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Graphic Novel Review: Manga Classics: Dracula by Bram Stoker, adapted by Stacy King, art by Virginia Nitouhei

Manga Classics: Dracula by Bram Stoker, adapted by Stacy King, art by Virginia Nitouhei

Manga Classics, 2021

ISBN-13: 9781947808058

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Amazon.com

 

Manga Classics brings us a manga version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. By now most readers are familiar with the vampire classic’s general story. Jonathan Harker, a young English solicitor, travels to Transylvania to assist the mysterious Count Dracula with a real estate transaction in England. However, he soon realizes that he is a prisoner on the count’s vast estate. Through observation, he notices the count is not all he seems. While the young Harker is trapped in the castle, Dracula travels to England, where he begins preying upon Lucy Westenra, a young woman engaged to Jonathan’s friend, Arthur Holmwood. A patient of Dr. John Seward’s, Renfield, under the employ of the count, becomes increasingly obsessed with consuming the living a leaves cryptic clues as to the nature of his boss.

 

As Lucy falls ill with an unknown malady, her friends Arthur, Dr. Seward, American Quincey Morris, and vampire hunter Professor Abraham Van Helsing are determined to save her from the vampire menace. Unfortunately, Lucy succumbs to Dracula’s influence and becomes one of the undead. The friends turn their efforts on hunting down and destroying Dracula where he poses a threat to Mina Murray, Jonathan’s fiancée, and others. With teamwork and the aid of modern technology, they pursue Dracula for a final bloody confrontation.

 

This is the first Manga Classics edition I have picked up. I read the hardcover version from my library, and I have to say it is worth it. King, editor for Manga Classics, does a great job of adapting the original text. As the story is told through letters, diary entries, recordings, newspaper articles, and ship’s logs, I was not sure what to expect from a manga version. Everything lined up and flowed nicely from page to page. The mangaka for Dracula is Virginia Nitouhei, who is a featured artist for “The Tell Tale Heart” in Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allen Poe, which I will also be reviewing. She has a classic style to her art that lends itself well to a story like Dracula. The detail Nitouhei puts into the characters’ costuming alone is exceptionally beautiful.

 

At the end of the book, the editor and creators include information on themselves, an article on what it took to adapt Dracula to manga, and other helpful tips on reading this book. It would make an excellent entry point for readers who want to read classic horror, as well as manga. Highly recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on June 29, 2024 by , Reply

Graphic Novel Review: When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll

Cover art for When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll

When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll

Silver Sprocket, 2024 (previously published by Koyama Press in 2019)

ISBN-13: 9798886200409

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:    Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

On a dark and stormy night, a cat woman arrives at the mysterious Countess’ castle on an unspoken mission. The Countess mentions that this attractive visitor is not the first to come on this mighty errand. She is offered a warm bath after being out in the rain for so long, for which she accepts, and this is interrupted by loud knocks on the door. The cat woman ventures out to search out her prey, peeking through a keyhole, where she sees the Countess shedding her skin. When the Countess catches her at the door, a violent and erotically driven confrontation happens between the noblewoman and the cat.

 

I appreciate Carroll’s attention to Gothic literature tropes in her sequential art. The structure of the story flows in such a way that the eyes do not have time to rest most of the time. The frenetic pace blends with the reader’s sense of unease as the cat woman explores the castle and is dragged along the halls by the Countess, and when the final battle ensues.

 

Something else I enjoy about Carroll’s work is her use of color, as she uses the most bold selection almost as another character itself. In the case of When I Arrived at the Castle, she uses black, white, and red. The red acts as solid backgrounds, text bubbles, the text itself, outlines of various figures, doors, flooring, skin, blood, and more. Spending a few minutes exploring the red in the pages was an interesting exercise in reading images without words.

 

If you are looking for a standalone Gothic horror graphic novel for your collection, you can’t go wrong with When I Arrived at the Castle. If you have not picked up Carroll’s Through the Woods, I encourage you to do that, as well. Recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on June 1, 2024 by , Reply

Graphic Novel Review: Lot 13 by Steve Niles, art by Glenn Fabry

Lot 13 - Niles, Steve

Lot 13 by Steve Niles, art by Glenn Fabry

Dark Horse, 2023

ISBN: 9781506734484

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

 

The story opens in 1670, in Fairfax, Virginia. The bodies of the Wyatt family are on trial. The father, Robert, stands accused of murdering his family before committing suicide. The court ultimately finds him guilty of mortal sin and cast their bodies into unhallowed ground for eternity.

 

Time switches abruptly to the modern day. A married couple are finally ready to move into their dream home. Their three children aren’t as ready as their parents to leave their friends and apartment, but they will get used to the idea in time. The family load up into the moving van, and head to their new home in Fairfax. Unfortunately, when they arrive, the house isn’t ready to be occupied, and the cozy family has to find other accommodations. After an accident on the road, they come across an apartment building, where they are welcomed by an elderly man. When they start seeing things, the secrets of the mysterious building emerge, and they find themselves fighting for their lives.

 

The story is okay, but not great. It is good if you just need some gore. Some things don’t line up or even get addressed. For instance, when the family hits what appears to be a child in the middle of the road with the moving van, gore is all over the front of it and the road in one panel, and in the next it is gone. There is no viscera on the hood, no body parts littering the road. There is also no discussion over what just happened, just the son pointing at a random building nearby advertising apartments to rent for a night to a year. The family just appears to forget what they just saw. The incident is never spoken of afterward. Weird things happen in the building, and some of it is treated in a similar manner. It makes me wonder if the family often has mass hallucinations to make them just gloss over such things.

 

It took me a minute to remember the name Glenn Fabry. I admit I am really bad with names. As soon as it hit me, I knew the art was going to be intense. His covers for Preacher are incredible, and his art in general is fantastic. Fabry goes above and beyond with the amount of gore in this one. Highly recommended, more for the art that the story

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Posted on March 15, 2024 by , Reply
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