I am the Frankenstein Monster

Argentine-born, Ohio-based author, illustrator and designer Ralph Cosentino creates dynamic children’s books filled with fun, eye-popping art and engaging read-along stories. Best sellers included a superhero trilogy tracing the origins of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman for young readers.

Now, Cosentino has turned to crowd funding to help launch his own publishing company, with I am the Frankenstein Monster as its first offering. Books about Dracula and The Werewolf are in the pipeline.

Cosentino’s Kickstarter page carries lots of preliminary and finished art from the Frankenstein project, and you can kick in some cash, of course, if you are so inclined.  

I am the Frankenstein Monster Kickstarter page.

Ralph Cosentino’s web page. 

Subway Frankenstein

If you are a book reader, you never travel alone. That’s the message from Bookish, a promotional website launched in February 2013. Here, a reader shares a subway ride with Scarlett O’Hara, Sherlock Holmes and Frankenstein’s Monster. The art — artist unfortunately unidentified — was featured last year in one of a series of subway ads in New York. Tag line read, “Give your ride more character”.  

Memorable Characters page on Bookish.com

With thanks to Joseph Grego.

Related:

Become Frankenstein

The Lady and Her Monsters, by Roseanne Montillo

There are really two books within the covers of Roseanne Montillo’s The Lady and Her Monsters. One is an honest, unflinching portrait of Mary Shelley, her life fraught with tragedy. This sobering story may be familiar terrain for most fans of Frankenstein, but the other part of this book, told in parallel, is more spirited. It deals with the “real-life Frankensteins”, the scientists, the vivisectionists and the experimenters who, like Victor Frankenstein, “pursued nature to her hiding-places”. Montillo’s accounts of body-snatchers, resurrectionists and the galvanists who electrified animal and human corpses in sensationalistic, harebrained experiments and macabre attempts at reanimating the dead reads like a ripping yarn.

Tying the two narratives together is Mary’s lover and husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley who, as a student, indulged in his own experiments with the miracle of electricity. His philosophy would inform Mary and he would become the obvious model for the nerve-wracked Victor Frankenstein.

In the end, the galvanists and the experimenters were not direct influences on Mary’s novel — some of the most spectacular experiments catalogued here were performed well after Frankenstein was published — but, rather, Montillo’s book establishes Frankenstein as being squarely of its time. Mary Shelley’s novel sprang from an era when grave robbers plied their dark trade, executions were public events and morbid medical experimentation was often a spectator sport. In her revelatory book, Roseanne Montillo shows how, for its first readers, Frankenstein’s experiments and his artificial man were certainly extraordinary, but somehow plausible.

The Lady and Her Monsters: A Tale of Dissections, Real-Life Dr. Frankensteins, and the Creation of Mary Shelley’s Masterpiece, by Roseanne Montillo, was published earlier this year by William Morrow, HarperCollins Publishers, New York. 


The Lady and Her Monsters reading guide.

Related:
The Art of Frankenstein: David Plunkert

The Covers of Frankenstein : Paul Buckley

As Penguin’s Art Director, Paul Buckley has overseen some of the best illustration and book design on the market, at an amazing rate of some 600 titles per year. Now, with the new Penguin Horror Series curated and introduced by multi-tasking director Guillermo del Toro, Buckley steps up to the plate as illustrator. The deluxe hardcover collection includes works by Edgar Allen Poe, H.P.Lovecraft, Ray Russell and others, notably Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Buckley’s illustrations use a woodcut effect and distressed covers as if the books, like the classic stories themselves, had been around forever and heavily consulted. Buckley’s Frankenstein uses the movie Monster for it’s iconic power. The Karloff face has nothing to do with the book’s actual monster, but it is instant recognizable, spelling “Frankenstein” louder and clearer than any other design anyone could come up with. 

An interview with Paul Buckley in Print magazine.

A Q&A, with examples of Buckley’s work on The Casual Optimist.

Paul Buckley’s fabulous Flickr gallery.

Related:
Frankenstein cover by Dan Clowes for Penguin Books

Don Glut's Frankenstein Reboots

In the late Sixties, writer Don Glut undertook his pulp-style New Adventures of Frankenstein series that quickly grew into ten novels and a short story anthology. Published erratically through the years, the books still need to be compiled into a comprehensive and accessible collection. After testing the e-book market in 2011 with a new edition of the first book, Frankenstein Lives Again, publisher Bill Cunningham of Pulp 2.0 Press has come up with a bold new format that collects the whole set — and loads of extras — in two large books that are sure to dazzle Glut fans and Frankenstein fanatics.

