Reading Room VLAD THE IMPALER "I am Dracula" Conclusion

When Last We Left the Future Impaler...

Having avenged the murders of his father and older brother at the hand of his uncle, young Vlad Dracula holds a celebration of his victory...

You thought George RR Martin was being innovative with Game of Thrones' "Red Wedding"?

Vlad did it first!

The conclusion of Topps' Vlad the Impaler #1 (1993) was brought to you by writer Roy Thomas and illustrator Esteban Maroto, who, unhindered by the Comics Code Authority, got a chance to cut loose in a way the Marvel Comics version had been unable to do, even in b/w magazines!

Reading Room VLAD THE IMPALER "I am Dracula" Part 2

We hope you went to see...

...this past weekend, so you can compare its' version of Dracula's "origin" to this one.

When last we left our future Lord of Vampires, he and his family were beginning a diplomatic journey to visit their Moslem overlords...

Be Here Tomorrow for the Birth of...the Impaler!

Written by Roy Thomas, illustrated by Estaban Maroto.

BTW, for other comic book versions of the legendary vampire, check out...

Dracula the 1960s SuperHero!

and

The first comic adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel!

Reading Room VLAD THE IMPALER "I am Dracula" Part 1

Dracula Untold, opening today, tells one version of how Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, went from "Impaler" to vampire...

...this mini-series, not seen for almost two decades, tells another version...

Be here Monday, when things really go bad.

Roy Thomas' penchant for combining history and fiction served him well, using many rarely-told facts (such as Vlad's being a middle child with two brothers) and emphasizing the Christian/Moslem (Muslim) conflict that tore Europe apart in the 15th Century, to create drama and conflict within the story.
Of course, the always-superb storytelling and rendering of Esteban Maroto certainly didn't hurt, either.
Topps' Vlad the Impaler #1 (1992) came out shortly after the company released a mini-series adapting the movie Bram Stoker's Dracula, featuring art by the movie's production designer and noted comic artist Mike (Hellboy) Mignola.
Vlad was reprinted in 1995 as The Dracula Chronicles when Marvel went on a vampire binge with their Midnight Sons line including NightStalkers, Morbius, a new Blade mini-series as well as one-shot reprints of all of Dracula's previous crossovers with the X-Men, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, and Dr Strange, among others.
BTW, for other comic book versions of the legendary vampire, check out...

Dracula the 1960s SuperHero!

and

The first comic adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel!

Exit WeirdWorld, Enter Vlad the Impaler

When we first decided to re-present WeirdWorld as our Countdown to Halloween 2014 feature...

Art by John Buscema, Rudy Nebres and Peter Ledger

...it had been untouched since its' intitial publication over three decades ago, and a generation of fans knew nothing about it.

So we felt comfortable running an all-but lost chapter of fantasy comics history for historical purposes.

However, we learned this week that Marvel will be doing a hardcover compiliation of all the prevously-published WeirdWorld stories in April 2015 (check out Amazon.com for details), so we will not be continuing our re-presentation.

This left us with a big gap in our schedule.

Luckily, we have something equally-kool on hand...

Art by Estaban Maroto

With Dracula Untold opening this week, we decided to re-present another "lost" series from the past, Topps' 1992 mini-series Vlad the Impaler, which like the new movie, is about how the "historical Dracula" became the "vampiric Dracula".

(Ironically, the Vlad mini-series was done to capitalize on the revived interest in Dracula created by the movie Bram Stoker's Dracula, which Topps did the comic adaptation and trading cards for!)

So, go see the movie this weekend, then compare how it handles the juxtposition between "historical" and "vampiric" Draculas with the comic by Roy Thomas and Estaban Maroto!

Vlad begins tomorrow!

Don't miss it!

Reading Room: DRACULA "Invasion"

A surreal sci-fi tale in a magazine called "Dracula"?

BTW, despite the magazine being called "Dracula", the legendary vampire never appears in any of the stories!

The tale, written by Esteban Maroto and illustrated by Jose M Bea was originally published in England in Dracula #5 (1972), a partworks magazine* by New English Library.
It made it's American debut in Warren Publishing's HTF Dracula TPB in 1972 which reprinted #1-#6 of the British Dracula's run.

It also appeared as the cover-featured story in Warren's Eerie #75 (1976), but the tale itself was reprinted in black and white!

Besides reprinting the Dracula title (and numerous other previously-published stories) by writers and artists of the Spain-based studio Selleciones Illustrada, Warren Publishing commissioned new material from many of the creators, including both Maroto and Bea!

*Partworks magazines are a limited series issued weekly, fortnightly, or monthly.
They usually run 12-24 issues for each volume.
When the final issue in a volume is published, the publishers offer a wraparound cover to make the complete set into a hardbound book. 
The buyer is offered the option to bind the magazines themselves or send the set to the publisher who professionally-binds the mags and sends the bound volume back to the customer.
This concept is extremely popular in Europe, but has never caught on in America, despite numerous attempts.

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