Seagull & Shoestring's Blooperman

What's that?
You thought you already saw Blooperman in our previous Frankenstein post? Well... yes and no.

I mentioned that Dark Horse had released a collected edition of the first seven issues of Dick Briefer's Frankenstein. They stopped an issue too soon. In issue #8, Briefer took things further. Not only a  Superman  Blooperman tale, but the introduction of  Jerry  Siegel  Seagull and Joe  Shuster  Shoestring, too -

I wonder if they're planning a volume two?

page art by Dick Briefer for Frankenstein #8 (1947)

Frankenstein: Homecoming

As we saw last time, Dick Briefer turned the reformed Frankenstein into a Nazi fighter for a bit.

Ever wonder why there are relatively so few copies of comics from back in those days when they were frequently printed in the millions? This might offer up a clue, eh?

The tale also ended by urging the readers to recycle every scrap of paper, including the one in their hands.

The following issue introduced a pair who would become ongoing cast members for a while with the pronouncement "Trouble Starts Right Here!" -

The next issue brought Frankie back to the USA, along with his new companions. They spent the following few issues settling in to city life...

Then came issue #49, in which we've not only fully embraced the comedy nature of the series, but also looped back to the beginning with reference to his days as the villain of a superhero comic -

As noted previously, the comedy era is the most famous phase of Dick Briefer's Frankenstein comics, and it was at this point that he spawned his own title. The book was a bit irregular getting started. Two issues in '45, then 3 more in late '46 before settling into a bimonthly schedule with the March/April issue in '47.

Since beginning this series, i discovered that Dark Horse released a collection featuring the stories from the first seven issues of the title -

We haven't really touched upon those issues here, nor likely will we, if you looking for more of the series to read. We will look a bit more at the comedy years now that we've caught back up.

But, of course, in time the series evolved again...

page art by Dick Briefer for Prize Comics #s 42-49 (1944, 1945)

Creature Commando

When last we left Dick Briefer's classic Frankenstein('s monster), he had been transformed into a new 'man' and rehabilitated from his evil ways. After a few fish-out-of-water tales while the creature was being re-educated for life in our society, they made another major decision.

It's all well and good to say he's not evil any longer, but for a while he'd been the ultimate evil of their world - even palling around with the Devil, as we saw last time. To make it work, a redemptive arc was needed. The year was 1944, so it wasn't too difficult to decide on the way to go...

The following issue, Nazi agents - pretending to be German citizens oppressed by the Nazis - approach Frankenstein at home and manage to get close enough to inject and incapacitate him. Smuggling him back to der fatherland for treatment, they manage to transform him into their agent of destruction. And so, the following issue...

And now he was positioned to do what nearly every comicbook hero was doing at the time - fight Hitler and the Nazis. And doing it decades before his imitation would lead the Creature Commandos in the same fight...

Ah, the joys of a demented and free-wandering mind.
I've got a very strange cross-over running in my head of this series with Hogan's Heroes. Sadly, i'm far too lazy these days to lay out the breakdowns.

page art by Dick Briefer for Prize Comics #s 38, 40, & 41 (1944)

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)