Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the six hundred and fifty-first week where we examine comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Yes, we've seriously done 650 of these bad boys. Yikes.
Click here for Part 1 of this week's legends.
COMIC LEGEND:
Dell Comics did a superhero version of Frankenstein.
STATUS:
True
A while back, I wrote about how, due to the fact that Dell Comics did not adhere to the Comics Code, they were able to do a Dracula comic book in the 1960s while Marvel and DC were beholden to the Comics Code rule prohibiting them from doing monster comic books.
Well, reader Mark G. wrote in to ask if it's true that Dell did the same thing with OTHER monsters, and sure enough, they also DID try a superhero version of Frankenstein as a line of comics along with the superhero Dracula (D. J. Arneson wrote it and Tony Tallarico drew it)...
Here he is fighting against the machinations of his nemesis, Mr. Freek...
And here he is, hilariously trying to hide his secret identity from the prying mind of Miss Ann Thrope (yes, that is, indeed, her name)...
The Dell Comics monster superheroes were designed to cash in on the superhero boom that was caused by the success of Marvel Comics in the mid-1960s and Bat-Mania from the Batman TV series of 1966. However, like most of these comics designed to cash in on the work of others, they failed to catch on and Frankenstein the superhero was out of comics by 1967, never to be seen or heard from since!
Thanks for the suggestion, Mark!
Check out my latest Movie Legends Revealed - Discover how Bela Lugosi not playing Frankenstein's Monster changed movie history forever!
Part 3 will be up in a little bit - I'm putting all of these Frankenstein-connected legends together! Feel free to write in with suggestions for future legends to either cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com!