Writer’s Commentary: David Avallone Talks ‘Elvira In Monsterland’ #1 From Dynamite

David Avallone returns with another one of his engrossing Writer’s Commentaries exclusive to comicon.com. A commentary for Elvira In Monsterland #1, that teases out all the obscure movie references and Easter eggs for the readers. Did you spot them all?

Welcome back, friends! 

In another time, this would be ELVIRA: MISTRESS OF THE DARK #30… but times change, and now we’re doing these five issue miniseries, to make it more obvious where you can jump in fresh to a new storyline. This one builds very directly on the events of ELVIRA IN HORRORLAND, wherein our heroine discovered that movies create their own little pocket dimensions, as she stumbled through the events of various horror classics, ruining everything and threatening the peace of the multiverse. It all worked out in the end, and she returned home to “our” universe, with all the chaos corrected. 

OR WAS IT?

What follows contains a metric ton of spoilers, so… proceed with caution. Even better, buy ELVIRA IN MONSTERLAND #1 and come back when you’ve read it.

Covers: Dave Acosta has been the artist on ELVIRA: MISTRESS OF THE DARK and ELVIRA: THE OMEGA MA’AM, but he wasn’t available for this series. (He’s busy doing amazing stuff on TERRORWAR.) When that happens, I always want Dave doing covers, for a kind of continuity connecting all the comics. For this issue, Dave knocked it out of the park. He took the plot – Vlad the Impaler collecting every Dracula from every Dracula movie – and went wild. 

I’m not going to list them all here, but it’s an amazing group, from across the spectrum of very serious to absolutely silly. With Vlad looming over them all. Great inking from Jason Moore, colors (like the whole issue) by Walter Pereyra. John Royle boiled it down to two classics… with Elvira flanked by Gary Oldman and Bela Lugosi, Vlad flying overhead, and some unidentified fangs up close. Interior artist Kewber Baal did a great portrait of Elvira herself in a classic pose, and the photo cover is her classic “Mummy” look. 

Inside Front Cover: Do you read the recaps? You should. I try to keep them funny. In this issue, as a number one, there is a kind of in-story recap that covers all five years (or 29 issues) of Elvira comics I’ve done before.

My childhood friend Richard Tobasco, and the amazingly talented cartoonist Richard Fairgray (seriously, buy all his stuff, he’s great) both suggested this issue’s title to me, and I love it, so I had to give them credit. 

Page 1: Elvira at home, watching 1931 DRACULA, like you do. Silvia Califano, the fantastic artist from ELVIRA IN HORRORLAND was also tied up when we got started, with other work, so Dynamite Executive Editor Joe Rybandt suggested Kewber Baal. Kewber stepped in for one issue of my BETTIE PAGE UNBOUND series, and I had loved his work, so I was happy to be teaming up with him again. His work on this comic is stellar. He nails the comedy, the pacing and the likenesses, which are vital to make a book like this work.

Page 2: I’d like to point out that we were recreating this scene from DRACULA long before RENFIELD did the same thing. They just got released first…

Yes, Original Fangster is a (bad) pun on Original Gangster. In my first draft it was “OG Vampire” but I thought this was funnier. Your mileage, as they say, may vary.

Our excellent letterer, Taylor Esposito, will always find the right font to support my punny titles, and this issue is no exception. Find a poster for IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD if you want to see what we’re spoofing here.

Page 3: Vlad is holding the Magical Remote Control of Federico Fellini. Yes, you read that right, and no… believe it or not… I didn’t invent that. Fellini did. Go to YouTube and search for “Fellini Compari Commercial” if you want to see the Maestro’s take on dimension-hopping with a TV remote control. It was what we call “the MacGuffin” in ELVIRA IN HORRORLAND.

A note on likenesses: sure, a lot of people can do great likenesses of super-famous faces. But look at Kewber’s Dwight Frye in panel 4! That’s some quality stuff, and the expression is hilarious.

