Have some cake!

I want to take a moment before this day runs out and note that this blog was launched on August 20, all of eight years ago. Eight years! I don’t know how that happened! I was just fooling around, honest, and I never thought I’d make it past eight days, maybe 8 weeks tops and, well, look at us now. I just checked my stats counter, and we’ve clocked a bit over two million visits in eight years. Two million! How did that happen?

Posting has been sparse over some time now, due mostly to real life butting in. Lots of things keeping me busy, and I won’t even mention my recent Hard Drive meltdown and the loss of research material I had failed to backup properly. Otherwise, it’s been a very good time, being busy with my graphic novels for the French market, and busy with TV, movie and web series writing, all good news for a freelancer. I also was the subject of a TV documentary, how about that! On the side, I never stopped researching Frankenstein in all its aspects and I’ve amassed tons of great new material.

Now I’m on top of things again and I’m undertaking a much busier posting schedule. Very shortly, I’ll be running a series celebrating the 80th anniversary of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) and, after three years of research, I’ll be posting about the Forgotten Frankensteins of the Thirties! Earlier this year, I made a pilgrimage to Malibou Lake just outside LA, where they shot the Little Maria scene for FRANKENSTEIN (1931) and I’ll be sharing that, and lots more finds and surprises over the days, weeks and months to come.

I made a lot of real friends here over the years, and I got to visit with some of you as I traveled to New York, Louisville, London, Paris and Los Angeles. I hope to see you all again, and meet new friends along the way. You all are the reason I keep doing this.

So join me, and do have a slice of birthday cake, won’t you?  

Frankensteinia is Five

And all of a sudden, this blog is five years old!

I’d like to take a moment, before the day runs out, to mark the occasion. Frankensteinia launched on August 20, 2007. Over these last 5 years, we’ve made 750 posts and recorded more than 930,000 hits. By year’s end, we’ll go over one million visitors. Combining average daily hits with our subscribers on Google Reader, Facebook and Twitter, we boast some 4,000 regular followers. These numbers boggle my brains.

In 5 years, we’ve garnered 7 Rondo Award nominations in 3 different categories, good for several Honorable Mentions, a couple of Runner-Ups and, of course, a beautiful Rondo for Best Blog, in 2010. In the schorlarly world, Frankensteinia has been recognized as a resource by Intute, a consortium of seven British universities; the Museum of London, and consulted by the New York Public Library.

Looking back, I’m proudest of our “discoveries”, little facts — and big ones — and new information we’ve uncovered. This year alone, we revealed never-before-seen photos of Primo Carnera’s Monster from a 1957 television play (here and here). I’m proud of our Silent Frankenstein series where we found tons of new information about Life Without Soul (1915), and a photograph of Il Mostro, from the Italian Frankenstein of 1920. Most fun was finding an explanation for the curious, branch-like hands of Edison’s Frankenstein of 1910. It seems The Monster's hands came… from Mars! Go Look!

Now, autumn looms and posting here will pick up, as it must, during our busiest season. I’ve got a lot of new and fun material, ready to go. I have piles of Frankenstein books, many new ones, to review, and new discoveries to share. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be revealing a lost Frankenstein film appearance from the Thirties (!), and startling new information about Mary Shelley’s very inspiration (!!!).

As we begin our 6^th year, I want to thank you, all who visit, and especially you regulars. You know who you are. You keep me going.

Enjoy.


Photo at top shows Boris Karloff celebrating a 1938 birthday on the set of Son of Frankenstein (1939). Later, the same day, Boris would celebrate again when news came that a daughter, Sara, was born.

This blacked out post is brought to you by SOPA and PIPA

Frankensteinia, Frankenstein Forever and Monster Crazy are on strike today.

Learn about the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act and how this legislation, if passed, would affect all of us, all over the world.

And do something about it.

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!

Halloween, and other causes for celebration...

“Las Vegas loves Halloween¨, announces this week’s issue of the Las Vegas free newspaper, Seven, featuring a green bodypaint Bride of Frankenstein in a mummy-bandage bikini. The model, Olivia Lakis, poses in makeup by Natasha Chamberlin, who also created the striking Day of the Dead Princess on the cover.

Of special interest — ahem! — the very blog you are reading gets singled out in Seven as a Site to See by journalist Geoff Carter! And a nice writeup it is, too. The whole issue is available online as a PDF file.

Frankensteinia also gets rated as an Internet Pick of the Week by Johnny Dee in the October 30th issue of the UK’s The Guardian! I couldn’t be prouder to get a mention in my favorite newspaper. And congratulations to friends and fellow bloggers Jeanette Laredo of Monster Land and Curt Purcell The Groovy Age of Horror for being listed as well!

Halloween time is always good for us horror bloggers and my hits were in record territory all month. A lot of credit for the traffic belongs to John Rozum, Head Pumpkin of the Countdown to Halloween event that saw an astounding 200+ blogs participating this year. Onward and Upwards, John!

I hope you enjoyed the Book Month event on Frankensteinia. A lucky thirteen books were covered here in October, with sincere thanks going out to guest bloggers Craig Yoe, The Vicar of VHS and Martin Powell for their excellent contributions.

