Adapters: Leah Moore and John Reppion
Artwork: Colton Worley
First published: 2010 (tpb)
Contains spoilers
The Blurb: Writers Leah Moore and John Reppion are joined by painter Colton Worley for a fully painted series, reprinted here in this softcover collected edition. All of the stunning covers by John Cassaday are included, along with script pages, annotations by Leah Moore and John Reppion and samplings of the original text by Bram Stoker!
The review: Another graphic novel adaptation of Dracula and one that underlines the idiom "never judge a book by its cover". The cover was by John Cassaday and I absolutely love it, a stark comic graphic that absolutely drew me in. The inner art, however, not so much. A painted style I was not wowed. The panel layout is, for the most part, pedestrian and the palette muted, it was at best utilitarian in my eyes – which is not the best way art for a graphic novel should be described. I disliked the character designs too. Art, of course, impacts different people in different ways, there will be those out there who love the style – it really wasn’t for me.
The story itself followed Stoker, but sometimes strangely. Aspects seemed glossed over or, in some cases missing, which might be fine in an adaptation as there is only so much that will fit into the format (though they have called this complete) and yet other moments of completeness that I’d have missed out are included. Moments of crates being shifted and located round London just slowed the pace of the graphic down, for instance. They included the Dracula’s Guest sequence, presumably to be complete (though Stoker chose to expunge that from the final novel) and I was curious about their decision to move to Stoker’s rejected ending connecting the collapse of castle Dracula with his demise. I love Stoker’s novel but didn’t feel this did it justice, for me at least. 5 out of 10.
In Paperback @ Amazon US
In Paperback @ Amazon UK
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