MONSTER-MONTH: COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 9)

Today, we venture into the strange world of Hanna-Barbera Animation to visit with a robot who carries the burden of the name... Frankenstein!

FRANKENSTEIN, JR. AND THE IMPOSSIBLES were a pair of Hanna-Barbera cartoons packed into a half hour of television programming for the CBS television network.  It premiered September 10, 1966.

Similar to many of the animation company’s efforts, this series was shortlived--ending after an 18 episode run.  Frankenstein Jr. is actually the name of the gigantic robot created by Professor Conroy for his  boy genius son Buzz Conroy--apparently he didn’t grasp that Frankenstein was the creator not the creation.

Set in Civic City, the adventures of young Buzz and Frankenstein, Jr. as they fight supervillains in the name of justice.  Buzz would activate his pal, “Frankie”, via an energy ring.  Frankenstein, Jr. is very similar in appearance to the very popular animated character GIGANTOR, who had a hit show at the time.

Frankie was voiced by Ted Cassidy (Lurch of THE ADDAMS FAMILY).  Buzz was voiced by Dick Beals, also famous for the voice of Chuck Jones’ Ralph Phillips for Warner Bros. and Davey of DAVEY & GOLIATH.

The target of complaints about violence in children’s television, the show was cancelled in 1968.

FIVE FRANKENSTEIN FUN FACTS:

1. Gold Key Comics released a single issue of FRANKENSTEIN JR. AND THE  IMPOSSIBLES in 1966 as a tie-in to the TV show.  The contents of it were reprinted in “The Impossibles Annual” by Atlas Publishing & Distributing Co. Ltd., in 1968 in the United Kingdom.
2. In 1976, Space Ghost and Frankenstein Jr. were repackaged and combined together into a single cartoon series entitled SPACE GHOST/ FRANKENSTEIN JR. SHOW for NBC.
3. Ted Cassidy also voiced the role of Ben Grimm aka The Thing in the 1978 FANTASTIC FOUR animated series and went on  to voice and announce for animated shows like GODZILLA, THE HULK, SUPER FRIENDS and voicing the opening narration of the 1970s THE INCREDIBLE HULK.
4. FRANKENSTEIN JR. and THE IMPOSSIBLES is available via Warner Bros. and print  on demand.
5. Frankenstein Jr. or “Frankie” as he is referred to by Buzz, stands 30 feet tall.

And now, some merchandise featuring Frankie Jr...

(Click to Frankensize)

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And now, some art featuring FRANKENSTEIN JR.

(Click any to Frankensize)

Links to follow Frankie Jr. with:

http://comicsworthreading.com/2011/05/08/frankenstein-jr-and-the-impossibles/

http://www.the-other-view.com/frankenstein-impossibles.htmlfrankensteinjr

http://stendek.tumblr.com/post/6130885677/cement-mixer-mystery-frankenstein-jr-tale

http://danielsfunny.com/2012/01/09/thank-you-hanna-barbera-frankenstein-jr-and-the-impossibles/

And now, because THAT GUY demanded it:

SIX SECRET SKETCHES MIXED, FOLDED AND FIXED

Above is Jasmine AKA Bounce of JOHN BYRNE'S NEXT MEN.



Not Chewbacca, but another Wookie who happens to be a Jedi--never saw one of those in Star Wars.



This here is a homemade character who is one of an order of mystics who call themselves, collectively, The Travelers.



Walt Kelly was a genius cartoonist who was responsible for some of Disney's best stuff and he went on to create POGO, the comic strip featured above.


Got around to sketching another Benjamin J. Grimm face for my own pleasure using Sketchbook Copic Edition. Was kind of fun.


In honor of the late, great Sheldon "Shelly" Moldoff, I wanted to portray one of his nifty additions to the Batman Family and so we see the Bat-Mite above.

...AND ANOTHER THING...!

A commission for my pal Andrew, he loves the Thing and I love to draw the Thing almost as much. I was very tentative with this one (as I usually am when doing work for hire) and wanted to get Ben's look just right. The rocky texture of his is always fun to draw, but there is a method to the freehand one uses when drawing it. Started out with blue line pencils, worked up through pencils, ink and brush, markers and even some white ink for emphasis on the smoke.

DIRTY DOZEN DIGITAL DAILY SKETCHES

So I'd fallen behind on blogging up my work with the Daily Sketch Challenges over at DeviantArt.com and I noticed that among the many entries, I hadn't posted a dozen of the sketches that were drawn digitally in my increasing attempts to improve my hand at this newfangled stuff. And so, July begins with a dozen that kind of catch me up to where I'm supposed to be.

(As always, click an image to make it easier to see.)

IT'S GOOD TO BE THE THING!

Remember the line from the Mel Brooks film History of the World Part 2 (I think): "It's good to be the King!"? I sure do...

SHOWDOWN ON YANCY STREET by ~Ragnaroker on deviantART

Did the above piece of art for a group on DeviantArt that is about pitting artists against one another in a friendly pencil fight, a draw down, a paint-off or the like. We each chose a character and had to depict the two in a piece of art together. Not sure if they have to fight, but I went ahead and let them go at it.

IT'S A THING THANG

So I finally got around to inking a very old sketch I did of Aunt Petunia's favorite Nephew and I couldn't decide on which basic background color I liked better...

Highbow black background?


OLD BLUE EYES by ~Ragnaroker on deviantART

Or blue to match his eyes?

Monsters in the Mighty Marvel Manner

This is my idea of a panel from a typical battle between the Marvel heroes' greatest modern monsters, the Thing and the Hulk.

These two are, creations of the Lee/Kirby partnership created when Marvel was transitioning from the typical 50's style monster comics to the renewed popularity of adventurers and super-heroes. Great monsters because of their designs, great characters because of their personalities.

Characters copyright Marvel Comics. Piece of art created by me during my spare moments at home and work on a piece of packing cardboard using Sharpies and ink pens.