Frankenstein’s Monster by Mark Newman
Originally published May 18, 2006, at GJSentinel.com.
• Produced by Mark Newman Sculpture Inc.
• Sculpted by Mark Newman, who also painted the kit in the photos
• Scale: About 1/5; the figure is 15 1/4 inches tall
• Material: Solid resin
• Number of parts: Five, including the base
• Price: $150 plus $12 shipping in the United States
Fans of monster models could fill whole shelves with the Frankenstein Monster. I should know, I’ve done it.
The Monster, first pieced together in the pages of Mary Shelley’s novel and reborn time and time again on both the big and small screen, is arguably the most popular subject for fans of figure models. This is particularly true of the Universal Studios Monster, first embodied in 1931 by Boris Karloff. A flat-headed, neck-bolted Universal Monster was the first monster model released by Aurora in 1961, and the kit was so popular that the company followed it up with more monsters that were released and re-released over the years.
Horizon Original made a great Universal Monster kit, as did Billiken, GEOmetric Design and more. MANY more.
However, the Universal Studios version of the Monster isn’t the only one to win fans. Plenty of other visions of the creature have also kept kitbuilders busy over the years. Click on the “popular subject” link above for a good sampling.
Some of those monsters represent the unique visions of their creators. That can be said of this week’s subject: “Frankenstein’s Monster” by Mark Newman, 43, of Oakland, Calif.
I’ve known Mark’s name for a while now, having heard time and again from hobbyists with a longer garage-kit background than my own 4 1/2 years, who considered him one of the best sculptors in the field. They usually spoke of him in terms of someone who had moved on from GKs to other works, and on the rare occasions they came up on eBay, his kits were at the center of bidding wars.
Then, a few months ago, Mark sort of reappeared on some Internet forums, and not too long after that he started asking people about the Frankenstein sculpture he was working on. “Would you consider buying this if it were a kit?” he asked.
Of course, the answer was a loud “Bring it on!”
As one of the Frankenstein Monster’s many longtime fans, I figured I just had to e-mail the mad doctor behind this latest version.
Q&A WITH MARK NEWMAN
Resin the Barbarian: How many versions of the “Frankenstein” story are you familiar with? (i.e. the Mary Shelley novel, various movies and comic books and so on.) And, which version is your favorite?
Mark: I’m not really sure how many versions of the classic “Frankenstein” story there are. But I always liked the original movie with Boris Karloff. That monster makeup design, to me, is still one of the coolest ever put to screen.
RtB: For some reason, I look at this piece and wonder what exactly the creature is thinking; where it is going, or where it’s coming from. Does your sculpture represent a specific moment in the story of the Monster?
Mark: In my sculpture, I wanted to portray the Monster making his first steps. Finding his balance. Lumbering along in this strange new awkward assemblance of a body.
RtB: This isn’t a terribly gruesome kit, but with its staples, raw flesh and blood, it’s also not for the squeamish. For lack of a better word, is there a point you reach when you decide it’s just “gross” enough without going too far?
Mark: I don’t think it is necessary to have too much gore in this particular piece. The thought of this being dead body parts reassembled and brought back to life should be enough without being gratuitous.
In the 1931 movie, there wasn’t much “gore” at all. To me the whole point of the character, the sympathy would be lost if shown with too muck gooey gunk all over him.
RtB: This is a hard one to phrase: It has been my impression that you were inactive in the garage-kit hobby for several years, possibly because you’d grown discouraged when recasters stole some of your works, or possibly because you’d moved on to other kinds of sculpture. Then, you started to get active on a couple of forums and even startled some hobbyists by revealing that you still had available a couple of your more sought-after kits (“Moonsinger” and “Neil Andrythal”) for great prices. Am I correct in my perception? And if so, what drew you back to sculpting the Frankenstein kit for the GK market?
Mark: I’ve always loved to create these kinds of sculptures. I always wanted to design and sculpt my own original characters or my own take on a classic “public domain” character.
In the model kit hobby, it’s very hard to sell original characters. It seems to me that most collectors like to collect their favorite characters from their favorite movies. I never really wanted to sculpt that.
I started to get very busy sculpting for the “mainstream” collectible market. I had an opportunity to design and sculpt my own wildlife figurine line and licensed it to Hallmark to produce and sell. I was making good royalties and keeping really busy.
When I was asked by Thomas Blackshear if I were interested in sculpting a line of figurines he was designing called “Ebony Visions,” knowing and respecting him and his work, I jumped at the chance.
The line became a huge success and still has a big presence in the gift industry.
The little time I had between “Ebony Visions” sculpts, I was sculpting action figures for some toy companies. Character design and maquette sculptures for video game companies and film projects. All this work left me little time to sculpt my own model kits.
Just recently I’ve found some time to bust out and make some kits. I never make me a lot of money at this but I love doing my own thing without the dreaded “approval process.”
RtB: What are you working on now?
Mark: I’m still working on the “Ebony Visions” line. I’m also working for Bowen Designs sculpting some Marvel characters. I just recently started working with Tippett Studio on a film project but that’s all I can say about that.