Robservations with Rob Liefeld

We continue our series on Marvel Monsters with Marvel’s very own Frankenstein, an adaptation that saw the legendary monster enter the modern Marvel Universe fighting Spider Man & The Avengers! Rob examines the history behind incorporating Frankenstein into Marvel lore and the extraordinary talent that brought it to life! Also, Rob Recommends!

Show Notes


We continue our series on Marvel Monsters with Marvel’s very own Frankenstein, an adaptation that saw the legendary monster enter the modern Marvel Universe fighting Spider Man & The Avengers! Rob examines the history behind incorporating Frankenstein into Marvel lore and the extraordinary talent that brought it to life! Also, Rob Recommends! 

What is Robservations with Rob Liefeld?

Robservations is the new podcast by Comic Book Legend Rob Liefeld which exists to explore and celebrate comic books as an art form and their tremendous impact on the culture.

Today we are throwing a monster Mash. Yes. Marvel Monsters continues. Why Marvel Monsters? Because they were dominating in my childhood. They wanted into that monster space and they got there. They got there with where? Woo. Finite. They got there with two of Dracula. But today we are covering my favorite monster.

I think the most famous of all, the monster. Frankenstein, the monster of Frankenstein. You have no idea the thrill. I had seven years old walking into the new stand and seeing Frankenstein, throwing down with Thor, Frankenstein, throwing down with Spiderman, punching into the wall as Spider-Man, you know, tries to avoid him.

The Marvel age of monsters, Frankenstein, his dominance, the masters that they put on this book when Marvel launched their own Frankenstein series. If it's October, it's about monsters. It's about scary, scary stuff, and we're here to cover it on an all new episode of raw Observations. Hey everybody. Welcome to another edition of Observations.

I am your host, Rob Feld, hence the Rob of Rob Observations. If you are joining us for the first time, let me just say welcome and thank you for listening, and thank you for giving us a shot. This is a show steeped in comic books and pop culture and everything that I have loved since I was seven years old.

It was born in the fires of the pandemic of abject loneliness, wanting to talk and reach out and share ideas and concepts, uh, that, that I have loved and had passion for my entire life. I was fortunate and fortunate to make my living, writing, drawing, creating comic books. I had been doing it for 37 years.

I have published thousands of pages of comics, maybe thousands of comics, period, uh, written, drawn, uh, thousands of pages of stories. Had a publishing company. Printed the actual comics, went to the press, printed, uh, my own comics At one point. I, I know absolutely every part of the business. Uh, created characters for Marvel, myself, uh, helped launch a company called Image Comics, which is still the number three comic book publisher.

Uh, and, and has been essentially since the day we were born. Uh, 30 years ago, we were celebrating our 30th anniversary image comics and the birth of image comics. And even for one brief shining moment with only seven comics. By the way, and this is the first time you're listening, we were the number two comic company jumping over DC comics.

That's how much crazy heat and, uh, and, and energy that was surrounding image comics back in the day. But of course, Deadpool cable, X-Force Domino, uh, you've seen them portrayed by Ryan Reynolds and Josh Brolin and Zi Beats, uh, the character of Dove on the Titans. Uh, That was portrayed by Minka Kelly. So many of my characters have come to life in plastic, uh, as action figures.

I mean, I don't know how many plastic vats have been used to, to, to create all of these literally hundreds of action figures based on the characters that I've created. I have had a amazing career. I am so thankful for it. But I love the history of comics and as I talk about the show, often the watching comic books ascend into pop culture has been nothing short of phenomenal from this, uh, young man.

One at one point, young man's, uh, point of view. That young man being seven years old. In 1974, grabbing comic books off the spinach, realizing that his, his life was going to change forever. Falling in love with such at the time lesser known characters as Prince Na more the sub Mariners soon to be seen in Wakanda forever, for the very first time in the mcu, uh, characters like Luke Cage.

Yes, I wanted to be Luke Cage. He was a badass. I loved him. I loved Luke Cage Power Man and how he patrolled the streets of Harlem. I love the thing from Fantastic Four. I love the Fantastic four. I watched the X-Men get reborn, uh, Colossus Wolverine, Storm Night Crawler, literally save a franchise. I have so many episodes that I've done on the X-Men because they were truly the most transformational, uh, comic book property in in the 30 years.

My, my, my formative kind of three decades. I was for. Early on in my career to be hired, to be part of, uh, this amazing X-Men universe and to contribute. And that's where Cable and Deadpool and Domino and, and, and Shatter Star and str and so many of these characters came forth. And I was able to use that, uh, platform to launch my career.

And here we are. In a podcast where I talk about all of the wonders that I have seen from the Incredible Hulk show that that launched in, in 77 with Bill Bixby and Lou Rno to the, you know, the, the Spider-Man TV show. Yes. There was a live action Spider-Man TV show in the seventies, uh, on cbs. CBS was the domain for so much of the marvel.

Live action. Dr. Strange got a two hour movie. Spider-Man had a series. The Hulk was a hit, a legit hit on Friday nights. We discussed it here, ad nauseam. They brought them back in the late eighties as made for um, TV movies on nbc, where, where he teamed up, Hulk teamed up with Thor, and then Darville, and it was exciting.

And you're like, Wow. I'm watching Comics advance. I never in a million years would watch them advance to the place that they did. The biggest, kind of, the biggest catalyst for comic book, super hero films obviously was 1989. Michael Keaton's, amazing portrayal of Batman, Jack Nicholson is joker. That was kind of the giant signal flare that we were gonna head in a different direction that we were go, gonna go further, but it took another decade until Xmen 2000 Yes.

Blade, great horror mystery, vampire film. That's how it was marketed. That's how it was made. That how, that's how it was bought, envisioned, produced. It was not a superhero film. The superhero film, the comic book film that mattered, that broke it all open was Xmen in 2000. If that movie does not work, the MCU does not get off the ground.

Marvel was emerging from a bankruptcy, not from low comic book sales, but because of its owner who had swallowed up so many companies, a sticker company, a distribution company, a toy company, an animation company on top of the comic book company. And he also owned Revlon, a giant, huge, uh, successful cosmetics company.

He took on too much debt. The company went upside down. They went into bankruptcy. And in the emergence of their bankruptcy, Fox had made a very low budget by, especially by today's standards, a 70 ish million dollar movie, which introduced us the world. Hugh Jackman. It gave us Patrick Stewart as as, as, uh, Professor X.

And off we go. And from 2000 to 2022, things have fast tracked the M C's birth 2000. Ironman, Robert Downey Jr. The success story of a lifetime, uh, on Ali McBeal on television, uh, you know, rehabbing his career to suddenly the most popular cinematic character and the most popular comic book character Ironman achieving, uh, success in movies that he never ever thought possible in comic books.

Ironman was never, has never been the number one comic book on the comic book charts, and yet his movies made billions. He was a top grossing superhero comic book icon, and it's because obviously the armor and the technology translated so much better to the visual, uh, language of films in the, in the special effects in the depiction that that clean apple tech looked like it was made from Apple.

It just, it just, he sort, he wrote it into this new age of which we are kind of in maybe the, the third phase of now this, this, this age. But when I was a kid, 1974, grabbing these comics, it was all just starting to come together. Today we are gonna visit, , an era of the Marvel monsters because it's Halloween.

It's Halloween, it's October, it's the middle of October. We are in, in, in full Halloween mode. I'm, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not gonna scare you, but when I went to the gas station yesterday and I went inside looking for the Reese Pumpkins, you guys, all the Christmas trees were out. And I said, Really? It's October 12th and it's the Christmas trees.

And the cashier laughed and she giggled and she said, Yes, these are not just milk chocolate, you know, Reese's Christmas trees, but white chocolate. She got two. The, the pumpkins are already gone. And, and, and Halloween hasn't happened yet because we started. Celebrating Halloween in the last weekend of August.

I came on here a couple weeks back. I did a Wear Wolf finite episode. It's the first Marvel Monsters episode in the podcast series that we're doing on these Marvel monsters. During this period, which I started in August because I saw haunted houses. Haunted houses were set up in the before Labor Day. My friends from Nashville, Tennessee, people from the Midwest were showing them going through cobwebs, bats, monsters, Mummies, tombs.

Yes. Halloween was alive. It was kicking, It was claw at us in August. I was like, What's going on here? I mean, I guess we just need our holidays. We need our celebrations so bad. The earliest I've ever seen, Disneyland, Universal, uh, Universal Studios and Nots, Berry Farm, a local kick ass, uh, uh, theme park around here with great roller coasters.

