The Monster Mash-Ups - Part 9: Comics Appendix

COMIC BOOKS:

Okay, I said I wasn't going to do this, but here I am doing this.  The thing of it is; monster mash-ups in comic books went some truly crazy places, and I'd just feel like I'd done an incomplete job if I didn't at least try to drive past that cemetery on our way home.  I'm still going to do an incomplete job, but you'll have some kind of idea what has been going on out there.

Casper the Friendly Ghost & Friends
Harvey Comics - 1952

Casper began life (so to speak) as a cartoon from Famous Studios, and he was, in fact, first introduced to comic books in 1949, but it's his association with Harvey Comics that is best known.  In the 30 years that Harvey published Casper, his cast expanded to include friends like Spooky the Tough Little Ghost, the Ghostly Trio, Hot Stuff the Little Devil and Wendy the Good Little Witch.  Now that I'm reminded of them, it's startling to consider that they may have been a large influence on me as a young child.  And believe me, that's the only startling thing about these ghosts.

Creepy
Eerie
Vampirella
Warren Publications - 1964, 66 & 70, respectively

In the 60s, publisher Jim Warren took the idea employed by Mad Magazine -- publish magazine sized comics in black & white for the newsstand rather than the comics rack, thus escaping the scrutiny of the Comics Code Authority -- and applied it to horror comics.  These tended to be more monster oriented than the EC comics which inspired them.  With the addition of Vampirella to the line-up, the "host" character moved into the spotlight, and Vampirella had her own adventures which strayed, on occasion, into the other titles.  More than a mere vampire, Vampirella came from Drakulon, a planet of vampires where the rivers flowed with blood.  The character gained her own cast of characters, including ties to Dracula and Lilith, mother of demons.  She has also crossed over with other comics LIKE CRAZY.  There's a movie too, but you didn't hear that from me.

Frankenstein
Dracula
Werewolf
Dell Comics - 1966

Amid the monster craze of the late 60s, Dell Comics tried to get in on the action with three interrelated monster-themed superheroes based on the Universal Monsters.  They each lasted only 3 issues, across which the same creative team was spread.

The Frankenstein character had a sidekick named Miss Ann Thrope.  That should give you some clue what we're dealing with here.  Frankenstein ranked "highly" in the World's Worst Comics Awards.

You know, I'm honestly not sure that they even lasted long enough to meet each other, but it seems pretty evident that they were intended to form a team.  A terrible, terrible team.

Swamp Thing
Created by Len Wein & Bernie Wrightson
DC Comics - 1971

Swamp Thing was first introduced in DC's horror anthology House of Secrets, then moved to his own title in short order.  While the character (in its original incarnation) owed elements of story and tone to Gothic horror like Frankenstein, the character was an original creation.  Nevertheless, he would soon encounter a Patchwork Man, werewolves and much more as he went about his life of existential torment.  The character has gone through many changes over the past 40 years, but he remains the DC Universe's central figure in matters of supernatural horror.  Yes, Marvel's Man-Thing (obligatory snicker) predated it by a few months, but that character was never as well developed as Swamp Thing.  Then again, with Alan Moore delivering a large part of his narrative in the 80s, very little else comes close.

Tomb of Dracula
Werewolf by Night 
Monster of Frankenstein /Frankenstein's Monster
The Living Mummy (in Supernatural Thrillers)

Marvel Comics - 1972

In the early 70s, the Comics Code Authority loosened some of its restrictions (which were arbitrary and self-imposed in the first place) on what comics could depict, and Marvel took full advantage of their new freedom by introducing a whole line of comics based on classic monsters.  Not only did these monsters then cross over with each other, but they were considered part of the greater Marvel continuity, and crossed over with everyone from the X-men to Spider-man.  As a matter of fact, Marvel's first significant film success came from the Blade, a character that first appeared in Tomb of Dracula #10.

I've only read a couple issues of these, but I'd really like to read more.  It's my understanding that some of the comics are really pretty good.  Tomb of Dracula has some pretty extraordinary art from the legendary Gene Colan, and the great Mike Ploog took turns on both the Frankenstein and Werewolf titles.

