POBB October 17, 2022

Pick of the Brown Bag

October 17, 2022

by

Ray Tate 

Greetings.  Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag.  If you'e new to the blog, allow me to introduce myself.  I'm Ray Tate and I review comic books.   This week, in favor of the upcoming spooky holiday, I bob for Neal Adams' Monsters.

Should you haven't the time for the deep dive on the blog, you can also find me on Twitter: #PickoftheBrownBag. 

Neal Adams died April of this year.  I met him once at my comic book shop, the Phantom of the Attic.  Neal struck me as relatively young, seemingly a little older than me.  Full of life, interesting to talk to and quite honorable.  

Neal left an enviable legacy.  He'll especially be remembered for the balletic definitive Batman of the seventies; the ghost aerialist Deadman and the partnership of the Green Arrow and Green Lantern.  

Neal furthermore christened and co-created the first African American Lantern.  Through the fifty-two plus episodes of The Justice League John Stewart is probably more indelible than any other in the Green Lantern Corps.  

Neal updated the X-Men for Marvel by dint of his realistic dynamism and also co-produced the Avengers opus The Kree/Skrull War.

When Neal decided to do his own thing it could be very inventive indeed.  Neal Adams founded Continuity Comics.  It's here he published Echo of Futurepast, a mature magazine in the vein of Heavy Metal.  

In several issues of the magazine, Neal pitted Dracula against the Frankenstein Monster and the "Wolf Man."  Vanguard Publishing now collects the story and some horror-related bonus material into a handsome seventy-two page oversized hardback.

Though Neal's art often spoke louder than words, he was not renowned for his writing.  Monsters is a complete Neal Adams production.  In other words, he wrote it.  He drew it.  He colored it.  

Neal was a big proponent of expanding the color palette in comic books and pushed companies back in the seventies to go beyond primary hues.  

Like he did for his highly-recommended Batman collections and using the latest technologies, Neal recolored the meticulously scanned original artwork.  So this hardback is in essence the blu-ray of the serial.

Torch wielding villagers chase the latest in the line of Victor Frankenstein and his fiancee Ericka out of the castle.

In keeping with the tradition of Universal films, the heir is loathe to commit to his family's history.  The villagers take no chances.  The only good Frankenstein is a dead one.

The chase leads Victor and Ericka to Romania, and this is where the book begins.  Wolves turn Victor and Ericka to the domain of Count Vlad Dracul.  Though he refers to himself as Prince Vlad.

As you can see, Neal took some very unusual diversions from the traditional blood-suckers portrayed by Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee.  He also changed Dracula's outfit of black dress to colorful period wear.

Dracula soon impels Victor to create a new monster.  In keeping with Universal Pictures, the creature departs from the novel and adheres to the sympathetic portrayal of Boris Karloff.  Albeit with a different past.

Now that we have Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster, all that's needed is the Wolf Man.  Neal Adams provides.

It's with this lycanthrope depiction that Neal departs drastically from the expected, much to the reader's delight.  Dracula's hubris in fact catalyzes the only thing predictable in the story.

I mean.  You did want them to fight.  Right?  Monster slugfests are always welcome in my book, and if there's a rationale behind them, all the better.  Dracula's privileged nature inevitably conflicts with the creature's want for total freedom.  Other emotions motivate the werewolf.  

In terms of artistry, Neal draws upon his auteur.  When it comes to creating Man-Bats, Neal is second to none.  In addition, because this serial leaned toward a more mature audience, the incendiary finale seldom holds back and would have given nightmares to the best special effects artist of the time.  The rampant skill is so evident that even those masters with access to today's best techniques would have difficulty in matching Neal Adams' grotesque vision.

Monsters: ISBN 978-1-8875-9156-0 is only about twenty-five bucks.  Check with your local comic book shop.  If you come up dry, even through Amazon or Barnes and Noble, click on the link to Vanguard Publishing above.