Frankenstein in Kids' Media: Monster Support Group 3: The Creature’s Origin by Laura Suarez (2024)
Meet Frederick: taught by his maker that monsters don't cry or read OR sniff flowers, he is taken round the country, demonstrating his might
Frankenstein and the Monster Themselves Or A Parody Of Them: Frankenstein and the Monster Themselves, though here, Victor becomes Victoria
Is the Monster Called Frankenstein: The Monster is called Frederick
Is there an Igor/Fritz: Igor is referenced, but he isn’t Victoria’s assistant
Premise: Frankenstein’s Monster attends a support group for monsters, telling them about how his creator, Dr. Victoria Frankenstein, expected him to be frightening and ferocious, but he wanted to dance and perform Shakespeare. With Victoria enraged by how her Creature is acting, Frederick runs away with Victoria pursuing. After hearing his story, the Group try to set things right between Frederick and his creator.
Connections to the Frankenstein Novel And/Or Adaptations: Frederick looks fairly close to Shelley’s original, with long black hair and yellow eyes, and his name may be a reference to Young Frankenstein. He is also intelligent, verbose and cultured like Shelley’s monster, but nowhere near as murderous or vengeful. Victoria doesn’t abandon her creature upon bringing him to life, but does get angry at him and pursues him when he tries to escape.
Other Notes: How odd that the movie that most comes to mind when looking at these Frankenstein spin-offs, with the exception of the 1931 film, is Del Toro’s, when his came later. This has a similar set-up to that film, where we have a completely innocent and wholesome monster that Frankenstein attempts to raise. It’s also interesting that despite the fact Victor originally set out to create something beautiful, a common theme of Frankenstein-inspired children’s stories is Frankenstein being angry his creation is kind and sensitive and doesn’t act like a rampaging beast.
In fact, it’s worth noting that Victoria Frankenstein in this comic is enraged about her “son” engaging in stereotypically feminine or “gay” interests like ballet and Shakespeare instead of something more violent and “masculine”, and when confronting him about it, says he’s embarrassing her. When Frederick leaves to live his life the way he wants, Victoria follows him. Frederick even chooses his name, inspired by something he loves. There is precedence; Frankenstein is popular among LGBTQ readers for good reason, and the interpretation of Frankenstein as an abusive parent is not an uncommon one. It does end, however, with Victoria accepting her son, something which is far from a guarantee for gay and trans people with bigoted parents, though I’m certainly not expecting a book like this to end with Victoria dying of exposure. There is even a slight element of selfishness to her change of heart, in that it only happens when she sees how much people love Frederick as a performer, with her saying she created him, though she does ask how she can make things up to Frederick.
