DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT – @dynamitecomics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
STORY: David Avallone
ART: Dave Acosta
COLORS: Andrew Covalt
LETTERS: Taylor Esposito
EDITOR: Kevin Ketner
COVER: Joseph Michael Linsner
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: J. Bone; Kyle Strahm with Greg Smallwood; Craig Cermak with Brittany Pezzillo; Robert Hack with Francesco Francavilla; Craig Cermak; Joseph Michael Linsner; Kyle Strahm
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (July 2018)
Rated Teen+
Elvira: Timescream – Chapter One: “Frankenstein is the Name of the Doctor”
“Horror hosts” present low-budget, low-grade, and cult films to television and radio audiences, with an emphasis on horror, science fiction, and/or B-movies. Some horror hosts adopt an alternate identity, creating a character they play, such as when actress, Maila Nurmi, became the horror host character, “Vampira” in 1954 for KABC-TV in Los Angeles, California.
In 1981, actress and model Cassandra Peterson created the hostess character, “Elvira.” Elvira gradually grew in popularity and eventually became a brand name. As Elvira, Peterson endorsed many products and became a pitch-woman, appearing in numerous television commercials throughout the 1980s.
Elvira also appeared in comic books, beginning in 1986 with the short-lived series from DC Comics, Elvira's House of Mystery, which ran for eleven issues and one special issue (1987). In 1993, Eclipse Comics and Claypool Comics began the long-running Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. Eventually, Claypool would be sole publisher, and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark ran for 166 issues until 2007.
Elvira returns to comic books in Dynamite Entertainment's new four-issue, comic book miniseries, also entitled Elvira Mistress of the Dark. It is written by David Avallone; drawn by Dave Acosta; colored by Andrew Covalt; and lettered by Taylor Esposito.
Elvira Mistress of the Dark #1 (“Frankenstein is the Name of the Doctor”) find Elvira on the set of her latest B-movie. During a break in filming, she returns to her trailer to find a coffin in the middle of the floor, but it isn't just any old coffin. It emits a time vortex, and Elvira soon finds herself pushed in and tumbling through time. First stop, the summer of 1816 and a certain villa near Lake Geneva.
Writer David Avallone and artist Dave Acosta are the creative team behind Dynamite Entertainment's most excellent crossover comic book, the four-issue miniseries, Twilight Zone: The Shadow (2017). A moody, stylish, atmospheric piece, the narrative focused on reckoning for The Shadow.
Avallone and Acosta deliver something quite different with Elvira Mistress of the Dark. Avallone's story is campy, kind of like a rollicking romp of a horror movie that plays loose with the history of horror fiction. Acosta's illustrations recall classic Warren Publications horror comics with humor that is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and the storytelling is perfect for the mood.
Andrew Covalt's coloring of Acosta's illustrations is visually and graphically striking. It is a deft mixture of sparkling color effects and and something like the colorful and sometimes garish cinematography of Hammer Film Productions (the legendary British film studio that produced numerous horror films). As usual, Taylor Esposito's lettering is solid and perfectly captures this first chapter's mood and also Elvira's snark, sarcasm, and wit. Esposito even delivers comedy gold on the characters' screeching and yelling. “Edgar Allan Freaking Poe!, indeed.
Elvira Mistress of the Dark is blessedly cursed with an excellent creative team. I can't wait for the second issue. Maybe, these guys could produce a readable Harley Quinn comic book.
9 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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