Halloween bring on the back ups- Spawn of Frankenstein by Kaluta and Wolfman

The Phantom Stranger was one of the few DC comic books that I found difficult to track down back in the good old 1970s. That was until one day in 1974 when I came across Phantom Stranger #29 staring out at me from the spinner rack . That issue contained the second last back up tale featuring the Spawn of Frankenstein with art by golden age legend Bernard Bailey. Now Mr Bailey drew one of my favourite golden age strips the origin of the Spectre, but his art by 1974 was very dated for this character, so when I found out Mike Kaluta had illustrated the first 3 tales (#23-25) of the Spawn of Frankenstein I had to track them down. So far I have only found issue 23 ( which I picked up in 1979) featuring his origin tale but its a great little story worthy of reading on a cold dank halloween night.

Below a page fron Bernard Bailey's version of Spawn of Frankenstein. Image from internet

Below the cover from Phantom Stranger #23 featuring the above origin of the Spawn of Frankenstein. Cover art by Jim Aparo