Title: New Adventures of Frankenstein

Author: Dick Briefer

Date of First Publication: December 1940

Place of Publication: Crestwood Publications

Type: Graphic Novel

Characters: The Creature

Themes: SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; RACE/POLITICS

Critical Summary: Dick Briefer adapts Mary Shelley’s original text Frankenstein, and is the first comic book appearance of the story. The Creature is dubbed “Frankenstein,” a key popularization of the name being attributed to the monster and not the scientist, a confusion that is said to begin in Peggy Webling’s 1927 play that forms the basis of Whale’s 1931 movie. Briefer’s story begin as an eight-page feature in Prize Comics #7, and follows Shelley’s narrative up of the point of the novel ending, and then sends the Creature off to marvelous adventures.

Briefer has an even better-known version of Frankenstein which comes out in 1945 in which the Creature is settled into small town life after returning from the war, becoming the ideal neighbor who just happens to have other supernatural friends such as Dracula and the Wolfman. In the work, Briefer’s style becomes completely opposite to Shelley’s in that it’s humorous and light. This is not Shelley’s Creature who is constantly in a state of existential despair, but one who has settled into American life and makes friends with his neighbors. Briefer’s version of the Creature might be the most comically sympathetic one out there. One of the most interesting aspects about this adaptation Frankenstein’s/the Creature’s sense of American patriotism. Perhaps because it stems from a war and post-war era, the Frankenstein monster is described as a patriotic and even heroic character.

Administrative Notes:  Annette Morrison, CSUF; Dr. David Sandner, CSUF (editing)