"Too bad you can't get blood out of a turnip".
- Otis Dracenstein
If you read yesterday's post (and if you didn't, I urge you to go back and read it and then come back here) you'll be wondering where the monsters fit in to a humor magazine with the offbeat title of THIMK. It didn't start happening until issue #3 (September 1958) with a "Special Monster Issue", sporting a cover showing comic characters of Dracula and the Frankenstein monster sharing what looks to be a blood soda.
Why all of a sudden would monsters appear -- seemingly unbidden -- in a magazine that had none until then? Well, I have my suspicions and after thimking it about it I came to the conclusion that it might have been the result of a certain 52-film package of monster movies that had been released on television the year before (October 1957) called SHOCK THEATER. Of course, SHOCK THEATER (marketed as simply SHOCK!) is the reason for the monster craze explosion that followed -- and really hasn't let up since.
Another reason is likely because said Shock Theater also spawned a slew of TV horror hosts hired on to various networks to introduce the films, stage skits and offer their kooky critiques. One of the early hosts was Zacherley who lit up the airwaves in Philadelphia and New York and was an overnight sensation. This could have led the folks at Counterpoint Inc. in New York to hitch their clown car on to Zacherly's undertaker's coattails. After all, they had nearly a year to watch the phenomenon grow.
So, behind the Drac/Frank cover rendered by Sam Hayle is an appearance by King Kong in the uncredited strip, "The Great Great Show" and the "Special Monster Issue" feature that introduces the character (and I do mean character) Otis Dracenstein. The strip, "A Day in the Life of a Monster" offers readers a glimpse of his life and what its like to be a monster in "normal" society.
Otis makes the cover of #4 (December 1958) and pops up throughout the issue, including in another strip of his own, "Otis Dracenstein At Homecoming". Otis' likeness is also offered on a t-shirt for sale at the back of the book.
Otis carries on in a similar fashion for the next two issues. While they don't quite make the commitment as MAD did with Alfred E. Neuman, Dracenstein seems to become THIMK's defacto mascot simply by virtue of his returning appearances in ad parodies and more strips (as well as using him as the mag's identity on the t-shirts).
Alas, THIMK folded after #6 (May 1959) and we'll never see if Otis Dracenstein made it to the New Year's office party or not. Instead, THIMK would be just become another humor magazine casualty that couldn't stand up against the King Kong of humor magazines, MAD.
THIMK #3
THIMK #4
THIMK #5
THIMK #6
Even though I never saw an issue of THIMK, I do recall "Otis Dracenstein" being cited in some book that I read way back in the '70s (can't remember if it was a paperback I bought or a library book).
ReplyDeleteThis was a book that traced all the various adaptations and incarnations of Mary Shelley's immortal creature, including not only films but various comic book appearances-- both serious renditions and parodies. "Otis Dracenstein" was mentioned in a section on humor magazine spins on the character, though I can't recall what was said.
I'm not even sure what the book was-- I read voraciously *any* genre-related material back then, and have kept almost none of it that I owned-- but it was most likely Donald F. Glut's THE FRANKENSTEIN LEGEND (original 1973 edition).
So after 50 years, it's a treat to finally see this character in action! "Otis" and his family seem almost like a template for THE MUNSTERS five years later, with the reactions the poor, well-meaning big guy gets from the "normies" as he just goes about his day.
Also, the later episodes drawn by John Forte were eyebrow-raising for me, seeing traces of his familiar style from the '60s DC "Superman family" line appearing in *this* context!
Forte's rendition of wife "Trixie" even has a version of that hairstyle that appeared not only on Lois Lane around this time-- but continued to adorn Lois and other DC female characters to the end of the '60s! (Admittedly, it *was* a popular real-life hairstyle for a while in the '50s, but DC kept it going WAY past its time.)
Also, Forte's version of Otis and Trixie's daughter "Minnie" makes it clear that she gets her looks from Otis, while brother "Boris" is "normal" like Trixie. Forte's craggy-faced, straw-haired "Minnie" also looks like a preview of his later renditions of the many clones of "Bizarro Lois" and her lookalike young daughters that populated the "Tales of the Bizarro World" backup feature that he drew, starting in 1960!
Finally, those T-shirt ads are simultaneously funny and kinda creepy. That poor kid looks really odd-- especially when he's grimacing in the "muscle" ad-- and it even carries over to the supposedly "cute" hand-holding pose with the girl. But hey, maybe it's just that unfortunate haircut.
(At least he was eventually topped for memorable creepiness by that poor guy who posed for those late '70s Captain Company ads, where he was shot wearing just a pair of tacky "collectible Warren cover art-printed" low-rise briefs, designed "For the Man Who Has Everything"-- except any hope of a normal sex life. Ewwwwwwww.
You don't suppose it's possible this poor kid in the T-shirt grew up to be that poor guy in the briefs?)
Thamks for dredging up THIMK!
-- hsc
A definite similarity to The Munsters (I also see a little Briefer there, too). While Otis and family may not have been appropriated as an inspiration for the TV show, there were so many other comics and cartoons that appeared afterward that the idea became a trope.
ReplyDeleteGlut's book was reprinted a couple of year ago with 70 or so new pages as I recall. Don't have that, but I do still have my copy of FJA's The Frankenscience Monster published by Ace in 1969. And yes, it contains the typical Forry banter throughout. No academic critique from the likes of him!
Yes, those t-shirt ads are . . . unsettling! And the Warren undies -- by the time the poor guy would be done explaining, the mood would definitely have been broken!