I’ve got plans for more special events and I’m very excited about the posts I have lined up for the coming days and weeks of November. I’ve got a lot of Frankenstein art to gladden your eyeballs and some great “archeological” posts that will track Frankenstein through its earliest theatrical appearances, and even further back, all the way to Mary Shelley’s very inspiration for her masterpiece! I’m looking forward to sharing it all with you.

Happy Halloween!

Young Romantics A Guest Review by the Vicar of VHS

Keys to understanding Frankenstein are found in understanding its author, Mary Shelley: Her influences, her life, her entourage, and the era she lived in. Many answers can be found in the new and highly touted group biography, Young Romantics, by British scholar Daisy Hay.

I’m delighted to welcome a fellow blogger, the virtual Vicar of VHS, one-half of the dastardly duo perpetrating the maddening Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies blog, as an unlikely but strangely fitting Guest Reviewer. You may be surprised, as I was, to learn that The Vicar — he stubbornly refuses to answer to any other name — is a published author and poet! Lord Byron, The Vicar informs me, is his favorite Romantic poet, and Lord Fauntleroy his role model. “One day” he says, “I hope to pose for an oil portrait in Arabesque costume.”

Here is The Vicar of VHS’ review of Young Romantics: The Tangled Lives of English Poetry's Greatest Generation, by Daisy Hay.

There is certainly no shortage of biographies devoted to the key figures in the Romantic movement of English poetry. The short, tragic life of John Keats, the proto-rock star adventures of Lord Byron, and the tumultuous relationship of Percy Bysshe and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley have been the subject of countless published histories since their deaths, and continue to fascinate aspiring scholars and casual readers alike. In fact, so much has been written about each of the group's members that it might seem there's nothing new to be said. To take on any one of these monumental figures in print is to risk merely treading a well-worn trail and repeating all the anecdotes that have long since passed into common knowledge and literary legend.

However, author Daisy Hay manages a fresh approach in her first book, Young Romantics. Her book is the story not of any one Romantic figure, but of all of them--or rather, of the by-turns cohesive and shifting social circle of which they were a part. In doing so, Hay paints a fascinating picture of these often larger-than-life personalities, and also the way those personalities and events interacted to shape what she calls "English Poetry's Greatest Generation."

Hay takes as her focus publisher and author Leigh Hunt, a figure little-remembered outside scholarly circles, but who was instrumental in the publication and rise to fame of many of the Romantic era's greatest poets. Often imprisoned for debt and libel, Hunt was nonetheless able to maintain a salon where he received frequent visits from the literary giants of the age (thanks to influential friends and the nature of life for an aristocrat in debtors' prison at the time). As Keats, Byron, the Shelleys, and others pass in and out of Hunt's circle, Hay sketches the events that occasioned their meetings, friendships, and sometimes tumultuous fallings-out. In doing so she succeeds in giving the reader not only the essential information about each poet and writer's career, but in creating an immersive portrait of the time and place in which they worked, and the important relationships that shaped their lives and in some cases nearly destroyed their reputations.

Of particular interest to readers of Frankensteinia is Hays' detailed treatment of the relationship between Percy Bysshe and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. The author traces the couple's relationship from its very beginnings, hitting such touchstones as Shelley's expulsion from Oxford University for atheism, his legendary (and perhaps apocryphal) courtship of the teenaged Mary on the site of her famous mother's tomb, and of course the fabled summer at the Villa Diodati with Byron, Polidori, and Mary's half-sister Claire Clairmont. The composition of Frankenstein, its publication and popularity, and its importance to Mary's financial well-being in later life (after Percy Shelley's tragic death by drowning left her and her children destitute) are all compellingly detailed, as are the tragedies of Mary's lost children and Claire's protracted struggles with Byron over their illegitimate daughter. Hay explains the scandals caused by themes of free love and incest that pervaded not only Shelley and Byron's work but also that of Hunt and others, and how public perception of the group was shaped (sometimes justly) by them.

The book contains a wealth of information for anyone interested in Romantic poetry generally and the Shelleys in partcular. Included in photo plates are many famous portraits of Mary Shelley, the famous painting "The Funeral of Shelley" by Louis Fournier (with entertaining commentary on the painting's accuracy, or lack thereof), and manuscript pages from Frankenstein in Mary's own hand, with marginalia by Percy Shelley showing a deft editorial hand. I was surprised to find one of the more memorable-to-me lines from the book, wherein Frankenstein laments that at university "I was required to exchange chimeras of boundless grandeur for realities of little worth," was apparently suggested by Percy, as can be seen on the page.

Hays' treatment of the triumphs and tribulations of the other figures of the Romantic movement are just as entertaining and informative. Part biography, part history, and part soap opera, The Young Romantics might not have the focus and depth of some scholarly works, but is definitely more fun. If you're interested in Frankenstein, Romantic poetry, or just literature generally, I can highly recommend it.

Young Romantics: The Tangled Lives of English Poetry's Greatest Generation by Daisy Hay (2010, Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Daisy Hay’s website
A video interview with Daisy Hay
A 3-part podcast from Blackwell Online

The Vicar of VHS’ Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies blog.

Related:
The Funeral of Shelley

Milestones

"Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated; galvanism had given token of such things: perhaps the component parts of a creature might be manufactured, brought together, and endured with vital warmth."

Thus wrote Mary Shelley in her introduction to the third edition of her novel, in 1831. A century later, Boris Karloff stepped out of the celluloid shadows. These are but two milestones in the long history of Frankenstein.

