Bram Stoker’s Dracula starring Bela Lugosi – review

Adapted by: Robert Napton

Illustrations by: El Garing

First Published: 2020

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: For the first time ever Bram Stoker's gothic masterpiece is being united with the definitive screen Dracula, Bela Lugosi, in an all new graphic novel.

In the late 19th century, Dracula, an ancient Transylvanian Vampire, moves to England to find fresh blood and spread his evil contagion. There he encounters two women, Lucy and Mina, who become the targets of his dark obsession. Aided by a group of brave men, Professor Van Helsing arrives on the scene and takes on the Vampire Prince in the ultimate battles between the forces of light and dark!

The Brides

The review: As brilliant as the 1931 film of Dracula was, and as iconic Lugosi was in the role, there is no doubt that the film strayed far and wide from the novel and instead used the Balderstone stage play as its baseline and reference point. The conceit of this graphic novel is that it is an adaptation of Stoker’s novel using the image of Lugosi for the Count – and this time Lugosi’s Dracula has fangs.

It is not a straight adaptation, which would have been huge, so it does make some compromises. The scenes on the Demeter are cut from the tale, Mrs Westenra dies off-page and there is no wolf involvement, Lucy only has one transfusion and, as the Blooferlady, she kills her victim. There are locational changes with Carfax being in Whitby (replacing Whitby Abbey for location) and this leads the adaptation to move both the asylum and the Westenra household to Whitby also (Dracula does move some of his boxes of Earth to houses in London still).

But the changes are no more serious than any other adaptation of Dracula and the fact that the three suitors survived into the novel was good. On the other hand, the adaptation does not really take any chances story wise either and leaves the characterisation really down to knowledge of the novel. The actual primary raison d'être for the graphic is, of course, the artwork. It is black and white – probably to give it the same aesthetic as Lugosi’s film – and the artwork is lovely throughout. The novel is bound in hardcover and the paper is a glossy heavy gram type that all points to a quality production. More a collector’s piece for the novel/Lugosi fan. 7.5 out of 10.

In Hardback @ Amazon US

In Hardback @ Amazon UK