Back in the Lab

Colin Clive brews up trouble, with a Karloff shadow forecasting the grim outcome. A terrific publicity shot from the 1931 Frankenstein.

2011 is finally kicking in over here at Castle Frankensteinia. My January hiatus, dictated by private obligations and professional pursuits, was not planned but it was beneficial. Electrodes are recharged and posting enthusiastically resumes.

First, a bit of business: This blog’s readership continued to grow substantially and gratifyingly last year, both in direct hits and RSS subscribers. Many of you are now accessing this site through Google Reader or the Frankensteinia Facebook page, which recently sailed beyond 1000 followers. Our presence on MySpace, however, is stagnating and I will no longer bother updating my page there. If you follow Frankensteinia through MySpace, I urge you to join us on Facebook, instead.

Looking forward to 2011 on Frankensteinia, this is the 80^th anniversary year of the 1931 Frankenstein, so you can expect a veritable procession of posts about the classic film, its cast and crew, the ballyhoo and the censorship that attended its release. I am also working on posts about Mary Shelley and her inspiration, and I’ve dug up some fascinating stuff about Frankenstein stage plays in the mid-nineteenth century.

The special events I ran last year — the Halloween-time October is Book Month and the year-end Art of The Bride collection — were hugely successful, so I think I’ll fire up another Art Of series or two, with The Bride returning, among other Frankenstein themes. Oh, and unless I come to my senses, I think we might have a new Blogathon in the works, theme to be announced shortly.

There’s tons of goodies on hand, so without further ado, let’s cut to the chase and just start posting!