The Spanish illustrator who wrote the letter cards for Frankenstein'

"The illustrator Tomas Hijo, from the Spanish city of Salamanca, admits he doesn't have a good grasp of time. Perhaps that's why he designed such precise 19th-century-style letter cards: the ones Frankenstein in Guillermo del Toro's new film uses to learn new words. The images are done like linocuts, Hijo explains, a technique that involves creating a relief on the surface. In the era in which the film is set, they would most likely have been made of wood and printed using a press."

"This isn't the first time that the illustrations or prints by this 51-year-old artist have appeared in a movie by the Mexican filmmaker. It's wonderful how he seeks out a specific artist for each role in a film, he says. In his case, his work led him to become Guillermo del Toro's card and print specialist. The connection between the two began almost by chance, through an art gallery in Hollywood that organized exhibitions dedicated to icons of popular culture (he struggles to pinpoint the year)."

"By a twist of fate, I ended up collaborating with one of them, the illustrator recalls. There, amidst tributes to Mario Bros. and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, an exhibition dedicated to the work of the Mexican director, Guillermo del Toro: In Service Of Monsters, was mounted. For that occasion, Hijo created an engraving inspired by Pan's Labyrinth (2006), a fictional piece he invented himself as if it were an old board game manufactured in Valencia during the Spanish Civil War. The imaginary story ended with the supposed bombing of the factory and with Del Toro finding the game and using it as inspiration for his film. The story was so convincing that the filmmaker himself bought the piece for his personal collecti"

Tomas Hijo is a Salamanca-born illustrator whose linocut-like prints and 19th-century-style letter cards appear in Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein (2025). Hijo uses a relief-printing technique resembling linocut, producing images that evoke wood prints pressed in the film's historical era. The professional collaboration originated when Del Toro purchased an invented Pan's Labyrinth–inspired engraving Hijo created for a Hollywood exhibition honoring popular-culture icons. Hijo fabricated an imaginary history for the engraving, presenting it as a Civil War–era Valencian board game that allegedly ended in a factory bombing. The convincing provenance led Del Toro to commission Hijo repeatedly for cards and prints.

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