I realized I never posted these here on tumblr! 2020 did unspeakable things to my mind and body…I staggered away from lockdown with a whole pitch of how I would make an animated Cats adaptation. I got the whole thing up here *taps skull*—it would be Very Good. I can’t think about it too much lest I awaken my sleeping obsession…still want to finish Old Deut and Macavity one of these days.

Fun fact: The term "Jellicle Cat" is actually the cats’ mishearing of the term "Dear Little Cat" (this gives me much joy)

@thedrawingduke on Instagram

Desperate for companionship, Frankenstein's Monster pretends to be the Opera Ghost. A grave mistake. Fantomestein is back from hiatus. Read @thedrawingduke's Frankenstein/Phantom of the Opera mashup comic FANTOMESTEIN today!

Jemima

Based on fanart from @thedrawingduke

u know what would be great? Dev Patel/Riz Ahmed Holmes and Watson (via @thedrawingduke) meeting Oscar Isaac Dr. Frankenstein (via @silveme)

Why you should read Fantome-Stein

Fantome-Stein is a crossover between the Phantom of the Opera and Frankenstein: the Modern Prometheus written and drawn by @thedrawingduke, and lemme tell you, it’s probably one of my favorite things on the internet.

What It’s About: essentially, the premise is that, instead of dying at the end of Frankenstein like he told Captain Walton, Frankenstein’s monster went on to become the Phantom of the Opera. It goes on to retell the story of Phantom of the Opera in a very gorgeous, distinctive way, with a few other very interesting changes along the way…

Why You Should Check It Out: guys. The art in this is AMAZING. It’s so expressive and can go from vibrant to subdued while maintaining a distinctive style and just being ridiculously beautiful. It’s just. Mwah. Words can’t do it justice, check it out. If I knew how, I’d print it out and bind it in a book and flip through it every day. It’s no slouch in the writing department either. The depiction of mental illness and everyone’s emotional arcs are wonderfully done, and it manages to switch between heartfelt and humorous seamlessly. The way that the core trio (Erik, Christine, and Raoul) are written stands out as a unique, but very compelling take on their personalities, and it doesn’t go in the direction of a lot of adaptations. It’s super interesting, and they definitely stick in my head as some of the more memorable versions of themselves with rich inner conflicts and layered personalities (Raoul in particular is my absolute favorite version of himself in any Phantom story, ever, but holy hells are Christine and Erik amazing too). None of Erik’s more evil actions are skimmed over or romanticized, for those of you who’re afraid of a Love Never Dies situation. And they actually remembered the Persian!!! He’s a major character in the story, and he’s fantastic!!!

Reasons You Might Not Want To Read: both halves of this crossover draw more off their original novels than their more famous movie and musical adaptations, so if you’re unfamiliar with those, then you might be in for some confusion. There’s also depiction of mental illness and emotional abuse that can be triggering, so be careful if that could hurt you. And it’s not exactly a stickler for canon, so if you really insist on sticking to the source material, no matter what, then this might not be for you. TL:DR Fantome-Stein is so so good you guys. The art and writing are crazy magnificent and I’m honestly surprised this hasn’t been professionally published yet, that’s how polished and well-made it feels. It’s a crossover that doesn’t feel like it should work, but does. Go check it out if you haven’t already.

What are your Fantomestein theories?

I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED

potential spoilers for @thedrawingduke ‘s amazing webcomic Fantomestein below:

I’ll start with the theory I am one hundred percent sure I’m right on, and will be very embarrassed if it isn’t the case: Raoul is a direct descendant of Safie de Lacey.

Evidence: Raoul appears to be of Middle-Eastern descent. (I’m 100% convinced of this, though it’s mostly intuition and suspicion that Philippe almost called Raoul ‘the himyarite’ when being a bitch to Sorelli [it’s a term for a descendant of a specific Arabic empire] [THIS IS REALLY SHODDY EVIDENCE I KNOW I’M REACHING BUT HUMOUR ME])

The only two characters in Frankenstein and Phantom (that I remember) who are Middle-Eastern are the Daroga and Safie de Lacey. Pretty sure it’s been established the Daroga is not related to Raoul, so we can throw him out. Safie appears at least twice in chapter 3:

That’s definitely Safie running away in this flashback? Look at that profile - seems pretty familiar to me. Also: in Frankenstein The Creature talks about how Safie is incredibly pretty, and it’s been mentioned multiple times that Raoul is also incredibly pretty (though that low self-esteem can’t possibly help him). This is not like…. good evidence but it is some evidence.