Great. Great. Uh, just, just awesome. Just entertainment at Knottsberry Farm. If you are in Southern California, I, I don't have any affiliation, but I'm telling you as a kid, again, I fell in love with Knottsberry Farm as a kid. Thought the rollercoasters were better. Kind of still think they do, but the Disney ation of Southern California, obviously, and it's Sister Florida is, is undeniable.

But if you're gonna come to San Southern California, if you're gonna do Disneyland, if you're gonna do Universal Studios, by all means, at least pop into Knottsberry Farm Kick ass Halloween Haunt scares there as well. We also have the, the, the famous Queen Mary in Southern California, which has Halloween stuff.

All of this started earlier than I'd ever possibly imagined when I did the World War Find episode. It booked, it aired it. We loaded it up, and 10 days later I was at D 23 and they showed the clips of the ol finite series. The, the movie, and no one saw it coming. Nobody expected it to be there, but it was there.

Boom, there it was. And I was like, Wow. I, I, I can't believe I was actually really ahead of the curve on this. I mean, we, everyone kind of heard this was happening, but then suddenly it's a finished product. It's coming, it's coming, you know, sooner than you think. And now it's out. As I'm doing this podcast, it's been out for days.

So this, uh, series on Marvel monsters has never been more relevant. And today we are going to focus on one Frankenstein's monster. The Frankenstein monster is quite possibly my favorite of all the monsters where we finite is exciting. He is, um, extremely enticing, exciting, you know, where we transformation of where wolves from.

I was a teenage werewolf to, to today's teen wolf, you know, to to to where Wolf find out love where Wolfs. But there was something about the power and the brute strength and the presence of Frankenstein's monster that I was just absolutely blown away by as a kid. Now again, You, you gotta remember, I grew up in the seventies, 1974.

I'm gonna beat this home with you guys. Cause everything is of a time, of a time is something that hangs over art and pop culture. Everything is of a time. Okay? The music is of a time. You know, the eighties we're all about hair bands. It it, it came out from the heavy metal of, of like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

And then it, and then it became more digestible with prettier front men. You got Poison, you got Van Haen, you got Rat, you got Motley Crew and all their pretty boy looks and their, you know, B Bear chest and their abs. Um, hair metal was a thing of its time. It was a thing of the eighties. When you see it now, you are immediately transformed, transported back to the eighties.

It, it is certainly of a time. I use this all the time of a. And, and now some stuff rises above it. Some stuff, uh, Stevie Wonder rises above of, of its time. Elvis rises above it, The Beatles. But, but for so much for us to understand things are of a time, and, and, and the thing that was happening in my youth was that the resurgence of monsters was happening.

All these films that had been made in the thirties, I mean, the first Frankenstein movie was made in 1931. Bores, Karloff. Well, these were having a resurgence because now remember, there's only three networks in my youth. There is cbs, abc, and nbc. There is no Fox. That doesn't even come until the late eighties Fox, which would later, you know, give you 9 0 2 1 oh Melrose Place.

All of these incredible soapy, you know, uh, uh, sensations. It didn't launch until the late eighties. We were in a cbs, abc, NBC world, and then everything was, was kind of affiliates out here in Southern California. And and, and it's funny because in talking to my friends on the east coast, the New York kids at the time, they were getting the same affiliate stuff that I was in regards to the afternoon movie on KTLA or the afternoon movie on abc.

Because as I've mentioned so often my pop culture obsession was being fed by the afternoon movies or the weekend movies. They had the weekend movies on Saturday and Sunday, a block generally between two and four or three to five. And they would show so much, especially in the months of October, you got all the monsters.

And so I got to see all the Dracula films, vampire films where Wolf films, Wolfman films, Mum films. And of course for me, my favorites were Frankenstein. Frankenstein was the. Defacto kind of, uh, you know, super monster, The absolute, uh, strength of the monster lineup. To me, again, I think I responded to his brute strength, his presence, um, kind of how disturbed and in, in all honesty, how, how misunderstood he was.

But Frankenstein's monster would, in my youth, go toe to toe with the Avengers. Yes, he would be on covers, you know, Pinning Thor down about to pumble him as Thor is struggling to pull back his hammer and lay a blow on him. He is swinging, uh, and trading blows with Spider-Man. Okay, well where did that all happen?

How did Frankenstein's Monster become a mark? He cover, I am looking at the cover of Avengers 1 31, the cover of Avengers 1 32. I am looking at the cover of Marvel team up 36, and if you can hear, I've got 'em in Mylars. They're crinkly, they're crinkly, they're sharp. I love my stuff in Mylars. When it's in Mylars and it's shinier and it's crispier, it's even better than before.

It makes it even nicer. And I went and grabbed these cause I knew I was gonna be talking about this today, but Marvel's four A in two Frankenstein's monster was actually not by. Way Shaper means the first time that the character had been featured in the comic book world. And the, and the great thing about the comic book world is that, uh, you, you can, you can date it back and, and go all the way back through the charts and, and check and see how, how, how much Frankenstein was being used in, in the comic book timeline.

I mean, you can go back to, um, in prize comics in 1940. Frankenstein is a featured character on the cover. Um, in, uh, 1945, they do a comic book adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and I'm looking at the cover of that right now on classic comics. Number 26, Batman and Robin in 1948, encounter Frankenstein in Detective comics, number 1 35.

He's on the cover. They're jumping off a, a carriage, a horse-drawn carriage to battle, you know, Frankenstein in kind of a Sylvania type setting. Superman in 19 60, 61 in an in a bizarro episode. Uh, Superman in a bizarro episode. Is, uh, is encountering Frankenstein. It, it features Bizaro, but, but, uh, Bizaro is crashing through the door, and, and Frankenstein is seated at a desk in like a, in like a smoking jacket alongside Superman.

Okay. You got a, um, Castle of Frankenstein magazine. A black and white magazine was put out in 1962. Uh, there's a, there was a publisher called Dell. They did comics. Dell is, uh, published this in 1964. My notifications are off the chain today. And when you're reading off the iPad, you're gonna get these beautiful bells and it's all part of the charm of this, um, very much garage show that you are listening to.

But Dell did the Frankenstein movie adaptation. They, they actually, uh, adapted, uh, Mary Shelley's. Well, you didn't think we'd stop there, did you? Because Frankenstein's monster. Goes and appears alongside the Xmen on the cover of the Xmen in 1967. Fast forward now, now, along this, along all this time.

Remember, the Monsters Show is, is airing the Munsters. Okay. The Munsters is on TV in 1964, and Herman Munster is the comedy personification of Frankenstein's monster. He's got the bolts in his neck and, and he's, you know, got his family of monsters or monsters and, and if you watch Netflix recently, they've, they've, they've given you rob zombies, monsters, you know, his remake.

So, so again, the Frankenstein motif has, has never been far or, or never really left pop culture. But Xmen number 40 19 67, they are coming through a steel door. And on the other side of it is, ah, Frankenstein. Ah, He's waiting there. Now, this Frankenstein was revealed to be a robot, okay? But by the time we get to, uh, 1969, Frankenstein is in an issue of Silver Surfer and which is a critically acclaimed series by Stanley and John bma, chronicling the Herald of Galactus in all of his, um, kind of space opera, uh, adventures.

And, and then, and we get to 1973 Frankenstein launches in his own comment, Monster of Frankenstein. Number one, the monster of Frankenstein. Number one. This is the Frankenstein that is going to battle Spiderman, the Frankenstein that is going to stare down and battle the Avengers and Pumble Thor, and be and be featured on the cover of two Bronze Era, No less Bronze Era Avengers issues again.

Uh, Avengers 1 31, Avengers 1 32, The Legion of the Unliving. Part of that is, is is Frankenstein, the cover of Avengers 1 32. Iron Man is, is flying around saying we can't defeat Super Foss who have already died and Thor. Um, the great thing is Frankenstein is reaching over in a John, me to senior cover, possibly laid out by Gil Kane, but, and, and John, me to Senior.

For many of you who guys don't know, he was a premier Spider-Man artist for about a decade. Kind of seen as, as, as bringing the, um, the, the kind of the household commercialization of Spider-Man, the, the, the, the one that was, would appear on the lunch pales and the school folders. That was kind of his big claim to fame.

He, he really presented a much more cleaned up, uh, commercialized version of Spider-Man, following the very creepy and kind of groundbreaking creation of Spider-Man by its creator. Steve Dico Frankenstein on this cover is reaching over and he has Thor's hammer in his hands, like he's about to take it from him, and Thor says, yet we must fight on to the end.

These comics were electric to me on the cover of Marvel team. Up Frankenstein is swinging, I, I'm sorry. He has swung at and has spiderman's calf in his giant hands. You about to pull him off the wall and Frankenstein in, in, you know, clear by the, uh, word balloons when a word balloon has shaky, like balloon effects.

