**Vault Reviews were posted previously on the main MonsterLibrarian website and are transferred here in an effort to preserve our history. Efforts have been made to ensure the books are still available, but formats, covers, and other details may have changed.**
Del Rey, 2005
ISBN: 0-14-240572-8
Available: Paperback
Dracula is the novel that inspired our love affair with vampires, and still accounts for movies, costumes, bad Romanian accents, and tons of other cultural references. The world was a different place when it was written, though, and the style is different than most of us are used to, with less horror and gore than we’re accustomed to. Still, it’s essential reading for vampire enthusiasts, with the power to revitalize our reading. Bram Stoker’s prose is undeniably hypnotic and brilliant, and when the stories we’re reading seem tired, reading the original could renew the romantic mystery for us all.
Too busy for the original? Or maybe you prefer graphic novels? I understand. Here are brief reviews of two graphic novel versions of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. They skim the surface of the classic, but hit all the major points and use somewhat formal language, giving the reader a good, quick, foray into the plot of the original.
Puffin Classics version:
Bram Stoker’s Dracula, by Gary Reed and Becky Cloonan, is part of a series of graphic versions of classic novels from Puffin, which include Frankenstein, Macbeth, Treasure Island, and others. It is rendered in simple, but expressive, black and white, and contains almost no sexual content or serious carnage. This version would be appropriate for any teenage reader bold enough to want Dracula at all. The text does a good job delving into the legend of Dracula and the character of Van Helsing. Readers will feel satisfied that the story has been covered. This version also contains some historical and biographical appendixes.
The downside to Reed and Cloonan’s version is that as graphics go, it’s not very artful. Gothic romance and the thrill of bloodshed may be what bind us to Dracula, and the small, multi-panel drawings are just not vivid enough. The text is merely illustrated, which is sufficient if you’re after a simplified, decent re-cap of the original story, but the book doesn’t stand alone as a graphic novel worth collecting.
Contains: nothing objectionable
Del Rey version:
Fernando Fernandez’ full color version also covers the high points of the original work, but it’s clear Fernandez was looking for an appropriate backdrop to feature his amazing watercolor paintings. Here, we find an exaggeration of both romance and gore, closer to the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola film. The artwork, which is often in full page frame, is gorgeous and supremely detailed. The text is clearly secondary, and contains a few grammatical errors.
Three nubile, scantily clad vampire mistresses make forceful appearances and their eventual demise is graphic and quite braless. Actually, every character in this version is sexier, and every vampire ending and attack is more graphically rendered than in the Puffin version: probably closer to what modern readers of horror are hoping for. However, the nudity and gore are still mild, compared with the overall genre of adult graphic novels.
Contains :nude breasts, decapitation, staking, graphic blood-spills
Reviewed by: Sheila Shedd