Super Mates 101: House of Franklin-Stein Part 1

The House of Franklin-Stein rises from the tomb! Spooky season begins with Chris and Cindy discussing a Universal Monsters Mummy Double Feature! The Mummy’s Hand starring Tom Tyler, and The Mummy’s Tomb with Lon Chaney, Jr.!

 Then SHAZAM!!! The Super Mates unwrap Marvel Family #79 (Jan, 1953), where the World’s Mightiest Mortals meet the Mad Mummy in “The Dynasty of Horror” by Otto Binder and C.C. Beck!

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Clip credits:

The Mummy’s Hand (1942) directed by Christy Cabanne

Shazam! Theme from The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! by Ray Ellis

“The House of Franklinstein” by Terry O’Malley, of Stop Calling Me Frank https://www.facebook.com/rockSCMF

 

21 responses to “Super Mates 101: House of Franklin-Stein Part 1

  1. Man, it seems like these Halloween shows start appearing earlier and earlier every year – it’s almost like the creeping Christmas decorations that show up in stores before Halloween. However, in this case, I’m not complaining – you could start in the middle of summer and keep them going until Oct 31 as far as I’m concerned.

    Anyway, I was additionally happy that there was something that I have actually consumed, i.e., the issue of Marvel Family you covered. Many years ago, I downloaded a ton of that Fawcett stuff long ago when I first discovered the Digital Comic Museum* and I still have them stored on an external drive – so I was able to load it up and read it before listening to your show.
    First off, I have to say that while I can sympathize with some of Cindy’s concerns, I also thought this was a pretty fun little story. But yeah, there were some bits that were pretty dark and we seemed to have noticed the same ones, i.e., the often grisly violence, including Mary getting whipped ‘on camera’. The Mad Mummy getting squashed a few times didn’t bother me as much, because – as Chris noted – he explicitly says he can’t be killed because he’s already dead. What caught my eye was when the Marvels went after those demons and pretty brutally killed them. Heck, Mary sliced one in half with a scythe!
    Keep up the great work, looking forward the the coming episodes.

    *According to the Digital Comic Museum where, like Comic Book Plus, all of that Fawcett material was posted, much of the Fawcett material that we all thought was public domain is not, apparently, For the past few years, the site has had a notice posted on its main page to this effect, as well as more details in a post on its forum page which outlines which issues are no longer public domain. Unfortunately, the issue you covered in this post is one of those that is no longer considered public domain and has been taken down (the same goes for Comic Book Plus). However, since you mentioned the Internet Archive, I see that all of the Fawcett books are still available there – so my advice for anyone who hasn’t is to go get them before they get yanked…

    1. Well, Edo, we usually start in September, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. We’re kind of hitting in the middle here! If it makes you feel any better, due to rain, I didn’t get my Halloween decorations up this weekend as I had planned. Next weekend, hopefully!

      Good catch on the Marvels violently dispatching the demons! I somehow missed Mary scything one in half when I was taking notes! It’s right there in the page I posted too! Gruesome!

      Thanks for the tip on the “public domain” status of the Fawcett comics. Right now I think archive.org has a great selection of them. As Edo said, if you want to read them, better hurry! Or, maybe, SHAZAM! they’re gone!

  2. Man, it seems like these Halloween shows start appearing earlier and earlier every year – it’s almost like the creeping Christmas decorations that show up in stores before Halloween. However, in this case, I’m not complaining – you could start in the middle of summer and keep them going until Oct 31 as far as I’m concerned.
    Anyway, I was additionally happy that there was something that I have actually consumed, i.e., the issue of Marvel Family you covered. Many years ago, I downloaded a ton of that Fawcett stuff long ago when I first discovered the Digital Comic Museum* and I still have them stored on an external drive – so I was able to load it up and read it before listening to your show.
    First off, I have to say that while I can sympathize with some of Cindy’s concerns about the treatment of historical/archeological artifacts, I also thought this was a pretty fun little story. But yeah, there were some bits that were pretty dark and we seem to have noticed the same ones, i.e., the often horrible violence, including Mary getting whipped ‘on camera’. The Mad Mummy getting squashed a few times didn’t bother me as much, because – as Chris noted – he explicitly says he can’t be killed because he’s already dead. What caught my eye was when the Marvels went after those demons and pretty brutally killed them. Heck, Mary sliced one in half with a scythe!
    Keep up the great work, looking forward the the coming episodes.

