19 January 2019

Frankenshift

As we left Dick Briefer's unique version of Frankenstein, it was moving away from being a superhero strip - but seemingly unsure of where they wanted to go. (When i  use the term 'they' here, i'm referring to Briefer and his Editor. It's likely he was involved in the long term planning, but i could be very wrong. It might have solely been Briefer making the decisions)

After chasing Frankenstein's body about for a bit (even encased in steel) and a few one shot tales, we got the story we saw last weekend, in which Briefer was waiting for the news on where things were going.

The story which followed that one was a retelling of a Biblical tale...


Hmm...  Do you think they decided on Divine intervention to make sure nobody thought they were implying something by having the Devil betting with Frankenstein?

Or is my mind off wandering again? Or both.
Anyway...

Unless Dick was waiting for a report back from Hell, that probably wasn't the tale he actually took off to start drawing. In my mind, it was this one from two issues later, when they decided on their new direction -


No - I'm not going to leave it there. Here's the next tale so we can see how things get started (again) -


We were moving in the direction of his classic comedy strip, but not without some detours...

page art by Dick Briefer for Prize Comics #s 31, 33, & 34 (1943)

2 comments:

  1. I've got a collected edition of some Briefer Frankenstein strips that I'll have to read sometime. I'm not sure I like the look of the Monster though - just a bit too cartoony for my tastes.

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    1. Since starting this series i found what i think is the collection to which you're referring. It's focused solely on the comedy years (the most popular era of the strip) and the look is well suited to the stories. It's my intention to mention the collection when we catch back up to the humour years. (Almost there)

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