Oni Press has announced Prometheus Graft: The Slayings at Death’s End, a supernatural mystery comic by writer George Northy (Yuletide) and artist Caitlin Yarsky (Black Hammer), that reimagines Frankenstein‘s Creature as having reinvented himself as the gentleman detective Prometheus Graft. The four-issue series, due out this winter, follows Graft “on the cusp of a new century,” when “he is summoned to the remote Romanian castle of Death’s End, where an immortal lord has assembled Europe’s most feared supernatural beings to broker a long-lasting peace.”
However, as the synopsis tells us, the “fragile treaty” is “shattered when the corpse of one of the prominent guests is found murdered in the castle’s hedge maze… turning witch against werewolf and vampire against ghoul as suspicion and bloodshed spiral. With only his instincts and a bloodstained trail of clues to guide him, can Prometheus Graft solve the slayings at Death’s End before a new day breaks… and all hell follows with it?”
Northy says, “I’ve always adored an Agatha Christie-style whodunnit and wanted to create a classic detective tale with a supernatural twist. But who to cast as the Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes or Benoit Blanc of this monster mash-up mystery? Then it came to me: the Creature in Mary Shelley’s iconic Frankenstein [or, The Modern Prometheus] was brilliant, tortured, and a ‘living puzzle’ himself.”
He continues, explaining, “What if he set out to try to solve the mystery of what he really is — and who exactly makes up his disparate, grafted-together pieces — and, along the way, discovered a talent for solving all manner of occult mysteries? That became our hero detective, Prometheus Graft. In his debut mystery, Graft is invited to Death’s End Castle to observe a peace treaty renewal between clans of vampyrs, witches and werewolves — but instead must solve a series of brutal slayings to avert all-out paranormal war.”
Yarsky adds, “As someone who loves all things supernatural, Prometheus Graft is an absolute playground for me. It’s been a joy creating a look-and-feel for the world with George, who gave me parameters but then let me run wild with whatever inspiration I came across. It’s a real partnership; we’ve worked hand-in-hand to bring readers a story with a unique blend of classic murder mystery, dark fantasy and gothic horror.”
Issue #1 will be released on December 9, with covers by Yarsky, Eric Powell, Gabriel Rodriguez, and Patricia Martín (1:20 copies). A blank sketch cover, and variants of Rodriguez and Powell’s artwork without text (respectively 1:10, and 1:50) will also be available. In the meantime, The Reborn Cut of Guillermo del Toro‘s Frankenstein will be released by the Criterion Collection on October 27, and Kelly Thompson & Mattia De Iulis‘s The Bride of Frankenstein Lives will begin the day after.