And, and, and the, the letters are are, are caption differently. He's clearly talking in Monster for, he says, You talked me now you will die. And, uh, it's Marvel team up 36 Spider-Man versus the Frankenstein monster Bedlam in the Bains in Spiderman's thinking, How do I defeat this guy? So what was the purpose of Marvel doing Frankensteins?

Why did Marvel get into the Frankenstein business? Well, the same reason they got into the Wol by night business, and we cover this in the Wol by night. The first Marvel Monsters episode is the comics code in 1973. 1972 decided to relax. The comics code had terrified the comics industries because they could literally like write you up, uh, put a check next to you, have your account reviewed, get your, get your books, uh, withheld.

The comics code ruled over the comics, companies following, uh, lot of censorship that was put in, in motion by EC comics and which was a horror label. And I mean, uh, so, so much of, of, of, of the comics code came from the fear of going back to this punishment and censorship period. And the comic code finally put out, like was forthcoming, like, we actually approve of monsters.

We don't mind monsters, vampires, werewolves. Like they, they had a, you. A list will this set off werewolves and vampires at Marvel Comics, Morby The Vampire in Spider-Man, the Tomb of Dracula comic that they launched, which was critically acclaimed and, and deservedly so. One of the best horror comic books ever.

We're gonna cover that soon. Uh, Wol Find out which we did, which, which, which created based game Marvel Superhero Werewolf. Who would battle Ironman? Who would, you know, be part of the, the, a seminal book in the creation of Moon Night? Moon Night is created to defeat as we discuss in world by night. And in a moon night episode.

I did a dedicated Moon night episode before the Moon Night series launched last year, which tells you that he does not exist without this, where Wolf. Comic, but by Marvel, which is part of the Marvel Monsters Horror Movement. I mean, Moonlight in and of himself, all of his moon, you know, icons and, and all of the moon, uh, imagery that he portrays is because what our, you know, what is Representative Ols are full moons.

And so they wanted to have a mercenary who reflected that when they took him down. So again, these are all, uh, I go into this so much in depth in my Moon night episodes, in my first Marvel Monsters, uh, podcast, which, uh, was out a few weeks back. And so Marvel went forward with War Wolf by, did very well, well with Where Wolf By was doing very well with Timma Dracula, and they looked and said, Hey, what's.

Well, we should, we should take a crack. Literally, Stan Lee's like, Well, we should take a crack at Frankenstein. Frankenstein is beloved. And, and as, and as I've told you guys, I mean to kids like me who, who were getting these, these monsters, and again, you had the Frankenstein movie, you had the bride of Frankenstein, you had Frankenstein versus the Wolf Man.

I mean, Frankenstein was really well represented again in these, especially in October when the monster stuff was, was all coming out. And the resurgence that I was telling you about from the 1931 movie, the resurgence. Was being felt on the toy aisles. It was being felt, especially when Halloween came out and when we only celebrated Halloween in the month of October back when I was a kid.

But Franken signed costumes, Wolfman costumes, the Universal monsters, as they were called, were really front and center at every department store. Sears, um, Montgomery Rewards, the May company. I I've already talked about the, the Target stores before Target. This was Target before Target. It was called Jim Co.

There was a, another chain of, of, of stores that, that was called the, uh, oh man. It's, it's up in my mind. But, but, but Jim Co was everywhere in Southern California and they had a dedicated huge Halloween section. And you'd go and you'd look. I was, I was Frankenstein. I bought the Frankenstein plastic mask, the, the, uh, the costumes.

It was called the Treasury. That's it. The. targets. It was called the Treasury, like, welcome to the Treasury. And it was again, food apparel, uh, albums, toys, you know, music, uh, electronics. So, so this, these all, you know, paved the way. And, and in Southern California, the treasuries, the houses, uh, the, the, the buildings that house, the treasury and house Gemco in the late eighties, early nineties were all transformed to targets.

And when I drive by them, I remember them as Gemco and as the Treasury. But again, the Halloween costumes, the, I mean, you had Halloween albums, you had, you know, Halloween calendars, you had, and, and again, Frankenstein, Wolfman, Dracula, and the Mummy were the key universal monsters. Well, I think Marvel wisely now monsters, right of the bag.

And Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was semi, uh, public domain. So, you know, they went right at it. They took their crack and, and again, Frankenstein being big and brooding in this powerful creature. He lends himself to comic book adaptation. All those comic book adaptations. I just walked you through the Superman appearance, the Batman appearance, the Xmen appearance, where again, the Frankenstein's monster is revealed to be a robot.

This is all very key in his visualization. His visual portrayal is, lends itself naturally to the comic company that's doing Spider-Man on The Hulk, and they did their own kind of version of Frankenstein's Monster. Their Frankenstein had more of a snout, kind of a, a upturned, um, snout. He had different array of scars.

He had longer kind of what you'd call hippy hair, you know, of the day, longer hair. Uh, he was not the, the, the Boris Karloff depiction. They wanted to set their. Version aside. Well, apparently, again, with the boom on these monster titles doing so well, the Marvel monsters now trying to compete with what Universal has, the Universal monsters and, and doing it within their own Marvel universe, they get top talent.

The editor in chief and a, and a gentleman that had been writing The Avengers and Conan and the more important books for Marvel. His name was Roy Thomas. He was Stan's handpick successor. He wanted to do the Monster of Frankenstein as it was called. But he literally said I couldn't add anything else to my schedule.

He, he reveals like, I, I literally could not add this, you know, to my, to my workload. So he asked another comrade, another peer named Gary Friedrick, to take over and to do the book. Now here, here's the appeal of the book, cuz I mean, again, we talk about this all the time. You know, why are we watching movies all the time?

Why are we watching all this streaming? Why are we go, you know, Ogling and eyeing, and we are attracted to visuals. The visuals, you know, the visualization of House of Dragons on HBO Max is why the novelization of House of Dragon is jumping off the charts and selling out at all the bookstores. We like to look at the things, we like to see the pictures, we like the visualization artists still do not get near enough credit, near enough credit as they deserve in enticing us.

We've kind of downplayed visualizations in terms of the, the writer showrunner and, and yes, there is no House of Max HBO's show without George Arm, Martin's imagination as put forth in the novelization. I get it. It's a chicken and egg. It's a cycle. It feeds itself. But to go into get to the movies and to get to the streaming and to get to the comic books, the visuals have to be there.

They have to connect, they have to be stuff you wanna look at. Um, because otherwise they would be novels. Okay? And we are way beyond the novel business in comic books and streaming and movies. So not to diminish authors. But the artists deserve so much for when that connection is made. On next, next level, there's a reason all these authors want their stuff optioned and made into moving pictures because it then carries another level.

There are, there are near, there are not nearly enough people reading either books or comics. Okay? So bottom line, Gary Friedy, Friedrick teams with one of Marvel's hottest artists at the time. His name was Mike Pue. We've talked about Mike Pue, P L O O G, Pue, on an episode about fantasy in our fantasy series, in our Sword and Sourcery series.

He was the artist that launched a book in 1978 called Weird World, that went on to become Warriors of the Shadow Room when they, they kind of have a, uh, link here as John Bu. Stepped into Continu Wars of the Shadow realm. After Mike Luke left. Mike p was so good. He was scooped up by Hollywood. He did the Lord of the Rings animated movie, uh, that Ralph Bhe produced and directed.

But Mike Pue was right there. If you see all the, um, the character sheets for all of the hobbits, for photo, for Sam Wise, for Gandolph, for aor, for for Soran, all of that was put forth by Mike Pue. Literally, Mike Pue worked on the X-Men Brian Singer movie that I already mentioned. The 2000 X-Men Summer Release.

Mike Pue was the story board and concept artist alongside Brian Singer, and he speaks about his, uh, experiences in, in, in a number of interviews. But Mike Pue gets one heck of a talented guy. He's still alive. He's on Facebook. He's all over social media. Uh, I, I could sing his praise all day long. He, he is kind of a kissing cousin to Bernie Wrightson stylistically, I'm speaking stylistically.

They, they have certain, certain similarities. And of course, Bernie Wrightson did a, it claimed kind. Groundbreaking Mary Shelley Frankenstein adaptation that we'll get to you some other time, cuz today we're in comic books and we're doing Frankenstein that battles Spider-Man and The Avengers and the Xmen.

But it was, it was a natural to pick Mike Pue, who had just relaunched and, and not relaunched re reimagined. Ghost Rider or Ghostrider was a, a cowboy character. He was a, all dressed in white like a ghost and rode a horse, a white horse ghost writer. Well, when Marvel brought him back and made him a flaming skull, they just took that moniker, ghost rider.

