New Comic Imagines Mary Shelley Hunting the Monsters She Created

A new comic imagines a secret memoir that suggests Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was actually non-fiction.

The book is called Mary Shelley: Monster Hunter, and its by writers Adam Glass (Rough Riders, Teen Titans) and Olivia Cuartero-Briggs (E TV’s The Arrangements) with artist Hayden Sherman (Cold War, The Few, Wasted Space). It’s being published by AfterShock Comics, and it’s due out this April.

I guess we’ve hit the point where the full literary cannon is going to be tapped to inspire new comics. This week saw a comic homage to Oliver Twist come out…just a few months after a different comic homage to Oliver Twist. Still waiting, meanwhile, for a proper tour de force OGN about Ulysses but with cyborgs.

Full PR from AfterShock follows:

MARY SHELLEY: MONSTER HUNTER #1 / $3.99 / 32 pages / Full Color / ON SALE 4.17.2019
Writer: Adam Glass & Olivia Cuartero-Briggs
Artist: Hayden Sherman
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
Cover: Hayden Sherman
1:10 Incentive cover: Bernard Chang

For nearly two centuries, scholars have wondered how on earth Mary Shelley, a nineteen-year-old girl, was able To conjure on of the most frightening and enduring horror stories of all-time: Frankenstein.

But with the recent discovery of Mary Shelley’s secret memoir, the truth is finally revealed: Mary Shelley didn’t just write Frankenstein, she lived it. Traveling back to that historic Geneva winter of 1816, Mary, her fiancé Percy, sisters Claire and Fanny, and the celebrated poet Lord Byron, find themselves guests of the eerie Frankenstein Estate. The macabre and frightening events that follow lead Mary to both a gruesome and shocking discovery. Their mysterious host is not at all what they expected, and their intentions will change the course of Mary’s life forever.

Brought to life by Adam Glass (ROUGH RIDERS, THE NORMALS, THE LOLLIPOP KIDS) and Olivia Cuartero-Briggs (E TV’s The Arrangement) with art by Hayden Sherman (COLD WAR, The Few, Wasted Space), Mary Shelley: Monster Hunter is historical fiction at its most (After)shocking!

ADAM GLASS ON WHAT THE BOOK’S ABOUT AND WHY HE’S EXCITED FOR IT TO COME OUT:

“How could a twenty-year-old woman write the most famous horror work of all time? Easy, she actually lived it. I’m excited for everyone to see who Mary really was. Olivia and I did extensive research on the mother of modern horror and she was way ahead of her time, a true feminist pioneer.”

ADAM GLASS ON HOW WORKING WITH OLIVIA CAME TO BE:

My wife and I were in Singapore where I was a guest speaker at Tisch Asia and Olivia was a graduate student there. I read her work and thought she was super talented. So a few years later back in the states I hired Olivia as the Writer’s assistant on a TV show I was co-running and the rest is history as she’s gone on to work on other shows and staff. One day we were sharing our love for Mary Shelly together, (I always wanted to do a story about Mary but never knew how.) Once Olivia and I started to talk more about it I felt like we had an approach that was different and called my partners in crime, Aftershock Comics and they got it right away.

But what made this even more special was the idea of being able to help platform a younger writer whom I believe in.  I’m excited for everyone to see how talented Olivia is. I think she will become a powerhouse in both comics and TV. You’re welcome fellow nerds everywhere.

ADAM GLASS ON (3) REASONS WHY COMIC FANS SHOULD ADD THIS TITLE TO THEIR PULL LIST:

“First, it’s A familiar but fresh take of a classic. Like “Wicked” rewrote the history of Elphaba, we rewrote the history of Frankenstein.

Secondly, though a feminist hero, Mary Shelly is a very relatable character in a remarkable situation that I think we can all root for.

And finally, the story kicks ass.”

OLIVIA CUARTERO-BRIGGS ON RECALLING THE FIRST COMIC BOOK SHE EVER READ:

“Oh, yes. I was all about “Archie” comics for years. In fact, my father still has an entire milk crate full back home. When I was growing up, Archie, and then the Betty and Veronica spinoffs, were really the only comics out there for girls. Everything else was about hulking male superheroes, sometimes featuring scantily-clad female sidekicks. Things have changed a lot in the world of comics, thank goodness, and I am stoked to be contributing comic content by women for women that reflects a real, female experience.”

OLIVIA CUARTERO-BRIGGS ON OTHER HISTORICAL OR FICTIONAL CHARACTERS SHE WOULD LIKE TO TACKLE:

“Yes! Mary Read, the English Pirate who spent most of her life disguised as a man, is one. Ching Shih seems like she was pretty rad, Marie Curie could be so much fun, Sacagawea… There’s a pretty long list of amazing women out there that would make incredible subjects for a fun, revisionist history. In terms of fictional characters, I’m a big Shakespeare nerd, so Juliet, Titania, Miranda… It would be amazing to get to build off and reinvent any one of them.”

OLIVIA CUARTERO-BRIGGS ON WHICH ACTRESS SHE’D LIKE TO PLAY MARY IF THIS BOOK WAS TURNED INTO A FILM:

“Oooh, this is fun! Emma Watson could totally rock this. I’m also really digging Olivia Cooke these days, and Katherine Langford too! But there are so many super talented young actresses out there right now. Casting would really have a tough time with this one!”