Marvel's Man-Thing (which I was shocked to learn, predated DC's Swamp Thing by months) also crossed over heavily with the rest of their supernatural horror line.

Godzilla: the King of Monsters
Marvel Comics - 1977

Godzilla has been licensed to a number of comics companies over the years, but naturally it was during his two-year stint with Marvel that he did most of his crossing-over.  He mostly encountered super-teams like the Avengers (sadly the Hulk was not with the team at the time) and the Fantastic Four (so at least he met the Thing), but he did also clash with Marvel's own Godzilla knock-off, Devil Dinosaur.  Marvel created the Ren Ronin character for the comic.  Ronin was a Mazinger-like giant robot who would then filter back into the periphery of the Marvel Universe after the Toho license expired.  The greatest missed opportunity was that Marvel's publication of Shogun Warriors overlapped with Godzilla, and despite planning a crossover, they didn't get it together before the license ended.

In the 90s, Dark Horse published a one-shot called Godzilla vs Barkley featuring basketball star Charles Barkley.  Despite some super-growth, Barkley isn't strictly a monster.  Now, if it was Shaq...

Creature Commandos
DC Comics - 1980
Created by JM DeMatteis

The Creature Commandos were a special ops type unit during WWII.  They made their debut in DC's Weird War Tales anthology title in 1980.  The team included a vampire (named -- I kid thee not -- Velcro), a Frankenstein's monster, a werewolf, a gorgon (Medusa, for our less literate friends) and a normal human leader (such bigotry!).  Oh, sometimes a robot.  They were originally introduced into DC's Weird War Tales shortly before the "DC Implosion" when the publisher scrapped a bunch of titles and fired a bunch of talent.  Despite this, and at least 2 universal reboots, DC actually brought the concept BACK in 2000 and again within the past year in Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.

Doc Stearn... Mr Monster
Created by Michael T Gilbert - 1984

Though loosely based on a twice-published 1940s Canadian comics character of the same name, Michael T Gilbert's Mr Monster is his own character.  He's a superhero, albeit one strongly influenced by the pulp heroes of the 30s and 40s.  He fights all manner of monsters with blazing pistols in both tribute to, and satire of superheroes and the monster movies of the 30s, 40s and 50s.

The books don't seem to have gained traction with readers, although more 10 publishers have been willing to present Mr Monster's adventure across that past 30 years.  You have to admire Gilbert's tenacity and commitment to a vision. 

It just seems bizarre to me that Mr Monster and Hellboy haven't had a crossover.

Aliens vs Predator
Dark Horse Comics - 1991

Once Dark Horse had acquired both the Aliens and Predator licenses for publication, it was only a matter of time before they figured out that the should meet... and kill each other.  The core premise is that Predators are the ultimate hunters in the galaxy, and Aliens are the most deadly game, so there's an honor principle at stake for the Predators.  The combination proved so popular that numerous miniseries have been published to date, also spawning a video game and returning the concept to movies.  While the comics occupy a future continuity that makes sense in the context of the original films, the movies based on the comics based on the movies have been set in contemporary times -- one presumes to reign in costs, since a future setting would cost more to design and build, taking away from the monsters budget.  Comic books cost the same to produce, no matter where and when they are set, nor how large the explosions or rampaging creature hordes.

The rivalry has spilled over into crossovers with Top Cow Comics' Witchblade & The Darkness, DC Comics' Superman & Batman, and The Terminator, also licensed to Dark Horse.  Both Aliens and Predators have crossed over with Judge Dredd in comics as well.



 
The Terminator
Dark Horse Comics - 1991

Comics based on the Terminator films had been done before, but it was when Dark Horse started buying up licensing rights in the late 80s and experienced success with the Aliens vs Predator crossover that things really got rolling.  In addition to crossovers with AvP, Terminators have had miniseries meet-ups with the RoboCop (also published by Dark Horse) franchise and DC's Superman.  After all, what is RoboCop if not a Frankenstein in armor?  RoboCop vs Terminator also spawned a video game.

