Story: Matt Wagner
Art: Kelley Jones & Jose Villarrubia
First published: 2024 (tpb)
Contains spoilers
The blurb: The first of four planned volumes, The Impaler explores the legendary count before his debut in the novel - from his first foray into the dark arts to his rise to lord of the undead! Wagner and Jones explore the veiled stories from Dracula, diving into the bloody, horrifying events between the lines of the famed horror novel.
The review: In his introduction to this graphic novel, Matt Wagner admits that the conflation of Stoker’s Dracula and Vlad Ţepeş is contested. This of course is fine, combining Dracula with the historical Ţepeş is now part of the megatext but we need to recognise that it is an addition, much as death by sunlight was (in that there is a sunlight aspect within the novel – losing powers – and there was the use of Ţepeş' familial name but little more).
This volume, the first of four, then sees the origin of Dracula from the defeat of Ţepeş (and the use of a body double, beheaded to fake his death), his journey to find the secret of the Scholomance from a witch, his journey there and his induction into the Devil’s academy up to and including his turning.
Ţepeş is drawn as cruel, as one would imagine, happily sacrificing even the most loyal to attain his goals. I liked the way Lucifer was presented as a golden child, in the voivod’s eyes, but each student saw them (and named them) differently depending on cultural pantheon – so the Norse student sees Loki, for instance.
The artwork suits the story, the writing is crisp and this is a worthwhile start. 7.5 out of 10. My thanks to Ian who got me this as a birthday gift.
In Paperback @ Amazon US
In Paperback @ Amazon UK
The blurb: The first of four planned volumes, The Impaler explores the legendary count before his debut in the novel - from his first foray into the dark arts to his rise to lord of the undead! Wagner and Jones explore the veiled stories from Dracula, diving into the bloody, horrifying events between the lines of the famed horror novel.
The review: In his introduction to this graphic novel, Matt Wagner admits that the conflation of Stoker’s Dracula and Vlad Ţepeş is contested. This of course is fine, combining Dracula with the historical Ţepeş is now part of the megatext but we need to recognise that it is an addition, much as death by sunlight was (in that there is a sunlight aspect within the novel – losing powers – and there was the use of Ţepeş' familial name but little more).
This volume, the first of four, then sees the origin of Dracula from the defeat of Ţepeş (and the use of a body double, beheaded to fake his death), his journey to find the secret of the Scholomance from a witch, his journey there and his induction into the Devil’s academy up to and including his turning.
Ţepeş is drawn as cruel, as one would imagine, happily sacrificing even the most loyal to attain his goals. I liked the way Lucifer was presented as a golden child, in the voivod’s eyes, but each student saw them (and named them) differently depending on cultural pantheon – so the Norse student sees Loki, for instance.
The artwork suits the story, the writing is crisp and this is a worthwhile start. 7.5 out of 10. My thanks to Ian who got me this as a birthday gift.
In Paperback @ Amazon US
In Paperback @ Amazon UK
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