Today, Mary’s story continues to resonate. It continues to enthrall and to inspire new adaptations. It still breeds new interpretations in all manners of media, and generates new art. The Creature has been manufactured, brought together and endured with vital warmth over and over again.

This blog, driven by curiosity, observes and reports. It is not, by any means, a completist’s catalog. It is only an overview, a collection of impressions, glimpses, of a vast cultural phenomenon.

I made my 500^th post last week. Today, all of a sudden, Frankensteinia is three years old.

Thank you for visiting and sharing my enthusiasm. Stick around, I’m not done yet.

By the way, my picture blog, Monster Crazy, turns two. Over 1900 images posted there.

Horror Stalks The Newsstand

The nice people over at SFX magazine have graced me with a copy of their new Horror Special, and I certainly don’t mind giving them a plug here, considering how much I enjoyed the issue.

There’s an amazing amount of material in here, profusely illustrated, and I love how vintage horror films get their dues along with the contemporary fare. For instance, an interview with makeup man Rick Baker on the new Wolfman (with stunning photos) segues into an article about the 1941 original. The vintage stuff includes a look back at the original Wicker Man, the so-called “blaxploitation” horror films of the Seventies, a history of Spanish fright films, and a fascinating look at lost silents.

Ultimately, what I liked best was the Brit-centric material that never gets much attention on this side of the Atlantic: There’s a review of all 74 notorious “video nasties”, and a great article about the legendary Pan Book of Horror series.

And finally, a Frankenstein moment: The news section of the issue previews an upcoming book, Hammer Films: The Unsung Heroes, by Wayne Kinsey…

The picture here reveals the prop-head trick behind Peter Cushing’s harrowing brain-drill operation in Frankenstein Must be Destroyed. It’s just one of the rarely or never-before-seen pictures to be collected in the new Hammer book, coming from Tomahawk Press.

Kudos to editor Ian Berriman for a seriously good job. Makes you wish that the publishers at SFX would turn their Horror Special into a regular, ongoing magazine.

See a complete and very impressive list of contents on the SFX website.

Describing The Spectre

I chose a picture of the best-known actor in the most iconic representation of The Monster to illustrate this post. Boris Karloff was my introduction to Frankenstein. Chances are he was yours, too.

Frankensteinia: The Frankenstein Blog is two years old today. I launched in the high summer of 2007 with a quote from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley:

“I busied myself to think of a story.... One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling horror — one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart…

What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow…

I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper."

I thought, then, that the quote did a good job of introducing the subject. Today, I find that it reads more like a mandate.

To paraphrase the author, I busied myself to think of stories that speak to our mysterious fears and our enduring fascination with the vast cultural universe created by Mary Shelley. I believed what had so engaged me would engage others and I have endeavored to describe the spectre, as it were, in all its manifestations.

Over the last two years, this site has logged over 240,000 visitors and some 375,000 page loads. I have met, exchanged and often made friends with fellow bloggers, scholars and historians, writers, critics and filmmakers, artists and creators, Monster Kids and Frankenstein fans. I am most grateful to those of you who have stepped up and subscribed to the blog through RSS, Google Friend Connect, MySpace, Networked Blogs, Facebook and Twitter. The combined number of registered “followers” currently stands at 1,987 and counting. Thank you all so very much for your continued interest and your precious support.

I have been honored me with blog awards like the Premio Dardos and, recently, the Honest Scrap Award. Please forgive me for rarely passing them on to other bloggers, as is usually prescribed by the award rules. I am simply too busy, most of the time, to participate, as I try to focus all my online energies to Frankensteinia itself. Check my blogroll, on the right hand column, for a permanent list of the blogs I most enjoy.

That being said, allow me to acknowledge Jeanette Laredo of the elegant and excellent Monster Land who kindly bestowed a Necronomicon Outstanding Blogs of Horror Award upon me, adding that my blog inspired her to launch her own. Thank you, Jeanette! Thanks also to Brian Solomon of the formidable The Vault of Horror who said mine was one of the first blogs he fell in love with, and thanks to my friend Gor Mandra of Draculand and Vade Retro Me Satana who also found inspiration in Frankensteinia (and Monster Crazy). I am utterly thrilled that my efforts have made ripples. Truly, this makes all the time and care spent on this project feel absolutely worthwhile. May I say, unpretentiously…. I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper.

Last year, I celebrated my first blog anniversary with the launch of a picture blog, Monster Crazy. Thanks, by the way, to all of you who visit there. This year, I celebrate the start of Year Three with a renewed commitment to you, dear readers, to put forward the best blog I can muster.

Warning!

A stern warning from Universal’s Exhibitors Campaign Book promoting The Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

And a friendly warning, too, dear readers, to stand by for some seriously cool posts coming up. No kidding.

I am back online after an unplanned but exhilarating hiatus attending all five days of Anticipation, the Science Fiction Worldcon, held here in Montreal. Didn’t think I’d be away from the blog for a whole week, but then again, I used the time off to recharge my electrodes, as it were. Regular programming resumes shortly!

I’ve got some great material lined up in the coming days and weeks, and it’ll be a very busy fall season around here. I’ll be participating in the annual 31 Days of Halloween countdown organized by John Rozum.

Do NOT “stay away”, unless of course you are scarey, nervous or afraid of tantrums!