Hellboy
Dark Horse Comics - 1993
Created by Mike Mignola

The comic upon which the movies are based.  I love the movies but the comics are even better.  They're such a pure expression of Mignola's creative vision, combining Lovecraftian mythos, legends and folklore from around the world, re-imagined Universal Monsters and good ol' silver age face punchin', all told in his oft-imitated yet inimitable graphic arts style.

For an hilarious variation on the whole Hellboy thing, seek out the Hellboy Junior specials which put a Mad-Magazine-but-more-gross spin on the character, thanks to Bill Wray and other extraordinary talents.

Wetworks
Image/Wildstorm - 1994
Created by Whilce Portacio & Brandon Choi

When comics readers razzed Image Comics for struggling with schedules in their early years, they were mostly talking about Wetworks.  It wasn't the only one that struggled, but it was the longest delayed, and nobody really cared if Rob Liefeld wasn't taking a steaming dump on the comic racks for another week.  When the comic DID finally come out, it was about a black ops team (because ALL the image books were about black ops teams) that were armored with golden symbiotes.  Two members of the team were werewolves, and many of their foes were updated versions of classic monsters.  I know there was a pretty cool Frankenstein's monster in there, because I have the action figure and the head broke off.  Crap was always breaking off on those cheap/expensive McFarlane toys.  Oh yeah, Wetworks also had a crossover with Vampirella (but then who hasn't; you know what I'm sayin'?).

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8
Dark Horse Comics - 2007-continuing

A few years after the seven season run of the TV series, many of the writing talents behind the show got together to create a new "season 8" in comics.  Each writer took an arc within the greater "season" telling a story that built up to a whole.  There had been Buffy comics before, but excepting a few instances, they had been made by comic writers meddling within the established chronology.  Season 8, however, was considered new canon.  The transition to comics allowed the series to deal with all variety of monster madness on the much larger scale (think: Tokyo) that the narrative development really demanded.  The Season 8 arc has concluded, and the series has continued into Season 9.  With the success of the Buffy continuations, Whedon & Co have also been producing Angel and Spike comics which serve to continue from the end of the Angel series as well as bridging with Buffy.

What I read of Buffy was (mostly) good, but I must admit, I have considerable catching up to do.

Frank Frazetta's Dracula Meets the Wolfman
Image Comics - 2008

There aren't too many people in comics who can get their name above the title without actually doing anything, but Frank Frazetta is one of them.  Frazetta painted the image for the cover of Creepy in 1966, and then 42 years later someone else wrote and drew a comic book based on it, and he still got paid.  THAT is what you call solid brass BALLS, my friend.  What's more, it's not even the first time he's done it.  His Death Dealer painting spawned TWO comics series, in addition to being the main reason anyone ever bought a Molly Hatchett album.  You can also buy a statuette of the Wolfman wailing on Dracula for $225.

BALLS.








And with that, I can't think of a more appropriate bookend to an article that began with Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.  Thanks for hanging in there, monsterphiles.  It was a gas, gas, gas.

Okay, so the facts have made me a fibber once again.  This was intended to be the final entry in the series, but new information has necessitated one more Appendix, so READ ON, dear reader for the FINAL final chapter, The Monster Mash-Ups - Part 10: El Hombre Lobo Appendix!

Or take it from the top, which is actually on the bottom, with The Monster Mash-Ups - Part 1: the 1940s & 50s!

The Monster Mash-Ups - Part 1: the 1940s & 50s

FILM & TELEVISION:

If there's anything better than a monster, it's more monsters, right?

Yeah, you'd think so, wouldn't you?  Well, it's a good thing you're pretty.

Big monster dust-ups are some of the best-worst things in film history.  The idea is almost always thrilling, but sadly the execution of the idea is frequently disappointing, if not outright craptacular.  They seem to be at their best when they're part of a fresh universe created from whole cloth, rather than a catch-all for recycled and/or public domain properties.  Since they're so often thrown together as a quick and easy cash-in, they bear all the loving craftsmanship that typically accompanies the term "quick and easy cash-in."

And yet... and yet there is just something undeniably exciting about the things that go bump in the dark bumping into each other.  How will it change their dynamic?  Do multiple monsters mean more monster screen-time?  Who would win in a fight?

