Dracula #2

09 Feb 1993-01 Mar 1993. £1.25.
40 pages. Full colour contents.
Dark Horse Comics International.

Edited by Dick Hansom.

Painted cover by John Bolton.

Contents:

.2 Dracula introduction text (uncredited). / Contents / Indicia

.3 Bram Stoker's Dracula, part two, w: Roy Thomas; p: Mike Mignola, i: John Nyberg, lettering by John Costanzac, colouring by Mark Chiarello.

r: Bram Stoker's Dracula (Topps) #02 (Nov 1992).

20 Bram Stoker's Dracula glossy full color film poster.

35 Inside Coppola's Dracula The Players, part two, text feature by Gary Gerani.

37 Bloodlines text feature compiled by Dave Hughes.

39 Subscribe - Comics for the '90s

40 Even in Your Dreams, You Can't Escape... Aliens in-house advertisement.

John Bolton's cover injects a cinematic feel to the title's appearance, utilizing a visual cue from Nosferatu, which was based upon the same source novel. It's slightly in-jokey, but he gets away with it thanks to sheer skill. There's an introduction to the adaptation, covering the basics, which is a delight to see, before the adaptation resumes. Truly excellent artwork from Mignola, and despite drenching the pages in black, this never looks muddy or difficult to read - even images coloured dark blue seem to be balanced.

The work really benefits from a larger page size, and is much more attractive than the Topps version.

I'm not entirely sold on the inclusion of the film poster (which has a decidedly rough and ready appearance), but it shouldn't be the primary reason people would want to pick this issue up. It isn't a brilliant design, using far too many filters over the selected images, and the much more effective red logo poster is likely to be better remembered after all these years. Still, it is free...

Inside Coppola's Dracula, Gary Gerani's text feature, covers the cast selection with an eye for minor details. As there isn't much room to play with, he wisely gives a brief account of the preparations Coppola made to get his actors prepared, then moves on to individual pieces on Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Tom Waits, and Sadie Frost. It is a very varied cast, and the disparity in the quality of each performance isn't addressed, but we do get an insight into why they were selected.

Following this, Dave Hughes' Bloodlines, which is general vampire news rather than focusing on Dracula, feels slightly out of sequence. While there are plenty of reference guides to Dracula, relating the important points in the character's history, there hasn't been a proper step-by-step history which takes in everything. By skipping straight to then-current cinematic outings, much of the interesting and odd footnotes are brushed aside.

Can't we get comics which contain features which challenge magazines and websites for their quality of research? It isn't difficult to pull together a truly important and worthwhile history on a character as comprehensively covered as Dracula.

The mention of Cure, a film about AIDS which Coppola was hoping to direct after Dracula is another in a long list of films which never appeared, though yet had people excited at the prospects. It is one which still sounds interesting, and hopefully hasn't been completely forgotten. I've always been interested in medical-themed films, and it has much promise.

Worth picking up for the cover alone, but Mignola's work demands attention.

Dracula #1

Dracula

Dracula #3