Category Archives: Products

Frankenstein’s New Game “The Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature”

wanderer_frankensteins_creatureMary Shelley’s Frankenstein story continues to inspire new iterations. Soon to come, beginning this Halloween to a mobile or game screen is The Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature, a narrative exploration/adventure game from developer La Belle Games and French TV network ARTE France. The game invites players to take the point of view of the Frankenstein creature and write their own take of the story journey of Mary Wollstonecraft’s Shelley famous novel, where the choices made in the course of the game will affect the ending.

This world of the gothic story is designed with bright and vibrant colors with a universe based on 18th Century Paintings. The background landscapes change over the course of play with a soundtrack to lend an emotional tone to the creature’s journey. The experience is to draw the played into a wanderlust feeling of discovery drawn from the classic original novel.

Through the creature you travel across Europe in an introspective quest of self-discovery. You begin as a created being with no concept if you are good or evil. You wander the land with no memory and no past, where the evolving landscapes based on the emotions of discovery blend reality and fiction as your encounters with humankind shape a future destiny from the choices you make> of your experiences. You cannot escape learning and accepting where you came from as you meet humans and make life and death choices. Some experiences will be pleasant joys and some bitter brutal sorrow, but each station of growth brings you closer to the truth of your existence and tells your ending.

In a prequel game, you play 18-year-old Mary at the villa by Lake Geneva in the well-known  ghost story dare with Lord Byron, Percy and Claire by the fireside. You have to speak up and tell your own story in a room full of famous romantic detractors. Perhaps rather inspired by the beginning of the Bride of Frankenstein movie version, you start with the gothic summer before beginning your journey.

The Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature launches October 31, 2019 and will be downloadable from Steam, coming to Switch, PC, Android, and iOS.
Official Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature site here ARTE.

Youtube Wanderer Game Trailer

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley  – E-Book

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley – Paperback

Get Mary Shelley Memoirs Audiobook Free with Trial at Audible

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley Audiobook at Amazon

 

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Mistress Elvira Parties with Mary Shelley!

elvira_monster_partyTV horror schlock hostess and pop icon, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is emerging from the TV history crypt to adorn the pages of a new line of comic books and graphic novels. Dynamite Entertainment is producing the series to begin with a four issue set. The new tales of the gothic glam girl with the crackling wit and her creepy friends come from writer David Avallone (Bettie Page, Twilight Zone) and artist Dave Acosta (Doc Savage) will be showing up in comic book store in July.

The announcement states the case, “The series starts when The Mistress of the Dark has become unstuck in time and crashes Mary Shelley’s monster weekend, beginning an epic journey through horror history, stalked by the most terrifying nightmare to ever walk the Earth.” The release says “no spoilers” but the cover art suggests a hipster Frankenstein as a green Frankie Avalon with his vampire friends in a Beach Blanket Bingo sort of Monster Mash. (Okay, forgive the 60s culture references, but if Ready Player One can play the same game with 80’s… why not Elvira).

Actress-writer Cassandra Peterson, who portrayed the pulchritudinous Mistress of the Dark states, “I’m thrilled to partner with Dynamite! I’ve been working hand in hand with them over the past year to put together the best comic series possible.  Elvira’s new dark adventures continue starting this July!”

For those, perhaps internationally, unfamiliar with her, “Elvira, Mistress of the Dark” was the first horror host ever to be syndicated nationally on television in the U.S., usually playing in late night when TV still ended in screen snow noise about 2 in the morning. She has morphed over time into one of the more outrageous characters in popular culture. Her reign as ‘Queen of Halloween’ now spans thirty-five years and includes two nationally syndicated television series, two feature films (Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and Elvira’s Haunted Hills), an IMAX movie and two motion control rides. She has appeared in TV commercials, music CDs, written four books and licensed products from pinball machines, and action figures to beer and perfume.

According to writer David Avallone, “I really want to capture the essence of what Cassandra Peterson created. The story is a horror tale (or a quartet of connected horror tales) with a nightmarish villain and danger and action… but at its center is this wise-cracking, plucky, sexy, unflappable heroine.”

This project reteams the two Davids, Avallone and his frequent collaborator Acosta, who have worked on multiple projects together including “Doc Savage: Ring of Fire”, “Twilight Zone / The Shadow” and a story in the Love is Love anthology that raised money for the Pulse Nightclub shooting victims.

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley  – E-Book

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley – Paperback

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Helping Frankenstein – The Game

Helping Frankenstein Game ArtIt’s alive! Frankenstein rises again on an Iphone near you, or in your hand. Anroid, too. “Helping Frankenstein” a newly released game from Sweden based game developer Peeking Peacock lets you play assistant to Dr. Frankenstein in creating a creature from dead bodies! There are a few differences in this version than in Mary Shelley’s novel. First, the “doctor: here is an attractive young woman in lab coat, Ms. Frankenstein, and the main player character is the hunchbacked assistant Igor, of the movie world.

Players of the game take on the role of Igor, who has just lost his previous job due to a work conflict with an angry mob with wooden stakes. You, as Igor, will now assist the young Ms. Frankenstein in her latest experiment, to create life, but first she needs a body to be dug from the graveyard, then be assembled piece-by piece. According to the game description “the church is not so keen on this ‘bring-people-back-to-life-thing’ and will try to stop you with all means necessary.” So the player must overcome the obstacles, which also include the local law and other characters who will try to “get in your way, or maybe help you out, as you progress towards your goal.”

The game features cartoon-style graphics with point-and-tap gameplay and some apparently intentional “poor attempts at humor” along the way. The game and the price are a lower cost adventure to while away some time while waiting in line, or the while story line can be played in one long session.

