Fore-Edge Frankenstein

From a description on the Boston Public Library’s The Lost Art of Fore-Edge Book Painting website, “Fore-edge painting is where the page block is fanned and an image applied to the stepped surface. If the page edges are themselves gilded or marbled, this results in the image disappearing when the book is relaxed. When re-fanned, the painting magically re-appears.”

The concept is perhaps best illustrated with this simple, short video.

The art of fore-edge painting, once very fashionable, now mostly forgotten, survives through the amazing work of British artist Martin Frost who has decorated over 3,000 books with fore-edge art and its variations such as two-way, split and all-edges paintings.

The Frankenstein piece, recently valued on eBay at over $1,600, is part of a set painted on three volumes of an 1856 British Poets anthology. The other books feature Burke and Hare, and the Elephant Man.

Interestingly, the art here is entirely inspired by classic Frankenstein films, as opposed to Mary Shelley’s vastly different descriptions. Framed at center, we recognize the movies’ boxhead, bolt-necked Monster. To the left, that’s Colin Clive operating Kenneth Strickfaden’s mad lab equipment as The Monster rests on his elevator slab. At right, Karloff’s Monster toppling the Bishop statue is from the cemetery scene in Bride of Frankenstein.

Martin Frost’s fore-edge art makes for an unusual and unique contribution to Frankenstein art.

Martin Frost’s very comprehensive website.

A Martin Frost workshop on John Hopkins University’s Sheridan Libraries website.

The Boston Public Library’s fascinating On the Edge website, featuring a large gallery of historical examples.

The Posters of Frankenstein : Jacques Faria

Celebrating the 80^th Anniversary of James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931), here’s a re-write, with upgraded images, of a previous post about “The Selling of Frankenstein”.

The release of James Whale’s Frankenstein in 1931, with its unique lead character, yielded some of the most original and splendid art ever engraved on movie posters. While American artists often toiled uncredited, French distributors hired well-known artists who boldly signed their paintings. Case in point, the posters of Roland Coudon and Jacques Faria, author of the posters shown here.

Faria (1898-1856) was the French-born son of another famous artist, Brazil’s Candido Aragonez de Faria (1849-1911). Both men had prolific careers as illustrators of circus, travel, music hall and film posters. Candido de Faria is, in fact, recognized as one of the pioneer film poster artists, working as early as 1902 on Ferdinand Zecca’s Alcohol and its Victims. Both father and son's art is highly collectible today.

Jacques Faria’s main Frankenstein poster has an elongated Monster front and center, surrounded by lab equipment, with signature straight arms and hands fanned out. Electricity dances between his neck electrodes.

Of special note here is the prominent writing credit given Robert Florey and Garrett Fort (misspelled on the poster). Florey was originally commissioned to write and direct the film, contributing elements such as the brain swap and the windmill finale, only to be shunted aside and deprived of his screenplay credit when James Whale stepped up and took over. Florey protested but it was, arguably, too late to fix the American release print. Universal restored Florey’s deserved credit on foreign releases.

Artist Faria’s other Frankenstein poster recycles elements found in the original American ad campaign. Against a solid red background, the striding Monster with bolted arms punches through the poster, surrounded by pencil sketches of significant scenes: Creator and the Created face off across the width of the poster, a lab scene with The Monster on its elevator slab, and agitated villagers storming the burning windmill.

Jacques Faria’s bracing take on The Monster, standing tall, and Roland Coudon’s uncommon, large-size portrait of Clive and Karloff are among the very best of all the outstanding art created to promote Frankenstein around the world in the early 30s. By the way, check the stunning, singular Swedish poster I blogged earlier.

Related:
Early Promotional Art, Frankenstein (1931)
The Selling of Frankenstein
The Selling of Frankenstein, Part 2
The Selling of Frankenstein, Part 3

Hellboy Meets Frankenstein

Hellboy turns wrestler and goes up against a battling Frankenstein Monster in House of the Living Dead, a graphic novel to coming in November.

If you only know the character from the films, fine as they are, you don’t know Hellboy. Mike Mignola’s comic books are much darker and more complex, evoking Lovecraft, Machen and Poe. Here, eerie Victorian ghost stories, ancient mythology and supernatural folk tales collide with Vernian technology, pulse-pounding pulp sensibilities and b-movie tropes.

The success of Hellboy has spawned a mini-universe of spinoff titles featuring imaginative characters such as the amphibian Abe Sapien and the Nazi-busting Lobster Johnson. Among these, B.P.R.D., about a team or paranormal investigators, is a singularly brilliant horror comic. I urge you to seek out the B.P.R.D. collections plotted by Mignola, with superlative scripts by John Arcudi and outstanding art by Guy Davis.

In recent years, Mignola has been concentrating on writing, reserving his elegant, much-copied but unequaled art for covers and leaving the insides to other artists. Such is the case with Hellboy: House of the Living Dead, with story and cover (above) by Mignola, and the rest entrusted to the great Richard Corben.

