Customer Reviews

Dracula (Graphic Classics (Barron's Paperback))

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I collect graphic novels based on classic literature, so I had high hopes for this series by Barron's. In addition to Dracula, they've also published Treasure Island, Frankenstein, Kidnapped, Moby-Dick, and Journey to the Center of the Earth (maybe others I'm unaware of too). It's a really cool concept, making comic books out of literature that can otherwise be a bit dry and difficult to get through, especially for teenagers. I'm giving it 2 stars for the idea alone. Unfortunately, Barron's does it very poorly. I was highly disappointed when I received my copy of Dracula, and promptly removed all the others in this series from my wishlist.

The problem is that this isn't a comic book per se, it's more of a childish adaptation of the novel's text with large illustrations to go with it. You open the book and instead of seeing pages of artwork with dialogue balloons and perhaps a bit of boxed text, instead it's mostly typed text accompanied by color illustrations. The illustrations are done in comic book style, but they're pretty small and only account for maybe 1\4th of the page space. In a comic book I expect the artwork to cover the entire page with a minimum of explanatory text.

I realize that a graphic novel is not actually a comic book, but for all intents and purposes they're the same thing. A graphic novel should be mostly artwork; that is all that separates it from a regular novel that happens to be illustrated. I own graphic novel versions of The Hobbit and several other classics done by Marvel Illustrated (yes, the same Marvel famous for Superman et al) and those books are absolutely gorgeous -- full-color artwork that covers the entire page, on heavy paper with a gloss finish, and the dialogue is taken directly from the text of the original novel rather than adapted. That's another issue with this series from Barron's; not only is the "graphic" portion severely lacking, but the large amounts of text underneath each illustration isn't even text from the novel. It's more like a quick recap of what's going on, necessary because the illustrations are so small that you can't really understand the story by looking at the scenes in the artwork.

For example, the first page of Barron's Graphic Classics "Dracula" includes an illustration that's two inches square (I measured) and shows Johnathan Harker and another man. The man is saying, "Must you go?" and holding out a small chain with what I assume is a crucifix dangling on it, but the picture's so small to begin with that it's difficult to tell what the tiny object is supposed to be. There is nothing in the illustration to give a clue as to where the two men are; no scenery or background of any kind, it's just a blank illustration box with what might be the vague outline of a house behind the two men. It's a black and white outline, only there so that the illustration box wouldn't be completely white, I assume. The text underneath this says, "Johnathan reaches a gloomy old inn, where he asks for news of Dracula. The innkeepers shudder and insist on giving him a crucifix." I don't know about you, but in a graphic novel I'd sorta like to actually SEE the gloomy old inn, not just an incomplete drawing of two men speaking with typed text underneath to assure me that this conversation is in fact taking place in a gloomy old inn in Transylvania. The entire book continues this way; the illustrations are small and they don't tell the story at all, the way a comic should. Instead they're merely that, illustrations -- small pictures that contribute a brief glimpse of things that are being explained and described in the text. And the text itself is a recap of Dracula in 40 pages, without a single line of it taken from the original novel.

Very, very disappointing effort from Barron's. Save yourself the disappointment and buy the Marvel Illustrated graphic novels instead. You'll be extremely impressed.