Page 4: Agent Grant returns. As is often the case with me, this character is a collection of weird deep cuts. We met him in ELVIRA IN HORRORLAND #5… the David Cronenberg issue. Yes, that IS Peter Weller from Cronenberg’s adaptation of William Burroughs’ NAKED LUNCH, in which he played Bill Lee, who maybe was or wasn’t the agent of something called Interzone Incorporated. Still with me? The character of Bill Lee also returns in Burroughs’ NOVA EXPRESS, as a “Nova Cop,” a kind of outer space interdimensional lawman. For me, he’s Agent Bill Grant (no Lee for me, thanks), of the Novazone Express. Who are they? More on that later.

Grant shows her that Vlad’s been stealing Draculas from old movies. In the silent NOSFERATU, the title vampire is played by an actor named Max Schreck, and Grant and Elvira both make puns on his name. In the next panel, that’s Isabelle Adjani asking Werner Herzog “Where is Klaus?” She means Klaus Kinski, who played Nosferatu in the remake.

Page 5: Elvira asks Agent Grant, rhetorically, “Are you on drugs?” He gives her a sly smirk in a silent panel. This is because the character he’s based on is a massive drug addict in NAKED LUNCH.

An alternate joke for “Dr. Strange/Dr. Howdy, Stranger” was “I’m not Dr. Who, I’m Dr. Who’s Boyfriend Are you?” I think I made the right choice. Doctor Who and Doctor Strange are, of course, magical heroes who protect time and space from all sorts of villainy. (You knew that, right?)

I don’t know if she coined it, but I heard my wife call a co-worker a “chaos kitten” once, and I think that works pretty good for Elvira.

Page 6: Maybe it’s because some of my childhood was spent in New York City, but Grand Central Station has always felt massive and epic and connected to the entire universe in some way. So Novazone Express is set in an outer space Jack Kirby style version of it.

In panel 2, Elvira calls it “Art Deco Moonbase Alpha.” Moonbase Alpha was from SPACE: 1999. In panels 3/5 we see Elvira’s Rogues Gallery in a literal holographic gallery. In three, from left to right, it’s Rick Circe, leader of the apocalyptic “Sudsy Cult” from ELVIRA: THE OMEGA MA’AM. Next is Amon Ra, the Egyptian God who was the villain from ELVIRA MEETS VINCENT PRICE. Facing them, you’ve got Faust, from ELVIRA: MISTRESS OF THE DARK 1-5 (and based visually on Richard Burton’s appearance in his absolutely terrible DOCTOR FAUSTUS movie.) Then Vlad, of course, based vaguely on the real Vlad the Impaler, but with a lot of Sean Connery from ZARDOZ thrown in. Then there’s Lucifer. You know Lucifer, right? And finally, the Speaker Witch from the Deucalionids cult of EMOTD 9-12. The Deucalionids, as a modern cult, are made up entirely by me. Deucalion was the son of Prometheus. These guys connect the myth of Prometheus giving fire to mankind with the myth of Lucifer giving Eve an apple from the Tree of Knowledge.

In panel 4, Elvira is explaining the events of EMOTD #4: an Errol Flynn type ran Vlad through with a rapier before she pushed him into some electrical wires. Lucifer technically “let her go,” but she had to walk past Vlad without fear to escape, and well, yeah, the witches WERE totally weaksauce.

Extra credit: a lot of what I know about Egyptian gods and mythology started with reading William Burroughs’ (him again!) great final novel… THE WESTERN LANDS. So yes, I do get a little kick out of a Burroughs character from another work saying the title. 

Page 7: I kinda love making fun of the whole “Heroes’ Journey” school of genre writing, but this is the page where we do the “Refusal of the Call” thing, and as you can see, I get through it pretty fast. It occurred to me setting up this series that yeah… Elvira has actually taken down a lot of super-powered entities with no particular superpowers of her own. (Sometimes I think about bringing in her “powers” from the sitcom/movies she’s done… but we’ll save those for another day.) 

In the last panel, Elvira – who must always break the fourth wall – calls Agent Grant “Buckaroo,” because of course that’s who Peter Weller will always be to me. Buckaroo Banzai, from the classic cult film of the same name.  