Volume One collects the first six Frankenstein novels and Volume Two completes the set with the remaining four novels, the short story collection, plus a new, never-before-published title — Frankenstein: The Final Horror! — that brings the whole saga to its logical end. Bonus features will be spread across the two hefty, 800-page volumes. Covers are by Rondo-Award winning artist Mark Maddox.

Publisher Cunningham also plans to issue the novels as individual e-books with new covers by Jim Craig.

Pulp 2.0 Press is now taking pre-orders (USA only) for The New Adventures of Frankenstein Collection: Volume One. The book ships mid-July.

Pulp 2.0 Press website and Facebook page

Don Glut’s website

Related:
Don Glut’s Frankenstein: An in-depth interview with the author.

The Covers of Frankenstein : Bill Nelson

Based on a still from Bride of Frankenstein (1935) where — appropriately enough —The Monster breaks a rare smile at the sound of the Blind Hermit’s violin, the great Bill Nelson dresses up Karloff as an orchestra conductor for the cover of Musique Fantastique (Book One), Randall D. Larson's epic history of music in fantasy, science fiction and horror films. Published in 2012, this is the first of four books covering the subject, all with knockout covers by Nelson.

I recommend Kimberly Lindbergs’ excellent interview with author Larson, posted over at TCM’s Movie Morlocks.

The Musique Fantastique website.

Creature Features, the Publisher’s website.

Illustrator Bill Nelson’s website.

Related:
The Art of Frankenstein : Bill Nelson

Frankenstein: The Graphic Novel, by Martin Powell and Patrick Olliffe

Recently, I had the immense pleasure of writing an introduction to the new edition of Martin Powell and Patrick Olliffe’s Frankenstein: The Graphic Novel, from Pulp 2.0 Press.

The book is out now and it looks terrific. Extras include a fascinating interview with writer Powell and an illustrated gallery of the Frankenstein’s Monster’s appearances in films and comics. It makes for a great package, beautifully assembled by publisher Bill Cunningham. I’m proud to have contributed, however modestly.

Pulp 2.0 Press website

Martin Powell’s blog

Patrick Olliffe’s blog

Related:

Frankenstein: The Legend Retold, a guest post by Martin Powell

Henry Franks, by Peter Adam Salomon

The title character in Peter Adam Salomon’s Henry Franks is a 16-year old boy who survived a terrible accident that killed his mother, wiped out his memory and left his body massively scarred and stitched, as if he’d been puzzled back together. Old photographs and vivid dreams are the only clues to his forgotten past. Henry’s dad is no help, a broken, grieving man who works late and locks himself away in his room at home.

An outsider at school, a cipher to himself, Henry is befriended by Justine, schoolmate and next-door neighbor, as outgoing as Henry is introverted, an attraction of opposites. The story builds slowly and methodically until Justine’s curiosity and her eagerness to help Henry recover his past kicks everything into high gear. As intriguing clues to Henry’s identity pile up, news comes of a serial killer stalking the seaside Georgia community, and a hurricane is zeroing in for landfall.

Frankenstein themes aren’t merely referenced here, they’re essential to story. Death and rebirth, perilous science, bad parenting, nature unchained, protagonist as outsider… Author Salomon knows his Mary Shelley and makes very original and innovative use of her concepts.

Beautifully written, Henry Franks is a terrific first novel, one of those YA books that A’s will enjoy unreservedly. Henry and Justine are fully fleshed out characters, and their relationship is sweet and genuinely touching. The St. Simons Island locale is vividly real, its sleepy town, the unrelenting heat and swaying Spanish moss. Reading Salomon’s book, I felt like I’d actually been somewhere and met someone.

Henry Franks, a trade paperback published by Flux, is out now.

Peter Adam Salomon's website.

The Frankenstein Bookshelf

I think we agree, Frankenstein themes permeate popular culture and The Monster is an iconic presence. As further proof, if needed, these recent books…

For very young readers, The Monster’s Monster (Little, Brown & Company), by multiple award-winning writer and artist Patrick McDonnell, fields a friendly flat-top creature. “There’s nothing scary about him” reports the New York Times. “He’s actually quite endearing. His story is rather sweet.” The picture book blog 32 Pages says, “More Zen than Karloff, this Frankensteinian monster is the epitome of reverence, kindness and gratitude.”

