Mistress Elvira Parties with Mary Shelley!
TV 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.