Page 8: As Elvira is talking about black and white here, I want to draw your attention to Walter’s coloring. He does a few b&w movies in this issue, and some color ones, and each time we switch universes it’s a little different. Even the black and white movies all have a slightly different texture from each other. THAT is some quality color work, gang. Walter is the best.

We’re in the sequel to DRACULA, called DRACULA’S DAUGHTER. It was made in the period before Hollywood imposed the prudish “Hays Code” on movie productions… and this sequence in particular is pretty… let’s say “unambiguous in its sexuality.” So of course this was the scene I wanted Elvira to interrupt.

Page 9: In the movie ELVIRA: MISTRESS OF THE DARK, it’s revealed that her little knife is a cheap toy that does in fact go “sproing” when you stab someone with it. Elvira did that when she first encountered Vlad, which he remembers. But since then, the “tech boys at Novazone Express” have given her an upgrade.

Page 10: In the second panel, Elvira is singing the lyrics to the song “Witchcraft.” In panel 3, she refers to Grant as “Robocop,” the second most iconic Peter Weller role. She also references the “Prime Detective” ala Starfleet in Star Trek. She has written it on her hand, so she doesn’t forget.

Pages 11 -12:  Sometimes I think it’s very funny to use a verb as a “sound effect.” I was trying to come up with a sound effect for two men scuffling. I gave up and went with SCUFFLE, and it makes me laugh. Not as much as the next panel, though, which is my favorite joke in the issue. Elvira is quoting MC Hammer’s song… but of course she’s doing so because she’s in a Hammer horror film, starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. This particular scene is in HORROR OF DRACULA (1958.)

Page 13: Now it’s Frank Langella’s 1979 DRACULA.  Again, I’m trying to go with super iconic scenes, and Langella climbing down the wall was kinda cool. But… why didn’t he just fly? Worth noting that the necklace going “Ping Ping Ping” is inspired by the sound of the Mother Box in all of the Jack Kirby Fourth World comics. 

Page 14: Vlad meets BLACULA (1972)! Prince Mamuwalde (the great, iconic William Marshall) has had bad experiences with Draculas, and a strong moral fiber, so of course he’s not interested in Vlad’s offer. Marshall had other iconic roles, like Dr. Daystrom on original STAR TREK, and also the King of Cartoons on PEE-WEE’S PLAYHOUSE, which Elvira references here. My friend Rodney Barnes has recently rebooted BLACULA in an amazing graphic novel, and I asked his kind permission to include Blacula here. He gave me an enthusiastic yes, and so he gets a call-out from Elvira here.

Page 15: Last year I got the amazing opportunity to write the origin story of Carl Kolchak, crusading reporter of the supernatural in two TV movies and the series KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER… so I had to get him in here. Janos was the name of the vampire from the pilot film. Carl’s last line is ironic, of course, because this is the first of an endless stream of monsters he’s about to encounter. 

Pages 16 & 17: Elvira notices her surroundings are more high-budget than what she’s been seeing so far. The “slumming Oscar winner” is of course Gary Oldman. Vlad doesn’t think Gary’s portrait looks much like him. They are interrupted by the dinner scene from BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA (1992), also known as Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula. The dialogue is from there (and ALSO from 1931 DRACULA.) Keanu can’t help uttering his trademark “whoa.” Oldman is depressed about his wig. “Stellamaria” is a reference to a great makeup/hair person I used to work with on movies, named Stella Maria Tzanidakis. 

Pages 18 & 19: Yeah, I went there. I love the way Kewber drew Elvira and Vlad as Muppets. It is delightful to me that I get to do nutty stuff like this in this comic.

Page 20: Frankenstein! The “manicure” reference is to Bugs Bunny working on the fingernails of the bright orange (sometimes red) monster known, seriously, as Gossamer.

Next issue! Frankie goes to Hollywood! Stay tuned! 

Elvira In Monsterland #1 is out now from Dynamite Comics