I don't mind telling you; my criteria here is kind of vague.  At first I was just looking at the Universal Monster crossovers, or anything that co-opted the public domain origins of those characters.  Universal Pictures had big, big hits with the now classic Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolf Man, but also the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible Man, Dr Jekyl & Mr Hyde, Phantom of the Opera, the Mummy, This Island Earth and of course all manner of sequels and other horror movies.  Other filmmakers grew up with these movies running on TV, and would later pay tribute to them and/or exploit them in their own work.  While I don't want to just throw in everything that has more than one kind of monster in it, I do want the ones that feel like they are, for better or worse, tapping into that lineage.

I also have many of Godzilla's bigger throw-downs.  Some of them do, in fact, cross over with other characters, and the series has had such longevity in its own right that they do kind of feed on that same thrill of recurrence and magnification.  I think the experience of reading this article will convey to you the continuity of excitement that comes from having a house full of monsters.

And so, please enjoy... the Monster Mash-Ups.

Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man - 1943
Written by Kurt Siodmak
Directed by Roy William Neill

Featuring: The Wolf Man & Frankenstein's Monster

This is where it all began.

The now legendary 1931 Frankenstein had spawned three sequels including the equally legendary Bride of Frankenstein.  1941's The Wolf Man had also been a big hit for Universal, and its screenwriter jokingly pitched the producer the idea of bringing them together, which almost backfired on him, and where would we be now?

The film really belongs to Lon Chaney's Wolf Man far more than it does Frankenstein.  As a fairly direct sequel, it opens with Lawrence Talbot (Chaney) escaping from his crypt and going on the road to find relief from his curse.  The Wolf Man has always been kind of the runner-up to Dracula and Frankenstein, but he's really the most interesting character of the three.  Frankenstein's monster is misunderstood, and Dracula is just plain bad, but Talbot is tormented, and it gives him the strongest motivations of the lot.  Talbot seeks out the old gypsy woman who understands his condition, and together they journey to find the brilliant scientist who has been doing earth-shattering work in the subject of life and death; Dr. Frankenstein.  Once they get to Frankenstein's village, however, they discover that he has been killed... and stir up the fear and loathing of the villagers.  Searching the ruins of Castle Frankenstein for clues about the late doctor's work, he discovers the monster frozen in ice.  Once thawed, the monster guides him to Dr. Frankenstein's hidden cache of notes, but his personal diary is still missing, which leads Talbot to enlist the aid of his heir, the lovely Baroness Elsa Frankenstein in the hopes that she still has his diary.

The film works pretty well while it maintains its focus on Talbot/the Wolf Man.  The Frankenstein parts are not as good.  Due to the nature of the character, the monster just isn't that strong of a protagonist.  It's one thing when he's misunderstood, but he doesn't really have a stake in things here and his motivation suffers.  What's more, the character has become more convoluted the further he's gotten from his origins.  And frankly, the make-up is lazy and Bela Lugosi plays him far more campy than Karloff did in the first couple films.  It's by no means a great film, but it has some good parts in it, and it planted a seed of something that would grow and mutate in ways that its creators never could have imagined.

The Return of the Vampire - 1944
See link for writing team
Directed by Lew Landers

Yikes!  This one almost got away from me!

It stars Bela Lugosi as a vampire who is not Dracula, but Armand Tesla.  He went and got himself staked in 1918, but the German bombing of England during WWII knocked the stake out of his heart and he reconstituted to seek vengeance upon the people he was trying to kill in the first place.  Jerk.  What makes this a Monster Mash-Up is that his faithful manservant is a mild-mannered werewolf.

I truly wish I could tell you more, but I have, as yet, been unable to see the movie.

