Famous Monsters Forryever • Films Featured

Frankenstein

59 issues • 1958–1982 • Famous Monsters of Filmland

Fifty-odd times the Monster lurched across a Famous Monsters cover — more than any creature in the crypt. From Karloff's flat-topped original to Hammer's blood-soaked barons, here's the full Frankenstein run, square-headed and unkillable: every issue that put the bolt-necked icon on the newsstand, gathered for the collectors who keep the lab fires burning.

A franchise gathering: every Famous Monsters cover in the Frankenstein family — originals, sequels, spin-offs, and crossovers alike. Each issue lists its own specific films inside.

Tap any issue to dig into its films, its personalities, and the story behind the art — then drift back to the full Cover Library when you’re ready for more.

59 issues

The Frankenstein Reel

The covers that put it on the newsstand, on film.

The Universal Frankenstein cycle, 1931 to 1942, as Famous Monsters showed it

RSP Reels 0:30

The through-line is what FM printed that the movies would not show you: the censored Maria scene from 1931, Jack Pierce credited by name for the fire-scarred Bride makeup, and Karloff's stunt double Bud Wolfe named at the climax of Son of Frankenstein

Watch it full size on its own page →

The Midnight Reel — all 59 reels →

The Frankenstein Stills

Production stills, posters and lobby cards.

The burned Monster (Boris Karloff) in profile / Bride of Frankenstein, Jack Pierce makeup
Kenneth Strickfaden's electrical apparatus / the watchtower laboratory, Frankenstein (1931)
The Creature (Christopher Lee) / The Curse of Frankenstein, US half-sheet
Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) and Fritz (Dwight Frye), the graveyard opening of Frankenstein (1931)
Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein Monster, portrait study of the Jack Pierce design
The Monster (Lon Chaney Jr.) and Sir Cedric Hardwicke (The Ghost of Frankenstein)
Boris Karloff resting between takes on the Bride of Frankenstein set (1935)
Son of Frankenstein (1939) behind the scenes, the stuntman doubling Karloff's Monster
Show all 25 stills
Bela Lugosi as Ygor (Son of Frankenstein 1939 / Ghost of Frankenstein 1942)
Eddie Parker doubling Lugosi's Monster (Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man)
Basil Rathbone and Ygor (Son of Frankenstein)
The Monster (Don Megowan) / Tales of Frankenstein
Boris Karloff as the Monster (Bride of Frankenstein set)
Fritz (Dwight Frye) torments the Monster / Frankenstein (1931)
Frankenstein 1970 (Boris Karloff as the Baron) / vintage poster
The Monster (David Prowse) / Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell
The Monster and little Maria (the censored lakeside scene) / Frankenstein 1931
Glenn Strange's Monster / Lugosi's Dracula (A&C Meet Frankenstein)
Kiwi Kingston's Monster (The Evil of Frankenstein)
The Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.) / Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
The Bride / Bride of Frankenstein
The Creature (Christopher Lee) / The Curse of Frankenstein
Karloff's Monster / Frankenstein (1931)
The Monster (Lon Chaney Jr.) / The Ghost of Frankenstein
Ygor (Bela Lugosi) / Son of Frankenstein