Wrightson spent seven years drawing approximately 50 detailed pen-and-ink illustrations to accompany an edition of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. The illustrations themselves are not based upon the Boris Karloff or Christopher Lee films, but on the actual book's descriptions of characters and objects. Wrightson also used a period style, saying "I wanted the book to look like an antique; to have the feeling of woodcuts or steel engravings, something of that era" and basing the feel on artists like Franklin Booth, J.C. Coll and Edwin Austin Abbey. Frankenstein was an unpaid project, Wrightson describing it as a "labor of love" he worked on over seven years.