And no longer was he a cowboy, he became this biker guy again reflecting the biker face, Uh, Easy Rider and beyond that was hitting the seventies. The seventies. Our seminal in so much of everything that you are still experiencing to this day because the artists that you love, the art that you love, the authors that you love, were all growing up during the same time period as I do.

This is what we were absorbing. This is what we were offered. This is what we were completely obsessed with. Mike Flu jumps on. So the book immediately has artistic pedigree up the Wazo because he's a fan favorite and he is extremely important to the Marvel Monster period of, of Marvel, this period. So he jumps on and what they do is that they decide we are going to do and absolute adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

We're, we're just gonna straight up give them this famous book and. You know, he, he, he, he figured there wasn't a faithful adaptation that covered all the details. This is Mike Friedrick and he said, So we could, you know, really expand the story in a monthly comment book. And it seemed that, that that was a reasonable approach.

And of course, Mike Pue really wanted to draw that and wanted to adapt Mary Shelley's story. So he's like, there was Mike Pus quoting for him from him direct. He says there's plenty of room in the short story to expand visually. Um, so much was left to the reader's imagination, which was so great as far as I was concerned, speaking him as the artist.

And, uh, so they said it in the 18 hundreds. You know, they can't really say why, but they wanted to kind of give a little bit of a twist. But the covers the. The, the adaptation, I'm looking at them right now, the covers to 2, 3, 4, 5. The cover to number one of the Monster of Frankenstein by Marvel Comics comes out 1973 in the middle of the Marvel craze phase.

That is sweeping the culture. Again, The universal monsters have really had this second kick in due to their repetitive movie viewing by the youth of America and possibly beyond the world, Europe. I just know that in the US of a, these Marvel monsters were all the rage in, uh, the 1970s and Glow. The Dark Tech had really reached a new level and they were popping 'em in people's, you know, I mean, you got the glow in the dark teeth, you got the glow in the dark eyeballs.

I mean, monsters, monsters, monsters. So again, Marvel is just writing an incredible wave. And after having success with Wear Wolf by night, they now wanna really pursue Monster of Frankenstein and they have an A List team. Ironically, you know, they pulled Mike off of where Wolf by Night and Ghost Rider. You know, to do this because World Finite really took its sung, it was very popular.

And so between Ghost Rider and World Finite, they're looking at Mike Blue going, This guy is monster. Magic people love him. They love his depictions, they love his visual, his art. His art is great. It's so great in in the fantasy realm and in the monster realm. It's so weird cause he had never done superheroes.

But Mike Blue, well in an interview reveal to you he didn't wanna do superheroes. Okay, Now Mike Pue leaves after the Mary Sheey Frankenstein and a couple issues beyond. And if you wanna know why he left, cuz there was a guy in one of the interviews that I was reading over as I was doing my research to bring all this to you.

And he is like, Hey, I don't know why Mike Pue left. This guy wonders. Well, you can, you can he'll tell you right here. Mike Blue says, uh, look, the Marvel stuff was blown up. My first work was World by night. Uh, a week after I brought those pages in, uh, they gave me a call and, uh, asked if I was, you know, interested in being the regular artist on their Wear Wolf book.

And, uh, This was based on the stuff that he was doing for a pub, another magazine called Warren Publications. And he said, Sure, let's do it. He hooked up, he did war by night. Uh, Ghost Rider then followed that and he's like, I took the Ghost Rider assignment because I thought I was gonna do the, the Western, the Cowboy Hero.

Cause that's all Ghost Rider had been. But then they were like, No, no, we're reimagining him as this, this biker. And he's like, Uh, oh man. He goes, I committed to this thinking I was gonna be riding. You know, this Frank Frazetta esque cowboy riding around on a, on a white horse. He said, So, you know, then he's part of this reimagining of Ghost Rider and, uh, he, uh, blows up very popular on Ghost Rider.

He did not create Ghostrider. He was asked to illustrate the book into his mind. He thought this was a cowboy book. So again, he's like, now jumping on this, and he's, his depiction though is, is, is very much making this ghostwriter character even more popular. So he was shocked that he wasn't doing a Western.

And so he, he got a bunch of evil canal. Again, the bike culture was huge. Stunt rider were huge. And, and he dove into all that evil canal imagery. And he, as anyone will tell you, drawing the motorbike of ghost Rider was Mike P's most difficult, uh, feet while doing that. And, uh, cuz he, he, when he wanted to pull it off and make it look great, but then they come to him and they say, Hey man, we would really like for you to, you know, do more monster stuff.

And so again, following Wol by night, uh, and he, he pivoted to Frankenstein. The, the reason he left Frankenstein is he said they were wanting to jump time with Frankenstein and they wanted to have Frankenstein like come into the Marvel present and battle Spider-Man. And he's like, I'm not doing that. I am in no way, shape or form gonna be doing Frankenstein in the Marvel Universe.

Battle in Spider-Man. His literal quote, , they wanted him to come into New York City and have him battle Spider-Man. And I'm like, I can't handle that, man. That's not, that's , that's, I'm not doing that. So that is, uh, you know, from where we'll finite, he did these amazing issues of Frankenstein and then Pivots and does Ghostrider.

And, uh, shortly thereafter he does some of the fantasy, fantasy stuff. And Mike Pue is swooped up by Hollywood and primarily just makes Hollywood stuff. His, his, uh, his priority out of comics didn't seem for years missed seeing his name. Such an amazing, uh, artist. So when people go, Well, why, why did he leave Frankenstein?

There it is. There it. They wanted to bring Frankenstein into modern times into New York City and have him battle Spider-Man, I couldn't handle that. I thought, No way, man. That's not my kind of material. I left Frankenstein and jumped on board. Ghostrider again, thinking Ghostrider was the western hero and surprised that he was going to be riding, uh, drawing motorbikes instead of horses.

So, Mr. Mike plug exits, but then what happens next? Uh, maybe the greatest artist in the history of comics steps in. So we as fans are treated to this. Now, again, I came to many of these issues, these 73 issues in back issues or hanging around the spinach. I've told you guys, if you went and saw and visited a spinner rack in the 19.

Seventies, some retailers wouldn't clean or, or, or police their spin rack for, for months, sometimes years. You'd get a 1972 comic. I could find you a 1972 comic on the spinach in 1974. Um, sometimes they, they were, they were gored, they were overflowing. Way more. I have spinner rack, I have two spin racks that I feature in my house.

I try not to get more than five or six com copies on each rung, but they could go 10 or 12 that you could, You could fit. Fit like maybe. 1215, but they would be pressed, the spinner would be pushing up against the, the, the new stand, you know, the, the, the news print material and bending it. I've, I've talked about this often.

There were no nine twos in the seventies. That's why they're so hard to come by. You had to get them off a magazine, like probably a, a, a new stand where they weren't putting 'em on spinner racks. They were placing them on cleanly on the racks. The way that you got magazines, like still to this day at the grocery store, that's how you got stuff that wasn't bent increased.

But in this, if you encountered a metal spinner rack, this stuff was damaged from the get go. And you didn't care. You wanted the comic book, you didn't want the condition. I didn't go in looking for high end stuff. Sometimes the comics that I bought, literally that I bought off the spin rack at the liquor store at seven 11 at the market, they were torn.

They were creased, they were ripped, partially. Who cares? I wanted 'em, I wanted to read the stories. Luckily, none of them had pages ripped out of them. Okay. But, but I was so, I was able to enjoy this. But some of these books were, were floating around after the fact, but it was in 75, 74. So right after, as this Frankenstein monster book is on stands that, that the time jump happens, the time jump that, that he didn't want anything to do with, will they wrap up the Sylvania aspect or the, you know, Balkan ab aspect of, of Frankenstein with, with John Buma, who is literally on my Mount.

Russ, you should listen to my Mount Russ more episode. My Mount Rush more episode will tell you exactly why the four people that I have on my Mount Rushmore is the greatest of all time, not the greatest of the sixties or the seventies, or the eighties or not of all time. These guys can draw almost all of our contemporaries under the gra, like literally under the floor.

And John bma and Neil Adams are two of the most amazing artists that ever touched the world of illustration, much less the world of comic books. Okay, so John B seven Steps in Because, and remember in my koan episodes, my very first episode of Sword and Sorcery. I, I, I would recommend that if you are looking through my iPod catalog, The sword and Sory stuff has a rich history of really talented guys, uh, uh, jumping creators, men and women jumping into the field.

Jumping on another trend that was really blowing up and that trend was fantasy and we call it fantasy slash Sword and Sory. They wanted John Sem to do koan when they got the license of Koan, which they also got quite accidentally. And, and I covered that in the podcast, but Stanley, who was heading Marvel at the time, would not release John SMA to do Conan because he was too important to, for the superhero line.