    *According to the Digital Comic Museum where, like Comic Book Plus, all of that Fawcett material was posted, much of the Fawcett material that we all thought was public domain is not, apparently, For the past few years, the site has had a notice posted on its main page to this effect, as well as more details in a post on its forum page which outlines which issues are no longer public domain. Unfortunately, the issue you covered in this post is one of those that is no longer considered public domain and has been taken down (the same goes for Comic Book Plus). However, since you mentioned the Internet Archive, I see that all of the Fawcett books are still available there – so my advice for anyone who hasn’t is to go get them before they get yanked…

      1. Yeah, because when it didn’t post the first time I hit ‘back’ and then mashed the ‘post’ button again – which, I see now, was a dumb thing to do. Feel free to delete the duplicate…

  3. Yay! HOF is back!

    I have to admit, other than the Karloff original, I cannot keep these Mummy movies straight. I do look forward to HOF eventually the covering the one set in the 90s, that’s the one that has the Mummy killing people while Smash Mouth’s “Rock Star” plays on the soundtrack.

    Chris, I think you are 100% right, that “Mad” text in the CM story is exactly the same font and overall look as the magazine’s logo. I think whoever was doing Fawcett’s paste-ups got a little cheeky that month.

    That story is completely nuts, and does have a slightly creepier vibe than what you’d expect in such “wholesome” entertainment. And I love the Hawaiian shirt Billy is rocking throughout. What a find!

    Great kick off episode. And, sorry Cindy, but Rachel Weisz is hot. Don’t blame Chris for noticing,

    1. In the last film, Kharis sports a pair of neon Jams and jugs gallons of EXTREME Mountian Dew instead of Tana Tea!

      Rachel Weisz is indeed hot. And she’s only 4 years older than me, so…there, Cindy! (runs for cover)

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  4. Regarding the question of saying “Shazam” without changing: While I haven’t seen the entire story to see if it happens more than once, it looks like it’s Freddy who says “Shazam” in the excerpts seen here, and I think Freddy could say “Shazam” with no effect, since his magic words were “Captain Marvel.”

    1. Yeah, I went back and looked, and it’s Junior that suggests “Let’s visit Shazam!” When they are walking past the statues of the Seven Deadly Sins, Freddy mentions his name. In that panel on the last page, it could be Junior saying “Shazam himself!” So, plot hole filled!

  5. I prefer Karloff’s mummy for the very fact that he wasn’t continually wrapped up in bandages, but I do enjoy these later mummy movies as well. In particular, I like the reappearance of characters from the first film in the second, even if the timeline is a little wonky. Other than the monster, you usually don’t see other characters make repeat appearances in the classic Universal movies, which is a shame because I think it helps to build a sense of continuity. The only other time I recall seeing that happen is in Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, where Henry and Elizabeth Frankenstein appear in both films. Does anyone know of other instances that I’m not remembering?

    Hold that thought! I just remembered that Ygor makes multiple appearances in the later Frankenstein films. Perhaps, reoccurring characters aren’t as rare as I initially thought.

    Thank you for opening up the House of Franklin-stein for all of us to enjoy for another Halloween season. I’ll be sure to wipe my feet on the doormat before I enter.

    1. There are a few more instances of recurring characters in the Universal Monster Films, aside from the monsters themselves:

      Maleeva also appears in both the Wolf Man and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.

      Van Helsing appears in Dracula and Dracula’s Daughter.

      Elsa Frankenstein appears in Ghost of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, although played by different actresses in each.

      Captain Lucas appears in both The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Revenge of the Creature.

      The character continuity is actually stronger in Universal films than Hammer’s in a lot of ways. Although we’ll get to a big exception next time!

      Thanks for making me think through this. It was a fun nerd exercise for useless knowledge in my brain!

