Title: Unfashioned Creatures

Author: Enrica Jang, Editor

Date of First Publication: October 2013

Place of Publication: RED STYLO MEDIA (RSM) is an independent comics publisher, founded in 2008 by writer, Enrica Jang. http://redstylo.com

Type: Graphic Novel

Characters: Victor Frankenstein; The Creature; Elizabeth Frankenstein; Mary Shelley

Themes: ANDROID; BYRONIC HERO; POSTHUMAN; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; QUEER; RACE/POLITICS; RETRO SF; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS

Critical Summary: Unfashioned Creatures is print and digital collection of 20 tributes to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The publication is stitched together from an original online call for artists to submit their original work for review. Enrica Jang, the editor of the independent comics publisher got together with her team at Red Stylo Media to select the stories put them together in an inclusive, full color volume available for purchase in print and online.

The collection is a body of comic shorts, short stories and original art. The stories range from a more horrific, “classic” take of Shelley’s Creature and all new comedic interpretations of him. The volume offers a wide range of environments—from Shelley’s Victorian times to the planet Mars. Though some of the stories are wildly imaginative and essentially removed from Shelley’s original version of the Creature, they still manage to connect to the larger themes of isolation, curiosity, and moral ambiguities.

Since this volume is a collection, and not just one story being told from one author’s perspective, most of the characters in Shelley’s original novel appear in one way or another. In some of the renditions, they are new characters all together with different names and backgrounds, but the elements of their personalities remain the same. In some of the shorts, Mary Shelley appears as well as a character with different relationships to the Creature and Victor Frankenstein.

The volume is comprehensive and easily covers the themes of the Sympathetic Monsters, Mad Scientists, Androids, and the Byronic Hero. Another great feature of the collection is that editor Enrica Jang chose an equal number of stories as written by women, providing a platform for women writing graphic novels and science fiction. The collection has many features in the theme of Women Writing Monsters. Overall, the collection has something for everyone.

Administrative Notes:  Annette Morrison, CSUF