And at that time when Conan was happening, they were having him draw Avengers and Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer and Sub Mariner. He was doing four books on and off for Marvel comics. And why wouldn't you? He is literally like Frank Tta, Hal Foster, the. Brilliant, beautiful figure, work, backgrounds, uh, storytelling.

He took all of Jack Kirby's dynamics and applied it to his kind of Frank Frazetta, how foster base and just took off and was the darling. The how to Draw comics. The Marvel way that shaped so much of my generation was illustrated every single page by John b BSer. It. He, he, art directed, illustrated, depicted, showed, taught an entire generation how to kick all sorts of righteous ass in comics.

John BSer was our teacher. Well, John BSer was also a Marvels and possibly comic book's greatest talent. They grabbed him and he jumps in from Mike Pue and issues and draws the next four issue. They haven't pivoted yet to modern times, but he does Frankenstein versus Dracula, and these comics are awesome.

Imagine all of the power of Jack Kirby with all of the illustrative, uh, technique and, and nuance of Frank Frazetta. And that is John b sema doing this, um, 19th century monster bash between Dracula and, uh, Frankenstein's Monster. I mean, the, the hits are, are serious. They're furious. So Marvel put out a trade paperback of the monster of Frankenstein.

I've had it for several years now. I'm sure it was released, uh, some somewhere around the Halloween season of, of years. I think this is out in 20 16, 20 17, but they, they, they collected all, It's a nice parcel. Not quite a phone book, but man, it's, it's thick, it's heavy. It's got all these comics that I'm sharing with you right now.

It even, it does not have the Avengers issues, but it does include the Marvel team up. But in these issues where Frankenstein battles Dracula, I mean, these are just, I mean, incredible blows back to back. Just amazing, amazing action drawing drama, uh, that there is. Um, John bma always knew exactly where to put his camera for maximum drama, in effect.

That's why, how to draw comic books. The Marvel way is so amazing. These Mike Blue issues. Oh my gosh. Don't sleep on those. I mean, it is the, so, so you've got two master illustrators, top of the line draftsmen artists working on this. Okay. This wasn't handed down, like we talked about recent episodes, the, the demise of Atlas Comics.

You're getting six issues by Mike Luke, and then four issues by John Selma. Okay, Now, John Selma only Drew four issue of Frankenstein and then left. And I'm gonna tell you the reason he left is Stan Lee said he was needed elsewhere. Stan Lee needed him to go and draw more of their superhero line and, and get the superhero stuff on track.

Cuz that's what Stan obviously valued the most, the characters that he had a part in creating. Look, John Buemi even steps in and does issues of Spider-Man. I mean, there is almost no books during this period that he is not somehow flying in and out of his pencil. Was that in demand? But, uh, you know, the writer says, I wasn't really thrilled to lose Mike Cl and John Buma in the same year.

Imagine you're the writer and you're, you're, you're, you're Gary Friedrick. You're working with Mike Pue. Well, he's gone, he's leaving and then, then you're working with John Buma and well, he's gone, he's leaving. And what was to follow? Was some really, really strong art. You know, guys, guys like Bob Brown, uh, would follow.

But, but after the John b semi issues is the time jump, and this is the important stuff in issue 12. And they renamed it. It's no longer the monster of Frankenstein. Now they're just calling it the Frankenstein monster and how they got him into the modern era, how they got Frankenstein into the modern era, which Mike Plum didn't want depicted.

And John Soman didn't hang around either. They did it via the Captain America method. They froze him in suspended animation, a block of ice. He was underneath a, uh, a boat. Uh, and when that boat arrived in its port of call, he had thawed and awakened and he, you know, emerges from the boat. And now our, our monster is in modern times and they show at the end of 11 that he has fallen into the ice.

And, you know, and so then once. Once lifted up outta the water by this ship. That's where they discover him. They discover him floating in the, in the water. A man, a man frozen in a block of ice. I'm looking at the pages right now. And they, uh, they haul him above board and then he thaws and then he awakens.

And, and what do you think happens when a, when a monster awakens all hell breaks loose and he is walking the streets of New York City. There is also, at the same time, Marvel's doing a Monster Unleashed magazine also featuring Frankenstein. Frankenstein is battling where Wolf by night in his comic where Wolf by night.

But look, why do you even have a, uh, Frankenstein monster if you're Marvel and you don't have him fight your heavyweights? And and that's where, like I said, we come to Marvel team up and we come. To, uh, we come to not only Marvel team up, but these seminal Avengers issues. And now I'm buying comics. I am th this is again, my, my my time.

It's my time to shine baby. And I remember distinctly begging my parents to let me buy the cover of Avengers 1 31. They said No. Now, ironically, we were on the way home from a Sunday night service. Yes, I had to go to church on Sunday nights. It was a complete drag. There were a few times that it was necessary, as I've covered on some of these other shows, to fake an illness, to stay home, to watch 6 million Man, which was airing on Sunday nights at the time.

I had to see him battle squa. So fire up that thermometer. Give yourself that, um, fever. Tell your parents you can take care of it while they're at church for two hours. On this particular Sunday evening, we pulled off into the seven 11 on the corner of Magnolia and Broadway that I have covered so many times in this podcast.

And as we pulled into this seven 11, I walked in with my dad. He was getting some soda. He was getting some, some snacks. Avengers 1 31 was staring at me. It was staring me down. Frankenstein, Gil Kane cover reaching out. Hawkeye Thor, Vision Ironman cowering below. There was other, um, dead Marvel characters.

Baron Zemo among them rising up Wonderman from the Avengers. But it's Frank and Stein who is drawn and depicted the largest and is the most eye-catching. And you know, a couple of years ago they made Deadpool the king of all monsters, okay. And on the cover that they asked me to do, they, they were like, You gotta put all the other monsters.

I'm like, I can do this. I put man wolf, which I've talked to you guys. I've, I put man thing, I put where wolf by night I put man wolf. I. Morbius, but it was Frankenstein that I was so excited to draw. Frankenstein right there in the back of the collage of characters, central figure of dead pooled in the back.

There is Frankenstein. I'm looking at this Frankenstein right now and I can remember being seven years old begging and they're like, no, because they thought it was demonic, it was monstrous, it was not of the Lord, it was not of heaven and good Bible stuff. So I got it the next day on my bike, on the way home from, Come on, you're not gonna stop me 25 cents.

I can, I can, I can manage 25 cents. Even then, like I knew that my dad's change would fall into the couch and sometimes I think he enjoyed me finding it, but man, I had that quarter, boy, oh boy did I sneak that around the house, hit it in my uh, peachy folder on the way home, put it on a shelf underneath some stuff in my room and, and thankfully it was never discovered, but I had to be very careful, you know, I had to be very careful listening if someone was coming down the hall and if my mom was gonna enter the room so that I could cover that comic up in no time.

Cuz man, she was already getting upset. Like I said, I don't know what was going on with Master of Kung Fu. I think it was the depiction of Fumanchu. They thought he looked extremely evil. They didn't want me being, you know, they're, they're, they're, they're parents. They're, they're trying to keep their, their kid away.

But this Avengers rocked my world much more. So the following issue with the cover, as I said, with Frankenstein, battling Thor, throwing down with the Avengers. You guys, this is the stuff that excitement is made. Oh my gosh, these comic books are fantastic. Frankenstein's appearance in the Avengers, he was part of a legion of un un the legion of the Unliving that was summoned by the bad guy to thwart the Avengers as they close in their pursuit of him.

Okay. And, uh, and the battle between Thor and Frankenstein goes, as you would imagine, Frankenstein drops a couple of devastating blows here, here at the crinkle. Here, the crinkle, that's the Mylar, the crispy Mylar. I'm pulling my common book out. I'm gonna read this to you. I'm gonna share this with you. Ah, I got a nice copy.

And, and of course the bad guy, as you know, is carrying the conqueror who is going to be, um, appearing soon. And so maybe we'll get, you know, carrying the conqueror, summiting Frankenstein out of the timeline to battle four on the, on the big screen. No, I don't. Somehow, I don't think so, but. You know, when Thor catches up with this monster in this, in this maze that Kang has summoned to, uh, to thwart the Avengers and, and hold them off, Uh, Thor comes in direct contact with the mighty Frankenstein.

And, and, and as I said, of course, there's blows. Th I mean, big blows, big blows. He, he, he, Some of you guys don't know that Thor was a character called Donald Blake, a physician who would, that was his human form, that they really haven't covered the human form in the mcu. So that may confuse you, but try 30 years of that in the comic book world.

