Time hopping with Elvira. Yep, that tracks, and gloriously so.
Creative Staff:
Story: David Avallone
Art: Dave Acosta
Colors: Andrew Covalt
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
What They Say:
The Mistress of the Dark has become unstuck in time! Elvira crashes Mary Shelley’s monster weekend, beginning an epic journey through horror history, stalked by the most terrifying nightmare to ever walk the Earth. (
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Elvira was totally a thing during my coming of age time but it was not a thing that I got into as horror and campy generally don’t work for me most of the time. Combining the two? Double ugh. So I can’t say a new Elvira comic was at the top of my list, though I definitely have a lot of respect for what the original work produced and the pleasure it gave many. What got me into really giving this a whirl was two-fold. First, David Avallone absolutely nailed the Bettie Page book recently and this is quite similar in a way, making it an absolute delight of a read. The second is that Dave Acosta is producing some gorgeous material here, though I’ll admit truthfully that I just love the expressiveness of Elvira’s eyes in so many panels.
Taking place in the present day, the fun of all of this works in a couple of different directions. The first is that we get to see her making the low-budget stuff that she’s famous for and having a frustratingly fun time with it, calling out the terrible dialogue or having her male co-star’s fake vampire teeth fall out during a scene because of how hot the set is – and Elvira herself. There’s a lot to like just in this side of it because you can explore a lot of weirdness. Avallone manages it well and we get some really fun moments of breaking the fourth wall, which gets a bit strong as the book moves into what’s likely the main story element. When she heads back to her trailer while waiting for things to be set up again for the shoot she finds a casket delivered (that’s not the bidet she ordered!) that suddenly opens and sucks her into it.
This kicks off the unstuck in time aspect of the book, which again provides for a lot of goofiness in the modern sense and fourth wall breaking. She’s dropped in on Mary Shelley before she had married along with the two men in her life, famous poets and all. It’s amusing in that she’s totally interested in getting to meet Mary who can’t understand why she’s not more agog over the two well-known men. The dynamic between the two women is great and we get a lot of simple silliness here that involves someone that she thinks she knows with a pornstache that’s looking to make both women his after knocking out the guys. It’s not a rich or deep story but Avallone’s able to piece it together well with lots of quips, a basic idea of the concept, and relying on the real appeal of Elvira herself. Which, of course, looks just beautiful with Acosta’s artwork throughout – especially for Mary in many scenes.
In Summary:
A time-hopping Elvira that’s going to meet a range of famous writers? Okay, fine. I’m in. Like, completely. I didn’t go in with any expectations as I’ve learned to do that many years ago when trying new things and the discovery of the team involved made this utterly delightful. David Avallone should still be writing a Bettie Page book but the fact that he’s writing this means I’m completely on board. Can I be 200% on board because of Dave Acosta’s artwork as well? Well, I am, because it’s just fantastic with with Andrew Covalt brings to it with the color design. Everything about this book is spot on and I can’t help but to enthusiastically recommend it because it’s just fun. FUN!
Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: July 4th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99