Elvira’s Wild Life Story Is Becoming a Graphic Novel on Zoop

Wepa, horror fans, the Mistress of the Dark is taking her life story into comics. Cassandra Peterson’s memoir Yours Cruelly: Becoming Elvira is being adapted into a graphic novel, with Dynamite Comics teaming with Zoop for a crowdfunding campaign scheduled to launch in October.

Peterson’s 2021 memoir pulled back the curtain on her personal life, show-business journey and the creation of Elvira, but this version gets to tell that story through sequential art. David Avallone, who has already spent plenty of time writing Elvira’s comic-book adventures, is handling the adaptation with illustrator Mariano Benitez Chapo.

The project is being positioned as more than a highlight reel of the famous black dress, horror-host jokes and pop-culture iconography. The graphic novel will dig into Peterson’s struggles with self-image, relationships and her career, bringing the candid side of the memoir into a completely different visual format.

That makes this a pretty natural match for comics. Elvira has lived comfortably in comic books for years, but adapting Peterson’s actual story gives the character and the woman behind her a different kind of spotlight. Avallone already knows the voice and the world, while Chapo gets the fun challenge of translating decades of a very recognizable life onto the page.

The Yours Cruelly: Becoming Elvira campaign launches on Zoop in October, just in time for Halloween. Fans can sign up through Zoop now for launch alerts, early-bird offers and limited campaign rewards.

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