Posted By Dan Greenfield on Oct 11, 2025 | 1 comment

SCOTT SHAW! SATURDAYS…

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It’s Halloween season, so for every Saturday this month, I’m going with the theme of spooky(ish) comics! — Scott

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By SCOTT SHAW!

In 1962, Dell Comics launched a wave of classic monster comics that were officially licensed from Universal, starring Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster, the Wolfman, the Mummy, and the Creature From the Black Lagoon. The stories themselves were far from canon and unfortunately, none of these artists were top-shelf talent.

Dracula #1, October-December 1962. Vic Prezio art, B. Cole layout.

Frankenstein #1, March-May 1963. Vic Prezio art.

The Wolf Man #1, June-August 1963. Cover artist undetermined.

The Mummy #1, September-November 1962. Cover artist undetermined.

The Creature, December 1962-February 1963. Vic Prezio art.

Surprisingly, neither Dell nor Gold Key — the imprint founded by Dell’s former publishing partner Western Publishing — were addressing the increasingly popular superhero genre. That changed in 1966, when the overwhelming influence of Batmania became a nationwide fad, thanks to the instant popularity of the Batman TV show. Dell president Helen Meyer decided to get in on it and the company added superhero versions of Frankenstein, Dracula and a werewolf, independent of Universal. (The first two characters were public domain but the movie studio owned the term “Wolfman,” so a new lycanthrope was needed).

In the first of the issues, Frankenstein #2 — written by D.J. Arneson with art by Tony Tallarico and (possibly) Bill Fraccio — we meet a large man with a green face wearing a red jump suit named “Frank Stone.” He’s in an underground laboratory beneath a castle and decides to enter society by wearing a realistic mask. He saves a wealthy old man’s life and ultimately inherits a fortune and a valet. He also stops a thug who tries to toss a female reporter off of a building. Frank vows to use his “extraordinary strength and super brain to fight crime and justice wherever it appears on the face of the earth!”

Frankenstein #2, September 1966. Tony Tallarico inks. Either Bill Fraccio or Tallarico pencils.

He perfects his skills ands strength in his “specially treated” suit, and then things shift to “a small island in the Caribbean” run by a tiny bald man with the appropriate name of “Mr. Freek.” Uh-oh. He also has a pet, “Bruto, the largest gorilla in the world!” Double uh-oh.

Bruto kidnaps Frank’s valet during Mr. Freek’s “sudden reign of terror.” In response, Frank removes his mask and street clothes for a brawl with the  well-promoted ape. After Bruto loses the battle, Mr. Freek and company split in his yacht, vowing vengeance. Frank does some vowing himself while announcing his superhero identity:

“I don’t know where I came from… I don’t even know who I am…I don’t even know why I am here. But something way deep inside of me tells me that I have a mission… that I have a purpose. But whoever… WHATEVER I am, one thing is certain! My strength is greater than fifty men and my brain has been endowed with tremendous powers… so until such time that the world is safe from evil… I, FRANKENSTEIN, will utilize my full powers to keep it safe!”

There were only two more issues for Frank Stone.

Dracula #2,  November 1966. Fraccio pencils, Tallarico inks.

In Dracula #2 — by Arneson, Fraccio and Tallarico — a descendent of Count Dracula who’s a young scientist is isolating a serum that’s “derived from the supersensory portions of the brains of bats.” He plans to use it to heal mankind and to reverse the reputation of his family. But when a released bat knocks over a flask of the serum, it drips into the scientist’s glass of mineral water… and he’s immediately turned into a bat himself.

Meanwhile, a foreign military leader has invaded young Drac’s town, turning his castle into the invader’s headquarters. Dr. Dracula deals with the situation, controlling his bats to topple his enemy’s missiles. Now that the world is safe(r), Dracula accepts his role as a crimefighting superhero and starts training. Dracula no longer needs the serum to shift back and forth from human to bat, his brain has become supersensitive, he has built-in radar, and the ability to hide in small places.

Dracula #3, Feb. 1966. Fraccio pencils, Tallarico inks.

