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Product Description
Product Description
1816 was called "The Year Without A Summer." In the weird darkness of that July's volcanic winter, Mary Wolfestonecraft Godwin began writing Frankenstein on the shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. But that is not where Frankenstein began. It began a few months earlier when, en route through Germany to Switzerland, Mary, her future husband Percy Shelley, and her stepsister Clair Clairmont approached a strange castle. Castle Frankenstein, some one hundred years earlier, had been home to Johann Conrad Dippel, whose experiments included the independent invention of nitroglycerin, a distillation of the elixir of life - and the transfer of a live soul into an awful accretion of human body parts! Mary never spoke of having entered the real Castle Frankenstein, stark on its hilltop south of Darmstadt. But she did. And she was never the same again - because something was haunting that tower, and Mary met it there. Fear, death, and alchemy - the modern age is created here, in lost moments in a ruined castle on a day never recorded. The newest addition to Warren Ellis' Apparat line of original graphic novels has arrived! Following up the huge successes of Crecy and Aetheric Mechanics, Ellis turns his spark of mad genius to bring us a fantastical tale in this all-new original graphic novel illustrated in atmospheric perfection by newcomer Marek Oleksicki.
About the Author
Warren Ellis has created and written The Authority, Transmetropolitan, Orbiter, the award-winning Planetary, Ministry of Space and much more.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Hard to describe this little graphic novel that could.
First then I'll do away with a "bravo sir!" to newcomer marek Oleksicki for a brlliant work on the art side. Writer Warren Ellis throws everything possible at him ad he delivers with an apparent and appalling ease and in fantastic, suitably dark and stark black and white detail.
The story is deceivingly simple: Mary Wollestonecraft Godwin is travelling through Germany with her future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, when they ride by Castle Frankenstein.
mary goes to visit the casle and finds it haunted by a mysterious creature, who tells her the story of a "alchemical marriage" of past, present and future she is at the centre of.
Blending history and fiction seamlessly together to achieve the higher sense of reality and truth that only the best allegories can, Warren Ellis tells us how he modern age is born in a whirlwindof innovative forward thinkers, gothic tales writers, romantic poets, turbulent relationships, and ground-breaking science discoveries.
It's even hard to decide if this is truly a comic book or a pamphlet in the vein of Thomas More's Utopia or Plato's dialogues. Science-fiction fantasy with a political and philosophical bend just about covers it for genre (and it requires smething like 5 tags just for that.
In any case, a fascinating read and a brilliant unique comic book experience.
First then I'll do away with a "bravo sir!" to newcomer marek Oleksicki for a brlliant work on the art side. Writer Warren Ellis throws everything possible at him ad he delivers with an apparent and appalling ease and in fantastic, suitably dark and stark black and white detail.
The story is deceivingly simple: Mary Wollestonecraft Godwin is travelling through Germany with her future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, when they ride by Castle Frankenstein.
mary goes to visit the casle and finds it haunted by a mysterious creature, who tells her the story of a "alchemical marriage" of past, present and future she is at the centre of.
Blending history and fiction seamlessly together to achieve the higher sense of reality and truth that only the best allegories can, Warren Ellis tells us how he modern age is born in a whirlwindof innovative forward thinkers, gothic tales writers, romantic poets, turbulent relationships, and ground-breaking science discoveries.
It's even hard to decide if this is truly a comic book or a pamphlet in the vein of Thomas More's Utopia or Plato's dialogues. Science-fiction fantasy with a political and philosophical bend just about covers it for genre (and it requires smething like 5 tags just for that.
In any case, a fascinating read and a brilliant unique comic book experience.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought this graphic novel recently because I'd heard great things about the Aparat series both here and elsewhere on the net.
Let me start by saying that the artwork in this book really is great - very atmospheric and kind of 'old school' black and white art in a good way.
The story, however, is a bit of a hack job. Warren Ellis fluctuates between genius and derivative too easily for my tastes. Without delving into spoilers, this is essentially a part-historic, part-fictional biography of Mary Shelley. I have no idea why it's told through the eyes of 'the Monster', as the extensive monologues mean that it could just as easily be a short piece of prose. The philosophical angle that is common in the Apparat stories is nothing new - it shows that Ellis has probably read Peter Ackroyd's 'Hawksmoor', or watched the cult movie 'Puritan'... perhaps I'd have enjoyed this work more if it hadn't been for my familiarity with the source material.
In either case, it's a very slim book, and although it was an enjoyable read I found it lacking in substance. I don't regret reading it, but I won't read it again - average.
Let me start by saying that the artwork in this book really is great - very atmospheric and kind of 'old school' black and white art in a good way.
The story, however, is a bit of a hack job. Warren Ellis fluctuates between genius and derivative too easily for my tastes. Without delving into spoilers, this is essentially a part-historic, part-fictional biography of Mary Shelley. I have no idea why it's told through the eyes of 'the Monster', as the extensive monologues mean that it could just as easily be a short piece of prose. The philosophical angle that is common in the Apparat stories is nothing new - it shows that Ellis has probably read Peter Ackroyd's 'Hawksmoor', or watched the cult movie 'Puritan'... perhaps I'd have enjoyed this work more if it hadn't been for my familiarity with the source material.
In either case, it's a very slim book, and although it was an enjoyable read I found it lacking in substance. I don't regret reading it, but I won't read it again - average.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
1814, and Mary Godwin, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Mary's half sister Claire Clairmont (pregnant with Byron's child) are en route to the Villa Diodati, Lake Geneva when they pass through Darmstadt and see the ruins of Castle Frankenstein. Intrigued, Mary stops the coach and goes into the ruins alone to investigate. There she meets a mysterious creature who takes her on a metaphysical journey...
The first thing that strikes you when you open the comic book is the black and white artwork. It's dark, tempestuous, and utterly romantic. The horse and coach hurtling through the black forest with the driver's cloak billowing is romantic and takes you there instantly. Throughout this short comic there are moments like that and full credit deserves to go to the artist, Marek Oleksicki, who did a fantastic job with the art.
Ellis' script is also excellent. Taking various strands of history and fiction and weaving them together into a pseudo-premonition/explanation of the modern era via the novel "Frankenstein" is at times genius, at others baffling, but always compelling. The art helps but my own interest in this era especially this group of individuals at this time made me enjoy the book more than others perhaps who haven't studied the time. The only thing I regret is that it isn't longer and that Ellis didn't take the story to Lake Geneva where Byron and Polidori are introduced and things get even darker (and having read Ellis' other books probably funnier). As it is though this is one of the better books to have come from the Apparat line and a wonderful short comic book.
The first thing that strikes you when you open the comic book is the black and white artwork. It's dark, tempestuous, and utterly romantic. The horse and coach hurtling through the black forest with the driver's cloak billowing is romantic and takes you there instantly. Throughout this short comic there are moments like that and full credit deserves to go to the artist, Marek Oleksicki, who did a fantastic job with the art.
Ellis' script is also excellent. Taking various strands of history and fiction and weaving them together into a pseudo-premonition/explanation of the modern era via the novel "Frankenstein" is at times genius, at others baffling, but always compelling. The art helps but my own interest in this era especially this group of individuals at this time made me enjoy the book more than others perhaps who haven't studied the time. The only thing I regret is that it isn't longer and that Ellis didn't take the story to Lake Geneva where Byron and Polidori are introduced and things get even darker (and having read Ellis' other books probably funnier). As it is though this is one of the better books to have come from the Apparat line and a wonderful short comic book.
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