Mignola has stated that House of the Living Dead takes its thematic cue from the classic Universal Monster Rallies, House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula, where a parade of monsters take their turn in the spotlight. The story picks up from Hellboy in Mexico (or, A Drunken Blur), a one-shot comic from 2010 by Mignola and Corben in which Hellboy teamed up with a trio of monster-hunting luchadores. This time, Hellboy, in full Santo mode, goes head to head with a patchwork Frankenstein wrestler.

Hellboy: House of the Living Dead, published by Dark Horse, will hit stores on November 9.

An interview with Mike Mignola about House of the Living Dead, on Comic Book Resources.

Publisher’s page for Hellboy: House of the Living Dead.

Publisher’s page for Hellboy in Mexico, featuring sample pages.

Mike Mignola’s website.

Richard Corben’s website.

Related:
Mike Mignola's Bride of Frankenstein
The Frankenstein Dracula War covers by Mike Mignola

From the Frankensteinia Archives:Genesis of Frankenstein

Significant anniversaries this past week: It was 195 years ago that Mary Shelley first conceived of Frankenstein, and it was 80 years ago that Robert Florey filmed a now legendary and famously lost test reel, with Bela Lugosi, for Frankenstein at Universal Studios. Here, from our Archives, is a post celebrating these events.

June 15, 16 and 17 are important dates in Frankenstein history.

In 1816, on the evening of June 16 and late into the night, the very concept of Frankenstein was first seeded.

In the spring and summer of that year, the extreme weather conditions created by the massive Tambora volcano explosion blanketed Europe with violent thunderstorms. Out on Lake Geneva, at Cologny, the vacationing Lord Byron and his guests were confined within the walls of the Villa Diodati. As rain poured and thunder cannonaded across the Jura, Byron, his physician John Polidori, his friend Percy Shelley, Shelley’s companion and wife to be Mary Godwin, and Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairmont gathered around the fireplace and entertained themselves as best they could.

On that appropriately stormy night of June 16, Byron read aloud from a book called Fantasmagoriana, a 1812 French translation of a German collection of ghost tales. Influenced by the stories — as described in the book’s subtitle, of specters, revenants and phantoms — Byron suggested a game. “We will each write a ghost story”, he said.

As Mary wrote in the 1831 introduction to Frankenstein, “I busied myself to think of a story, a story to rival those which had excited us to this task.” It would take a few days before inspiration struck, as Mary claimed, in a waking dream. The first reference to Frankenstein would appear in her diary on June 24.

One hundred and fifteen years later, in 1931, writer-director Robert Florey and a skeleton crew assembled on the leftover sets from Dracula, the stairs cleaned of their cobwebs and the parquet redressed with lab equipment, to shoot the legendary — and lost — Frankenstein test reel, with Bela Lugosi as The Monster. Rehearsals were held on June 15, filming proceeded on the 16th and 17th. Though accounts differ wildly as to Lugosi’s appearance in makeup, the test, reportedly twenty minutes long, was the talk of Universal. Within ten days, James Whale had exercised his power at the studio and taken over from Florey, and the project was on its way.

Frankenstein was inspired by a book of quaint ghost stories and a parlor game for bored and excitable intellectuals. On the very same day, one hundred and fifteen years later, Robert Florey directed the screen test for the first talking Frankenstein picture.

The first event was the genesis for Frankenstein. The second one made Frankenstein an icon.

Previous posts: The Villa Diodati. Mount Tambora.

Fantasmagoria is available again, complete and in a new English translation.

The Covers of Frankenstein : Hebdo September 1935

The Bride in proud profile on the cover of the Belgian Hebdo (“Weekly”) for Friday the 13^th (!) of September, 1935. The orange and black duotone gives The Bride a plausible skin tone, lipstick and a nasty red scar.

The Bride was previously featured on the cover of Universal Weekly in March of ’35 (see here), but that was a studio publication meant exclusively for exhibitors. This wonderful find, courtesy of artist, collector and classic horror film expert George Chastain, appears to be the first mass-market magazine cover for Frankenstein’s Fiancée.

The long-running Hebdo featured movie news and reviews, entertainment, fashion and sports information, radio listings, as well as short stories and Otto Soglow’s Little King comic strip. This issue, running some 80 pages, carried a spread on Greta Garbo, photos of Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and opera star Grace Moore, a Science against Crime feature, an ad for Charlie Chan in Paris and short reviews of then current films Chu Chin Chow and Murder on a Honeymoon.

Here, the release of La Fiancée de Frankenstein is singled out as the week’s main event, with no corresponding feature inside. All the info is right there on the cover: A Universal film with Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester, playing at La Scala in Brussels. This electrifying image of a beautiful, swan-necked Bride, the world’s most unusual movie star, must have jumped off the newsstands. No extra ballyhoo was needed.

I previously posted a vintage newspaper ad for La fiancée at La Scala here.

With many thanks to George Chastain who wanted to share this rare, unique cover with Frankensteinia readers.

