I'm still in a monster-ish mood so we have more Monsters Unleashed! for today. And you can't get a more iconic-monster cover than this one by Boris Vallejo--you've got a monster, a damsel in distress, an angry mob...it all spells monster!First up is "Frankenstein 1973" by Gary Freidrich and Big John Buscema, which is the fairly unusual tale of a pair of bickering, sorta proto-hippies who come across the poor monster stuck as a carnival sideshow attraction. The guy, who's a real dick, decides to take over the world (!), and is convinced the Frankenstein Monster will help him do it! As Cartman would say "damn hippies."
Next is a text-article on Boris Karloff, a review of a biography about him by my pal Tony Isabella, and full of stills of the great Boris. Third is "Lifeboat!" by Gerry Conway and Jesus Blasco(?), which is a mix of a Hitchcockian-premise with a horror element thrown in. Nice artwork by Jesus!
Fourth is a reprint tale "The Madman", an uncredited, goofy tale of a mad scientist and his weird creations. That never, ever goes well.
"The World's Most Wanted Monster" is another text piece, this time by Martin Pasko, about Karloff as Frankenstein. It's a damn shame Karloff didn't live long enough (he died in 1968) to see the enormous wave of reverence and nostalgia that would've greeted him just a few years later.
Next is "Sword of Dragonus", a Conan-esuqe tale beautifully rendered by Frank Brunner. What it's doing in Monsters Unleashed! I don't know, but it's still a nice little story--you know where it's going, but it's still fun getting there.
Finally is "The Roaches!" by Gerry Conway and Ralph Reese, a really creepy story of a woman who has a very improper relationship with the throng of roaches in her apartment building. Sure, the set-up is pretty formulaic, but Conway takes it a step further at the end, and having once lived in an apartment that had roaches, the whole thing makes my skin crawl. Yeesh, let's move on...
We end with an ad for the next issue of MU, which we talked about last time--behold, The Man-Thing!!
1 comment:
The Frankenstein story in this issue is reprinted in Marvel's "Essential Monster of Frankenstein" book. Their entire Frankenstein saga is worth reading; it changes a lot once it hits the modern age, but it starts as one of the most interesting adaptations of Mary Shelley's story ever done.
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