Okay? And, and so Frankenstein grabs Dr. Banner with his staff and in record time Banner is able to smash the staff and transform himself to Thor in, in time to, uh, to battle Frankenstein off of him again. Dr. Donald Blake was the secret. I. That the human form that Thor would embody on earth to walk among us.

But when he needed to be Thor, it was very much a Shazam type existence. And I can, I understand why they got away from that. But for many, many, I mean the Stanley, Jack, Kirby Thor, Donald Blake was absolutely a part of it. My youth, Donald Blake was a part of it. Walt Simonson was the first time in the eighties shedding Donald Blake.

But he kept coming back. It was, it was too rich of a story to have this. Um, and the thing about Donald Blake, he used a cane cuz he was limp. He was, he was lame. It's Donald Blake that actually discovers the hammer of Thor, lifts it and transforms and it's the first time a mortal had this. So I've gotta get you a little bit of this backstory in order for you to understand this looming Frankenstein monster is about to pin Donald Blake and grabs him.

Donald Blake tries to smack him away with his staff, but then he's able to smack the staff on the ground again. It culminating in kind of a chiam effect, which transports him into the body and he becomes Thor god of thunder and. Thor says, Get the hence creature. Boom, blast Frankenstein. Frankenstein lowers his blows and goes to blows and, and they trade blows as Thor and Frankenstein before Thor has pity on him because he sees what a sad, misunderstood character he is.

And uh, and again, that's exciting. Thor was my, my issue, the issues of the Avengers back then. Not all of them would regularly feature Thor, but the ones that did were my favorites. And then of course, the most popular character that Marvel had in their most, their, their number two best selling book, Marvel team Up.

That's the, that's the tape. That's the Mylar you're hearing. This is my crinkly copy of Marvel team up number 36 with Spider-Man Throwing down with Frankenstein's Monster. Once Upon a Time in a castle is the name of the story. And Spider-Man is captured within the first five pages. He's attacked, he's captured, he wakes up on a bench in the presence of Baron Ludwig.

Von St. You think I'm making this up? I'm reading the panel. Baron Ludwig. L u d w i g Vaughn, v o n. Skip. S h t u p f. Whoever was writing this was having a great time as an adult. It tracks differently than it did, um, as a kid, but it Spiderman says, Don't tell me. Let me guess. , you're a mad scientist. great dialogue, but he is on a table strapped into, trapped in these giant metal coils next to Frankenstein's Monster.

Okay? Um, and Frankenstein. Monster says, I am a prisoner like you. Okay, so he's, he's, he's telling his tale. This is the Frankenstein monster who had his own series. Well, Spider-Man blasts Baron Von. St away. And he and Frankenstein then, um, break free of their bonds and smash through the castle walls. And they are out in the snow as Von Stoops.

Von Stoops army of men on skis are skiing around looking for Frankenstein and Spiderman, who are positioned behind a boulder. And, uh, and then Frankenstein tells his story. He literally tells his story of his creation of being trapped in the ice, of being carried here in the United States of emerging of his battle with world finite.

Dr. I mean, if you are a Spider-Man fan and you have not encountered Frankenstein up until this moment, now you are totally Frankenstein. He's on your radar. You are completely like, wow. Marvel has a Frankenstein. Well, they encounter another skier, a routine skier that the hilarity of this is Spider-Man is subdued in New York City and then he wakes

This is great. This is why I love, I love comic books. This is where he awakens in Europe after being fell in the streets of New York City and, and passing out and then awakens in this lab with bar. Ludwig v Stoop. Okay. And, uh, they then escape in, in the Balkans. And, and, and he is on the run, he's on the lamb with, with Frankenstein.

But of course, uh, this female skier that they find that helps assist them in their attack so that the army of skiers does in, in fact, uh, Circle Frankenstein and Spider-Man. And they're able to get out of this battle. But with the assistance of this female agent who then gases them after they save her life, she gases them.

They wake up in another castle. This, the, the jumps in this are fantastic. They wake up in another castle coming to at her feet and she says, I am Agent Clemmer. I am an agent of shield. I have been assigned to take out Vato. So, um, says that what Vato was trying to do was to take Spiderman's abilities and Frankensteins abilities and make a monster Supreme.

A monster Supreme. And she says, Will you help me? So now, Clemmer, K L E M M E R and Frankenstein and Spider-Man are going to attack STS Castle and bring him to his knees. And I think you all, um, understand exactly how that is going to work out, except it's a two part episode. And do you remember a couple episodes back when I gave you a recommendation about Man Wolf in this awesome sword and Sourcery Marvel Premier?

I think it's 45 46, featuring Man Wolff. Who is John Jay j Jonah Jameson's son named John James. Well, the story's about to conclude and, and they're attacking the castle. And, and who does VA still have? Well, now he has Man Wolf and he's like, I have a monster that will defeat you all. So you're left on a cliff Hang or Frankenstein Spiderman.

Agent Clemmer from Shield are being stared down by a very feral, very angry man Wolf. Who on the next page, Marvel team. Number 37. Murder means man wolf. Man Wolf leaps out attacking Spider-Man, Agent Clemmer and Frankenstein. And Frankenstein has his way with him, kind of tossing man Wolf around. Although, um, man Wolff gets a nice, um, claw in on his skull.

And, and before Frankenstein, uh, drops, he throws man wolf into the wall, but it doesn't stop. And where do we end? We end up that man Wolf and Voto are enough to take down Spider-Man Wolf and, and, and Frankenstein. We are right back on the platform where they're about to do the transference and create a monster Supreme.

But meantime, Agent Clamor pleas with Man Wolf who is able to calm down and now realizes that he has been controlled by vto. And he's gonna turn around and he's gonna help Agent Clemmer. And, and, and Spider-Man uses his webs to gum. The, uh, the circuitry that's trying to make the transference of power from himself and Frankenstein into the Monster Supreme.

But they are able to escape and subdue Vato, and then Man Wolf runs into the forest and, and escapes. And of course, uh, Agent Clemmer is just glad that everyone made it out alive. They hop a transport shield vehicle out of there and, uh, and Frankenstein is left to wander alone. And he says to Agent Clemmer, Spiderman says, It's tough.

Even a creature like him wants to be loved, remember? And Agent Clemmer says, I suppose so. Spider-Man, he must be so lonely. And you see Frankenstein returning to the woods, wandering as their helicopter. Takes off you guys, the Marvel age of monsters, the monster of Frankenstein. You have no idea what it's like walking in and seeing the Frankenstein monster throwing down with Thor, throwing down with Spider-Man, I keep repeating it cuz it's that exciting.

It's that amazing. It was that enticing to me. These comics are great. Those Marvel team up by the way, were drawn by John Bmas, younger brother, Sby Sema, who is also unheralded as an amazing storyteller illustrator artist. He, he drew so much of the books that entertained me in my youth. The Marvel Monster movement started when the comics code said, Yeah, we don't mind monsters anymore.

You can do that. We won't police you, we won't write you up. We won't have your books taken off the shelves. Uh, we, we won't, you know, impose sanctions. It's just like the, the, you know, the United Nations. We will not impose sanctions on you. Once that happened and the sanction threat was gone, Wol Dracula, Man, Wolf Vampires and the monster of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, roared through the Marvel Universe across the years launching in 73, Powering through Marvel in 19 75, 19 76.

Now you guys, you know, they didn't end there, you know, cuz eventually you're gonna get cool comics like Doc Frankenstein and then DC made him like a super agent, I think in their seven soldiers saga. I mean, there is something that, it's not just me guys. Like I said, people my age are obsessed with Frankenstein's monster.

They love him, they love Frankenstein and, and comic books has always been so kind of frank. And just seeing him in his lumbering form, they adjusted his, his design made him look slightly different than the bores Karloff. Like I said, he had the longer hair, much whiter, pale face scars, stitches on his face.

Um, the bolts aren't there. He had the giant kind of heavy coat. I mean, he's just an imposing figure even looking at it. And introducing it with the top flight artists like Mike, Luke, like John bma helped just the book take off. And at that point, running a couple years running, you know, 15, 16 issues and then continuing all into all of these mainstream Marvel titles meant that there was a serious impact.

Again, you know, nowadays you look at Venom, you look at Carnage, Marvel has their own monsters. You know, you could say, well, they had Hobb, Golin back then. They had villains. Now they truly do have really great monsters. I mean, these sculpts, the statues, the depictions, the movies of Venom, he's fantastic. He is truly is frightening a monster to the kids of this age as Frankenstein Wolfman in Dracula were, to me at my age, but the monster of Frankenstein.