Updates

On occasion, I’ll update an old post if I come up with new and relevant information. Here are a couple of recent fixes…

• I found a wonderful snapshot of Famous Monsters editor Forry Ackerman and cover artist Basil Gogos posing with the original artwork for the Boris Karloff Tribute issue that I featured a couple of posts back, on February 2.

Go look!

• Frankensteinia friend and guest blogger Marc Berezin — who wrote a fascinating review of the 1968 British ITV adaptation of Frankenstein with Ian Holm — reports that the episode, up ‘til now available only as a bootleg tape, is being officially released on DVD come March 23.

Here’s the Amazon UK link.

Frankenstein in 2008: A Year End Review

A ticket to see Frankenstein was an important clue to the origins of Hancock, the obstreperous superhero played by Will Smith, just one of many Frankenstein connections in movies released this year. The problem with the prop ticket from the movie is the date: For starters, June 21, 1931 was a Sunday and, anyway, Frankenstein began shooting on August 24.

The X-Files: I Want To Believe featured cloning, body parts, two-headed transplants and a Russian scientist referred to as Dr. Frankenstein. Igor was an animated feature about a mad scientist’s hunchbacked assistant who wants to build his own monster. As the year came to a close, an independent feature, Frankenstein Rising, had yet to find a distributor.

Guillermo del Toro was the focus of once and future Frankensteins. In Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, scenes from the classic Bride of Frankenstein appeared on TV screens in our hero’s pad as counterpoint to his amorous relations. Director Del Toro was quoted extensively in the press about his plans to shoot a new Frankenstein, even identifying Doug Jones as his choice to play The Monster. As Del Toro will be busy for a while making The Hobbit for producer Peter Jackson, his Frankenstein is tentatively listed on the IMDB as a project for 2012.

In France, the 1931 Frankenstein and the 1935 Bride of Frankenstein were re-released to theaters and then on to DVD. The re-issue posters were superb. The same two classics were conflated for what is perhaps the most unusual Frankenstein film of 2008, The Spawn of Frankenstein, a fanedit by “Jorge”. Scenes were trimmed and rearranged, comedy relief and arguably superfluous material was jettisoned, a musical score and tinting added. The whole exercise was meant to make the story scarier and The Monster appear “bad to the bone”. The (unauthorized) remix can be found online on torrent sites.

In England, the Royal Mail honored Hammer Films with a set of stamps that included one for The Curse of Frankenstein of 1956.

On stage, Frankenstein continues to be endlessly reprised, rethought and refashioned in some way, whether straight drama, experimental, comedic or musical. Halloween alone sparks countless amateur productions. Of note: First introduced in 2007, an acclaimed, multiple award-winning Frankenstein by Edmonton’s Catalyst Theater toured in 2008 and will continue into the new year. A dramatic musical called Mary Shelley and Her Frankenstein, by Shirley R. Barasch, premiered in Pittsburgh.

Out of New York, a cast recording of the serious-minded Frankenstein, A New Musical was released in September. The play had earlier been steamrollered by the megabudget musical retooling of Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein which, in turn, will close on January 4, a victim of hubris, bad marketing and ever diminishing returns as the economic downturn bites Broadway. It remains to be seen if a proposed touring company gets off the ground.

In books, a number of important titles appeared. Using Mary Shelley’s actual manuscript, Charles E. Robinson, a professor of English at Delaware University and an expert on the Shelleys, edited out some 5,000 notes and corrections in Percy Shelley’s hand resulting in The Original Frankenstein, Mary’s story in first draft, as it were.

The novel as illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, long out of print, was given a luxurious 25th Anniversary reissue by Dark Horse.

For young readers, “Doctor” Frankenstein himself guided us through a wonderful, heavily illustrated anatomy book called Frankenstein’s Human Body Book.

Frankenstein’s role in American culture, as a metaphor, and its racial resonance in the United States was the subject of Black Frankenstein: The Making of an American Metaphor by Elizabeth Young.

In comics, the Monster finally met the monster superhero he inspired, The Hulk, in a Halloween issue published by Marvel Comics. Writer Warren Ellis turned the story inside out, as expected, in a one-shot comic called Frankenstein’s Womb. Skot Olsen illustrated an adaptation of the novel by Rod Lott for Fantasy Classics, Volume 15. Marion Mousse’s excellent comics adaptation, published as three books in France, was translated and collected as one long graphic novel by Classics Illustrated.

The Hammer film magazine, Little Shop of Horrors, devoted it’s 21^st issue to Hammer’s Curse of Frankenstein, and Video Watchdog #142 carried never-before-seen color photographs from the set of Lizard’s Leg and Owlet’s Wing, the legendary 1962 episode of TV’s Route 66 where Boris Karloff dressed as the Frankenstein Monster for the last time.

As usual, variations on The Monster, often with garish green skin and oversized neck bolts, popped up on toy shelves in plush and plastic. For serious collectors, Moebius Models released a perfect copy of the famous Gigantic Frankenstein model kit. Amok Time released a 12-inch figure of The Monster from I Was a Teenage Frankenstein.

