So an encounter between Superman and “Frankenstein’s Monster” was probably inevitable.
Why? Because Weisinger’s editorial reign coincided with the Baby Boomer children’s discovery of the Universal monster movies released 20 years earlier. Kids were seeing the various horror film series on the late night and afternoon local TV movies.
Shock Theater, a package of 52 pre-1948 Universal Studios horror films, was released for television syndication in 1957 by Screen Gems, the television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures. Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Invisible Man and the Wolf Man were prominently represented.
That, in turn, prompted the publication of a one-shot magazine, Forrest J. Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland. But because the first issue, published in February 1958, was popular enough to require a second printing, the magazine took off and continued for 191 issues. The magazine’s success spawned spinoffs that included Screen Thrills Illustrated, Creepy, Eerie, Spacemen, Favorite Westerns of Filmland and Vampirella.
Written by Otto Binder and penciled by Wayne Boring for Superman 143 (Feb. 1961), Bizarro Meets Frankenstein! actually recorded an encounter between Superman’s imperfect duplicate and an actor playing the Frankenstein Monster. The 1954 Comics Code — banning vampires, werewolves, ghouls and zombies, among other things — may have made Weisinger skittish about including the “real” Frankenstein Monster in a story.
Finally, in Superman 344 (February 1980), the Man of Steel would battle the actual Frankenstein Monster, along with Count Dracula.
By the way, that same month Superman 143 shared newsstand space with Famous Monsters of Filmland 10, featuring the Phantom of the Opera on the cover and an article by Robert Bloch.
Pricier than a 10-cent comic book, Famous Monsters would cost you three whole dimes and a nickel.
Daniel W. Ring:
ReplyDeleteDon’t forget during Jack Kirby’s run on Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olson in the early 1970s Superhero fought a Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolfman.
George Blake:
ReplyDelete#143 was interesting but, for me, not terribly memorable, a kind of “filler” issue in the series.
It did one thing for me and that was to impress in my mind that the Frankenstein Monster’s skin bore a green pallor. Back then the movies were broadcast in B&W and it was probably many years before I saw an original movie poster so, to me, the Monster was green.
Bob Doncaster:
ReplyDeleteCastle Of Frankenstein was another magazine I read back then. Wasn’t as punny as Famous Monsters
I replied:
Yes, Ackerman's puns seemed kind of leaden to me even when I was a kid. And Castle of Frankenstein also covered superheroes, oh joy of joys!
G Andrew Maness:
ReplyDeleteYou connected the dots beautifully with your post, my compliments.
Bob Bailey:
ReplyDeleteDan, great post. Shock Theater also inspired Famous Monsters of Filmland, Castle of Frankenstein, the Aurora Monster models and numerous horror just shows and lives on in today’s current hit show Svengoolie on MeTV.
Bob Bailey:
ReplyDeleteThanks Dan. I really enjoyed the Weisinger house ads. Mort wrote them but they were designed by Ira Schnapp under his direction. They made you want to find by the book so you could read it.
Alfred Walker:
ReplyDeleteI related more to the monster tie-ins, thanks mostly to Shock Theater, than the seeming fixation in the Super-titles with Hercules, Samson, et al. I've mentioned before that The Masked Superman on Annual 3 seemed to me like an homage to The Invisible Man - and /or maybe The Mummy.
Robert Gluckson:
ReplyDeleteWell said!
Cheryl Spoehr
ReplyDeleteThree dimes and a nickel -AND WORTH EVERY PENNY AND BEYOND! I so loved F.M.F.! So did most kids,but especially us "outcasts".....and because the pre VCR and pre internet times made it almost impossible to actually SEE those movies, we kids often had ONLY F.M.F. for access to the monsters we loved. I recall seeing "Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein" and for the first time I saw Bela Lugosi in action as Dracula...when he turned into a bat (animated) it was actually frightening to us kids,even tho A.and C. bumbled their way around the rest of the picture. Same for the scenes where Costello ALMOST encountered the "monster" physically, but always moved away before they could touch....we kids could stay up late enough for a movie like that, but not for the midnight showings of "Ghoulardi's Shock Theater", which became an age marker to us. So, a year or so later I could sometimes find the original movies on Friday Midnight, but mostly I just read F.M.F. and dreamed.....that is why the Metaluna Mutant is still my favorite old movie monster,because I saw her first in F.M.F., and what an image.....having no idea what or why or who it was, I just fell in love with that image, same for "The Mole People"....I now own several Mego Mole People which have their own display on my wall, but "Lucy", my Metaluna Mutant, isn't on display but right beside me here, as a favorite doll should be near her owner...boy, I would have loved a M.M. doll when I was in grade school.....