Uh, what else will we gonna discuss In October? It's Halloween. Yes, Frankenstein ran around. The only thing he didn't do was throw down with like the thing. And if he did, and you know about it and I don't, then let me know. Cuz that would, that would really excite me. But, uh, Boy Frankenstein, who knew, I'm sure Mary Shelley never imagined that her character would be adopted into, uh, superhero lore back in the hundreds of years back when she envisioned, and I'm sure bores Karloff, when he was making the 1931 Frankenstein movie, didn't, didn't, didn't think that, uh, hey, someday this character is gonna battle with superheroes.

At the time that he was making it, it was probably Superman and Batman. Uh, no, I don't, there weren't any, There were very few. So, bores Karloff, I am sure was not, uh, you know, thinking that, hey, you know, this monster, this incredible adaptation of Mary Shelley's monster that I'm adapting is, is gonna, is gonna hop around a superhero universe, much less battle characters that hadn't even existed yet, like Spider-Man and, and so, and, and then become secret agents themselves in, in the pages of DC comics.

So, Again, 1931 was the birth film of the film. I, I would not have known of Frankenstein other than the movies. Again, the importance of the movies in pop culture over. The, the, the books, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is celebrated, but I only knew of Frankenstein due to the Barrett Boris Karloff movies.

Frank, you know, Frankenstein, brighter of Frankenstein. Frankenstein versus, you know, Wolfman and seeing him adapted into the pages of Marvel comics by some of Marvel's top talents and then eventually incorporated into their universe was extremely exciting. Those are some of my favorite monster memories.

I loved Wear Wolf Finite. I love TMA Dracula. But the big brute strength, the imposing presence and the sadness again, is as, as as they fly away. And, oh, it must, it must be terrible being lonely like this. There is a sadness, you know, that they also played upon in the whole show on TV where David Banner was tortured by being a, a monster.

And he had to leave every town every week because he wasn't accepted. His secret got out. He was a monster, he was tortured, and they'd play that sad song. Dun dun, dun dun. Dun, dun, dun, dun dun. Oh, it would make you cry at the end of every Hulk poor Bill. Bicks be the actor who was portraying David Banner.

Remember, they didn't call him Bruce Banner. They called him David Banner. David Banner would wander off catch the next bus, hits the next ride outta town, because as a monster, he could find no loneliness. He could not find love. Well, at the same. It was true of Frankenstein's monster and he was never more exciting to me than when he was raging through the Marvel Universe.

If you want to give those comics that those two Marvel team up are bad ass, and these two Marvel team up 36 and 37, and Avengers 1 32 and 1 31 are where you're gonna find the most prominent representation of Frankenstein throwing down with the Marvel icons that you know and love. And it is the perfect time to have talked about this, given that Halloween is upon us.

It's almost here. It's been here since August. All of the Halloween haunts are kicking all sorts of ass. So that was great. I hope you guys appreciate that. Marvel did do a trade paper back. If you wanna jump on Amazon and grab it, uh, again, it's, it's a, uh, it carries a, let's see, Marvel, the monster of Frankenstein is a 39 99 book.

Maybe it's on discount from, from Amazon or from from online. Uh, maybe there's a digital transportation. I'm gonna tell you the Mike Blue John Buma, you got. About 11 issues of spectacular art there. Uh, Bob Brown is on actually issue 11, and, and the book runs to like issue 1516 before pivoting towards all this, these guest appearances.

So, uh, the, the Spider-Man team ups are in the monster of Frankenstein. You, you will enjoy it, especially during this month of October. Really cool, really great depiction. Just great walking down the history books with you guys today, in case you did not know. And he will be seen again when, when we do our wrap.

Of our Marvel monsters. When I tackle the Legion of Monsters and the Legion of Monsters, seems like it's upon us given the events of the Where Wolf by Night TV show again, My Where Wolf by Night coverage, which details the Rise of . I can't believe they call them Jack Russell. Um, like a Jack Russell Terrier, uh, uh, Where Wolf by Night is in the first part of our Marvel Monster series.

So make sure and check that out. It makes a great companion with this history of Marvels Frankenstein that we have, that we have just done. Uh, what a blast share. And this with you guys, I hope you enjoyed it, is nearly as much, nearly as much as I did. So I went ahead and moved the Robs recommendations to the end of the show.

On today's episode and, and, and today's recommendations, we can't stay in the Marvel space all the time, but I am gonna give you my single favorite job by. Stellar talent. Yes. The same man that brought you Thanos, that brought you Adam Warlock, that that redefined Adam Warlock, that brought you Dread star, that brought you Gamora, that brought you Drs.

Such a massive influence and, and amazing talent. Jim Starlin, it was in the early eighties, and Mr. Jim Starlin was doing a lot of work over at DC Comics. He had, he had pivoted away from Marvel and he was doing some work for DC Comics. And I am going to tell you today that DC Comics presents number 36 is Superman and Starman against Mongol.

The merciless, you guys, it is a one issue. DC Comics presents was Marvel's version. Uh, was, I'm sorry, was DC's version of Marvel team up? So Superman teamed up with a different character each time? Well, Steve Ditco had reimagined the creator of Spider-Man. Dr. Trench had reimagined this character. Star had this new Starman character, which was more of a kind of a galactic kind of in the Adam Morelock Silver Surfer man.

He traveled with this cool like battle cane staff. Um, incredibly cool looking different than the Starman that Marvel that, that they, that DC sorry, would re, re kind of rejuvenate in the nineties. Th this was like this amazing cosmic, uh, Starman. Well, Paul Levitz, I believe is the author of this issue, but Jim Starlin Pencils and Inks does all the art himself.

It is a self-contained story upon. Superman is drawn into this conflict alongside Starman because Mongo, the merciless, which Jim had created for this DC comics present storyline that he had done earlier in the year or a year earlier where Mongo was introduced. And, and, and to be honest, Mongo is very Thanos like.

And Mongol has been utilized in incredible Superman stories by no less than Watchman's Alan Moore, uh, Mongol, because he was, I mean, again, the minute you saw him, you're like, I love this character. The visual design was like, sold him as a kid. He battled Superman, super girl, uh, Green Lantern hot girl. Uh, he had war world.

He had, he had a planet, like a death star that he flew around that would battle other races worlds. He, he was like a world crusher, uh, incredibly powerful. This came out in 1981. It was the, the just so exciting Mongol attempts to take the throne and, and wants to, uh, basically become the new ruler of an empire that Starman has ties to.

And Superman is called in alongside Starman. And it is a super cosmic throwdown. It is the blows that they trade when they finally get to the throne room and Superman and Star, Star, Lord, I, I, I literally am, am dying to get pages from this book. The art is so spectacular. It is so brilliant. The figure work, the faces, the staging, the action.

It is some of the best. I have told Jim Starling to his face, I think he's like, Oh no, Rob's gonna mention DC Comics presents 36 to me. I mean, he's proud of it. He loved it. He put everything into it. When he pencil and inked it, it was always something that he liked a little more. It wasn't just the pay rate and it, and it showed nobody, uh, Embellished and inked themselves better than Jim Starlin in this cosmic self-contained story.

Superman and star Lord, this cosmic being with this kick ass costume. Big kind of goggle eyes, a little bit, little bit invincible costume esque, uh, except way before Starman and, uh, Superman team to defeat the cover alone. If you're Googling it right now, Superman star, Starman Mongol, the merciless who is very, very Thanos like, who was very dark side, like so big, cosmic badass presence.

I mean, you will get shots of him literally puling Superman into the ground, like, like into the concrete, into the stone, smacking starman and, and the, and, and the two of them literally understanding that they are taking on this incredible, incredible cosmic power. Mongo and his war world are feared throughout the universe.

We've already seen that in the years leading up to this. And so you get this one shot. DC Comics presents number 36, and I could not recommend a DC comic more than I am recommending this epic by Jim Starland and Paul Levitz. Were both listed as the writer, and then Jim Starland does all the art. It is one shot.

It's gonna be affordable. It's been reprinted in a Superman versus Mongol because his battles with Mongol. Again, Alan Moore dipping his feet into the toe in like 1986. 19, uh, about 85, 86, doing this amazing Superman annual featuring Mongol and a conflict with, with a lot of kind of dark imagery and, and, and kind of, uh, emotionally, mentally battling Superman.

Really powerful book Mongol, created by Jim Starlin in battle with Starman in Superman, DC comics. Presents Buy it for the action, Buy it for the art, buy it for the conflict. Buy it for the story. It, it checks all the boxes. That is Rob's recommendation. Buy a. Industry icon legend, and, and this is one of his best ever self-contained.

