Sequential Scholars

The Monstrous Feminine in Junji Ito’s “Frankenstein"

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Terrific Horrific Perspectives in Junji Ito’s “Frankenstein”

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Haptic Visuality in Junji Ito’s “Frankenstein"

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Making a Monster in Junji Ito’s “Frankenstein"

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Our unit of threads on Junji Ito's "Frankenstein" is over but not forgotten! Here's a snapshot of what we covered, starting with: An Introduction to Junji Ito’s “Frankenstein." 1/5 #Frankenstein #ComicsStudies #JunjiIto

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Dr J. Andrew Deman Talks "Chris Claremont"! [3 of 3]

Dr J. Andrew Deman Talks "Chris Claremont"! [2 of 3]

To what degree this return of the repressed critiques or deconstructs Archie’s historical participation in creative & social repression is subjective. But for attuned readers, part of the thrill of “Afterlife” is seeing Archie be transformed by what it tried to bury. 11/11

Interestingly, the covers of “Afterlife” evoke the style of the same EC horror comics Archie once helped drive out of business. It also resurrects Archie’s then-repressed history, reprinting excerpts from the company’s 1972 horror anthology “Chilling Adventures in Sorcery.” 10/11

Archie publisher John Goldwater described himself as a “prime architect” of the Comics Code. Even if we accept his motivations were moral, Archie directly benefitted from the post-Code waning of other genres and publishers. By 1966, Archie held a huge market share. 9/11

The anti-comics crusade of the 1950s, inflamed by Fredric Wertham’s bestseller “Seduction of the Innocent,” landed hardest on crime & horror comics. Indeed, the language of the 1954 Comics Code was designed to help drive leading horror publisher EC Comics out of business. 8/11

But on a metatextual level, the intrusion of zombies into the world of Archie comics also signals the return of a repressed comics genre (horror) into a genre (teen humor) that historically contributed to and benefitted from that repression. 7/11

In “Afterlife,” the zombies herald the return of the repressed concepts of death and change. The apocalyptic conditions they create also inspire the return of repressed violence and sexuality, including, as discussed in a previous thread, queer sexuality. 6/11

In his book “Twelve-Cent Archie,” comics scholar Bart Beaty describes Riverdale as a timeless “bucolic suburban utopia… in which social divisions—particularly those brought about by racial difference—do not exist.” Moreover, though romance exists, sexuality does not. 5/10

The transformed teens in “Afterlife” are quite literally frighteningly familiar. But the repression they represent is more diffuse, partly because in Archie comics & the idealized portrait of postwar American suburbia they represent, so very many things are repressed. 4/11

Such returns can be “uncanny,” i.e. “something which is secretly familiar… which has undergone repression & returned from it.” We often see this in horror, where the terror monsters convey is inextricably linked to recognition of the monster as frighteningly familiar. 3/11

“The return of the repressed” is a Freudian concept extending from Freud’s theory of consciousness, wherein primitive drives—like sexuality—are repressed but preserved in the unconscious. But they don’t always stay there; sometimes, what’s repressed returns in new forms. 2/11

Horror stories often literalize “the return of the repressed,” and “Afterlife with #Archie,” wherein zombie hordes rise in Riverdale to threaten the world, does the same. But in “Afterlife,” this return is both narrative & metatextual, evoking histories of comics censorship. 1/11

Dr J. Andrew Deman Talks "Chris Claremont"! [1 of 3]

Our latest for @sequentialscholars.bsky.social talks gendered monsters in Junji Ito's Frankenstein. #ComicsStudies #Frankenstein #JunjiIto

A scene from Junji Ito’s Frankenstein, in which the female Creature first pulls the bandages off her face.

The male Creature’s brutal murder of the female Creature is ultimately a condemnation of the same masculine hubris that both created the male Creature and killed Justine: the monstrous son is a reflection of the monstrous father. But at least the female Creature gets some (temporary) revenge. 12/12

The female Creature attacks the male Creature in Junji Ito’s Frankenstein, and is subsequently killed.

The male Creature kills the female Creature in response to her violent assertion of agency. Perhaps he kills his prospective mate in order to protect himself. Or perhaps he kills her because she defies his misogynistic expectation for a docile bride who will naturally reflect and obey him. 11/12

The female Creature rejects the male Creature in Junji Ito’s Frankenstein.

In Ito’s version, it is the male Creature who is most dramatically fearful of & disgusted by the female Creature. Initially, the male Creature weathers the female Creature’s rejection (which is also a manifestation of her own existential horror). But the situation quickly escalates. 10/12

Victor describes his supposed resurrection of Justine as an act of penance in Junji Ito’s Frankenstein.

In other words, because she threatens to create a race of monsters, the female Creature takes the authority of creation away from the male scientist. This speaks to both the power of women as well as misogyny, reflecting, simultaneously, Victor’s awe, fear, and revulsion of women. 9/12

Images of the female Creature from Bride of Frankenstein.

“While the male monster educates himself and argues eloquently with his maker, the female monster repels Frankenstein before he has even brought her to life... While [the male monster] becomes part of his author’s identity, she threatens her maker with his own dissolution.” 8/12

Cover of Jack Halberstam’s book Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters.

Jack Halberstam argues that in Shelley’s novel, the female Creature is especially threatening because she represents "the symbolic & generative power of monstrosity itself, and particularly of a monstrosity linked to femininity, female sexuality, and female powers of reproduction….” 7/12

A scene from Junji Ito’s Frankenstein after the male Creature has torn the female Creature apart.

It’s also notable that in the novel, Victor destroys the female Creature prior to her (re)birth, while Ito's male Creature destroys the female Creature *after* her (re)birth. The female Creature who was Justine is thus multiply, graphically brutalized. But this is not done uncritically. 6/12

A page from Junji Ito’s Frankenstein showing the scene described above.

The cruelty and injustice of Justine’s fate, whose brutal death and horrific resurrection are ultimately Victor’s fault, might inform the female Creature’s immediate reaction to Victor’s use of Justine’s name when she awakes: she immediately stabs him multiple times with a pair of scissors. 5/12

Victor and his assistant are presented with the severed head of Justine in Junji Ito’s Frankenstein.

Ito’s version of the story creates additional horror & pathos by having Victor give the female Creature the head of Justine Moritz, a maidservant and companion of Victor’s intended, Elizabeth. As in the original novel, Justine is executed after the vengeful male Creature frames her for murder. 4/12

A poster for Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and a poster for The Bride! (2026).

Other adaptations have similarly brought the female Creature to life, including the now-classic Bride of Frankenstein (1935), directed by James Whale, and the upcoming film “The Bride!”, written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. But Ito’s approach remains unique. 3/12