Frankenstein Event of 2019

As a new year rushes in, full of promise, we glance back at the year just spent and note that Frankenstein truly is forever. Two centuries into its career, The Monster is as busy as ever on film and TV screens, on stages, in comics and graphic novels, in fiction, cultural histories, and all manners of manifestations. 

The date I choose to remember for 2019 is December 12, when the gavel came down and Bernie Wrightson’s astonishing wraparound cover art for his illustrated Frankenstein book of 1983 was sold at auction. The price was 1.2 million dollars.

This appraisal speaks to the excellence of Wrightson’s art, his passion. It also speaks to the enduring fascination with Mary Shelley’s singular vision. Brought together across time, Mary Shelley and Bernie Wrightson achieved something profoundly original and extraordinary. 

Happy New Year.

Download a pdf copy of the Profiles in History auction catalog.

Basil Gogos, 1929-2017

Halloween is here. This year, I celebrate the life and and career of artist Basil Gogos who passed away on September 13.  

“Basil single-handedly invented the painted monster magazine cover, turning images coined for exploitation into the finest of fine art - feral poses and bestial, skeletal faces splashed with all the colors of fright and passion.”

—   Tim Lucas, VideoWatchBlog.

My first Famous Monsters of Filmland was #12, June ’61, the CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF cover. That issue ignited my passion for classic horror and it was Gogos’ painting, howling at me from a magazine stand, that alerted me and invited me in. Growing up, I would spend hours studying his kinetic covers. Focus up close on details and it was abstract art: A fearless splash of vibrant colors and bold, energetic strokes. Only when you pulled back and looked at the whole thing did all the pieces somehow fit together as a recognizable portrait. But Gogo’s supercharged paintings weren’t mere portraits, they were interpretations. His work captured the subjects more vividly than any photograph could, and made them come alive.

“Make no mistake: From Basil Gogos emerged the Aurora models. From Basil Gogos came a new generation of artists and filmmakers. And from Basil Gogos crackled a vision that would forever define the icons that the Universal monsters are today.”

— David Colton, webmaster at The Classic Horror Filmboard.

Gogos painted Frankenstein Monsters — and Bride — to grace a number of covers. Here, at top, is a sombre portrait for FM’s special issue commemorating Boris Karloff’s death in 1969. Below is a 1971 polychromatic rendition of Christopher Lee’s patchwork Monster from Curse of Frankenstein.

I met Basil Gogos two years ago at Monsterpalooza in Burbank. Late one evening, he joined a group of us sitting with Sara Karloff in a hotel restaurant. He sat right next to me and we shook hands. I told him I was a fan of his. I refrained from telling him how very much he meant to me, I could have gone on and on, but I figured it’s something he’d heard over and over again. It was late, he looked tired, and I just said “I’m a fan”, he smiled, and that’s all. And it was fine just like that.

Bernie Wrightson, 1948-2017

Bernie Wrightson passed away on Saturday, March 18, 2017. He was 68 years old. Wrightson had been ill for some time and had only recently announced that he was effectively retired, not to produce new art or attend conventions. You can read his obituary on his website: http://berniewrightson.com.

Bernie Wrightson’s work in comics is legendary. As an illustrator, he was truly a giant of his field, one of the best ever. Witness his contribution to the history of Frankenstein as perhaps — and for many of us, undoubtedly — the finest illustrator yet to grace Mary Shelley’s novel.

Working on and off for almost seven years, Wrightson produced forty-seven incredibly detailed illustrations. The 1831 version of the novel, illuminated with Wrightson’s art, was first published in 1983.

Bernie Wrightson was a master of his art and his interpretation of Frankenstein will endure as his masterpiece.

Photo by Tim Bradstreet.

The Art of Frankenstein : Nat Jones

A splendid illustration by Nat Jones adorns the cover of Rue Morgue magazine, out this week, celebrating Halloween and the 200th Anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Jones is renowned for his work in comic books, video games and film.

Nat Jones website. 

Rue Morgue magazine.