Here’s a vimeo trailer of Helping Frankenstein trailer

Mary Shelley might be appalled at the prospect of the hunchback in her story, as she suffered paralysis and disability herself, but she would probably applaud the female “doctor” as both she and her mother revered education for woman.

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley  – E-Book

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley – Paperback

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Frankenstein & Mary Shelley Books 2018

With the 200th Anniversary year upon us, a number of new books and takes on the Frankenstein story and Mary Shelley biographies have made their appearance, from indie publishers, self-publishing and mainstream.

There are a whole variety of stage productions at theaters large and small, from stagings of the original story adaptations to the more fanciful, including the puppet show version. The “Mary Shelley” movie should make an appearance in theaters in 2018 and Universal Cable Productions has announced a new untitled TV series project from Adam Simon and Robert Masello in which Mary Shelley is to play a part along with other 19th Century authors like Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker and H.G. Wells, in a reimagined “secret society of authors” monsterfest set in Victorian England. Mrs. Shelley has already appeared in the “Frankenstein Chronicles”, the London murder series, going into its second season.

Here is a list of some of the books recently released or soon to come.

Monster: The Early Life of Mary Shelley – by Mark Arnold

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley with and introductions – by Charlotte Gordon

Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley – by Charlotte Gordon

Daughter of Earth and Water: Biography of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley – by Noel Gerson

The Complete Frankenstein: 200 Year Edition: 1818 and 1831 Versions

In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein – By Fiona Sampson

Mary’s Monster: Live, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein – by Lita Judge

Mary Shelley and the Rights of the Child: Political Philosophy in “Frankenstein” – by Eileen Hunt Bonning

Mary Shelley: The Strange True Tale of Frankenstein’s Creator – by Catherine Reef

Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds – by Mary Shelley and David H. Guston

The Determined Heart: The Tale of Mary Shelley and Her Frankenstein – by Antoinette May

Mary, Who Wrote Frankenstein – by Linda Baily (Author) Julia Sarda (Illustrator) A Picture Book!

Son of Terror: Frankenstein Continued, A Sequel – by William A Chanler

And of course…

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley  – E-Book

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley: Frankenstein Diaries – Paperback

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley: Frankenstein Diaries – Audiobook

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Frankenstein Coin from the Royal Mint

coin_frankensteinAmong the honors and celebrations of the 200th Anniversary of the publishing of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s “Frankenstein, or, The Modern Promotheus” is a £2 commemorative coin from Britain’s Royal Mint.

A variety of coins are issued by the mint each year to mark important dates and events in history. For 2018, aside from the Frankenstein 200th coin is 50 pence coin to mark 100 years since women won the vote in England, and another £2 coin celebrating the end of World War One. To add to the noting of women’s suffrage and women authors, Jane Austen now appears on a new polymer fiber £10 bank note.

The novel of Frankenstein was first published briefly on January 1, 1818, but pulled from shelves and officially published on March 11, 1818. The first editions did not have the authors name on them and Mary Shelley would only get accredited in later editions.

The Frankenstein coin from the Royal Mint has no image of the monster, or indeed the author, but the word “Frankenstein” in an electric jolt of type across the middle of the reverse side of the coin and the outer band which notes “Bicentenary of Mary Shelley’s – 1818 The Modern Prometheus 2018”. On the obverse side is the profile portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, looking particularly jowly in this recent release.

In some press releases it is referred to as the “Dr. Frankenstein” coin, but Victor Frankenstein never achieved the title of “Doctor”, so, more a courtesy title.

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley  – E-Book

Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley – Paperback

 

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Frankenstein in Frozen Yogurt and Waffle – the Franken Fraffle

franken_fraffle_sloan.jpgIt’s been 200 years since the story of Frankenstein was first envisioned in a fever dream of an 18 year old girl’s imagination, and countless movies, plays, novels and Halloween scares have followed, but you’ve never really “arrived” as a true cultural icon until someone names a FroYo treat in your honor. In the novel, the Frankenstein creature made of reanimated worm food escapes to the frozen arctic, but since the ice of the arctic is melting, making a frozen dessert of sweetened cream and amoebas seems just and appropriate.

London’s most indulgent British frozen yoghurt parlour, the Sloane Bros. Frozen Yoghurt Co., is opening its first location outside of London, in the Intu Victoria Centre of Nottingham, not far from Shelley friend Lord Byron’s ancestral home of Newstead Abbey. To further its unique philosophy of combining British tradition and innovation and to celebrate 200 years since Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, the Sloane Bros. have introduced a new product intended as a treat on a treat on a treat, featuring its thick and creamy British-sourced fat-free frozen yoghurt accompanied by scrumptious toppings and freshly made waffles. The creature of Shelley’s imagination had no name, but this one does, christened the Mighty Franken’ Fraffle®.

Just like the famous monster sewn together of parts imagined in a dream by its literary progenitor, taking their customers’ love for both the company’s “froyos” and freshly-made waffles, the Sloane Bros. scientific team put their heads together one dark and stormy evening and in a flash of waking vision they came up with the ultimate indulgent treat and a monster was created! But a sweet creature combining all their tasty sweet treats. And it’s trademarked so no-one else will ever name anything the Fraffle, at least until Universal buys it and teams it up with the WereWoffle®. I just trademarked it, so stay away.

The Sloane Bros.’ creamy frozen yoghurt, freshly made waffles and thick refreshing smoothies are available at both the company’s London Brick Lane and Nottingham’s Intu Victoria Centre locations. And as the Frankenstein creature himself might say “Fire bad…Fraffle Yoghurt Goood”!

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