Sadly, we must mark the passing in 2008 of Stan Winston, the special effects genius who, among an astounding list of credits, perfected The Monster’s makeup for Tom Noonan in The Monster Squad (1987). Also lost to us was the wonderful Hazel Court, horror film royalty and Elizabeth to Peter Cushing’s Victor in The Curse of Frankenstein (1956). And Forrest J Ackerman died on January 4. In February, we had celebrated the 50th anniversary of FJA’s Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Right here on Frankensteinia: The Frankenstein Blog, a little detective work revealed a fun secret from the cover painting of Marvel’s Monsters of the Movies issue number 2. We also tracked down a very rare graphic adaptation of Universal’s Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman (1942) made in Spain in 1946.

Some of our most popular posts, based on hits and linkage, included the one about the Frankenstein View-Master reels, and guest blogger Geof Smith’s reminiscence of Nelson Bridwell’s 1970 children’s book How To Care For Your Monster. Also popular was the Alex Velazquez illustration of Frankenstein contemplating liposuction, and posts about The Munsters, namely a look at the ‘lost” Munsters color pilot. A cover of Monster World #2 featuring The Munsters and their Munster Koach was widely reblogged, as well.

Hitwise, by far the most popular post ever on Frankensteinia was The Bride Unwrapped featuring the lovely retro (and NSFW) photography of Aleksey Galushkov. The post was referenced on io9, Nerdcore, the AMC blog and numerous other high-profile sites. Sex sells, who knew?

A point of pride: This blog was singled out by Intute, a consortium of UK Universities, as “a useful research aid for those seeking to survey the uses to which the Frankenstein monster is still being put in popular culture, and the contemporary neo-gothic / neo-Victorian imagination in general.”

And finally, Frankensteinia turned one year old in August, and we celebrated by launching a sister site, the picture blog called MONSTER CRAZY!

Onwards to 2009.

The preceding was my personal overview of the 190^th year in the ongoing career of Frankenstein. It was not meant to be exhaustive. If there is any Frankenstein reference from 2008 that you think should be mentioned, please post a comment and share it with us.

Have a great New Year!

Dr. Frankenstein's Human Body Book

Here’s a fabulous book that, despite its title, has a rather tenuous if amusing connection to our monster-making experimenter. Dr. Frankenstein’s Human Body Book, from DK Publishing, is actually an illustrated anatomy primer wherein, merely for introductory purposes, young readers are invited to assist Dr. Frankenstein in assembling a human body.

The Frankenstein references are strictly limited to short diary entries, written with gentle humor, to accompany and encourage the reader/assistant. Connecting limbs to the skeleton, the diary reads, “Up to the elbows with work. Assistant managed to put the humerus in the right place without hitting the funny bone”. Examining the central nervous system, the diary notes, “Assistant and I used our gray matter to install a brain…”. Otherwise, the text, by Richard Walker, a science writer and a veteran of anatomy books, is perfectly serious.

The information is doled out in easy-reading, bite-size pieces that support the generous iconography. Illustrations allow us to peer inside a bone or an eyeball, and a skull is exploded into its component parts. Medical photographs reveal microscopic structures and inner workings.

The book is beautifully designed and the production values are off the scale. This is one of those indestructible books with a vinyl cover and rigid, extra-thick board pages. Every spread opens flat. The cover features a lenticular 3-D image that peers inside a human heart.

I couldn’t help noting that for all its completeness, meticulously stepping through every layer of the human body, the naughty bits have been left out, probably to spare parents who will explore the book with very young children. It’ll be up to the grownups to fill in the details when and as they see fit.

Dr. Frankenstein’s Human Body Book, subtitled The monstrous truth about how your body works, is an unusual but welcome addition to the Frankenstein Library. Aimed at very young readers, it will delight the curious of all ages.

Here’s the Publisher’s page, with a glimpse at inside pages. You can order the book directly from them, or through the Frankenstore.

Making a List, Checking It Twice

Recently, Brian Solomon, over at The Vault of Horror, asked fellow horror bloggers and critics, 32 in all, to list their choices of “Greatest Horror Films”. The compiled results are posted as The 50 Best Horror Films of All Times. Click through to discover the list for yourself.

The most entertaining thing about Best Of lists is watching people get upset over them. Fans (and, indeed, some of the participants in the survey) disagree with the results. Where’s MY favorite? Thriller — Are you kidding me??? How could you not include a Hammer film? But Alien is NOT horror! What — No Ringu?!?

I think the new list is interesting and it serves its purpose to foster debate. The best thing about these lists is that, perhaps, someone, somewhere, might be surprised or intrigued by a title that got listed and be moved to seek out the film.

Through the focus of this blog, I note that three Frankenstein films made the list: James Whale’s 1931 version is a deserved Top Ten title, coming in at number 6. Whale’s follow-up, The Bride of Frankenstein, is number 12. I was surprised to see J. Searle Dawley’s 1910 version, the so-called “Edison” Frankenstein, at number 36. No doubt this one made the list on the basis of historical significance.