Related:
La fiancée de Frankenstein
The Covers of Frankenstein: Universal Weekly, March 1935
Friend? La fiancée de Frankenstein poster.

Monster Money

Artist James Charles uses American currency, five and ten dollar bills, as his canvas, transforming their engraved likenesses to that of celebrities and famous fictional characters. There’s Iggy Pop, Jimi Hendrix and Joey Ramone alongside Ronald MacDonald, Frida Kahlo and a melting Walt Disney.

The collection includes a fair share of monsters, from The Wolf Man, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Phantom of the Opera to Pinhead, Alien’s face-hugger and The Terminator.

Here, Alexander Hamilton turns into The Bride and Abe Lincoln makes a fine Frankenstein.

James Charles’ altered currency was recently on display at The Shooting Gallery in San Francisco and there’s a large selection of images on their website.

Related:
A Million Frankensteins
Benjamin Franklin Meets Frankenstein

The Posters of Frankenstein : The Mechanical by Dave Plunkert

A superb poster by Dave Plunkert for The Mechanical, Michael McGuigan’s play that introduces Mary Shelley and her fictional Monster into the extraordinary true-life tale of The Turk, a chess-playing automaton that thrilled and bamboozled observers in Europe and North America from the late 1700s until its fiery destruction in the mid 1800s. 

The Turk’s dumbfounded opponents included kings and assorted Grand Dukes, as well as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. It inspired Edgar Poe into writing a famous essay. Inevitably, this turbaned automaton would be exposed as an elaborate hoax. McGuigan’s intriguing play recruits Frankenstein’s Monster as the Turks’ operator, hiding inside its magician’s cabinet pedestal.

Dave Plunkert is a prolific illustrator and fine artist working out of Baltimore where, as it happens, the original Turk was displayed in the 1820s and a copycat device, the Walker Chess-Player, was assembled. Plunkert’s brilliant Dadaist collages have attracted top magazines such as Time, Playboy, Esquire and Rolling Stone, and an A-list of clients that include MTV and Nike.

Plunkert’s poster of The Mechanical was created for the Baltimore Theatre Project and the Bond Street Theatre where the play premiered in 2009.

Dave Plunkert’s website, blog, and Print Store.

Related:The Mechanical: Frankenstein Meets The Turk

The Art of Frankenstein : Fernando Vicente

A wonderful likeness of Karloff’s Monster dominates this montage illustration of famous characters grouped on the March 2011 cover of the Spanish literary magazine Mercurio.

Artist Fernando Vicente is a superlative illustrator of books, CD covers and magazines. His books for children and young adults includes illustrations for J.M.Barrie’s Peter Pan. For adults, he has published a collection of his elegant pinup art. As a painter, he is perhaps best known his disquieting paintings of characters with their skin and muscle peeled back to reveal the precise anatomical features beneath.

Feast your eyes on Vicente’s art on his generous website. Navigation is easy even if you don’t speak Spanish. I also recommend his excellent blogs, devoted to different aspects of his art. The main blog, with links to the others, is here.

The March issue of Mercurio is available as a free PDF download.

Frankenstein Reassembled

Published in the fall of 2010, Frankenstein Réassemblé is a Québécois comics anthology that picks up where Mary Shelley left off, following her characters beyond the novel’s arctic finale. A long time coming, the project was originally conceived by artist Éric Thériault some ten years ago and, as it evolved, it was placed with various publishers until it finally landed with Les 400 Coups under the Rotor banner, directed by Michel Viau.

The eight stories collected here are complete, stand-alone tales, unrelated to each other, allowing for individual and widely different interpretations of The Monster. Editor Thériault’s only directive was that there be no contradictions between the stories. Thériault peppers the book with fabricated documentation — letters, newspaper and magazine clippings — of The Monster’s progress across two centuries, bringing the stories together in a plausible timeline.

The Monster by Robert Rivard and François Caillé.

The scripts and art are excellent throughout. Standouts include writer Jean Lacombe and artist Robert Rivard’s Les enfants de Prométhée (Children of Prometheus), a bittersweet story of The Monster’s strained relationship with his “normal” child, and Un monstre à Londres (A Monster in London) by Shane Simmons, with robust art by Gabriel Morrissette, that proves a refreshingly original treatment of The Monster's encounter with Jack The Ripper. Éric Thériault’s Fluide Froid (Cold Fluid) is a rousing pop culture celebration, a pastiche of superhero comics that establishes the intimate link between Captain America — here called Major Valor — and a classic Universal Pictures Frankenstein’s Monster, both lab creations. Style-wise, Thériault combines an elegant ligne claire rendering with the vivid colors and tempo of American comic books.

The Monster, scratchboard-style, by Denis Rodier.
Gabriel Morrisette channels Dick Briefer,
and Éric Thériault's classic pop culture version.

Frankenstein Réassemblé is an immensely satisfying read and a truly original contribution to the ever growing collection of alternate histories of Frankenstein.

You can order Frankenstein réassembléthrough Amazon Canada.

Éric Thériault's bilingual blog.

Les 400 coups publisher's page.