The Origin of the NEW FRANKENSTEIN part 1

   At some point in the late '60s, someone at Dell Comics thought it would be a good idea to take classic monsters and turn them into superheroes.  Unless they were prescient enough to realize that, nearly 50 years later, there would be a World Wide Web, on which snarky bloggers would relish in ripping their work to shreds, it was not a good idea.  Published in 1966 by Dell, written by Don Segall and drawn by Tommy Tallarico, we bring you the COLLECTOR'S ISSUE of  FRANKENSTEIN #2.

   This was not Dell's first dance with Frankenstein.  Two years before, in 1964, they published FRANKENSTEIN #1, a more traditional take on the monster.

That book ended with the monster presumably meeting his fate at the bottom of the ocean after practically sinking an ocean liner by himself in a fit of rage.  It's safe to assume, then, that issue 2 has little or nothing to do with issue 1.  Good work, Dell!

   Our story opens on a dark and stormy night at Frankenstein's castle.  As it tends to do in stories like this, a bolt of lighting zooms down from the sky and unerringly strikes a lone figure lying on a slab.  After the smoke clears, the hulking figure rises and asks, "Where am I?  Who am I?"

   The book, being a hundred years old, crumbles in his hands before it can tell him anything.  Searching through the castle alone, fragments of memories come back to him, piece by piece.  Upon finding the laboratory he says: "This place...I do remember! This place is the doctor's laboratory...the place where I was....where I was born!"
 

What lab would be complete without rubber masks just lying around?

     After naming himself Frank Stone (clever boy), he ventures out of the castle to see what the world holds for him.  It is then that he immediately runs into his first adventure.  He witnesses a car crash, and despite being asleep for a hundred years, he instinctively knows someone is in that car and might need help.  The old man he rescues sees through Frank's brilliant disguise...

 
     The old man is Henry Knickerbocker, the richest man in the world.  His fortune was made by his father, who was colleagues with Frank's creator.  Through that connection, Knickerbocker swears to keep Frank's secret...and make him the sole beneficiary of his will.

     We should all be so lucky as to sleep for a hundred years, wake up, save a millionaire and have him pledge his fortune to you and then die!  And this is all in the first 10 pages!  Stay tuned, dear readers, it's about to get...stupid.