You're gonna dig it, trust me on this one. That is my Rob recommendation for the day. You guys, at the end of every episode, I tell you, uh, that I'm going to read your amazing comments that you guys le leave for me. And I am always so ridiculously humbled by the reviews, the reviews that you lead. Leave for us, help us, help, help separate us, help, help position us on the platform.

And look, bottom line, we could not be more humbled. We could not be more humbled by the generosity that you are, that you are sharing. You know, the ways that you guys have been so generous, . Uh, so, so here, here's a great one. I'm gonna read you two. One says, If you love Rob's comics, this podcast for you, and it says, uh, Rob's comics, Rob's love for comics is undeniable.

His enthusiasm is, is contagious. And, uh, I have loved his art and stories since I was a teenagers. His excitement for the medium is still present and it's still great. Thank you Rich for this generous five star review, um, Rich Inc. Six, but I, I always appreciate you guys. It, it's, it's quick. It's to the point.

Rich Inc. Six, uh, I do still have the passion and the love for the medium. And just a general reminder that this show before I you this next one, this show is free. I do it for free. I pay people to help me assemble it, produce it, load it, but I don't get a dime off this podcast for two and a half years. I do this as, as a, a go between, between you and.

I want to inform you, I want to share everything that I love, the magazines that I have that aren't available on the New York Comic Con. So floor, the busiest comic con, the biggest, the the biggest, most expansive comic book retail for, for back issues, new issues. Uh, you couldn't find any of these interview magazines if that they were, they were produced at such a small rate that they're gone.

And if you don't have these interviews and, and when these creators speaking, like I said earlier of a time is a thing of a time, and these are of a. And, and when people talk about their experiences, even if it's in 1983 and they're 30 years old, and now they're 65, it doesn't matter. And it, the, what they said there matters.

The view of their work matters. The the, I can, I can, I can share with you interviews by Howard Shake and Neil Adams and Walt Simonson and all these other guys. Their words matter, my words. And these interviews matter. So again, we provide this for free. I'm more than happy to, to, to just keep doing this because we are kind of all jing and, and jamming together.

Well, this, I I love when the, uh, when the haters sneak in. And, and I, I've never read one before, but this one I will. It's, uh, says the Royals are fantastic. It says, uh, Rob is a word salus chef with much to say about nothing. He pretends to connect with his fans while he pick pockets them. So that is from Royal's fan, uh, Fanatics as Rob is only here for a.

This, this review has a generous one star. Rob is only here for a buck, and it says, uh, again, I am award. Rob is award salad chef with much to say about nothing. He pretends to connect with the fans while he pick pockets them. And again, the, the title of this one star is Rob is here for the buck. Okay. The show is free.

There is no ads. We aren't, we are not charging you. So I had to share that with you because I think. I, I think that speaks for itself and I wanted to share that with you guys. And I thank you so much. Please continue to leave, uh, your, uh, generous reviews and your five star ratings. It helps us so much stand out and I appreciate you and I thank you for listening.

You guys, I am all over social media. I am on Instagram Simple at Rob Lael on Instagram at robel. I read your messages. I read your, uh, your comments, your dms. Thank you so much for interacting with me. On, on, on Instagram where I am, where I am at, Rob Feld, r o b l i e f e L D, on Twitter, I am a little longer.

It's Robert Liefeld. The Rob Liefeld name was gone before I got to it in 2008. Robert Feld lives and breathes. R o b e r t l I e F E L D. Robert Liefeld on Twitter at Rob Feld on Twitter with the blue check. Both Instagram at Rob Feld and at Robert Liefeld on Twitter have blue checks. It tells you it's really me, not some phy account.

Um, I'm not going to ask you for money or pictures. Uh, we, we've got like Josh Brolin the other day was showing how, this is not me. This is not an account. The these people ghost account sometimes, but the way to disseminate if you're talking to the real deal is the blue. So keep that blue check alive and well, and know that you are talking to the real deal.

So also, I am on an app at Twitter and Instagram. Again, I read all your mentions. I love talking to you guys. I love interacting with you. I just wanted to throw that in there. Uh, let, let's keep it up. Let's keep up the, the conversation. It's so fun interacting with you guys. I have an app that I'm on called, Not You guys Can Find Me What Not Downloaded.

It is the state of the art collectible app that is completely changing the collectible business. You can buy apparel, you can buy shoes. Toys, Fungos Comics. I'm obviously in the Toys, Funko comics, uh, categories and I do shows on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I'd love to see you there. I draw on comics. It's called re remarks.

I used to freak me out. I've gotten kind of good at it. I, I couldn't believe like, Wait, we're defacing the comics now. Yes, we are. We are defacing the comics with art, but you guys dig it. Signed exclusives, whatnot. And I have entered into a number of exclusive comic book covers that we're doing and I am loving sharing them with you guys.

Uh, you can only get them on my live stream so much like a new Spiderman. There's a brand new Spider-Man number one, uh, cover of NARI cover. There's two versions of it. You can only get that on the what not stream. It's not on my website. Brigade remastered. We did. A, a brand new series of, of covers on that exclusive to whatnot.

You can only get that from me on whatnot. So visit me on whatnot. I'm Rob Iel over there. Get it, download it. Uh, sign up for it. It's so exciting. We have a one day turnaround on shipping cuz we're amazing and, and, and we want to get this stuff into your hands. I am no longer doing conventions for the first foreseeable future.

I am done on the convention circuit. So if you want to interact with me when I'm on my life feed, a lot of people last night on last night's feed, uh, they were like, This is better than the podcast. I'm a little, I'm a little less filtered. Uh, and so, so if you wanna jump on and, and join me, uh, check me out.

I'd love to see you. I, I, I do blather on and sometimes talk about all sorts of, um, ridiculous stuff. Obviously just like this, uh, podcast that you get for free. I'm there for the buck. Okay, so you guys, over on Facebook, we have a group, it's called Rob Life. An Extreme group. Rob Feld and Extreme Group, cuz Extreme Studios with my studio.

We'd love to have you join us over there. Myself or a moderator named Terry Sola. S a l a will click you through. That's how you know you're at the right place. There's a lot of different groups on Facebook. My group, my group, Not a page, it's a group. It's Rob Feld. We'll click you in, we'll get you, get you through the membership, and then behave.

Be nice. We like, we want people to be nice. We promote not only just the stuff that I've done and created like Deadpool and cable and export also anything I've worked on. Avengers fantastic for, uh, uh, Shield over at Archie Comic Snake Eyes, Gi Joe, uh, Turtles, Anything is on the table. Please join us. Uh, let's have fun.

Come and visit us. Rob Feld and Extreme Group on Facebook. Everybody, you know that I think that you need to feed your soul and so much of it is done via reading and consuming pop culture, streaming. Um, comic books, novels, do that. Recline, relax. You gotta take a day off and evening off. Get some time to yourself.

I also recommend eating great fun food. Make it junk food. Make it pizza. Make it tacos. Make it burritos. Make it, make it a hamburger, a cheeseburger, a chili burger. A chili cheese dog. I, I look, I, I, I brought up at the beginning, I was going in to buy Reese's peanut butter cup. The, the pumpkins. I love them the most, but they're gone.

It's middle of October and they're gone. They're, they've been replaced by the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree is now, uh, what you're getting at the point of purchase. But you know what I did? I grabbed a bag of Doritos too. Cause I wanted it, I needed that nacho cheese, dust, whatever that chemical is, is fantastic.

It made me feel better. I got home, pop that bag, watched the latest episode, and, or, and were my, was my spirit soaring? It was, I, I, I interacted with the arts and so should you and, and, and whether it's a common book, a great novel. My wife is a voracious reader. She is reading a book every day. She burns through books like once a week.

She started a new one when we went to New York the day after she was done. These are big novels too. I mean, and it feeds her soul. We talk about it, the mysteries, the turns, the suspense. I don't care if it's streaming, if it's a movie, if it's a comic, if it's a novel, you guys dip into the arts. Go to a museum, have fun with your friends.

Go to a theme park, go to a Halloween haunt, get outside. Uh, that's all art as well. They've, they've, they've just dressed those up with so much great art and costumes. Um, make a new costume. You cause players blow me away, you guys. I just want your spiritual wellbeing, your, your mental wellbeing, your physical wellbeing, and your emotional wellbeing.

Those four aspects, mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, feed 'em, and uh, and, and, and, and wash it down with the milkshake. Cuz, cuz that's the Rob way. Okay. Hey, thank you so much for listening to me. I can't believe you guys, we've done so many episodes. You guys are still here with me. Thank you for spreading the word.

I love it. And, uh, We will be here. We will continue to be free at not only free in the land of the free, but free in the podcast is free. Thank you. Please swing back around. Find me right here. That's where I'll be. We will most certainly absolutely, positively talk again real soon.