Dracula #1

Over the years Bram Stoker`s novel, Dracula and the titular character, Count Dracula have had numerous re-workings and adaptations in comic-book form and on screen. Having read the book a couple of times myself and being a fan of horror, vampires, werewolves and the like, this `new` adaptation of Dracula by Marvel caught my attention...
Firstly, its not `new`. This series was originally serialized in the `70s black and white magazine format publication `Dracula Lives`. Marvel has coloured and reproduced it here, this issue being the first of four parts...
It`s superb. Dick Giordano`s artwork is fantastic and June Chung has done a great job adding colour to this gothic and atmospheric masterpiece. Transylvanian villages, dark, snowy mountain passes and wolf-haunted forests and beautifully portrayed as is the Count`s crumbling medieval castle...
In this first part, solicitor Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to arrange the estate and travel arrangements of the mysterious Count Dracula, but soon learns something awful is afoot...

If you`re unfamiliar with this original classic vampire story, I strongly recommend this - its an adaptation that remains true to Stoker`s book, and as I said, the artwork is excellent. Its no light read to flick through either, as there is loads (and loads) of dialogue and descriptive text accompanying Harker`s descent into terror.
Maybe modern reader`s might find it`s dark-and-stormy-night gothic horror style a bit old fashioned, but if you really want to have a look at a graphic interpretation of Victorian horror, look no further...
A footnote at the end of the issue by Roy Thomas, written in 2004, tells of how he and Dick Giordano wished to `draw and script the most faithful adaptation ever done, in any medium, of Bram Stoker`s Dracula`. I think he`s succeeded. The final collected four-piece or graphic novel will be an awesome thing...