Red Frankenstein by Darryl Cunningham

The movies’ flattop and bolts Frankenstein Monster rocks his Che Guevara t-shirt and pulp culture icons of the twentieth century are monster-mashed into this wonderful sketch by cartoonist Darryl Cunningham — previously profiled here as the author of Uncle Bob and the Frankenstein Monster.

Darryl posted this recently, with a shout-out to Frankensteinia, on his Facebook page. I just had to share it on the blog. 

Best of the Holidays, everyone, and here’s to a great New Year!

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series Jazz Age Monster

Here’s a splendid streamlined cartoon likeness of Karloff’s Frankenstein Monster from the pages of Universal Weekly, the studio’s trade magazine, May 4, 1935. The art deco-style illustration — signed ‘Marshal’ ? — decorated a page boasting the film’s great box office returns and enthusiastic reviews in Variety and Motion Picture Daily.

Among the articles grouped under the heading “BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN: A TREMENDOUS SMASH” were reports from the Tower Theatre in Kansas City of a Sunday’s sellout business with crowds lining up despite a downpour, and the film drawing “unusually heavy child attendance” despite ads warning “not suitable for children”. The Tower’s manager, Barney Joffee, said he did not refuse admission to families on the principle that “parents cannot be prevented from bringing their children”.

Also featured is a column’s worth of praise for eighteen-year-old female lead, Valerie Hobson, essentially billed as a scream queen, before the term existed. Hobson, we are told, “screamed her way to success” and “plays the part of the beauty-in-peril with ear-splitting realism”. True, Hobson had to deal in quick succession with the Frankenstein Monster and WEREWOLF OF LONDON, leading Universal’s promotional department to declare that “… no actress has ever seemed more certain for stardom than this lovely lady of the vociferous tonsils”.

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series A Frankenstein "Laff"

Here’s a rarity, a panel cartoon take on BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, from the pages of the industry trade paper Motion Picture Herald of 29 June 1935. 

House cartoonist Milt Rosenfeld shows a couple of Legion of Decency types investigating the new Frankenstein film to see if it’s “another sex picture”. The ladies are then seen to exit in a hurry, having had a shock of another kind.

The Motion Picture Herald first appeared in 1915 out of Chicago as the Exhibitors Herald and evolved under various titles over the silent era through mergers and acquisitions, eventually consolidating under the highly influential publisher/editor-in-chief Martin Quigley in 1930. Published on Fridays, the exhibitor’s publication would run until 1972. Many celebrated writers, film historians and industry pundits would grace the Herald’s pages through the years. The legendary New York Times film critic Vincent Canby got his start there in the 1950’s.  

Milt Rosenfeld produced his innocuous cartoons, never editorializing, under the “Showmen’s Lobby Laffs” banner. Here, from May 1940, is another genre-related cartoon, this one about the “Invisable” Man sequel that starred an unseen Vincent Price. The caption says, “Usher: He wants half his admission back… Says he couldn’t see half the picture”.

 

Source: Motion Picture Herald is digitized online at Archive.org and the Media History Digital Library.  

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series "The Weirdest Honeymoon Ever Conceived!"

No sign of Elsa on this ad… This Bride is Valerie Hobson’s Elizabeth!

When BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN came to Australia in mid-1935, exhibitors turned on the ballyhoo. Theaters were festooned with posters, cutouts and eerie lights. Stand-ins for The Monster and his Bride patrolled lobbies and neighborhood streets, and went shopping for a trousseau. 

This early ad for Sydney's Hoyt's Plaza ran in The Truth on Sunday, July 14, setting the stage for the film’s much anticipated arrival on Friday the 19th. “Public interest in “The Bride of Frankenstein” is already unprecedented. AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT BY BOOKING NOW!”

The effective art is a composite of promotional stills. Note how Hobson’s Elizabeth is lifted from a photo with Karloff’s Monster…

The dress is retouched as a bridal gown and a bridal veil is painted in. The forlorn Frankenstein head looming over Elizabeth was also used as decoration, painted giant-size and wrapping around the box-office over at the palatial 1,650-seat Plaza.

“THE MONSTER DEMANDS A MATE! But what heart, what soul, what flesh so brave would dare be his bride…?”

