Number 41


Frankenstein Friday: Frankenstein's Job


This is the second story from Frankenstein Comics #2, published in 1945, written and drawn by Dick Briefer.

There is a whiff of kinkiness in this story: Frankenstein on a leash, with a big collar being led around by a beautiful woman. In those more innocent times knowledge of individuals who enjoyed such activities as bondage and discipline was so esoteric that most people never heard of them. Or maybe it was a sly joke on his readership by author/artist Briefer. It's hard to tell from a vantage point of six decades, but I tend toward the former. I think the images of Frankenstein being led around like a dog appealed to Briefer's sense of humor, and not because he was a closet BDSM fan.

The panel where the dog pound boss, feet on his desk, orders the dogs to be led to the gas chamber is jolting. In the short time after a war where millions of people died in gas chambers it seems very insensitive. It also seems cruel in the modern era where many groups remind us we need to treat not only humans but animals in a humane fashion.

All in all, it seems to be a typically bizarre Frankenstein story.

Next week: Frankenstein's Ark