Frankenstein (Prize Comics)

Frankenstein
The monster, from Prize Comics' Frankenstein #12 (April 1948). Art by Dick Briefer.
Publication information
Publisher	Crestwood Publications
First appearance	Prize Comics #7 (Dec. 1940)
Created by	Dick Briefer

There have been many comic book adaptations of the Frankenstein monster story created by Mary Shelley in her 1818 novel Frankenstein. Writer-artist Dick Briefer presented two loose adaptations of the story in the Prize Comics series Prize Comics and Frankenstein from 1940 to 1954. The first version represents what comics historians call American comic books' first ongoing horror feature.

In Prize Comics #7 (cover-dated Dec. 1940), writer-artist Dick Briefer (using the pseudonym "Frank N. Stein" in the latter role) introduced the eight-page feature "New Adventures of Frankenstein", an updated version of 19th-century novelist Mary Shelley's much-adapted Frankenstein monster. Considered by comics historians including Don Markstein as "America's first ongoing comic book series to fall squarely within the horror genre", the feature, set in New York City circa 1930, starred a guttural, rampaging creature actually dubbed "Frankenstein" (unlike Shelley's nameless original monster).

In Prize Comics #11 (June 1941), Briefer dropped the "Frank N. Stein" pen name of the previous three stories and introduced Denny "Bulldog" Dunsan as Frankenstein's ongoing antagonist. Prize Comics #24 (Oct. 1942) pitted the monster against Bulldog and publisher Prize Comics' superheroes the Black Owl, the Green Lama, and Dr. Frost; the non-superpowered teens Yank and Doodle ("America's Fighting Twins"); and the namesake characters from the humor feature "General and the Corporal". As with many comics characters of the time, the monster found himself in the European theater of World War II fighting Nazis.