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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 32 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 found the following review helpful:
On a lark Sep 06, 2006
By Joe D.
I bought this book because I am a long-time fan of comics. When the book arrived, I skimmed through it and found it to contain just what I had hoped for......original comics of the Monster of Frakenstein.
I saw that there were some 16 complete issues, enough to allow me to savor one per day. However, by the third day, I was reading three.
What these issues did for me was to return me to an era when comic book authors provided readers with an opportunity to develop and explore their IMAGINATION. Just as reading a good book gives you the power to decide for yourself what the author intends as opposed to a movie producer's INTERPRETATION of the authors words, so too this compilation allowed me to use my own IMAGINATION to determine how horrible and yet sensitive the monster could be. I did not need lighting and music to set my mood. I saw these stories through the camera of my own mind.
Especially enjoyable are some of the sterotypical lines in the voice balloons that actually provide a note of humor to a situation of horror. For example, a village peasant uttering the line, "get torches." Or, tracking the monster's footprints to the cemetery, where they disappear in the area of the Frankentein family vault where the door is observed to be open. "...and be ready for anything." (I'll leave it for you to guess who's inside.) And an attitude that expresses the mentality of the villagers when a volunteer with an incurable disease attempts to inject the monster with a serum, "Too bad, but Radek would have been dead in a few months anyway."
I bought a book to remind me of my childhood dreams and nightmares, and was rewarded with a treasure of well written, well drawn 1950's comics. Rabin's wonderful rememberances of her grandfather author/illustrator were most poingent.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
A horror comic classic rediscovered Nov 29, 2006
By Riley0091
I saw this book being discussed on a monster movie message board and being a Frankenstein fan, I had to add it to my collection.
Most of the posts on the message board praised Dick Briefer's artwork, which is truly masterful, but in my opinion his scripting of the 23 "pre-comic code" horror stories are far superior. Briefer's portrayal of the monster as an unrelenting "force of nature", a misfit that unleashes hell on anything in his path will make your jaw drop! Mummies, mad scientists, ghouls, zombies, a giant man-eating plant, dinosaurs, a panther girl, cops, killers, thugs, villagers, Commie spies (hey, it was the 50's) and a werewolf all vex the reanimated giant - with deadly (and sometimes sadistic) results.
There's no denying it, with the release of Dark Horse's SHADOW OF FRANKENSTEIN, Universal's 75th ANIVERSERY EDDITION OF FRANKENSTEIN, and now Dick Briefer's THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN this is a great year for monster lovers!
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
A delight for monster lovers and comic fans alike. Aug 28, 2006
By Maria G. Williams
The Monster of Frankenstein is one of the best representations of the Golden Age of Comics out there. Having long been a fan of Dick Briefer's work (I even own a few issues), it is nice to see that someone has finally put together his horror work into a definitive compilation. When one takes into consideration the time at which Briefer's work came out (the early 1950's), it is easy to see why comic-fans will develop an even deeper appreciation for this timeless material. Another nice touch was the supplemental commentaries. I especially enjoyed the memories shared by Alicia Jo Rabins (Briefer's granddaughter).
8 of 9 found the following review helpful:
What a piece of work!!! Nov 11, 2006
By Nicholas Santa Maria
If you love Frankenstein's monster and great comics then this is the collection for you! It's beautifully put together, the introduction by David Jacobs is informative and funny, and the stories are more fun than a barrel of spare body parts. HIGHLY recommended.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Amazing piece of visual story-telling Jan 01, 2007
By Shelby
The artist and writer respondsible for this collection, Dick Briefer, is a unique talent whose dynamic and important work in this field deserves to be showcased to today's generation of comic fans and horror aficionados. (The recent 2006 Comics Art Exhibition, held jointly by Los Angeles's Hammer Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, has already focused new critical attention and appreciation for many of Briefer's contemporaries.) But this is no quaint, nostalgia-driven reprint venture - these tales kick butt! Briefer's version of the Frankenstein Monster, one that can hold its own with the best of the filmic and graphic renditions of the character, is a pre-code 1950s horror protaganist of the purest ray serene, and one of the best - a fresh, unique creation that can easily stand right up there with better-known E.C.'s horror line. It's rough stuff, with strong narrative and visual content - these tales haven't dated - they contain a raw power and visceral punch that speaks to today's readers.
I'm sure you will enjoy this "lost horror classic" as much as I.
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