MOVIE COMICS
Vol. 1 No. 1
April 1939
Picture Comics, Inc.
Editor: C. Elbert
Assistant Editor: Sheldon Mayer
Managing Editor: M. C. Gaines
Cover: Photo cover depicting scene from "Gunga Din" with airbrushed corrections by Jack Adler and Emery Gondor
Pages: 68
Cover price: 10 cents
Released on January 13, 1939, Universal Pictures' SON OF FRANKENSTEIN was turned into a comic book adaptation just a few months later -- only this comic was a little different.
An early example of what would become known popularly as "fumetti" (aka photo funnies and photostories), MOVIE COMICS combined film adaptations, movie stills and cartoon embellishments along with dialogue word balloons to create a version of the movie on paper that could be enjoyed over and over. This is a rare example of a monster movie (by then escalated from "thriller" to "horror" film) that was depicted in a publication other than the odd article here and there in movie fan magazines. It would be almost 20 years before James Warren and Forrest J Ackerman gave us the classic film monster magazine, FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. Warren would publish his own fumetti 'zines under the "Famous Films" imprint that included THE MOLE PEOPLE and CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN/HORROR OF DRACULA.
The SON OF FRANKENSTEIN adaptation in this first issue of MOVIE COMICS (an early manifestation of DC Comics) was scripted by Willie Cooper with pencil and ink corrections and colors by Jack Adler and Emery Gondor.
The cousin of shock-jock Howard Stern, Jack Adler rose from the ranks of the comic book industry, and worked on titles for DC Comics such as SEA DEVILS and GREEN LANTERN during the Silver Age before becoming vice president of production. Comic fans may also recognize the name Sheldon Mayer, who had a hand in creating DC super heroes Green Lantern, Hawkman, Wonder Woman and The Flash, among others. M.C. Gaines, of course, is Max Gaines, whose son, Bill, would be the man behind the infamous E.C. Comics line.
EXTRA! Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Jack Pierce in a one-page feature from MOVIE COMICS #1.
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