Thursday, October 20, 2005

Grandaughter of Frankenstein

Dick Briefer is one of my absolute favourite cartoonists of all time, and it's a shame there isn't more of a tribute to his work in print or online. Even the few links I found to his art when I wrote about him back in the spring are dead. It's a cryin' shame, because the guy was a pioneer. His version of Frankenstein that debuted in Prize Comics #7 (1940) qualifies as the first comic book series in the Horror genre, period! And, as far as I and most of my collegues are concerned, it got even better in 1945 when Briefer decided to make the series a comedy! The stuff with 'The Merry Monster' is just great... wacky, sick, and wayyyy ahead of it's time. And the brush line is just luscious. One of my favourite issues is where the monster meets my hero Boris 'Karload'... Scott Shaw! has a great write up on that particular issue here, and I've included a scan of the splash page with Boris climbing out of a grave. And here's a really cool bit of news. Dick Briefer's granddaughter, Alicia Jo Rabins, plays violin for the Klezmer/Rock band, Golem, and reflects on her memories at the Golem website . How cool is that? Anyway, I feel lucky to have found one, last place to read some online Frankenstein, including the monsters' 'Birthday'... enjoy!

UPDATE! 10/25/05
Monsterama reader John Platt has dug us up some more Dick Briefer comics online, here, here, and here.