For a while now, I’ve been toying with branching out with my Behind the Masks column, and looking at characters who didn’t start out in the world of comics. Not to say they haven’t appeared in comics at all, of course, as you’d be hard pressed these days to find a character who hasn’t, but certainly the characters we’ll be looking at over the next three weeks are more famous for their appearances in films and novels than for the comics. With Halloween fast approaching, we’ll be taking a gander at three characters who can easily be labelled icons of horror, starting with arguably the original (and best) mad scientist, Doctor Victor Frankenstein.

This column presented a challenge for two fundamental reasons. The first reason, which is also shared by the next two columns I’ll be tackling, is that there have simply been so many versions of Frankenstein in film and TV that it’s hard to pick just five versions to hold up as the best. Especially since, with the sheer number of Frankensteins available, I haven’t actually seen each and every one out there. So instead of a definitive list (which all my other columns clearly have been), consider this simply a choice selection from a range of Frankesteins, though by no means all of them. That said, anyone who disagrees with the number one choice is a wrong person.

The second problem is, which performances do I consider? When I threw the voting open to you, my lovely readers (and you are lovely), there were votes coming in for Gene Wilder, Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff. Now, while all three have played characters named Frankenstein, they weren’t technically playing the original Doctor Victor Frankenstein, but instead one of his descendents. So could they be considered eligible? I wrestled with this for a while, and in the end, decided that yes, they could. While they’re not playing the same Frankenstein, the character they do play fits the same purpose within the confines of the story they appeared in, reflecting certain aspects of the character of Victor Frankenstein who appeared in the original novel and displaying a very similar relationship to his creature as their forefather. So, votes for these actors were counted, and one or two of them may appear in the list which follows.

However you count it though, your favourite Doctor Frankenstein was the legendary Peter Cushing, and who could argue with that? Well, those of you who voted Colin Clive into a close second, probably. But which side will Behind the Masks fall on?

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