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Sunday, October 18, 2026

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
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4 comments:

  1. KidOctober 19, 2026 at 11:58 AM

    Looks interesting, and for someone (me) who was a right wee horror fiend when I was a teenager, it surprises me that I wasn't more into titles like this. I guess superheroes were my main thing back then, but I may work my way round to picking up some of these mags at some stage. The only two titles I recall buying regularly were Swamp Thing and Black Magic (a reprint title).

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  2. McSCOTTYOctober 20, 2026 at 10:53 AM

    I always tried to pick up most titles/ genres that I hadn't seen before when I was younger . Most of the time that worked out well but there were some titles that were awful. Phantom Stranger was a good one but I only ever had one issue back in the day (#29) All my other PS comics I have picked up since 1979 and have been really good with Neal Adams and Jim Aparo art and some great wee back up tales

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  3. Rip JaggerOctober 20, 2026 at 10:54 AM

    I had only a few issues of this run, but got to read it at long last when it was reprinted in the Phantom Stranger Showcase volumes. Any early Kaluta is worth seeking out and Bernard Bailey's artwork ain't half bad either.

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  4. McSCOTTYOctober 20, 2026 at 11:00 AM

    I wasn't aware that this run was reprinted in the Showcase volume. Although they are hard to track down I may search for that Rip

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