Safie’s second appearance makes the resemblance between her and Raoul really really really clear:

Can’t see all of her face, but you can see she’s the spitting image of him. I’m 100% sure it’s Safie, and that the man touching her face is either Felix or his father - considering she’s holding his hand to her face, it’s probably the blind father. So we know Safie de Lacey looks weirdly like Raoul, and TDD is a brilliant character designer, so I doubt that’s unintentional. Pretty sure TC/Erik notices the resemblance too when Raoul sneaks in to the opera to give his letter to Christine:

fghjk yeah anyway I’m fairly convinced. Though I’ve stewed on this for a long time lol.

Anyway, next theory is that Raoul either A) is already dead and has been revived via Frankenscience or B) will die and be revived via Frankenscience. The first thing that kinda made me think of that was this:

It’s like: same pose, same colour clothes, same blood imagery red stuff. Definitely a connection between them somehow, probably just narratively but I guess we’ll see. (Also the fact that Raoul’s mask at the masquerade was a SKULL??? something’s gonna happen to that boy AND IT WON’T BE GOOD) Also: Raoul is petrified of going back to sea with the Waltons, his hands are cold “as a corpse’s”, he’s confirmed to have lost a lot of weight while at sea (dying of an illness?), Philippe asks Christine if she thought she’d become a “rich widow” if she married Raoul, Raoul told Christine he didn’t expect to ever see her again when he went back to sea (probably cause he’s dying [or thinks he is]).

[What’s in his letter to Christine? Is it just his feelings? But she already knows he loves her! Is it telling her of his chronic illness? Or that he’s dying? Or that he’s dead? I physically cannot wait to find out.]

And (another case of the ‘is there evidence or is it my brain’) I think that TC/Erick and Raoul are meant to parallel each other more in the comic than in the books? Both come from mysterious origins, have abusive/negligent father figures, are outcasts to 1880s society, (have anxiety), have latched onto Christine as their one true connection with another human being. Them both being dead would only add to that list, I think.

(I have more theories but little textual evidence to support them, but these are my main theories, and this is not all the evidence I have! I just gotta put more together lmao)

Found a frame for this beautiful commissioned drawing by @thedrawingduke. Finally! I knew if I sporadically checked the frame section of the thrift store I’d find what I was looking for. So happy I can properly display this lady at last!

I might need to print it smaller since the signature and some of the foliage is cut off, but the frame...it called to me...

Was chilling in a class when I decided to draw @thedrawingduke lovely character tc/ Erik but with his short hair style. He's nervous. Again. Love her work, she's really awesome, and check out her webcomic too @fantome-stein. It's pretty rad.

@thedrawingduke replied to your post: and you know what i thought of ramin and sierra...

yeah they were the first cast i saw after the movie so I was all “wow! wonderful, much better! great!” but now that tumblr dot com has provided me with An Education on the millions of other castings I never knew about/never got to hear, they aren’t that ground breaking and there’s been way better interpretations.

Also i did feel like ALW is lurking in the rafters doing Phantom-ception by making them act more canon to LND so that was uncomfy? And shipping real people (esp ones who are married w/ kids etc) is always just a Nope to me so *makes x with arms*

oh they certainly adjusted it for LND, they didn’t cast the OLC of LND as principals for a reason.

the shipping was really something... god.

btw Hadley’s Raoul is the one thing I’ve always hated from the beginning though. i didn’t like his singing and his interpretation was awful. for his sake i hope it was mostly the direction to blame.

Fanart of Beka Duke's incredible webcomic Fantom-Stein, which is absolutely hauntingly beautiful. fantome-stein.tumblr.com/

I haven’t been able to muster an update lately… so in the meantime, please accept this concept work of the poto-people’s princess 👑

Desperate for companionship, Frankenstein's Monster pretends to be the Opera Ghost. A grave mistake. Fantomestein is back from hiatus. Read @thedrawingduke's Frankenstein/Phantom of the Opera mashup comic FANTOMESTEIN today!

Ok for the tattoo thing, the first things that popped into my head were a: Henchman Tim (??) and b: a pomegranate. :,D

@thedrawingduke @alvadee_ TC and Christine are keeping Erik company now #thephantomoftheopera #fantomestein #thedrawingduke #alvadee #amazingart #amazingartists

When @thedrawingduke (renowned artiste of Fantome-Stein fame) said she was open to commissions, I, like an 18th century lord, requested that she draw a portrait of me in my halloween costume. AND IT TURNED OUT SO WELL. 

10/10. Beautiful work. The prettiest I’ve felt since my first prom. If you’d like to support @thedrawingduke, contact her here, on instagram, or on her Patreon!