Frankenstein, A Monstrous Parody (Feiwel & Friends), by “Ludworst Bemonster” (writer Rick Walton and artist Nathan Hale) is set in a creepy old castle where 12 ugly monsters reside. Frankenstein, we are told, is the ugliest of all!

The authors’ nom-de-plume and rhyming style are gentle jabs at Ludwig Bemelman’s classic Madeline books. The Washington Post reviewer promised readers they’d be “howling at the moon over this witty mash-up.”

For YA readers, Bekka Black’s iFrankenstein updates the Mary Shelley novel and formats the story as data transmitted by email, cellphone text, tweets and uploaded pics. Here, young Victor is a “computer nerd” and his Monster is a chatbot, a virtual creature who, like the classic flesh and blood Monster, escapes the control of his creator.

Appropriately, iFrankenstein is available exclusively as a digital download for Kindle and, soon, as an iPad App.

High on my list of must read books is Chris Priestley’s Mister Creecher, filling in previously unknown details of The Monster’s time in London and his friendship with a 15-year old street urchin. A writer of spooky tales and a damn fine illustrator, Priestley’s take on Frankenstein has been collecting all kinds of special mentions and award nominations. The Guardian called it “(an) ambitious novel… a stylish and atmospheric page-turner”.

Priestley keeps an excellent website and a fascinating blog. I’ll be returning to this tantalizing title soon as I get my hands on it.

Meanwhile, one more book review to come and we’ll wrap up our Frankenstein Book Month event. 

Frankenstein, by Sergio Sierra and Meritxell Ribas

We could have Frankenstein Book Month with graphic novels only, considering the number of comics adaptations published worldwide. At hand is a Spanish version (in its French-language edition) by Sergio Sierra and Meritxell Ribas.

While rigorously faithful to Mary Shelley’s original, writer Sierra infuses Frankenstein with an intensely romantic and perfectly gothic sensitivity amplified by artist Ribas’ highly stylized scratchboards. There’s a bit of a Tim Burton vibe to the doll-like characters with their large heads, big eyes and tiny hands. The giant Monster, rendered with angular features and dead white eyes, is a formidable presence throughout.

The Barcelona-based Sierra and Ribas are frequent collaborators. Their Frankenstein was originally published in 2009 by Parramon Ediciones of Badamon, Spain, and Éditions Petit à Petit of Darnétal, France. Earlier this year, Meritxell Ribas illuminated a collection of classic vampire stories published by Mondadori, adding a startling red to her signature black and white scratchboard illustrations. 

Readers seeking this or any other foreign graphic novels I’ve mentioned this month might try Amazon or Abebooks. 

Sample pages from Sierra and Ribas’ Frankenstein

Sergio Sierra’s blog

Meritxell Ribas’ portfolio

The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein, by Peter Akroyd

Using his formidable background as historian and biographer, Peter Akroyd retools Mary Shelley’s original as a realistic tale set mostly in London, with famous literary figures cast as a sort of repertory troupe for the novel’s characters. Percy Shelley is introduced as a fellow student to Victor Frankenstein, and Harriet Westbrook, Percy’s real-life abandoned wife, appears as Frankenstein’s fiancée, her drowning by suicide reimagined as murder by the Monster’s hand. Mary Shelley, Lord Byron and John Polidori, among others — including scientific figures of the time — are featured, and we get to visit the Villa Diodati in Geneva.

The Monster in this novel is a young man galvanized back to life at Frankenstein’s Thames-side laboratory, with ghastly results. Burned and deformed by the elaborate electrical installation, driven mad, the now dangerous creature escapes Frankenstein’s influence, thereafter to dog the experimenter’s every step with death and desolation, like an avenging ghost.

Akroyd brings Frankenstein’s era and the small, everyday details of the period to vivid, three-dimensional life. The author had me eagerly scurrying to dictionaries and Google to look up the no-longer familiar terms used for tradesmen, conveyances, food and drink. This is a generous book, a very compelling read, with a nasty twist at the end. Whatever you do, don’t even glance at the last few pages lest you spoil the surprise of the denouement, made all the more fun when you consider the clues that were sprinkled throughout the book.

The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein, published by Doubleday in America in 2008, is one of the very best of all alternate Frankenstein stories. A film version is reportedly in the works. 

Percy Shelley, by Casanave and Vandermeulen

Under a cover evoking William Powell Firth’s painting of their courtship at the Old Saint Pancras churchyard, here is the first of a two-volume French-language biography in graphic novel form of the Shelleys, Percy and Mary.

Book One, Percy Shelley, cuts to the chase, opening with Percy’s expulsion from Oxford in 1811 upon publication of his blasphemous pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism.

