Abbot and Costello met Frankenstein in 1948. There’s this script that’s being handed to an actor named Oscar that’s dated 1949. It’s a script for Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein’s Brother. Things don’t look good for Oscar. Part of the reason for this is the fact that there never WAS an Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein’s Brother, but mostly because Oscar’s story takes place in Hyde Street #4. Writer Geoff Johns continues his inspired anthology series with artist Ivan Reis, inker Danny Miki and colorist Brad Anderson. The story of Hyde Street dives into old Hollywood with a fun story.

All things considered, Oscar Oddman would far rather be playing the invisible man. Turns out THAT role is going to Vincent Price. He’s not going to get the role of the phantom of the opera either. (Lon Chaney Jr. just signed for that role yesterday.) Boris Karloff and Glenn Strange passed on the role that Oscar’s being offered. They don’t want to be typecast. Oscar’s 6’7” and looks a LOT like the monster in question even without a whole lot of prosthetics, so he’s a natural. And it’s not like he’s got a whole lot of other prospects looking the way he does even if he IS a serious screen actor.

Johns winds the script for the fourth issue of the series quite tightly around an actual era in Hollywood horror. The author seems to have a very sharp understanding of old Hollywood that breathes quite well around the edges of a very solidly-constructed story.  All too often an author might decide to use fictitious names and situations for a story like this. The only thing that seems fictitious about the Hollywood that Johns is bringing to the page is the idea of a sequel to Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. (Actually in theory the film in the movie could have been twisted into Abbot and Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff, which came out in 1949.) It’s a fun trip to Hyde Street with a totally relatable character.

Reis and Miki manage a really clever bit of visual humor that amplifies everything: they make Oscar look like one of those golden statues that bears his name. He’s got a hair, a pulse and a healthier skin tone, but that’s Oscar: a talented actor who is forced to get a menial role to make ends meet. The drama is brought to the page with a brilliant sense of mood, shadow and lighting with the aid of Anderson’s deftly nuanced colors.

In addition to everything else, Johns and company are doing a really, really good job of moving around the overall story of Hyde Street around the margins of the central story for every issue. It’s a vey engaging world that Johns is bringing to the page which ends up being a lot of fun to engage in. The love letter to the golden age of horror really adds something to the depth of the world of Hyde Street...a world which continues to be truly captivating.

Grade: A