized presentations. 

The art was first published alongside the text by Marvel in one of their oversized graphic novels. I missed out back then and had long wanted to behold this material, to hold it in my hand. Dark Horse at long last gave me that chance when they published the book again. 

The art itself is magnificent and as it turns out stunningly expensive. The original of the image above (seen in its entirety below) sold recently for a cool million dollars. 

Below are just a few of the magnificent images which Wrightson produced for his favorite work of literature. He comes close to making it mine too. 

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Modern Prometheus In Pen And Ink!

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein is one of the most influential novels in history. It's impact on culture is enormous generating plays and adaptations almost from the very beginning in the 19th Century. In more modern times adapting the story to film has been almost a requisite. There are countless film adaptations of the story from Edison's early attempt in the teens to the iconic Universal version in 1931 which along with its sequels and imitators catapulted the story into myth. I've read the novel a half dozen times at least and taught it in school many times as well. It's a lush story of one man's startling obsession to conquer death by bringing the reassembled remains of many dead back to some sort of shambolic existence. It is the story of a man's obsession to conquer nature and the cancel even the thought of God from the equation of man's time on this planet and beyond. The novel is a cornerstone of both science fiction and horror and more besides. And it was the lifelong love of another artist, a chap named Berni Wrightson. 

As an artist who was often called on to illustrate horror tales, Wrightson did many takes on the Frankenstein myth such as "The Patchwork Man" in Swamp Thing and "The Muck Monster" for Eerie Magazine.  But it's here, illustrating the original Shelley narrative that we see how much he is ideal for the work. It was a true of passion, something he worked on between paying jobs for Marvel and DC and others. It took seven years to create the artwork which would serve to draw the reader into the world of Frankenstein more completely. As can be seen readily Berni lavished time and effort into each of the carefully rendered pages, each capturing a single moment from the novel. Reading the novel again for the first time in several years I was struck by the venal nature of Frankenstein, his absolute self-absorption is stunning but alas exceedingly modern. If anything Wrightson elevates him to a more heroic status with his idealized presentations. 

The art was first published alongside the text by Marvel in one of their oversized graphic novels. I missed out back then and had long wanted to behold this material, to hold it in my hand. Dark Horse at long last gave me that chance when they published the book again. 

The art itself is magnificent and as it turns out stunningly expensive. The original of the image above (seen in its entirety below) sold recently for a cool million dollars. 

Below are just a few of the magnificent images which Wrightson produced for his favorite work of literature. He comes close to making it mine too. 

Tomorrow something completely different. 

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Tohope And Change - Frankenstein Conquers The World!

I'm often struck by the convoluted ways that many of Toho's iconic kaiju flicks came into being. Many start out as something else, featuring some other monsters before they morph into the final form which we all now remember with such relish. Such is clearly the case with Frankenstein Conquers the World. This movie started out as the template for the exceedingly successful King Kong Vs. Godzilla. By the time it was eventually made Godzilla was gone and a new monster named Baragon was introduced. This is also the first of three movies co-produced with American Henry Saperstein who had previously purchased UPA. Two of the three starred Nick Adams, a strange but weirdly successful American addition to the kaiju tradiion.

The movie  gives us glimpses of Germany at the end of WWII and a secret project which is interrupted by the bomb at Hiroshima and which mutates into the immortal Frankenstein, a creature which in this movie grows to enormous size. Frankenstein is never actually a threat himself, a relatively peaceful creature who only wants to find some connection in the world which produced him but never sought to integrate him. He is treated with kindness by one woman and in her name fights against a murderous monster from the depths of the Earth. I really enjoy this movie because of the oddity of the human figure battling in kaiju style. Frankenstein is really able to move with no small nimbleness and skill and it works well. This movie will spawn a sequel, of sorts, but more on that later.

More to come.

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Merry Marvel's Frankensteins!

Mary Shelley's famous and frightening creation met the Uncanny X-Men in late 1967, but it turned out the Frankenstein's Monster depicted here by George Tuska was not the real deal, but a robot built by aliens. Sheesh!

Update: It was brought to my attention by Britt Reid (see comments section) that a later reprint of this comic had the Tuska Frankenstein head altered by Marie Severin. I'm a bit fan of Marie's work, but in this instance her more "human" Frank face is less menacing.

Later in 1968, Norrin Radd runs across the infamous creator, or at least his heir Ludwig and finds himself the victim of the Frankenstein family's genetic predisposition to meddle with Mother Nature. This cover and the rejected variant (which I prefer but understand why it was rejected -- not enough Surfer) are both the work of the great John Buscema.

Finally in 1971 Marvel unveils the real McCoy, giving the epic saga of Frankenstein and his "Monster" their own ongoing comic. Mike Ploog was tapped to give...er...life to the saga, one I've long regarded as the greatest ghost story ever written.

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Frankenstein Woodcut!

Lynd Ward's woodcuts can be breathtaking. His illustrations for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein punch through the veneers of many who approach illustrating the text, and offer up an inner view of the struggle both within Frankenstein and the Creature.


My own interpretation of the novel suggests to me that the Creature is not real, as the evidence for his existence is only from the raving stories of his creator and presumably the eyewitness testimony of the Captain who ultimately tells the tell. But I maintain that the Captain, a man similar in mindset and unhealthy motivation to Frankenstein has been equally deluded, and so his testimony is tainted.


The task Mary Shelley (or her husband depending on who you believe really authored the text) was the create a ghost story, and I think it is a masterful one, so good that uncounted millions have seen the apparition over the many many years.


Ward gets at that sense of interior madness with his contorted images. For more of his work see this magnificent link.

And while I'm on the subject of Frankenstein, here's Edgar Winter's magnificent song of that name. Put that music behind Ward's images and you have something remarkable.



For a more prosaic rendition of the classic gothic horror, here's a link to the Classics Illustrated version of the story. Below is the magnificent Norman Saunders cover for one edition of that comic.


And here's the dramatic splash page by Robert Webb.


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It Lives In Paperback!

Frankenstein is one of those stories that has become ubiquitous in the culture. Everyone knows a little bit of it, even if almost no one has actually read the novel itself.

The movies, especially the famous Boris Karloff efforts have transformed a pathetic creature of pain and power into an icon of merchandising and myth.


When I teach Frankenstein (which I haven't done in several years now), I always push the notion that it's a ghost story, and that there is no external evidence that the creature even exists. No one but Frankenstein sees his creation, though according to his narrative many suffer its effects. Even at the end when the Creature reveals himself to gather his creator's body, it can be argued that the madness which consumed Frankenstein has infected our ultimate narrator and that the ghost is a figment of madness, a madness which is a threat to the very nature of man's soul.


All that said, the book is in more paperback editions I'd wager than just about any other story of its kind. I own at least a dozen myself and I don't really try to collect them. The noirish cover at the top of this post is a real prize, making something else out of Mary's admittedly creaky story. I'm sure that sold a few to the hard-boiled crowd.


Some focus on the creator himself, some on the creature. Many use the iconography of Karloff's mug, but many find other ways to show the creature. He's been transformed by marketing as much as by his wayward father, lifted from grave time and again to sell a stil quite good book.


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