When Dennis asked me to create a creepy Classic Movie Monster cover for Rapid River Magazine’s October issue, I immediately thought of Bride of Frankenstein.
Filmed in 1935, this is a timeless, masterful American horror classic starring Elsa Lanchester as the Bride and Boris Karloff as the Monster. After its first showing, The Hollywood Reporter called Bride of Frankenstein “a joy for those who can appreciate it.”
The iconic image of Elsa Lanchester as The Monster’s companion is immediately recognizable. Skunk stripes writhe up her conical hair-do, a wildly wonderful permanent wave made over a wire frame. Originally based on the hairstyle of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, this upright “do” also reminds us of Marge Simpson’s vertical blue coiffure, don’t you think? Again, superbly iconic.
So, how to go about re-creating a new image of the “old“ Bride? There exist only a finite number of photos of Elsa with her flowing robe and wrapped arms. As I looked through different movie stills of Elsa, I thought of how to approach recreating an icon that could be instantly known, yet was my own… perhaps I could combine Pop Art, comic book art, and traditional fine art, or some other combination of different styles and techniques, all individually hand drawn and then combined within Photoshop.
That was it! It came alive! Just like Doctor Frankenstein created the Bride, I would take available photos and then use my own renditions of Elsa to start to re-assemble her, piece by piece.
The cover artwork that I created is my own – I incorporated, combined, cut, assembled, and adapted the many images I sourced in order to craft an original piece of art. I used a combination of physical art work (pencil, pen, inks, paints) and digital art (a scanner and Photoshop). This digital technique is by no means new, but I’ve found that the more hand drawing and painting you can do, the less computerized and mechanical it looks.
One of the great advantages to this is that a great amount of detail can be achieved at a very large size, then reduced down to fit any image size, creating the kind of detail found only in engravings. So, just like the Bride and the Monster, the artwork is one of a kind, never to be repeated.
As far as the American horror movie genre goes, the Bride of Frankenstein takes the proverbial cake. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to see the original version, hopefully on a dark and stormy night.
Asheville Artist Al Ramirez
From 1984-1992 Al Ramirez was a comic book illustrator, finisher, and colorist for Marvel and D.C. comics. After that came The X Factor Graphic Novel, Action comic books, and Acclaim comic books.
Al recently completed a series of 12 original oils of native birds of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, now reproduced as giclees and available at Gallery of the Mountains, a fine American craft gallery located in Asheville, specializing in local and regional artists.
If you’re in downtown Asheville, drop by The Dog Door on Broadway to see all of Al’s posters of various dog breeds, commissioned by nationally known animal behaviorist Kim Brophy.
You can meet up with Al at most of the Asheville Comic Expo’s, hosted and presented by Comic Envy.
Contact Al via email to lindsayram1@gmail.com
Gallery of the Mountains
290 Macon Avenue, Asheville
(828) 254-2068, galleryofthemountains.blogspot.com