Two of the latest interpretations of the Frankenstien monster have been in cinemas in the past twelve months. One of them a “monster” hit bringing people into the theatre again and the latest is apparently driving people out of it in masse.

Mary Shelley’s gothic horror has spawned so many different versions in movies, television..and in books.Here are three random looks at Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus for the sheer love of reading this month:

Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein

Grimly’s art is dark and stylized, blending modern and Victorian eras with a touch of macabre steampunk and gothic horror in his book “assembled from the original text by Mary Shelley”. He has talked about the love of this story in the past, and brought it to life with a heavily illustrated story of the abridged version of the original. Grimly’s take on the characters and setting is both beautiful and disturbing with several pages worthy of framing. If you haven’t experienced Grimly’s style of visual storytelling, this is a good first one to pick up.

Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Book One Prodigal Son by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson

Suspense and horror author Koontz partnered with sci-fi author Anderson for a 2004 USA Network movie treatment brining the now centuries old Frankenstein and Creature characters into a modern day crime thriller where the serial killer turns out to be a much more dark entity that first suspected. Set in New Orleans, it follows a detective and her partner’s quest to find what originally appears to be just a gristly string of murders from a killer known as “The Surgeon.” We can all guess who that is. Koontz would go on to write four more in this series both with co-authors and alone. This isn’t the best modern retelling of the story, but it is still easy to find and certainly entertaining enough for some pulpy spring break reading escapism.

Junji Ito Story Collection: Frankenstein

I’m a little biased towards this one because Ito is one of my favorite manga authors and artists, but this is a brilliantly done version of the story. It’s dark, unsettling, and captivating, taking you through Shelley’s story in a rapid pace. The Frankenstein narrative takes up the first half of the collection, so readers can experience several other short original manga stories by Ito as well. Ito also doesn’t try to turn the story into anything else than the horrific look a what makes a monster a man….or a man a monster.

Sometime’s a story can be retold and overdone on the screen to the point of exhaustion, but finding new book versions of classics still makes for a great escape.