Speaking of lists, I have been tagged by friend and Frankensteinia contributor Thom Ryan of Film of the Year to participate in the Alphabet Meme. The game consists of coming up with a film title for every letter of the alphabet. I thought I’d have some fun with this and I made two lists, a regular one where I listed the first film that came to mind, and another consisting only of Frankenstein titles. Here we go…

The Frankenstein List
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
Curse of Frankenstein
Dr. Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks
Evil of Frankenstein
Frankenweenie
Ghost of Frankenstein
House of Frankenstein
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter
Killing Frankenstayn’a kasri (Killing vs Frankenstein)
Lust for Frankenstein
Il Mostro di Frankenstein
Necropolis
Orlak, el infierno di Frankenstein
Prototype
Quella Villa Acanto al Cimitero (The House by the Cemetery)
Revenge of Frankenstein
Sevimli Frankenstayn (aka Turkish Young Frankenstein)
Torticola contre Frankenberg
El Ultimo Frankenstein
Victor Frankenstein
War of the Gargantuas
X-Files: Post-Modern Prometheus
Young Frankenstein
El Zorro Escarlata

The ‘Regular’ List
Atarnujuat, the Fast Runner
La Belle et la bete
Chinatown
Dr. No
8 1/2
Frau Im Mond
Gods and Monsters
Hara-Kiri
Island of the Lost Souls
Je t’aime, je t’aime
Kiss Me Deadly
Lulu (aka Pandora’s Box)
La Mome vert de gris (Poison Ivy, an Eddie Constantine film)
Night of the Living Dead
Out of the Past
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg
Quai des Brumes
Repulsion
Shanghai Express
The Thing From Another World (1951)
The Usual Suspects
Vertigo
Werewolf of London
X, The Man With X-Ray Eyes
Les Yeux sans visage
Z (Costa-Gavras)

Note: The rules of the Alphabet Meme are posted on Film of the Year. The whole thing was originally launched by Blog Cabins.

I am now supposed to tag other bloggers. If I may, I’ll limit the damage to three names: Kate at Love Train For The Tenebrous Empire, Illoc Zoc at Zombos Closet of Horror and Karswell at The Horrors of it All.

The illustration for this post is from Bernie Wrightson’s Frankenstein, previously reviewed here.

Halloween RepostI Was a Pre-Teen Frankenstein

The following was first posted a year ago today. I am quite fond of this story because it’s true and I’m happy how it came out. I couldn’t possibly improve on it.

In the year since then, my readership here has quadrupled and then some, for which I am very grateful. I thought I might repost this, my Halloween story, for those of you who missed it the first time around.

Enjoy!

A true story.

I grew up in the tough, blue-collar East End of Montreal. Back in the late 50s, when I was 8 or 10 years old, us kids owned the back alleys. The gravel backyards and the firetrap wood and corrugated steel sheds were our playground. One of our favorite spots was an old wooden garage, formerly a stable, with a rickety staircase that led to a wonderful low-ceilinged loft. That dark, dusty structure was our King Arthur castle where the Crusades were fought on summer weekdays. It was our frontier fort to attack or defend, depending on whether you were a cowboy or an indian that day. It was our Legionnaire’s stronghold, our haunted house and, of course, Frankenstein’s mountaintop lab.

One memorable afternoon, early autumn, one of the guys brought over a paper bag. It contained something that belonged to his older, teenage brother, the one with the ducktail and the cigarette pack rolled into his shirtsleeve. He had us swear up and down that we would never tell that he had brought out this treasure, on account that his brother would kill him for messing with his stuff.

We made a solemn oath of eternal silence, and my friend, satisfied, opened the bag and changed my life.

It was a homemade, papier-mache mask of the Frankenstein Monster from I Was a Teenage Frankenstein. His teen brother had seen the film and, impressed and enthusiastic, had come home and built himself a replica, luridly painted in yellows and greens, complete with a bulging, bloodshot, baseball-sized eyeball.

I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. We all did. We were awed.

The mask was passed around and handled reverently, like a sacred object. It was a heavy, full-face mask, half-an-inch thick, with a leather strap glued in so you could wear it, and chunks of sponge inside to protect your face. Each kid, in turn, got to try it on, and the moment it was attached to someone’s head, a single sparkling eye gazing at us from a narrow slit, the Frankenstein face came alive. Each kid, in turn, moved his head and growled, and suddenly, the Monster was among us.

When my turn came, my heart was pounding. I raised the mask to my face, someone tightened the strap. It was heavy and scratchy, and I could hear myself breathe inside the mask. I looked out through the one eyehole, and all my friends went “Ooooh!”. I moved my head and let out a low, menacing moan, and they all went “Aaaah!”.

The mask went to the next kid, and again we all reacted to it. When we were all done, the mask went back into the paper bag, and our friend raced home to stow it away before its disappearance was noted.

I thought about that mask a lot. I would have killed to have it. I suppose it rotted away, forgotten in it’s brown paper bag, eventually to be thrown out with all the useless junk of childhood.

I never looked at my friend’s teen brother the same way again. I thought of him forever after as an artist, a genius of sorts. He never knew, but I always felt that he had taught me something important: You Can Make Your Own.

I dug through Famous Monsters magazine for monster makeup tips. I mail-ordered the Dick Smith monster makeup magazine one-shot from Warren’s Captain Company. I was soon experimenting with plasticine, thick liquid latex and plaster. I learned how to use collodion for scars and mummy wrinkles. And so on, like all the Monster Kids of the 50s and 60s, growing up on Shock Theater and Aurora Monster Kits.

If my boyhood pals read this, I hope they don’t mind my spilling the big secret. I hope my friend from back then — where are you know? — doesn’t get into trouble with his older brother, after all these years, for messing with his stuff.