      1. There might be a witness protection program for survivors of Universal creature encounters. But those unlucky yobs Chick Young and Wilbur Grey just kept having to be assigned new identities and careers since monsters kept finding them wherever they went.

  6. Mummy masterpieces! These are the films I think of when someone says mummy movie. The shambling, near unstoppable bandage wrapped behemoths! I love the Kharis series… even if I can NEVER remember what order they go in. Why would they name the first one The Mummy’s Hand? That’s a title you use AFTER you’ve used the obvious ones like, The Mummy’s Tomb or Curse of the Mummy.
    My favorite part of this four part series is how loose they are with both the timelines ne and geography! They not only jump decades in time, but locations. Massachusetts and Louisiana quite some distance apart. Regardless, I have a blast watching these movies.

    1. Full disclosure, Matt, I can’t keep the names of these films straight, either. The Mummy’s Tomb is a better name for the first Kharis film, for instance, since we’re actually AT the Mummy’s tomb in the film. The second should have been called either The Mummy’s Curse, or for a totally different title, The Mummy’s Shadow, as I mentioned.

      Yeah, I can’t wait to eventually get to the geograhical shenanigans in the later films!

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  7. It’s important to brew Kharis’s hot tana toddy ONLY during “the cycle of the full moon” which … (checks notes) is 27 days long, and is immediately followed by the next full moon cycle, and so forth. #We’reNeverNotInTheCycle

    These movies are fun, but I don’t think they do much to advance the cause of improving mummy/fleshy relations. After all, mummies gonna mum, but it’s always some fleshy priest that starts drama and then the mummy takes all the blame. Yeaaeeeaayaeea– I’m sorry, force of habit. I mean, boo.

    Wait, it’s House of Franklin-Stein time and that means … oh, shoot, it’s been too long, what am I supposed to hand out when the doorbell rings, again? Uh, it’s not hard-boiled eggs, it’s not Form 1040s — that’s right, I remember, green beer! Gotta go stock up on green beer so I don’t run out on Halloween. Happy Franklin-Steining!

    1. I’m assuming they mean the three nights of the full moon…which isn’t really a thing, as there is only ONE full night of the full moon each month. But hey, it works for werewolves.

      If you hand out green beer, good luck with the parents of the kids you “treat”. All though around here, they’d probably be more than happy with it!

  8. Hooray, House of Franklinstein is back! It’s so fantastic to hear you both again talking about monster movies and monster comics! This particular combination has a special place in my heart because of both the Mummy and Captain Marvel.

    I love all these Mummy movies. While I had trouble finding all the other monster sequels, I had all of the Mummy films from the Universal Monsters VHS Classic Collection. The original, Hand, Tomb, Ghost, or even Curse were fun to watch. I love the original, by far, but you were right that there’s not a whole lot of “Mummy” in the Mummy. The sequels had a lot more of that shambling ghoul that we’ve come to love.

    And just as I started typing, “Tom Tyler, Captain Marvel himself!”, you beat me to the punch. While the Hand has pros and cons, I do really like those blacked out eyes they gave Tyler’s Mummy.

    The cover to Marvel Family Adventures is so full of fun. Mary Marvel looks so cute with her pose! It’s amazing that, just by making faces, you can scare a mummy away!

    “Humans to slay again!”. I agree with Chris, brrrrrrrr!!

    They were really hitting home the Judy Garland likeness with Mary Marvel with the baby blue socks and ruby slippers.

    The Marvel Family must have several concussions from the amount of times they get hit on the back of the head just before they can say their magic words.

    I love this comic as Captain Marvel is my favourite superhero of all time. This story really highlights how fun, goofy, and slightly sinister this comic was. More of this, please, DC!

    Thanks for such a great show, you two! You are awesome and I’m looking forward to the next installment of the House……..of Franklinstein! Keep up the great work!

    1. Those Universal Monster VHS tapes had some GORGEOUS art on them! I would love to have a set of them just to set them up for display!

      Mary does look very “Dorothy-esque” doesn’t she? Good catch!

      I think the Marvels may have gotten bonked on the head more than Aquaman!

      Thanks for listening Mike! More on the way! SHAZAM!!!

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