COVERING UP: Classic Golden Age Comics Covers:
Frankenstein Comics #8-11.
Since I don't own these issues of Frankenstein Comics, I found these covers on the Internet.
These are different covers that have different ideas of telling a joke or story. Number 8, July-August, 1947, has a cover that illustrates an interior story. What's up? King Frankenstein could get stabbed from behind and the pretty island girl with the Bettie Page hairdo is watching and smiling. There's obviously treachery afoot!
Click on pictures for full-size images.
Number 9, September-October, 1947, has a great visual gag. When this comic was published television was in its infancy and movie-going was just about the number one pastime of most Americans, if not the world.
The cover to Number 10, November-December, 1947 is also a visual gag, but has nowhere near the strong graphics of the prior issue.
I find the cover of Number 11, from January-February, 1948 to be interesting because it is self-referential. The movie Frankenstein made Boris Karloff a star. The movie gave Briefer's Frankenstein his distinctive look. But the tables are turned: Now Karloff, called Karload here, is scared by our friendly Frankenstein. Does "our" Frankenstein look a little bit short to you? He doesn't look as large on this cover as he does on other covers. I'm sure it had to do with the limited space in which Briefer had to draw his idea.
The covers of Number 9 and Number 10 have the strong poster-like graphics that I like so much in Briefer's work. The insides may have been hastily drawn, but he spent some time on the covers.
In Alter-Ego #62, which I just got, there is a 3-page sequence of Briefer's unsold samples for a Frankenstein comic strip. It's too bad this wasn't sold to a syndicate. These are some of the best drawings I've seen from Briefer. In a letter, from which they have published excerpts, Briefer admitted some of his old art could get sloppy, but eventually found that it was faster to draw the same size as the printed page.
Next week: Froglegs!
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