In an era of adrenalized ad copy, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN inspired writer to new heights of lyricism and hype. The small print copy down the side of this ad reads as follows:

SYDNEY IS THRILLING WITH EXCITEMENT!

First it was a murmur! Now it’s roar — an incessant clamour for information about this strange bride. The public pulse is quickening to the vision thrill of her romance with the monster. What will the bride look like? What manner of woman could be mated with the strangest and most terrifying figure in the whole literature of the screen?

And When You Actually See Her!!

You’ll marvel… You’ll wonder… is she human, monster or devil? But you’ll be entirely enthralled at the weirdest honeymoon ever conceived!

SUCH A WOMAN AS THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN HAS NEVER BEFORE EXISTED IN THE FURTHEST REACHES OF HUMAN IMAGINING. A NEW KIND OF WOMAN… GLAMOROUS… TERRIFYING… EERIE!

Related:
The Australian Frankenstein.

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series The Art of Frankenstein : Nicolas Delort

The Bride of Frankenstein strikes an enigmatic pose, head turned away, her moonlit shroud billowing around her.

Paris-based artist Nicolas Delort’s superb scratchboard rendition places the The Bride front and center in a sweeping gothic scene replete with ominous skies, a distant castle and a dark lake.

The image is currently offered as part of a seven print set featuring all the Classic Universal Monsters. Expect a quick sellout.

The set, in a number of variant styles, goes on sale October 13 from Dark Hall Mansions.

Artist Delort’s website is packed with fabulous, must-see art.    

80th Anniversary BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN series The Art of Frankenstein : William Basso

All this month, we’ll be celebrating THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN on its 80^th Anniversary year. Lots of information, great images and fun finds coming up in the days and weeks leading to — and perhaps beyond — Halloween! 

Let’s kick it off in style with a spectacular painting by the brilliant William Basso…  

William Basso’s collage painting of The Bride, like its subject, is a patchwork of elements, slotted and stitched together to unsettling effect.

In the Nineties, Basso worked as an artist with Stan Winston’s special effects studio, contributing to such titles as EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990), TERMINATOR 2 (1991) and INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (1994). Since 2000, Basso has largely concentrated on his own projects, mixed media and sculpture, informed by his abiding passion for splendidly creepy Halloween themes and classic horror.  

Basso’s website is packed with terrific art, a blog and prints to buy, including the Bride painting, Mate for a Monster, and a superb companion piece, Man-Made, seen here below.

William Basso’s website.

An interview with Basso on Strange Kids Club.

Frankenstein Marionette

Towering 22 inches tall from its big black stomper boots to the top of its flat head, here’s a Frankenstein Monster with strings attached.

This unique creation from Czech Marionettes is entirely hand-made from sculpt to paint to sewn outfit and carefully assembled into a fully functional, high-quality string puppet. The high price — $590USD — reflects the superior craftsmanship of this piece.

Click through to the site for more pics of the Frankenstein marionette, a fascinating history of Czech puppets and tons of beautiful work including a dragon, winged skeletons and a Nosferatu puppet.

With thanks to Jeffrey Eernisse

I am the Frankenstein Monster

Argentine-born, Ohio-based author, illustrator and designer Ralph Cosentino creates dynamic children’s books filled with fun, eye-popping art and engaging read-along stories. Best sellers included a superhero trilogy tracing the origins of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman for young readers.

Now, Cosentino has turned to crowd funding to help launch his own publishing company, with I am the Frankenstein Monster as its first offering. Books about Dracula and The Werewolf are in the pipeline.

Cosentino’s Kickstarter page carries lots of preliminary and finished art from the Frankenstein project, and you can kick in some cash, of course, if you are so inclined.  

I am the Frankenstein Monster Kickstarter page.

Ralph Cosentino’s web page. 

Strange As it Seems!

Mary Shelley’s own story of having first imagined Frankenstein as a waking dream became a pop culture anecdote, endlessly repeated. Here, in a cartoon panel from March 1950, a generic Mary tosses around in a Forties hairdo and negligee, dreaming up the plot “for the amusement of friends”.

