Monday, October 4, 2010

Countdown to Halloween 2010: Making a Splash: Val Mayerik's Frankenstein Monster

Val Mayerik had one of the most intriguing and compelling art styles of the Groovy Age. His characters were dark, moody, and a bit quirky. They weren't mannequins; they had life. How ironic that one of his best renditions was of the Monster of Frankenstein? Val drew the adventures of the patch-work dead man for the final seven issues of Marvel's color-mag version. He also drew a few Frankenstein episodes in Marvel's B&W Monsters Unleashed, but those are fodder for a later post. Enjoy, Groove-ophiles!
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2 comments:

  1. Andrew WahlOctober 4, 2010 at 10:26 AM

    Groove:

    I haven't read any of Marvel's Frankenstein Monster. As a kid, I wasn't too fond of books with monster leads, and Marvel had so many of them. While it is possible to do an extended series with a non-heroic lead well — hello, Tomb of Dracula — it can be hard to maintain reader interest. That said, as an adult reader, I've been finding things to enjoy in many of those monster books, so I'll likely give Frankenstein a try.

    Cheers,
    Andrew
    ComicsBronzeAge.com

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  2. Mike MikulovskyOctober 4, 2010 at 11:17 AM

    Sorry Andrew, but I loved everything with monsters in them! From the old Universal, Hammer monster movies, monster mags by Warren & Marvel. As we'll as every comic book out there DC,Marvel, Atlas/Seaboard,etc.

    I loved the Monster of Frankenstein. I was only disappointed as Mike Ploog was. When Marvel decided to put the monster in the present day MU at that time. That's the reason Ploog left the title way too early. John Buscema did two beautiful fill in issues when Drac fought Frankie.

    But Val Mayerik did a decent job as well. He just should have had one steady great inker. His Invisible Man adaptation looked great in Supernature Thrillers. He also painted a beautiful water color wrap around cover for Hulk magazine #10. All in all Val had huge shoes to fill Ploog & John Buscema. Beside's I think Marvel knew the book was being cancelled explaining the multiple inkers! Which is too bad, I wanted to see much more of Frankenstein & his new mechanical monster friend.

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


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