House of Frankenstein - 1944
Written by Edward T. Lowe Jr.
Directed by Erle C. Kenton

Featuring: The Wolf Man, Dracula & Frankenstein's Monster

A direct sequel to Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein has precious little Frankenstein in it, but it does bring a bit of Dracula into the equation.  No, the Wolf Man is the lead monster again, although the movie truly belongs to Dr. Niemann (Boris Karloff), a criminal scientist obsessed with continuing Frankenstein's work.  Having escaped from prison, he and fellow inmate/hunchbacked sidekick "friend Daniel" go undercover in the assumed identity of a -- ahem -- recently deceased sideshow operator offering a cabinet of terrors.  It just so happens that his skeleton of Dracula actually IS the skeleton of Dracula, and once Niemann removes the stake from its ribs, the vampire reconstitutes in a jiffy (although as a gray haired and mustachioed John Carradine rather than Bela Lugosi, who somehow got scooped out of TWO roles he'd played in this film).  Dracula helps Niemann settle a few old scores, then promptly gets himself dusted by the rising sun.

Niemann and Daniel, meanwhile, investigate the ruins of Castle Frankenstein, discovering both the Monster and the Wolf Man frozen in the subterranean ice cavern.  Talbot springs back to shape right away and gets back to a bust schedule of brooding.  This is, of course, like an aphrodisiac to the gypsy dancing girl upon whom Daniel's eye had fallen.  The Monster, however, remains unconscious and in poor condition.  Talbot leads Niemann to Frankenstein's diary, and they all set off for Niemann's castle to get down on some mad science.  The Monster remains unconscious until the dramatic climax, but everyone else is in conflict, each with their incompatible agendas, and let us not forget the villagers.  Villagers always have a burr up their butt about something, don't they?

House of Frankenstein keeps things going and ramps them up from Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.  The performances are stronger, thanks largely to Karloff's Niemann, J. Carrol Naish as Daniel and the bubbly gypsy girl Ilonka played by Elena Verdugo.  There's a new actor & makeup job for the Monster, which helps too.  Carradine's Dracula is a disappointment, however, although we don't get much of him.  I suspect that will change in House of Dracula, but then again, judging from the distribution of screen time in House of Frankenstein, he could just appear on a postage stamp licked by the Wolf Man.

House of Dracula - 1945
Written by Edward T. Lowe Jr.
Directed by Erle C. Kenton

Featuring: The Wolf Man, Dracula and a glimpse of Frankenstein's Monster

The third and final Universal monster crossover vamps (no pun intended) on the same component parts that made up the first two.  The central character is, once again, really the scientist that ties them all together.  Dr. Edelmann is initially contacted by Dracula, who for reasons not explained, managed to get himself reconstituted in the years since the events in House of Frankenstein.  Dracula claims to wish to be freed from his curse, although it isn't really clear whether this is his true purpose, of if he's merely trying to get over with Edelmann's buxom blonde nurse.  Edelmann tells him that he'll need some time to prepare the treatment, so Dracula disappears until the middle of the movie.  Meanwhile, Lawrence "Wolf Man" Talbot shows up, also in inexplicably good health and looking for a cure.  Unwilling to face another full moon as the wolf, Talbot throws himself into the ocean, but washes into a cave in the cliff face.  When Edelmann goes down to find him, they discover a mud flow carrying the skeleton of House of Frankenstein's Dr. Niemann and the unconscious Monster.  So HIS whereabouts are explained, but it's a pretty dopey and unlikely scenario.  Edelmann is less unhinged and obsessed than the previous films' doctors, but even he feels the strong temptation to revive Frankenstein's creation.

Dracula drops by around that time to seduce the nurse and Edelmann decides he'd better up the dosage, which for some reason involves a transfusion of his own blood... which has to be direct... and he has to be unconscious for it.  Go fig.  During the transfusion, Dracula wakes up and reverses the flow, then leaves.  Edelmann finds Dracula's coffin and opens it to sunlight, and that's the last of THAT plot thread.  Unfortunately, the transfusion begins to transform Edelmann into a vampire and his decision-making skills take a nosedive.

Frankenstein's Monster isn't revived until literally the last 2 minutes of the film.  Talbot may have gotten his happy ending.  This time out, the hunchback is Edelmann's cute brunette nurse.  And the creepiest critter of the lot is a sallow faced villager.  Given that House of Dracula is a fairly nonsensical remix of the same elements from the first two, it's probably just as well that Universal didn't build any more Houses.  They were out of ideas.

