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David Avallone's Writer's Commentary for Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark #5

Published Fri, 03 May 2019 09:00:22 -0500

David Avallone has a Writer's Commentary for Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark #5, on sale now from Dynamite.

The usual warning: SO MANY SPOILERS. Go read the comic and come back. Back so soon? Great. Hope you enjoyed it.

The usual excellent assortment of covers. The art is always fantastic, but I argue with no one who wants the photo cover… and Elvira winking is irresistible. Linsner brings his usual pinup excellence. Robert Hack has a lovely portrait of Elvira with a black cat. On this book, Craig Cermak often reaches out to see if I have any suggestions (which I love). I suggested Elvira in Hell doing something film-production related, and he came up with the Demon Makeup Artist idea, which is wonderful.

Page 1:

Last we saw Elvira, she was being whisked off by Mephistopheles with Dr. Faust, whose time was up. But where to? Our Faust is inspired by Richard Burton and his (pretty terrible) Faust movie… so what's the right "Hell" for that character? The answer is another layer or two of cultural references: his wife and sparring partner Liz Taylor, and in particular, their roles as George and Martha in Edward Albee's play WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF. Faust was obsessed with Helen of Troy, so of course that's the role "Liz" is cast in here.

Pages 2 & 3:

Hell. Because this is the subject of the next four issues, and Hell needs to be presented with as much epic scope as possible… all the title pages are going to be two-page spreads. Letting Dave Acosta really stretch in this comic, and bring all his considerable skills to bear. These four issues are, for very obvious reasons, hugely influenced by Dante Alighieri's epic poem THE DIVINE COMEDY, which is broken into three sections (of which INFERNO is the first) and 100 sub-sections. These sections are called "Cantos." Remember the title "Divine Comedy," because it's the source of an inside joke that kind of dominates the other three chapters of this story.

Page 4 & 5:

Helen's a drinker. Her toast "ya mas," hints at her national origins.

Page 6:
"He's right behind me. Isn't he." This is a good example of a line that wasn't in the script. I had simply said "Mephistopheles appears," and Dave drew this, so I added those lines because, you know… I had to.

Page 7 :
It is inevitable: if you write about Hell, even in a comedy book, you have to grapple with the moral universe it suggests. Mephisto's "Does anyone?" gives you a hint of how I'm thinking about the whole thing. His last line on this page, "I predict it will run… forever" refers both to the eternal damnation of Hell, and the eternal popularity of Albee's play.

Page 8:
A good place to talk about Ellie Wright's vivid colors and Taylor Esposito's fantastic letters. I really like the treatment he came up with for Mephistopheles. Ellie intensifies the "lit from below" look that Dave creates in his art. I sent Dave a copy of Gustave Doré's illustrations from Dante's Inferno, which have haunted me since I first saw my Dad's copy as a child. There are a lot of specific references to them in the art, all through the next four issues. Elvira, meanwhile, makes a #MeToo joke

Page 9:
Elvira lives up to her title. I love writing fearless women. Bettie Page was one, and Cassandra Peterson is another one, in or out of her Elvira persona. I will confess that the Superman joke in panel five makes me laugh every time. I guess Elvira wasn't following DC comics in the '90s…

Page 10:
…but Mephistopheles clearly was. He's about to mansplain (demonsplain?) the Death of Superman but Elvira's got better things to do than listen. This is a perfect page to appreciate Dave Acosta's amazing gift for capturing Elvira in any mood.

Pages 11 to 13:
Edgar Allan Freaking Poe returns! And provides a little literary context for the surprisingly common trope of always meeting people you know in Hell. Another big influence on this series is the book INFERNO, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, and they also took note of this trope. Elvira namechecks Dante, Doré and Clive Barker. And reveals that Limbo is full of airport literature. Poe is too timid to face even greater Judgment (he knows what a sh*tty husband he was, I suspect) but sends Elvira on her way.

Page 14:
The Ferryman on the Acheron. He's got an outboard motor now. Progress. When I wrote this page, I wasn't aware that THE GOOD PLACE had made the same joke about Hawaiian Pizza, but I stand by it. We're both right. (And it's an amazing television show.) As an aside, I always love the joke construction where you list a bunch of terrible things and the last thing is pretty tame.

Pages 15:
Wherein we acknowledge that the Elvira persona has some wonderful antecedents in popular culture, Mae West being the first of the "talking picture" age. "Justice? Who said anything about Justice?" continues our ruminating out loud about the nature of Hell and the purpose of eternal punishment.

Pages 16 & 17:
Holy George Romero! Even in Hell, a zombie is a zombie, so we pay respects to the Godfather of Zombies. For the record, the giant oar and the souls trying to swarm the boat is straight from Dante.

Pages 18 & 19:
Vlad to see you! Vlad's a little worse for wear, and the Ferryman seems to know what's in store for him. Vlad is sure Hell is going to be great for him. We'll see how that works out.

Page 20
Minos, the Judge of All Mankind in Hell. Dave's adaptation of Dante/Doré's design is fantastic. Elvira's odyssey in the Underworld has just begun. Stick with us for more Hellish thrills next month!

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