Stanley and His Monster was an American comic-book humor feature and later series from DC Comics, about a boy who has a monster as his companion instead of a dog. 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 limited series.
Publication history
The backup feature "Stanley and His Monster" appeared in DC Comics' funny-animal comic The Fox and the Crow #95â€"108, upon which the series became Stanley and His Monster from #109â€"112 (Mayâ€"Nov. 1968), the final issue.
The characters' next major appearance was in a 1993 four-issue miniseries, Stanley and His Monster vol. 2, by writer-artist Phil Foglio, who had previously done their origin in Secret Origins #48 (April 1990). This humorous adventure series, revealing the monster as a demon from Hell who had turned good and was cast out by Lucifer, incorporated and parodied elements of DC Comics' mature-reader Vertigo imprint in a lighthearted, general-audience fashion. Among the characters who appeared are Remiel, Duma, The Phantom Stranger, and the John Constantine-like Ambrose Bierce.
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, and with Stanley by now a young teenager. They next appeared in the 2005â€"2006 miniseries Infinite Crisis, where, in issue #6, they are part of a gathering of supernatural characters attempting to summon the mystical spirit of vengeance, the Spectre, for aid.
The characters next appeared from April to July 2011 in "Batman/Superman: Sorcerer Kings" as members of a mostly magical Justice League in a dystopian future. Stanley appeared as a young adult.
Fictional character biographies
Stanley Dover is a six-year-old boy who finds his monster companion in a sewer. In a twist on monster lore, the creature â€" a tall, bulky, pink-furred behemoth with small tusks â€" proves as scared of the world as the world is of it. The monster, whom Stanley names Spot, comes home to live with the boy, with many wacky high jinks ensuing. These occasionally including the bickering leprechaun Shaugnessy Poltroon, a gremlin named Schnitzel, the ghost of French emperor Napoleon, and teenaged babysitter Marcia. Comedian Jerry Lewis once visited.
The monster, unbeknownst to Stanley, is in fact a demon known as The Beast With No Name, who had been banished from Hell by Lucifer for being "too nice" for Hell. Lucifer had hoped that frightened and bigoted humans would embitter the Beast and make him accept his destiny as a being of evil, a plan that almost succeeded. However, when the unafraid Stanley meets the monster and takes him in as his friend, the monster chooses the path of good and continues living on Earth.
Stanley's middle-class parents, Mitch and Sheila, firmly believe their child's companion to be imaginary until eventually learning otherwise. 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 seems rather normal and they allow him to stay.
Years later, it is revealed that other arcane forces have played into the monster's arrival on Earth (Though it should be noted that events of this telling of the story fundamentally invalidate any earlier versions, to the extent that tying them together becomes impossible). The monster had accidentally been bonded to Stanley by Stanley's demon-worshiping grandfather, also named Stanley Dover; Dover Sr. had summoned the Beast in order to use it to grant him immortality, but he had been roped into babysitting his grandson at the time he performed the ritual and the bond was transferred to the infant instead. Discovering the bond, the grandfather locked the younger Stanley in 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. When the monster finally arrives after the grandfather opened a door to Hell while attempting to possess Green Arrow and gain access to the Watchtower monitoring systems to find the Beast, he seals the door to Hell that Dover Sr. had created before subsequently eating him, later erasing the youngster's horrible memories of the act and of his imprisonment and torture to spare him from the tormented life he would otherwise endure.
Some time later, Stanley and his monster appear with the several other of the world's magic users to help summon The Spectre during the Infinite Crisis.
Stanley and his monster also appeared in a possible future/alternate timeline as members of the Justice League. With Aquaman, Scream Queen, Klarion the Witch Boy, Traci Thirteen, Batman, and Superman, they fight to prevent an Armageddon of magical proportions.
Footnotes
References
- Stanley and His Monster series at the Grand Comics Database
- The Fox and the Crow at the Grand Comics Database
- Stanley & His Monster at Don Markstein's Toonpedia verified March 9, 2006