For me, it was a magical moment. I had been inducted into the Secret Brotherhood of Monsters, there in our secret hideout. The day I Was a Pre-Teen Frankenstein.

Happy Halloween, everyone.

Celebrating an Anniversary, and a New Beginning!

I launched Frankensteinia one year ago, today.

I didn’t pick August 20 for any special reason. I was just raring to go, ready or not. I applied Ray Bradbury’s advice, something about jumping off a cliff and building your wings on the way down. I think I’ve done OK.

The blog today looks and feels a lot like I had hoped it would. That’s probably the best thing you can say about your own work.

My greatest accomplishment, I think, was sticking to my self-imposed mandate: Be accurate with information and honest with opinions, don’t let the blog encroach upon personal and professional pursuits, and have fun. The “fun” part is really what has kept me going.

Most of the fun comes from meeting people through the blog. Thanks to everyone who posted comments, to those who wrote, shared information and contributed, and those who reviewed and supported the blog. I’ve made some real friends here, and I am very grateful for that.

I thought I should do something special to mark this first anniversary, a celebratory gift, if you will, from me to you, my friends and readers. Here it is…

I may be a year older but, apparently, none the wiser... I’m launching a new blog!

Frankensteinia’s new sister blog is called MONSTER CRAZY — I think that title should be all caps, all the time — and it’s a tumblelog devoted to the imagery of monster pop culture. Consider the blog’s subtitle: “Art, Esthetics, Design, and Monsters”.

I made my first post there today. Click the graphic and you'll be whisked over, but please keep in mind that it’ll take a week or so to get enough stuff up before the style, the feel and the orientation of MONSTER CRAZY kick into gear.

I gave myself a mandate for MONSTER CRAZY: Post often, don’t let it take any time away from my dedication to Frankensteinia, don’t let it encroach upon personal and professional pursuits, and... HAVE FUN!

I hope you’ll share in the fun of MONSTER CRAZY. There’s no way to comment on Tumblr, but you can post your thoughts here, or email me. I’d like to know what you think.

Cheers!

200

The data cloud shows that I use the word “Frankenstein” a lot. And “Bride”, too.

The Bride has been good to me. My last post, about Aleksey Galushkov’s beautiful Bride photos, was picked up by io9, the science fiction news blog. As a result, I got fifteen days’ worth of visitors — a stratospheric number of hits — in just 24 hours. Meanwhile, back at io9, the Bride shoutout was their most popular post of the day! Such is the power of The Bride. Especially when “unwrapped”.

Welcome io9ers, and I hope you’ll all visit again sometime!

The crazy traffic hasn’t let up yet as the news propagates. I am now getting swamped via Nerdcore and AMCTV SciFi Scanner.

I’m grateful for all the attention, and I’m especially happy The Naughty Bride caused a sensation, considering it was my 199th post. Which makes this one some sort of milestone.

Hm... 200 posts, over 550 images. Not bad. I think I’m getting the hang of it.

Stand by, lots more Frankenstein goodness coming up.

It’s too late to stop now.

Word cloud generated by Wordle.

The Housekeeping of Frankenstein

Regular visitors may have noticed that posting here has been light over the last couple of weeks. Simply said, my time recently has been taken up by intense professional and personal obligations, on top of which I was offline for a couple of days while I broke in a new computer. Things are settling down and I’ll be cranking up the posts again. I’ve got tons of goodies lined up, including a couple of terrific Guest Blogger posts.

The Rondo Award winners were announced on Wednesday. The highly entertaining Trailers from Hell won the Best Blog or Website category, with Tim Lucas’ formidable Video WatchBlog as Runner-Up, and I was delighted to see my friend Max Cheney get an Honorable Mention for his fun, friendly and terminally silly The Drunken Severed Head blog. I profiled Max recently in my first Sites to See post.

Congratulations to the Rondo winners and all the nominees for their great work, thanks to all the voters (in record numbers this year!) and, most of all, hail Rondo Mastermind David Colton! Being nominated was a thrill, and great motivation for me. Thank you, David!

Speaking of awards, Brian Solomon of the indispensable Vault of Horror, has graciously bestowed an E for Excellent award on Frankensteinia! Thanks, B-Sol, I’m flattered and flattened!

OK, let’s get back on topic… See you all here in 24 hours or so with a new Frankenstein post!

Frankenstein Has Escaped!

Early sixties, maybe '61 or '62, on a lazy summer day in Montreal’s East End. The Orleans, a small, neighborhood theatre about 6 blocks from where I lived, ran a horror triple-bill. I remember the posters crowded in the small display window: A cartoon Dracula with phosphorescent eyes and blood dripping from his fangs, a gingerbread man-like Mummy with pursuers shining a flashlight beam through the clean, dinner plate-sized hole in its chest, and a variation of the poster shown here, an intense Dr. Frankenstein and his haphazard-faced Monster with heads together in extreme closeup. Three films, three cool monsters. All starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. All written by Jimmy Sangster, all directed by Terence Fisher. All Hammer Films.

I attended with two friends, first showing, first day, at noon. Partway through that afternoon, shrill music cannonading, the swashbuckling Van Helsing sprang to the window, yanked back the drapes, grabbed two candleholders and made a cross of them, pinning the snarling, spitting Dracula in the acid beams of the sun. As Christopher Lee melted and crumbled into dry oatmeal, my friend Serge suddenly sprang up, leapt over me, and ran up the aisle and out of the theater. I saw him again the next day, but he refused to talk about it.

