Thursday, April 12, 2018

THE "FRIGHT" OF DRACULA


FRIGHT FEATURING THE SON OF DRACULA
Vol. 1 No. 1
Cover date: June 1975
Indicia date: August 1975
Atlas Comics
Editor: Larry Lieber
Writer: Gary Friedrich
Art: Frank Thorne
Cover art: Frank Thorne
Pages: 36
Cover price: 25 cents

Larry Leiber, brother of Stan Lee, pulled off a few unpolished gems during his editorship at Atlas/Seaboard. Unfortunately, this is not one of them. Gary Friedrich's (b. 1943) script goes from melodramatic to histrionic in just a few short pages in this whacked-out tale starring the undead Count. You see, just as The Prince of Darkness is about to put the bite on his latest beautiful victim, he finds out she is a long-lost relative! The sappy saga continues to its cliched, "Is this the end or the beginning?" conclusion in this, the only issue of the series titled, FRIGHT that was published.

Thankfully, the book is saved by some excellent artwork by Frank "Dirty Old Man" Thorne (b. 1930), who produced some uber sexy artwork for Marvel's RED SONJA: SHE-DEVIL WITH A SWORD. Nevertheless, SON OF DRACULA is worth a trip down memory lane with the upstart line of comics that dared attempt to nudge the Mighty Marvel and DC a little further down on the spinner rack. Like this try at a Dracula comic series, it was to no avail.






















BONUS! FRANK THORNE ORIGINAL ART

FRIGHT #1 front cover original art by Frank Thorne.

Frank Thorne original watercolor of Red Sonja (1975).

Frank Thorne original artwork cartoon for PLAYBOY (undated).

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