Well, I am excited and feel stupid, both at the same time. I've written in the past about my love for the Briefer FRANKENSTEIN books from the early 50s. Between 1952 and 1954, they were 26 issues of pretty gruesome stuff. In the late 50s, after the original comic had been canceled after being used as an example in THE SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT, later issues from 1856-1958 made him fairly silly, like a monster Archie Andrews. Only without any friends. The last time I wrote here about Briefer, I used a cover from the later, sillier comics, one called "Death O'Clock." On looking for other covers (my sorry few issues are in Mylar and I don't want to scan them), I discovered this illo from THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME he did back in 1939.
Well, I learned today that a company called Idea Men had reprinted the original horror issues, all 26, only in B&W, which is still fine by me. Tomorrow, I am buying one. Oddly Amazon has them new at $23.00 and used starting at $46.00. Goofy dealers, pricing as weird as they do. Not as weird as those comics, man. I have just decided on my Hallowe'en present to myself...
3 comments:
Briefer was a very talented cartoonist. I never owned any of the "scary" issues of his FRANKENSTEIN, but I did have a number of the funny ones. To this day, I've never seen any of the edgier stories.
You should take your comics out of mylar and read the shit out of them. I still collect old comics and I always make sure to buy copies that are in lower grade so that I can sit there and read them and not worry about "hurting" their so-called "value". I understand that some people buy for investment, but I generally don't. At least not right now.
I went through a long period when I didn't want to so much as see an old comic, but now I really enjoy them. The best comics this country produced were the ones that appeared from the late 40s through the early 60s. What a grand time for the comic book format!
Congratulations & enjoy! I had a similar experience some years ago. I recalled a book I'd loved as I child, but found it was long out of print & used copies were $120 + up. I kept looking for it from time to time, hoping to find it cheaper, & soon enough the publisher decided to print it again. I got my copy for about $20 & it brought me immediately back to my childhood.
Speaking of Dick Briefer, I noticed today over on Frankensteinia that a very different Dick Briefer Frankenstein drawing had come up for auction.
Cool links at the bottom, too.
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