He orders some “special clothes,” but as he leaves the tailor, he hears gunshots from a bank robbery, so Drac transforms to bat-mode, flies after the getaway car, beats the soup out of the criminals, and turns them over to the local lawmen. He puts on his red, blue and black superhero suit, which includes a headpiece that definitely does not look like Batman’s. Then comes the vow:

”I pledge by the strange powers which have become mine to fight against the injustice, corruption, evil and greed which fills the earth, in the hopes that somehow my example will be an example to all men.”

The series ran for two more issues, followed by three reprints in the ’70s.

Werewolf #1, December 1966. Fraccio and Tallarico.

In Werewolf #1 (by the same creative team), Air Force Maj. Wiley Wolf’s jet crashes in the Arctic Circle. He survives but with a case of amnesia. A wolf was injured by the hard landing, so Wiley hunkers down in a cave, nursing his lupine friend Thor back to health. Months later, he’s bonded with Thor’s wolf pack and regains his memory when he’s sighted by a flyover Air Force jet and returned to society. (Thor comes with him.)

Once home, however, he quits the military. Why? “It was a long time after the crash that I began to get the slightest notion of who or what I was. For a while, I thought I was a wolf… Although I KNEW I was different, I started to think like them merely to survive. And I learned something… Wolves know when to stop. When they’ve eaten enough to stay alive… they quit… they don’t kill without reason,” he says.

“Except, every once in awhile… just like people, one of them will go berserk and try to take all of the power for himself if he’s big enough… and the others are weak enough. … They’ll all go kind of crazy and kill for the senseless pleasure of it. All of a sudden I realized that I was a man and belonged with people. But I knew too that there were a lot of people in the world like insane wolves… and I swore to do something about it.”

Werewolf #2, March 1967. Fraccio and Tallarico.

Wiley is flown to Washington and is met by a woman claiming to be his cousin, but she’s really Judy Bowman of the CIA. She informs him that he’s been chosen as “the man most likely to succeed as an agent.” Agent Bowman takes him to the CIA headquarters where he’s welcomed, given the code name “Werewolf,” and put through grueling training, which includes a psychological process that allows him to alter his facial appearance. Thor, meanwhile, is fitted with a miniature receiver to hear Werewolf’s unspoken commands. Wiley is given a suit, “the most complex piece of wearing apparel ever designed.” He’s impressed.

“I… it’s almost impossible. One day I crash in the North Woods. A half year later, I’m rescued. And now, months after that I’m a highly trained intelligence agent called Werewolf! I fell like some kind of comic book super hero.” Truer words were never spoken.

Two more issues and then poof!

Unfortunately for us monster lovers, neither the Mummy nor the Creature were hero-ized. (Perhaps the poor sales of the others had something to do with it.) If they had followed the paths of their longtime pals, though, I could easily see the Mummy with the powers of controlling sand, snakes, and scorpions, and using his wrappings like Dr. Octopus’ artificial limbs, and the Creature as a monstrous mashup of the Sub-Mariner and Aquaman. Not an “Imaginary Story,” not “What If?,” just the curse of thinking like an Oddball.

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Want more ODDBALL COMICS? Come back next week!

And get this: Scott’s involved in a new, unauthorized documentary about San Diego Comic-Con! Click here for the scoop.

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MORE

— ODDBALL COMICS: Dig These 13 Pre-Superhero MARVEL MONSTER COVERS. Click here.

— ODDBALL COMICS: Dig These 13 Morbid ROMANCE COVERS. Click here.

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For over half a century, SCOTT SHAW! has been a pro cartoonist/writer/designer of comic books, animation, advertising and toys. He is also a historian of all forms of cartooning. Scott has worked on many underground comix and mainstream comic books, including Simpsons Comics (Bongo); Weird Tales of the Ramones (Rhino); and his co-creation with Roy Thomas, Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew! (DC). Scott also worked on numerous animated series, including producing/directing John Candy’s Camp Candy (NBC/DIC/Saban) and Martin Short’s The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley. As senior art director for the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency, Scott worked on dozens of commercials for Post Pebbles cereals with the Flintstones. He also designed a line of Hanna-Barbera action figures for McFarlane Toys. Scott was one of the comics fans who organized the first San Diego Comic-Con.

Need funny cartoons for any and all media? Scott does commissions! Email him at shawcartoons@gmail.com.