Disinherited by his well-to-do father, Percy elopes with and marries Harriet Westbrook, embarking on a perilous life of perpetual flight, always racing to stay ahead of creditors.

When he grows unhappy with his marriage, Percy abandons his pregnant wife and elopes anew, this time with young Mary, daughter of Percy’s mentor, philosopher William Godwin. Percy and Mary had courted, meeting in secret at the grave of Mary’s mother, the famous and mutually admired Mary Wollstonecraft.

The book ends with Percy, Mary and Mary’s half-sister, Claire Clairmont, leaving the Godwin house hand in hand. “Come,” Percy says, “let us live our lives as if it were a novel!”

Writer David Vandermeulen crafts an honest portrait of Percy Shelley as a reckless idealist, arrogant and infinitely charming, strong in his opinions but frail in health. Vandermeulen’s works include a graphic novel biography of Fritz Haber, the father of chemical warfare.

Percy Shelley is beautifully rendered by Daniel Casanave’s nervous pen, with colors by Patrice Larcenet. Casanave has often mixed classic literature with the comics medium, illustrating stories by Apollinaire, Shakespeare and Kafka, Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi, and biographies of Baudelaire and Verlaine.

Percy Shelley, 76 pages, was published by Le Lombard of Brussels, February 2012. The followup book, Mary Shelley, was published in May. I’ll report on that one at a later date.

Read an 8-page sample of Percy Shelley (in French), and here are 11 pages from Mary Shelley. 

The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein and Other Gothic Stories, by Thomas Ligotti.

First published in a very limited edition back in 1994, a rare and prohibitively expensive collector’s item ever since, this notorious collection of vignettes — short-short stories averaging one page per tale — was revised and repackaged in 2011 by Centipede Press. Alas, the new edition sold out upon release and now commands very respectable prices itself.

Here, author Thomas Ligotti, a master of the short form story, explores classic horror with flash fiction pieces that extend oft-told tales, In a riveting and revelatory preface, Ligotti tells how the project began with The Island of Dr. Moreau, raising the question, “Why not take Well’s story, another step or two down the path of pain?”

As an example, Ligotti’s take on Frankenstein, The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein, Citizen of Geneva, reflects on the experimenter’s horror attending his own revival after his first death in the arctic.

Ligotti presents his book as a “museum of ever-echoing groans and endlessly twisting grimaces”. The stories here are so short, so tight, so vital, that often the titles themselves are essential to the narrative. Consider these examples: One Thousand Variations Performed Upon Diverse Creatures Undergoing the Treatment of Dr. Moreau, Humanist... The Excruciating Final Days of Dr Henry Jekyll, Englishman... The Heart of Count Dracula, Descendant of Attila, Scourge of God... The Insufferable Salvation of Lawrence Talbot the Wolfman... The Perilous Legacy of Emily St.Aubert, Inheritress of Udolpho... The Scream: From 1800 to the Present. There are several stories addressing Poe, such as The Interminable Residence of the Friends of the House of Usher, and Lovecraft, a frequent Ligotti reference: The Fabulous Alienation of the Outsider, Being of No Fixed Abode, and The Premature Death of H.P.Lovecraft, Oldest Man in New England.

The Centipede edition features the beautiful and disturbing art of Harry O. Morris, a regular Ligotti collaborator, who has also illustrated the works of Lovecraft, Clive Barker, and Stephen King. Slipcased and beautifully assembled, this collection is a gorgeous if expensive book. One can hope against hope that a more affordable version might be offered someday.

Thomas Ligotti Online
Centipede Press

Galvanized!

We’re barely 10 days into the Countdown/Book Month Halloween event and I’m already running behind. Got lots of Frankenstein books on hand to share with you, not to mention that four more new books have arrived in the last few days! We’ll be well past Halloween before I can catch up with everything!

Case in point, I’ve just heard about Frankenstein Galvanized from David Saunderson, majordomo of the superlative Spooky Isles blog. The book, edited by Claire Bazin and just now published by Red Rattle Books under the direction of Howard Jackson, features the original 1818 text of Frankenstein — the 1831 revision is considered the “definitive” version — augmented with new essays on Mary Shelley, Gothic literature and the novel’s characters and themes.

I hope to get my hands on this one soon, and I’ll report back when I do. For now, I refer you to David Saunderson’s coverage. And while you’re visiting the Spooky Isles, you’ll want to get lost in the archives there, which include a number of Frankenstein-related posts.

