MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN STARRING BORIS KARLOFF 8-Page Preview & Interview with Sara Karloff

As a follow up to the excellent "Bram Stoker's Dracula Starring Bela Lugosi" graphic novel, Kerry Gammill and El Garing return for “Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Starring Boris Karloff." A new adaptation that remains faithful to Mary Shelley's original novel, the graphic novel features Boris Karloff's in a new vision for Frankenstein's Monster, and Sara Karloff, daughter of Boris Karloff, served as an executive consultant on the project. I had the pleasure of catching up with her recently to talk about the graphic novel, her thoughts on the 1931 film and Boris Karloff's performance, and her favorite films that star her father. We also have an 8-page preview you can check out below.

What excited you about getting involved in the Mary Shelley's Frankenstein graphic novel project?

Sara Karloff: Having seen the wonderful work they did on the Dracula [graphic novel].

One of the things that really stood out to me, and I'm sure to you as well, is that the design of the monster is different here, where we see Boris Karloff with the longer hair. What did you think about that?

Sara Karloff: The entire artwork throughout the book is just magnificent. Kerry has absolutely captured my father who would, in real life, hopefully be unrecognizable with all that long hair. Kerry has captured his facial features magnificently.

It's incredible to me how much each drawing of my father in the book is indeed my father. He's just captured him perfectly. There are a lot of my father's actual features in every single drawing of the creature in the book.

It’s almost been a century since Universal’s Frankenstein was released. Why do you think the film and your father's performance have stuck with people almost a century later?

Sara Karloff: The original novel is timeless, valuable, and thought-provoking in so many ways. The film doesn't really follow the novel, but my father's interpretation of the creature has some of the sympathetic softness, and [speaks to] the misunderstanding, and how we can't help how we are created. The moment when the creature sees his own image in the water… he comes to an understanding with himself and with the world's reaction.

All of these things are both in the book and in the film. My father's portrayal of some of these reactions, actions, feelings, inner feelings are in the film, are certainly in the book, and the new [graphic novel] captures all of that perfectly. So it becomes a page-turner, and it's just the most wonderful book. Fans will love it and my father would be so pleased with this new book after so much time has passed. 

Mary Shelley's book is 200 years old, the film's almost 100 years old, my father has been gone for 55 years. Time has done nothing but make us understand her book more, understand the film more, and this new [graphic novel] will just put it all together. It captures the essence of Mary Shelley's book, it captures the essence of my father's film, and, certainly, the artwork captures the essence of my father's features. The end result is just the greatest compliment to my father.

With it being the Halloween season, what are some of your favorite performances from your father that you’d recommend to our readers?

Sara Karloff: I really liked him in a The Comedy of Terrors. Peter Lorre and Vincent Price had such a good time spoofing their own boogeyman images. They'd reached a point in their career where they could do that. They had a wonderful time driving Roger Corman crazy on the set. 

I love Targets because it reflected my father's real opinion, which was that the real horror was on the streets and not up on the screen, and he was essentially playing himself, an aging horror screen star. He admired Peter Bogdanovich, his creativity and talent. Peter wrote it, he acted in it, he directed it, and none of that is an easy job. A combination of that is hard to find in any one person. So for many reasons, those two I loved. And of course, I love Young Frankenstein. Tears run down my face with laughter every time I see that work of Mel Brooks.

---

"Mary Shelley’s iconic masterpiece is brought to life with the definitive on-screen Frankenstein, Boris Karloff, in this stunning new graphic novel!

Decades before the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells, 18-year-old Mary Shelley wrote what many regard as the first work of science fiction when she penned FRANKENSTEIN: or, the MODERN PROMETHEUS, which was published in 1818.

Over one hundred years later, in 1931, a hard-working but relatively unknown actor named Boris Karloff was cast to play Frankenstein’s monster in James Whale’s now classic movie adaptation. The film made Karloff a star and solidified Frankenstein’s monster as an icon of the silver screen.

In 2024, Legendary Comics is proud to bring Shelley and Karloff together for the first time in a faithful adaptation of the novel starring the iconic actor in the lead role of the fully reimagined monster. In partnership with Sara Karloff of Karloff Enterprises, and featuring the artistic talents of Kerry Gammill and El Garing, the team behind the award-winning BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA STARRING BELA LUGOSI, this new graphic novel is certain to delight and terrify old and new fans alike."

For more information, visit: https://www.legendary.com/comics/mary-shelleys-frankenstein-starring-boris-karloff/

To read an 8-page preview right now, click on the image below or visit: https://dailydead.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Frankenstein-Interior-sample-pages.pdf