IT'S ALIVE!...

…Is there any better title for the first entry to a blog dedicated to the creation and process of my next book FRANKENSTEIN? Maybe there is, because I have only just begun to gather up “raw materials” to assemble and bring to life my own creation. It is many months from completion. But being a huge fan of the original Universal film, there is no line more memorable than Colin Clive rambling like a madman…”Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!”

My goal with this bog is to keep you updated weekly (if not more) on the progress of the book. I will be exposing ideas, conversations with the editor Jordan Brown, leaking sketches and premiering a few final pages from the book. I would even like to create a couple sped up video clips revealing my process in creating a page.

Currently, I am reading the story. I have decided to work from the original 1818 version opposed to the version made popular in 1831. Not only is it rarely published anymore; it is also the more raw version of the two. Much like when a band does a rough recording of a song. It may have some imperfections but it has soul. Usually then, a producer comes in and adds the bells and whistles and the song is recorded over and over and over. It may be tighter and polished, but it looses something. This early 1818 version feels like that raw punk version (untainted and untouched). It is like discovering a lost manuscript. There are a few other differences. The 1818 version is absent of Mary Shelley’s introduction, which exposes how she came to write the story. I want to make this version my own: take away the story of a story of a story, and just tell THE STORY. There are also a few additions that change the theme of the story. In the 1818 version, Victor loses control of the monster due to his own arrogance and neglect. In the 1831 version, he is made to be more of a victim of fate and therefore holds no responsibility to the outcome. Being a huge fan of Heinrich Hoffmann’s Struwwelpeter and parodying this theme myself in the Wicked Nursery Rhymes series, I of course am more attracted to the concept of individual consequence.

Unfortunately, there will be very little artwork posted at first. I have much work to do in reading, abridging and note taking. It’s not like I can just read the story and begin working. There is an extensive study to be undertaken. The story will be read and reread. Omissions will have to be made to accommodate the copious amount of artwork this book demands. Until I can start posting more imagery, here is a preliminary sketch of the Monster to calm the craving of your frothing maws:

Until next time…
Be Grim!
Gris Grimly