So many books, so little time!

Monster, a Novel of Frankenstein, by Dave Zeltserman

I, Friedrich Hoffmann of Ingolstadt, am the very same abomination that Frankenstein brought forth into the world…

As the book opens, in rapid-fire succession, the young Friedrich Hoffman’s happy life is shattered as his beloved fiancée is murdered, he is framed for the crime, given a summary trial and sentenced to a horrific death upon the executioner’s wheel of torture. Death, begged for, finally descends… and then things gets worse.

Hoffman wakes anew, now a prisoner in a huge deformed body, a creation of mad science and ancient alchemy. Even as Hoffmann looks on, paralyzed, his new tormentor, Victor Frankenstein, slashes off and swaps his rotting body parts, sculpting the giant into its final shape. Hoffman’s atrocious new life begins.

Escaping from the demonic lab, fleeing the company of men as much as his own fate, The Monster encounters shape-shifters and devil worshippers in a whirlwind, headlong traverse of Europe, leading inexorably to Frankenstein’s mountaintop castle. There, finding himself a slave to his creator through a supernatural bond, The Monster is compelled to participate in unspeakably cruel and perverse activities for the amusement of the evil-hearted Frankenstein and his new partner, the Marquis de Sade!

Author Dave Zeltserman is best known for his hard-hitting noir crime novels. He approaches horror with the same take-no-prisoners attitude. Monster is a dark, harrowing tale steeped in grue, and an unrelentingly grim alternate take on Mary Shelley’s classic, as the man who is made Monster seeks revenge, while still desperately clinging to the last shreds of humanity within himself.

Monster, a Novel of Frankenstein by Dave Zeltserman, hardcover from Overlook Press, NYC, published August 2012.

Read the Prologue and Chapter One of Monster, courtesy of the author.

Dave Zeltserman’s website and blog.

Frankenstein, graphic novel by Denis Deprez

Written and painted by Belgian artist Denis Deprez, this French-language graphic novel, published by Casterman in 2003, is as much a literate adaptation of Frankenstein as it is a pure objet d’art.

The Monster's appearance here is obviously derived from the classic boxhead film version, otherwise author Deprez is very faithful to the original, allowing for compression and judicious tweaks as necessary to fit the novel into 60 illustrated pages. Like Mary Shelley, Deprez doesn’t dwell on the mechanics of the creation scene: Lightning attests to a stormy night, and The Monster’s eyes open. It’s a fine show of restraint where many artists would have stopped the story cold with a flashy display of lab fireworks. Instead, Deprez delivers a surprisingly intimate version of the famous story, dwelling on the emotions and inner thoughts of Frankenstein and his Monster.

Every panel a canvas, Deprez’ atmospheric art ranges from the sun-drenched scenes with the boy William that evoke the French impressionists, to dark, horrific moments like the tragic episode of The Monster’s mate, or The Monster’s fatal encounter with Elisabeth, done in a raw style reminiscent of Francis Bacon.

Denis Deprez also adapted Shakespeare’s Othello to the graphic novel format, as well as Melville’s Moby Dick, with writer Jean Rouaud, and a life of Rembrandt with his brother, Olivier Deprez.

Copies of Deprez’ Frankenstein can still be found through Amazon.com dealers, as well as Amazon.ca and Amazon.fr.

Frank'n'Stan, by M.P.Robertson

In this new picture book, Frank, a boy who longs to have a kid brother to play with, decides to build himself one. Blueprints are drawn, scrap metal parts are assembled and, with a click of its nose switch, Stan, the robot, comes alive.

Stan is Frank’s best friend and he even fits in as a family member, helping with household chores. Then, one day, Mom has a surprise for Frank: A new baby sister, named Mary. As little Mary grows, she gets all the attention and by the time she turns two, Stan the robot feels left out and, one night, he leaves.

Frank’n’Stan wears its Frankenstein references proudly. The boy’s name is Franklin P. Shelley, his sister is Mary. Frank finds parts at Byron’s junkyard, and there’s a copy of Frankenstein at his elbow, on his drafting table, when he draws up his plan. When Stan leaves, it’s winter, and Frank will travel through snow and storm to find and bring home his robot brother. The winter scene search for Stan clearly echoes Frankenstein’s arctic pursuit.

British writer and artist M.P.Robertson’s books for children include The Egg — it hatched a dragon! — and its sequels. Robertson works in a traditional, realistic style that suits this Frankenstein story to perfection, with lots of details drawn in for young readers (of all ages!) to pore over. Try spotting where the cat is on every page.

