You know how kids are always "seeing monsters" in closets, garages and/or barns?
Well, maybe you should listen to them once in a while...
This tale from Youthful'sFantastic #8 (1952) is illustrated by long-time comic artist Henry Kiefer, a fine arts-trained illustrator who's best known for his work on Classics Illustrated.
The writer is unknown.
BTW, despite being #8, this is actually the first issue of Fantastic.
Before this, it was Captain Science!
(And the lead tale in this issue was the last Captain Science story.)
...so let's kick off the celebration with the only comic adaptation of one of Ray Bradbury's best-known stories (albeit uncredited by the publisher), from Minoan/Toby's Tales of Horror #7 (1953), based on the short story "The FogHorn".
Wow!
The comic's printing job is terrible, even for the low standards of comic books of the era!
For the sake of clarity, we're presenting the b/w original art for six of the seven pages!
Missing Page
Ironically, the comic tale is a far more faithful adaptation of the story than the movie Beast from 20,000 Fathoms which came out at the same time!
Though the writer of the comic is unknown, the artist was John Rosenberger, who spent the 1950s to late 1970s doing work in every comics genre from romance to superhero to horror for almost every publisher in the field!
This was one of the last comic adaptations of Bradbury's work in the 1950s.
The earlier ones were done by the legendary EC Comics crew, and initially, were also uncredited and unpaid...until Ray Bradbury found out!
Dr Van Helsing arrives, too late to save the poor girl, but not too late to send her tormented soul to the afterlife by staking her thru the heart.
Now, his attention turns to her master...Count Dracula!
Though there were a number of Frankenstein tales in the Golden Age, including Dick Briefer's long-running series, there were only a couple of appearances by our favorite vampire (usually a cameo) before this story in 1953! The trend continued until the late 1960s when Dracula became a supporting character in the b/w Vampirella magazine. In 1971, when the Comics Code was revised to allow vampires and other "traditional" monsters, the Count reappeared not only in short stories, but a long-running series from Marvel highlighted by moody art by Gene Colan.
Did you know that Classics Illustrated adapted Frankenstein, but not Dracula?
However, there was an adaptation of the original Bram Stoker novel, published several years after the Classic Comics version of Mary Shelley's tale in the mid-1940s
It appeared in Avon Comics'Eerie #12 (1953), and was the only book-length story to appear in the title!
To the best of our knowledge, the story has never been reprinted, probably due to its' length!
What shall Johnathan Harker do?
Join us Next Wednesday for the frightening answer!