Created by writer and artist John Hix, the Strange as It Seems newspaper feature launched in 1928 to immediate success and a syndicated career that would span 42 years. The strip’s popularity triggered a series of movie shorts from Universal and Columbia, eventually packaged for television, and a long-running radio series with episodes reissued on records. The features were recycled in book collections and comic books.  

Obviously inspired by Robert Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Hix quickly staked out his own territory, favoring mild curiosities and oddball facts while Ripley’s strip skewed sensationalistic and downright weird. The difference in tone would serve Hix when, in 1935, the Pacific International Exposition in San Diego invited him to replace Ripley’s exhibit of '34, judged “too gruesome”. Again, in ’39, the New York World’s Fair picked Hix over Ripley for its exhibition of curiosities. Ripley countered by setting up his Odditorium on land just outside the Fair’s jurisdiction.

John Hix succumbed to a heart attack on D-Day — dare I say "strange as it seems" —, June 6, 1944, a few days short of his 37th birthday. Through the coming years, the strip would be passed on to a long line of family members. John’s brother, Ernest, picked up as researcher and writer, relying on artists Dick Kirby and Doug Heyes, and ran the feature until his own sudden demise, in a 1948 plane crash. Ernest’s wife, Elsie Huber Hix, continued on with artist George Jahns until she retired in 1963. Her son, Ernest Jr. and his wife Phyllis ran the strip with art by Jahns until the feature folded in 1972. John Hix’s grandnephew, Jeff, is currently curator of the Hix archives.

The Mary Shelley panel was from Elsie’s tenure, with perfunctory art by Jahns. The ‘waking dream’ anecdote had first been used by John Hix back in 1936, on radio episode #195, as “How ‘Frankenstein’ was inspired by a nightmare”.

A detailed history of Hix’s Strange as It Seems, on Digital Deli.

A 1937 Strange as It Seems short from Columbia about Revolutionary War hero, the Marquis de Lafayette.

A video history of John Hix on the Strange as It Seems YouTube channel, run by Jeff Hix. 

What a Sensation!

A unique, original ad in the Courier-Mail heralded the Easter weekend release of SON OF FRANKENSTEIN at the Tivoli Theater — misspelled at the top of the ad! — in Brisbane. Appearing in the Thursday, April 6 edition of the Courier-Mail, the large ad features a striking full-length Monster in charcoal.

The film was double-billed with a minor Universal musical, FRESHMAN YEAR (1938), starring the perky Dixie Dunbar in what turned out to be her final feature. The dancer quit her uneventful six-year Hollywood career playing showgirls, dancing co-eds and characters named Pasty, Mitzi, Ginger, Goldie, Polly and Tiny. She’s called Dotty in this one. Dunbar returned to better parts and real success on Broadway. In 1949, Dunbar achieved pop culture fame as the dancing Old Gold Cigarette box — only her shapely legs could be seen — on early TV, circa 1949.

Brisbane’s Sunday Mail critic gave SON OF FRANKENSTEIN and its cast his good-humored approval, noting, “The Monster has his spine-chilling moments… But he still looks heavily wooden enough to be harmless to anyone with a good pair of running shoes.” Spoilers weren’t an issue, the reviewer stating, “The Monster gets out of hand and eventually has to be tossed into a boiling sulphur pit for apparent lasting destruction.”

SON OF FRANKENSTEIN ran for a week and moved on across Australia throughout the year. Unlike FRANKENSTEIN in 1931, the film suffered no territorial bans to limit its release. SON would circle back across the continent over the next two years for second-run engagements including a 1941 stint that saw it packaged with another Karloff/Lugosi thriller, THE INVISIBLE RAY (1936).

An historical side note: By Saturday morning’s first showing, most Australians had something besides Frankenstein movies on the minds. On the first page of Thursday’s paper, a small notice had read, “Mr. Lyons Ill: Wife’s Dash to Hospital”, noting that the Prime Minister, in recent bad health and “suffering from a severe chill” had been taken to St-Vincent’s Hospital. On Saturday morning, the headline read, “Nation Mourns Death of Mr. J.A.Lyons”. The Prime Minister, suffering a series of heart attacks, had died on Good Friday.

Related:
Frankenstein in Brisbane series.