mayhemchicken-artblog

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okay

Whenever I grow my beard out for a bit cis men around my age who know I’m trans get so mad about it lol they’re like I started before you why is your beard thicker than mine it’s not fair

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drawing the little freak from chapter 25 again

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learning the ways of The Horrors from carmilla

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So the other day I decided to track down Alexandre Dumas's sequel to Polidori's The Vampyre, fell down a rabbit hole, and accidentally discovered the direct inspiration for Varney the Vampire.

You see, it turns out Dumas's play, Le Vampire (1851), is actually based on an earlier stage adaptation of The Vampyre (1818), called Le Vampire (1820) and written by Charles Nodier. Nodier's play, in turn, was translated into English by J. R. Planché, and shown in English theaters under the name The Vampire; or, The Bride of the Isles.

Planché made some pretty major edits to Lord Ruthven's character; rather than the ruthless serial killer that appears in Polidori's short story, the Ruthven of Bride of the Isles is a more sympathetic character suffering under his own monstrous curse. You know, kind of like Varney. So that answers the question nobody was asking: where did Rymer get his characterization of Varney from? Stolen from Planché. I knew it couldn't be a Rymer original.

Polidori's story, itself adapted from a fragment written by Lord Byron, with its protagonist's name taken from Lady Catherine Lamb's novel Glenarvon, inspired a lot of other spinoffs. In 1820, Cyprion Berard wrote Lord Ruthven ou Les Vampires. In 1828, two different German operas were written based on Nodier's play, called Der Vampir and Der Vampyr respectively. Planché would go on to adapt one of these in English the following year. Dumas's play would inspire two others, Dion Boucicault's The Vampire in 1852 and Augustus G. Harris's Ruthven in 1859. Well, I say "inspired"--Harris's is just plagiarized. Boucicault would later release a condensed version of his play, called The Phantom. And in 1871, R. Reece would write The Vampire, a Bit of Moonshine, a farce about a vampire who plagiarizes horror stories from other authors.

Here's a handy diagram illustrating all the connections:

See? Perfectly logical and understandable. The fact that every single one of these guys named their work some variation of "The Vampire" is fine and not confusing at all.

(Works cited: here and here. Most of this information is taken from the first link, which is a pretty fascinating read.)

I did find a version of Dumas's play available to read in English, thanks to @thegoatsongs - check it out here. I can't say it was terribly memorable, but it was entertaining, and gave me another character for the Varney Cinematic Universe.

Her name is Ziska, and she is not a vampire but a ghoul. She is described as having both eyes that shine "like an owl's" as well as "vast wings", which I may have run just a little wild with.

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against my better judgment i've been getting back into fire emblem heroes

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butchfemme jonmina (commissioned)

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fabric study (reference)

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song is The Lamb by Dessa

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I'm legitimately shaking with excitement right now, I'm so excited to finally be done and able to share this!!! The original artwork can be found here: The Unknowing by @mayhemchicken-artblog. Thank you to MayhemChicken for giving me permission to stitch this - it kept me sane during an incredibly stressful period of time and has given me something to do on the bus to and from work for the past two years!

I spent about 40 hours of first-wave COVID lockdown turning the original art into a cross-stitch pattern, and then spent parts of the next four years stitching it. I took about a year's break in 2022 so that I could (a) finish writing my masters' thesis and (b) make and embroider my wedding outfit. I was a little over 50% done at the start of this year, and one of my New Years Resolutions was to finish it, and I DID! I finished stitching on Christmas evening, and have since washed, stretched, and framed it. Now it's sitting on my desk for a few more days so I can admire it close-up before I hang it on the wall.

The final piece is 12"x16" on 18-count Aida and features 62 different colors. Going by my average stitching pace for solid blocks of color, it probably took around 275 hours, maybe a little more because I had to rip out a couple sections where I changed my mind about the thread color? It's the biggest cross-stitch project I've ever done and I'm very proud of myself for following through on it.

(again, just want to reiterate: I designed the cross-stitch version of this, not the illustration itself! That was @mayhemchicken-artblog in April 2020 who did a bunch of very cool stained-glass style digital fanart!)

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commission for @enchantress-emily based on her wonderful LXGF prequel fanfic Didn't Exactly Walk Away From That Fight!

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modern day varney committing historical fashion crimes

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and now. crossover

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cinematic parallelsss

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tonight's varney/charles is served to you with a side of henry having a gay awakening

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yeah you know what fuck it let's be a little unhinged about this chapter

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me, a vampire? no way that's so crazy haha

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varney save me. save me varney. varney