'Frankenthing' By Jeremy Banx Review

Dr. Frankenstein’s mumbling, cat-allergic ‘Monster’ creation is bored. Really bored. So, the Doctor decides to find him a mate, whereby ‘finding’ when it comes to this doctor entails the acquisition of a dead thing that the doctor can bring back to life; something he’s really good at. However, things are not so easy this time. The terrified villagers had long cottoned on to the Doctor’s experiments and had the cemetery cordoned off with high walls none of them daring to come anywhere near the volcano where the doctor’s castle perches.

However, in one serendipitous moment, Igor the cat comes in dragging a ‘thing’ he’s mangled into a semi-pulp. The doctor, being the genius that he is, gets a brilliant idea; an idea that is ‘very nearly as brilliant as the time he’d crossed a tadpole with a flamingo to create a frog that could stand on one leg’. So, at night, after reading a few bedtime stories for the Monster, one of which was ‘’Goldilocks and the Three Corpses’, the Doctor eagerly goes back to his lab and gets busy. After many adjustments, nips and tucks, ‘Frankenthing’ is born.

Monster is so very very pleased with his new friend and even Dr. Frankenstein is as happy as a ‘unicorn with two horns’. The only one unhappy with the turn of events is Igor the cat who patiently awaits a chance to re-kill ‘Frankenthing’. Meanwhile, the two new friends spend every minute together playing, helping each other out and ‘eating Dr. Frankenstein out of house and home’. So, as the castle runs out of food, Dr. Frankenstein decides to go out for supplies. He instructs the household members that whatever they get up to they are not to enter his lab. They all agree and Dr. Frankenstein heads out on his bike.

As expected, things don’t go well and soon the household members find themselves, where else but in the lab. Igor decides that with the doctor away, what better opportunity to finish off ‘Frankenthing’ once and for all. Things go from bad to worse culminating into a most unexpected horrific outcome, with the only way out of their mess is for Igor and Frankenthing to lay down their differences and work together if they are to save the one person they all truly love.

‘Frankenthing’ is a highly engaging story written by an award-winning cartoonist. That said, the reader is treated not only to a fantastic story line but also to equally amazing illustrations throughout the book. The tone throughout is surprisingly lighthearted taking into account some really gory scenes. Adults and children, but mainly adults, who read this book might go ‘ugh!’ on more than one occasion, but there’s little doubt this precious gem of a story will fail to raise a chuckle or two thanks to its quirky characters, its abounding similes, silly jokes and polished illustrations. A real delight!

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