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THE BARON VON FRANKENSTEIN: A HOLLYWOOD FAIRYTALE

Created by Richard Rothstein, Story by Richard Rothstein and Stanley Resnicoff, Written by Michael Moreci, Art by Keith Burns

Arriving in Hollywood in the 50’s to star in their own movies, Dracula, Wolfman, The Mummy, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Invisible Man, the Cyclops and the first family of horror; the Baron Von Frankenstein, his son the Monster and trusty servant Igor have seen their glory days fade. Just so many unemployed actors, they pass their time playing cards at the Monsters and Magicians Union Hall and dream of being big stars again.

Everything changes when the Baron mysteriously vanishes, POOF! Into thin air after voting against the Monsters on the licensing of their likenesses for TV commercials.

When Igor and the Monster discover that the Monsters are glad the Baron is gone, and have no interest in helping find him, they remember their roles in  the movie” Frankenstein Meets Sherlock Holmes “ and set about solving “The Case of the Missing Baron.”

The Fellowship was fortunate enough to obtain advance copy of Viper Comics’ latest project – NIGHTMARES IN OZ. Dale Mettam wrote the story, Courtney Huddleston did the artwork and Ed Ryzowski handled the colors.

“If you enjoy slasher horror with a mix of the supernatural, this is your book.”

CLICK HERE TO READ FULL REVIEW!

Welcome to Osmann Grove, Kansas.  The perfect place for college kids on Spring Break to go for a quiet camping vacation.  But Osmann Grove has secrets that go back many generations; and for the campers, this will be a trip that none of them forget.  At least the ones who survive the mysterious homicidal Scarecrow will never forget it.

Written by Dale Mettam | Art by Courtney Huddleston | Colors by Ed Ryzowski

AVAILABLE FOR DIGITAL DOWNLOAD OCTOBER 31, 2011! ONLY .99 Cents…..

ORIGINAL ARTICLE CLICK HERE

REVIEW: NosferatuPosted on February 2, 2011 by John Lees

The subject of today’s review is an interesting comic curio: a modern-day retelling of F.W. Murnau’s classic 1922 silent horror film Nosferatu, by writer Christopher Howard Wolf and artist Justin Wayne.  The graphic novel from Viper Comics, now available to buy on Amazon, is unusual in that it’s essentially a reimagining of a reimagining.

The original film Nosferatu was a thinly-veiled adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with the German filmmakers unable to acquire the rights to the novel.  And so Count Dracula became Count Orlok – the hideous, bald creature brought to life in iconic fashion by Max Schreck – and various other key characters were renamed and slightly altered.  So when the Nosferatu graphic novel in turn renames and slightly alters the key characters from the F.W. Murnau film, we have a case of the Dracula cast filtered by three degrees of seperation.

Intriguingly, this version of Nosferatu draws inspiration from both the film its based on and the Bram Stoker source material that may be called its “grandfather”.  The general plot of the comic is structured in a way that far more closely resembles Nosferatu than Dracula (though given that many subsequent filmic incarnations of Dracula would draw heavy influence from Nosferatu, that might be unclear to those unfamiliar with the original novel – for example, Nosferatu, not Dracula, introduced the idea of the vampire being killed by sunlight, with Bram Stoker’s Dracula able to happily walk about during the daytime), with a surprising amount of the key story beats kept intact even with the surface details radically altered.  Justin Wayne also manages to carry over much of the iconic imagery from the film, such as Max Schreck’s unnerving appearance as Count Orlok, and the famous “shadow against the stairway” moment.

But Christopher Wolf cleverly works in the “diary extract” narrative device of the novel, using extracts from an autobiography and e-mail exchanges as captions to frame much of the action.  And while the character of Bullner might share a name with his Nosferatu counterpart, putting him in the position of a federal agent obsessed with hunting down Orlok and giving him a more active role in the story’s climax makes him seem a lot less like the passive professor who played a mere bit-part role in the F.W. Murnau film, and a lot more like vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing, Dracula’s nemesis in the Bram Stoker novel.

The most obvious shift in dynamic for this modern-day version of the story is that married couple Thomas and Ellen Hutter turn into goth-chick lesbian couple Tommy and Elle.  Tommy is an up-and-coming photographer, with Elle her model muse.  One of the biggest strengths of the graphic novel is the believable relationship between these two characters, and their respective nuanced characterisations, aided by Wolf’s ear for snappy, naturalistic dialogue.  Even amongst established comic book A-listers such dialogue isn’t always easy to find, so it’s always a treat when coming across a comic writer who has such a knack for it.

Another one of the highlights of the graphic novel is the portrayal of Orlok’s crazed lackey, Nox.  While in terms of the broad strokes, he follows the same trajectory of the Knock character from the original film, Wolf takes relish in fleshing him out, giving him more acts of bloody depravity to engage in, and giving him a killer wit and a fair share of mean-spirited monlogues.

With all this talk of snappy wit and quick-fire dialogue, I think it’s clear this graphic novel is not intending to be a straight horror.  As Wolf himself states in his introduction, the story is very much a tongue-in-cheek take on how a classic horror might be giving the Hollywood remake treatment.  And he is ably assisted in this goal by the art of Justin Wayne.  Falling just on the right side of cartoony, with a real knack for expressive faces, Wayne is crucial in establishing the mood of the comic.  He’s helped in this regard by the crisp and vibrant colors of Sal N., aka The Darkcloak.

With every medium of entertainment seemingly in vampire overload, and with the glut of remakes and retellings removing any sense of dread or mystery from the Dracula tale, you might think that the last thing you want to read is a Nosferatu graphic novel.  Fair enough.  But if you can overcome any such hesitation and give this a try, I believe you’ll find an enjoyable story with more than enough charm and originality to make it stand out from its well-worn source material(s) and the countless other adaptations.

Twigs Dupree was just your average, everyday forgotten townie a few months ago, but things changed for the shaggy headed has-been when he accidentally injected himself with an experimental concoction that gave him the gift of immortality. Now along with his childhood friend Jerry, Twigs wages a war in the suburbs, playing part-time superhero with the help of a police scanner.  Things take an unexpected turn however when the sexy Agent Armstrong recruits Twigs for the FBI and asks him to take down a serial killer known as The Animal, a madman who some believe to be a werewolf, but who in reality is the head of a cult that will make David Koresh and his Branch Davidians look like the cast of Sesame Street.

Shoot him in the head and he’ll keep walking.  Strangle him with a wire and he’ll keep talking.  Send him up against a killer that views entrails as Christmas tinsel and for the first time since he got his powers, Twigs will wish he were dead.

Format: graphic novel / full color / 112 Pages / $11.95
ISBN: 0-9754193-9-0
By: (W) Jason M. Burns, (A) Bryan Baugh