The Tomb of Dracula

Image by ashuping via Flickr

This classic comic depicts Dracula and vampires as they were really meant to be seen.  None of this sparkly romantic vampire junk, no vampires that dressed like goths and secretly plotting to take over the world, or vampires that live out amongst the public, just pure simple vampires.  This is just Dracula harkening back to his roots as the ultimate creepy monster, the one that could be lurking around any shadow, just waiting around the corner to make you his thrall and to suck your blood.

Dracula is back.  And only the foolish stand in his way.  Three young punks attempt to delay him and he makes quick work of them and alarms the city by his killing methods (namely dragging one down the street, over cars, through alleys for a few blocks as his friends chase after them.)  Meanwhile in an apartment in another part of town, a young woman is being treated after being turned into a vampire.  Her husband waits nearby with Blade and they discuss how to contain Dracula.  But Dracula fights back through the girl, he doesn’t want her released from his control and the husband must stop Blade from killing her.  And then the real battle begins when Dracula shows up in person.  He is temporarily defeated and flees into the night.  But he’ll be back.  Dracula always comes back.

Unlike some classic comics from this time period (Sandman for example) this one just doesn’t stand up as well for me.  For starters I’m a bit confused about the character Blade that shows up, I can’t tell if this is supposed to be the legendary half vampire fighter or just some street punk that’s taken the same name.  He doesn’t really act like the vampire fighter, but I just can’t tell because they don’t really give the character much in the way of lines.  And then there are just weird/funny points to the story that make no sense what so ever.  For example, Dracula is being stopped by three punks and he grabs one by the face and threatens to kill one and up from the streets rise a crowd protesting!  Where the heck did they come from?  I mean they literally appeared from no where.   I think some of the story I might have understood better if I had read the first two issues, but just jumping in to this one doesn’t work quite well as well for me because I don’t know the back story to anything.  I will say that even with these issues it does have nice pacing to the story and a great bit of action.  And if you’ve read the previous two issues, my guess is that you’ll have no problems understanding the story.

The artwork has some nice elements to it and really reminds me of some of the Sandman comics, with elongated character faces, melting pools of light and color all run together to create some rather interesting imagery.  The characters are easy to identify and most of them are drawn solidly, with the exception of the weird paper thin like girl…that one I just can’t figure out.  The one failing for me is that there’s just so much jam-packed into the work that it can overwhelm the eyes.  It’s not a bad thing to have that much visual imagery I just wish that it was spaced out better or the comic was a large format.  There’s a lot to look for in the art and I really enjoyed it.

If you are a fan of this particular Dracula series or if you’re a fan of historical vampire comics, then I’d recommend the comic to you.  But if you’re a fan of more modern comics that depict Dracula as a bit more less 17th century then you might want to look elsewhere.  And if you like sparkly vampires, please do yourself a favor and read the original Dracula story to see what he’s really supposed to be like.  You brain will thank you.