By late afternoon, after the three films had unspooled, my friend Gilbert got up to leave. I asked him to call my Mom and tell her I’d be late. I had to watch this again. With a bag of chips for dinner, I sat through the triple-bill again.

That evening, as I straggled home, head spun with stylish Gothic horrors, I knew everything had changed. I had gotten a thrilling, dizzying crash course in the recent, still young Hammer Films history, and I had been made into a fan forever. I went back that week and sat through the three films again. For years to come, into adulthood, I never missed a new Hammer film. I’d see them as they came out, usually at the Strand downtown, and I’d catch them again in the neighborhood, when they circled back in French.

I always loved the French titles. They often seemed to be more imaginative than the original ones. They sounded better, more exciting. Nowadays, film titles are usually translated straight up, and sometimes they even keep the English title, though the film itself is dubbed. That unforgettable day when I discovered Hammer films — and just plain fell in love with movie going — the triple-bill titles were (re-translated into English): The Nightmare of Dracula, The Curse of the Pharaohs and, my favorite, Frankenstein Has Escaped!, a screaming headline title fraught with urgent menace. It’s Escaped! It’s Out There Right Now! And it’s FRANKENSTEIN!!! Maybe it’s just me, but I think those three titles have more buzz to them than Horror of Dracula, The Mummy, and The Curse of Frankenstein.

I always had fun comparing alternate or translated titles. Curse of the Werewolf played in French as The Night of the Werewolf, the Loup-Garou staking its claim to his full-moon time. The Reptile was presented more accurately as Reptile Woman. Plague of the Zombies became The Invasion of the Living Dead, setting the table for George Romero, due just two years hence. Hands of the Ripper was called The Daughter of Jack The Ripper. Terror of the Tongs sounded even more pulpish as Mark of the Red Dragon. The Rider Haggard epic, She, was called The Goddess of Fire, and The Vengeance of She became The Goddess of the Sands. Evil of Frankenstein was called The Mark (or The Imprint…) of Frankenstein. The Mummy’s Shroud was energized as In the Claws of the Mummy.

Among non-Hammer films, Scream and Scream Again, a pretty decent horror film title in and of itself, played in French with the in-your-face title, Release the Monsters! And for reasons I simply cannot fathom, Frankenstein 1970 (a Boris Karloff b-movie made in 1958) was translated as… Frankenstein Meets The Invisible Man.

Monster Brides were given more suggestive titles. The classic Universal Bride of Frankenstein was called The Fiancée of Frankenstein in French. Franc Roddam’s The Bride was called La promise, i.e. The Promised One, or The Betrothed. Hammer’s Brides of Dracula became the more alluring Mistresses of Dracula, and the Harry Alan Towers Brides of Fu Manchu went to the limit with The Thirteen Fiancées of Fu Manchu!

As time went on and Hammer took to more complex and original titles, there was a curious reverse action in French translations. Taste the Blood of Dracula, a satisfyingly lurid title became the simpler and barely blasphemous A Mass for Dracula. Even worse, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, a vivid, apocalyptic title promising pulse-pounding action was saddled with the exceedingly pedestrian The Return of Frankenstein.

Foreign or alternative titles are interesting, sometimes amusing, but in the end, we must logically revert to the original title, in whatever language that was. Except for The Curse of Frankenstein. That one, in my heart, will always be… Frankenstein Has Escaped!

Images courtesy of Jean-Claude Michel.

100th Post!

We’ll get back to our Year-End Review and the #1 Frankenstein Event of 2007 shortly, but first, time out, if I may, to celebrate my 100th post!



When I launched this blog in late August, I asked myself — as no doubt every new blogger does — how long this could last and would it find any readers. Starting out, I made a list of themes and subjects I wanted to post about. Well, after 100 posts, my original list is still largely untouched. I knew that my subject, my predilection, offered rich opportunities and it might take a while before I ever ran out of ideas, but I have found myself scrambling to keep up with everything I want to post about. New ideas materialize, new events occur, new directions open up, and the possibilities are truly endless. I should have known: Frankenstein is inexhaustible!

As for readership, visits to this site have grown steadily and encouragingly from day one. As the blog propagates, Google brings more visitors, roughly a hundred people now, every day. Lots of people are looking for info on Mary Shelley, Boris Karloff and Jack Pierce. There’s are recurring searches for James Whale, Schuler Hensley and Harem Alek. And, hey, there sure seem to be quite a few Rosalba Neri fans out there!

I am especially grateful for my regular visitors. Your support makes all of this worthwhile. And thanks to those of you who stop and leave a comment now and then. You inspire me and you keep me going.

And so, to celebrate the start of my next 100 posts, an announcement...

Beginning in January and on through the year, on occasion, I’ll be welcoming Guest Bloggers— Fellow bloggers, friends and writers I admire — to Frankensteinia! The only criterion is, of course, some reference to Frankenstein, otherwise, anything goes. Our guests will contribute reviews, discussions, analysis and humor. They’ll share personal Frankenstein stories and comments. They’ll opine, reflect and surprise. I already have a couple of posts on hand, and dammit, they’re great! Can’t wait to start sharing with you. We’re all in for some great reads!

Thanks again, everyone, and have a Great 2008!