Frank’n’Stan is 32 pages, all in color. The black and white illustration shown here, a lovely Frankenstein reference, is from the end papers.

Frank’n’Stan by M.P.Robertson is aimed at readers 5 and up. It is published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.

Counting Down to Halloween

Well, Autumn is here and in a few more days, the roads of October will take us to Halloween. Kicking off the season in great style, Rue Morgue — consistently the best mass-market genre magazine — celebrates Universal’s centennial with a fantastic lineup that includes historian David J. Skal. On the cover, a fabulous bust of Boris as Frankenstein’s Monster by Toronto-based artist Justin Erickson.

Rue Morgue No. 127 will be available on newsstands and digital download on October first.

Boris, and Universal’s 100th are further celebrated next month as Turner Classic Movies host a special double-bill showing of Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935) in selected theaters across America. This is a rare chance to see these classics on the big screen in sharp, remastered copies. The evening includes a recorded presentation by TCM stalwart Robert Osborne interviewing Sara Karloff, Bela Lugosi Jr. and makeup wizard Rick Baker.

The one-time TCM Frankenstein Event happens on October 24. Check the Fathom Events website for details, a list of theaters, and tickets.

And then, there’s Countdown to Halloween 2012 — hosted by the indefatigable team of John Rozum and Shawn Robare — where bloggers celebrate the spooky season every day, all month long. I’ll have a badge up on the menu that’ll take you to the Countdown site and, there, you can click through a long list of blogs and enjoy a boggling variety of Halloween-theme posts. There were over 250 participants last year! It’s great fun and a great way to discover new blogs.

I’ll be contributing to the Countdown with our companion blogs — Monster Crazy, Frankenstein Forever — and here on Frankensteinia, where I will be running another Frankenstein Book Month. I’ll be posting here every other day, reviewing Frankenstein-themed books and showcasing eye-popping Frankenstein graphic novels, including many NEW titles!

Join me, won’t you, for the Countdown to Halloween and Frankenstein Book Month, coming in ten days!

Found! Frankenstein inscribed by Mary Shelley to Lord Byron!

A true treasure has come to light: A rare, first edition copy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, inscribed “To Lord Byron from the author”.

The book was among the possessions of Baron Jay (1907-1996), a British politician and one time President of the Board of Trade. The discovery was made by the Baron’s grandson, bibliophile Sammy Jay. Although Mary Shelley did not sign her name, her writing has been verified by an expert of the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, where Mary’s manuscript pages of Frankenstein are kept.

It was Lord Byron who, in the summer of 1816, invited the Shelleys to join him at Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva, and it was Byron who proposed a friendly competition, to come up with ghost stories. Mary’s idea grew into the novel, Frankenstein, and published on New Year’s Day, 1818. The copy at hand is one of only six copies given Mary by her publisher. Inscribed, it was mailed to Byron by Mary’s husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Lord Byron once recommended the book to a friend, saying, “Methinks it is a wonderful work of a girl of nineteen — not nineteen indeed — at the time”.

First edition copies of Frankenstein are rare and can fetch upwards of $100,000. Until now, only one other signed copy was known to exist, and although this new find is incomplete — originally published as three slim books, here, only the first volume has survived — it was inscribed to and once owned by Lord Byron who, as it were, attended the birth of Frankenstein. Given the remarkable provenance, this unique copy is estimated to be worth over £400,000 (roughly US$635,000).

The book will be displayed for one week, beginning September 26, at Peter Harrington’s of Chelsea, London, one of the world’s leading rare book dealers.

Read more about Lord Byron’s copy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein on the Peter Harrington website.

Via PR Newswire Service

Death Interrupted

This is not a Frankenstein book but, hey, zombies are family. At their most basic expression, The Monster and the zombie share provenance as revenants and symbols of death defiled, cursed with life.

From the heady golden age of horror comics, these collected tales celebrate zombies — old school, please — the kind yanked from graveyards to serve their masters, or reanimated for their own purpose, some literally willing themselves back to life to exact vengeance for the treasonous wrongs that did them in. Witness the book’s cover, a lover’s clinch, passion mightier than death, with the decayed Romeo coming apart in the reluctant Juliette’s hands.  

Featuring a Who’s Who collection of artists and writers, Zombies is edited and designed by comics archeologist Craig Yoe — author of Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein — in collaboration with Steve Banes of the superlative The Horrors of It All blog, dementedly and delightfully devoted to classic horror comics. Zombies is out now!

Book trailer for Zombies.