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein - 1948
see link for writing team
Directed by Charles Barton

Featuring: Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolf Man & the Invisible Man

The first of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's "Meet" movies is also their most jam-packed.  It features Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Lon Chaney as the Wolf Man, and Glenn Strange as Frankenstein's Monster.  Lugosi and Chaney, of course, originated those roles, and Strange played the Monster in both of the "House" movies.  Obviously, it's a pretty silly movie concerning a couple of schlubby baggage handlers who just happen to receive shipment of Dracula's coffin and Frankenstein's corpse, but I'll let you in on a little secret -- it's at least as good as the straight-faced trio of crossovers that preceded it.  In fact, depending on what you value in the films, I could easily say that it's much better.  The story is cornball, but so were all the others, and A&C do it with so much humor that less time is wasted on overwrought drama.  Moreover, the monsters have WAY more screen time than in any of the other monster mash-ups.  Heck, Frankenstein gets more screen time here than he did in all three of the other crossovers combined.  You really can't overstate value of having Bela back as Dracula either.  John Carradine was... okay, but Bela IS Dracula and vice versa.  When he started putting the hypnotic whammy on Costello, I totally geeked out.  Most of the comedy holds up pretty well, although that depends on the how willing the viewer is to allow it to exist within its own context.  Anyone who complains about Abbot & Costello but admits to laughing at Scary Movie is someone to remove from your friend list.  The only downside to A&CmF is that it created the template for the classic monsters in goofy comedy and wanna-comedy.  The madcap mayhem and chases toward the end really brought Scooby-Doo to mind, and that just shouldn't happen.



Horror and Sci-Fi monster movies really went through a lot of changes in the 1950s.  The classic monsters became passe, and the whole enterprise became a much lower budget, lower respectability business.  Giant radioactive creatures were on the rise, so at first I didn't have anything to represent monster mash-ups in the 50s, but these two just barely squeak through.  Toward the later 50s, England's Hammer Films studio took up the cause of the classic creatures, but with a seriousness that eschewed the camp of crossovers.

How to Make a Monster - 1958
see link for writing team
Directed by Herbert L Strock

Featuring: a teenage werewolf & a teenage Frankenstein's monster

I had heard of I Was a Teenage Werewolf, (largely because it starred Michael Landon and was a Trivial Pursuit question) but I didn't realize that the studio, American International Pictures, had also released I Was a Teenage Frankenstein the same year, much less that the both had a sequel in How to Make a Monster, the following year.

The story revolves around a make-up artist for "American International Studios" who discovers that he's being phased out when the studio he helped to enrich with his monsters has decided to shift their focus to musicals.  He uses his monstrous creations and the power of hypnosis to exact his revenge.  Sounds pretty "meta" if you ask me.

I have, as yet, been unable to view this film.

Plan 9 from Outer Space - 1959
Written & Directed by Edward D Wood Jr

Featuring: grave-robbing aliens, Vampire Girl and ghouls (zombies)

Notorious and uproarious, the badness is most glorious!  Ed Wood's "masterpiece" has been dubbed "the Worst Movie Ever Made."  It's not, but not for lack of trying.  Wood filled a box with his passions, shook it up, and Plan 9 is what came out.

The story isn't completely nonsensical, nor is it completely stupid, but between the two of them, they pretty much keep things covered.  Aliens come to Earth.  The dead rise.  There are some pretty (unintentionally) hilarious scenes, but they don't necessarily add up in any context.  Wood managed to wedge in a number of future cult figures, or perhaps they became cult figures for having been in Plan 9.  TV mentalist Criswell delivers the opening monologue.  Elvira's role model Vampira appears as a "Vampire Girl" despite no real connection to vampires in the film.  Bela Lugosi gets one last posthumous credit via footage that Wood shot with vague intentions and worked into Plan 9.  His character is played in other scenes by an actor holding his cape over his face.  And then there's Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson...  I don't have anything to say about that.  He's just there.

It's been a long time since I saw Plan 9 itself.  I've mostly recovered.  I'm far more willing to watch Tim Burton's Ed Wood.  He captures the experience so well that they blur together in places.  You really get all you need that way, without the impatient discomfort of watching Plan 9 itself.

Continue reading with The Monster Mash-Ups - Part 2: the 1960s!