Friday, October 31, 2014
Starring Dick Briefer (and a tiny Frankenstein Monster)
An offbeat tale from Prize #30, shortly before reforming and becoming a Nazi fighter.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Frankenstein as Moby Dick
[pulling up some favorite moments with Frankie to wrap up the month]
A nice example of Briefer's pathos-laden take on the monster in the 50s. Briefer's wonderful economy, sense of composition and ability to suggest motion are all on display here. The scenes of the mad old whaler are memorable and the ship is depicted with obvious love.
On top of all that, this story sets up one of Frankie's last great adventures.
A nice example of Briefer's pathos-laden take on the monster in the 50s. Briefer's wonderful economy, sense of composition and ability to suggest motion are all on display here. The scenes of the mad old whaler are memorable and the ship is depicted with obvious love.
On top of all that, this story sets up one of Frankie's last great adventures.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Frankenstein meets Frankenstein
[pulling up some favorite moments with Frankie to wrap up the month]
Dick Briefer always had fun playing with the line between the merely dark and the truly grotesque. In the Mippyville stories, he normally pulled back before things got quite as potentially gruesome as this 1946 tale.
Briefer also enjoyed parodying popular culture figures from Bing Crosby to Inner Sanctum host Raymond. Boris Karloff fit right in.
Dick Briefer always had fun playing with the line between the merely dark and the truly grotesque. In the Mippyville stories, he normally pulled back before things got quite as potentially gruesome as this 1946 tale.
Briefer also enjoyed parodying popular culture figures from Bing Crosby to Inner Sanctum host Raymond. Boris Karloff fit right in.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Frankenstein meets high society -- Like Capra on Acid
[pulling up some favorite moments with Frankie to wrap up the month]
Like Namor, Frankie started out as a superpowered enemy of mankind whose hatred was, if not justified, then at least understandable. Briefer often implied that some people could be just as monstrous as the title character.
There are echoes of Lady for a Day here (if the film had been set in hell*). Even for a product of the depression, this portrayal of high society is remarkably dark.
* Coincidentally, Pocketful of Miracles is often shown in hell.
Like Namor, Frankie started out as a superpowered enemy of mankind whose hatred was, if not justified, then at least understandable. Briefer often implied that some people could be just as monstrous as the title character.
There are echoes of Lady for a Day here (if the film had been set in hell*). Even for a product of the depression, this portrayal of high society is remarkably dark.
* Coincidentally, Pocketful of Miracles is often shown in hell.
Monday, October 27, 2014
Frankenstein meets Job (no, really)
[pulling up some favorite moments with Frankie to wrap up the month]
You never knew what you'd get in a Golden Age story, and I don't necessarily mean that in a good way. The freedom of working in a medium where the rules were still being written was too much for many creators and the resulting stories were often unreadable.
But when you got someone with enough artistic talent and narrative imagination to take advantage of that freedom, someone like an Eisner or a Cole or a Briefer, the results could be exhilarating.
From Prize Comics 31, 1943.
You never knew what you'd get in a Golden Age story, and I don't necessarily mean that in a good way. The freedom of working in a medium where the rules were still being written was too much for many creators and the resulting stories were often unreadable.
But when you got someone with enough artistic talent and narrative imagination to take advantage of that freedom, someone like an Eisner or a Cole or a Briefer, the results could be exhilarating.
From Prize Comics 31, 1943.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Introducing Frankie
[pulling up some favorite moments with Frankie to wrap up the month]
Briefer was still growing as an artist and a writer when he created comics' first ongoing horror series and the medium was still in its infancy, but nonetheless there are signs of major talent in this 1940 story. Powerful images. A fine eye for composition and panel-layout. A flood of visual and narrative ideas.
Enjoy.
Briefer was still growing as an artist and a writer when he created comics' first ongoing horror series and the medium was still in its infancy, but nonetheless there are signs of major talent in this 1940 story. Powerful images. A fine eye for composition and panel-layout. A flood of visual and narrative ideas.
Enjoy.
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