Stanley and His Monster
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stanley and His Monster[1] was an American comic-book humor feature and later series from DC Comics, about a boy who instead of having a dog as his companion has a monster. Created by writer Arnold Drake and artist Winslow Mortimer as a backup feature the funny-animal comic The Fox and the Crow #95 (Jan. 1966), it went to its own 1960s title and a 1990s revival miniseries.
Contents |
[edit] Publication history
The backup feature "Stanley and His Monster" appeared in DC Comics' funny-animal comic The Fox and the Crow #95-108, upon which the series became Stanley and His Monster from #109-112 (May-Nov. 1968), the final issue.
The characters' next major appearance was in a 1993 four-issue miniseries by writer-aritst Phil Foglio. This humorous adventure series, revealing the monster as a demon from Hell who had turned good and escaped, incorporated and parodied elements of DC Comics' mature-reader Vertigo imprint in a lighthearted, general-audience fashion.
The titular characters returned in 2001 as supporting players in the Green Arrow series, written by filmmaker Kevin Smith, but in a much darker tone than any previous appearance. They next appeared in the 2005-2006 miniseries Infinite Crisis, where, in issue #6, they are part of a gathering of supernatural characters attempting to summon the mystical being the Spectre for aid.
[edit] Fictional character biographies
Stanley Dover is a 6-year-old boy who finds his monster companion in a sewer. In a twist on monster lore, the creature proves as scared of the world as the world is of it. The monster, whom Stanley names Spot, comes home to live with Stanley, with many wacky high jinks ensuing. Recurring characters would include the bickering leprechaun Shaughnessy, a dwarf named Schnitzel, the ghost of French emperor Napoleon, and teenaged babysitter Marcia. Comedian Jerry Lewis made a guest appearance.
Stanley's parents, Mitch and Sheila, firmly believe their child's companion to be imaginary until learning otherwise on the final page of Stanley and His Monster #2 (March 1993). They initially want the monster gone, but after becoming aware of the creature's good nature decide that in a world of superheroes, magic, and alien invasions, having a benign demon companion for their son is actually nothing unusual.
Years later, Stanley learns the monster is a demon known as the Beast With No Name, who was accidentally bonded to Stanley by Stanley's demon-worshiping grandfather, also named Stanley Dover. The grandfather, attempting to achieve immortality and discovering the bond, locks the younger Stanley into a large glass container and torments him, both physically and by forcing him to witness horrific acts of murder, all in an attempt to bring back the monster.
Determined to find the demon, the grandfather attempts to transfer his soul into the resurrected Oliver Queen, the superhero Green Arrow, whose body is a soulless shell after his soul chose to remain in Heaven. The elder Dover plans to use the shell as a disguise in order to access the resources of the superhero team the Justice League of America to find the Beast. However, the shell convinces the soul to return to him at the last minute, and Green Arrow, whole again, fights alongside his son, Connor Hawke, against the demons the grandfather had managed to conjure. The Beast With No Name appears and eats the grandfather. The monster also erases the boy's horrible memories in order to restore his innocence.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Title spelling as per Grand Comics Database: Stanley and His Monster
[edit] References
- Stanley and His Monster series at the Grand Comics Database
- The Fox and the Crow at the Grand Comic-Book Database
- Stanley & His Monster at Don Markstein's Toonpedia verified 9 March 2006
|
|||||||||||||||||
