Graphic Classics Volume 7: Bram Stoker - 1st Edition (Graphic Classics (Graphic Novels)) (Paperback)

by Bram Stoker (Author), John Pierard (Author), Gerry Alanguilan (Author), Lesley Reppeteaux (Author) "Please regard this as my Modest Proposal for a New Dramatic Presentation of Dracula: By way of preface, my good sir, I deem this an..." (more)
Key Phrases: Lady Arabella, Diana's Grove, Castra Regis (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Gr. 9-12. Volume 7 in the ongoing Graphic Classics series is a marvelous adaptation of Stoker's body of work, including many of his lesser-known pieces, such as "The Funeral Party" and "Lair of the White Worm." Because most readers picking this up will look for stories about Dracula, three short works to satisfy vampire fans are included. The format is varied: some stories have only a few illustrations; others are told largely in pictures. Twenty-five different artists are represented; their styles vary greatly, but their art always reflects the dark, heavy tone expected from a classic horror anthology. Gerry Alanguilan's rendering of "The Judge's House" is particularly good, using subtle lines to convey the tension and overall mood. Put this in the hands of a student looking for an accessible entry to Stoker's body of work, or give it to fans of gothic or horror stories as a change of pace. Cathy Buksar
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description
Graphic Classics: Bram Stoker is the seventh in a series of books which present great literature in comics and heavily illustrated format by some of the best artists working today in the fields of comics, book illustration, and fine arts. The book includes comics adaptations of "The Lair of the White Worm", an excerpt from Dracula, plus six other great stories by the great writer, Bram Stoker.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Eureka Productions (September 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971246475
• ISBN-13: 978-0971246478
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,500,438 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #3 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( P ) > Pierard, John
  #94 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( S ) > Stoker, Bram

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A worthy volume of illustrated adaptations, January 5, 2004

By	Zack Davisson "All Good Things" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Graphic Classics: Bram Stoker" serves up an excellent collection of illustrated stories by horror Grandmaster Bram Stoker. Each tale is either fully illustrated, comic book style, or text and page combined. All of the illustrations are in black and white, and feature a wide variety of styles and flair. This is definitely not the typical art you would find in a DC or Marvel comic, but is much more "arty."

There is plenty of "Dracula," Stoker's number one claim to fame, but there is also enough of his other works to let us know that he wrote more than one novel.

"Lair of the White Worm" is a great tale of jolly, haunted England and the monsters that haunt its green and pleasant land. A comic book style tale, with a Victorian flair in style.

"Torture Tower" shows the danger of being a loud-mouthed American tourist in Nuremberg. Comic book style.

"The Wondrous Child" is illustrated text, with a flight of fancy and a trip to fairy land.

"The Funeral Party" is a one-page illustrated text. Excellent dark humor.

"Dracula's Voyage" is a scratchy rendition of the first few chapters of "Dracula." Very well done.

"The Dracula Gallery" has artists taking a snatch of text as inspiration, then creating a page.

"Vampire's Hunter Guide" is a combination of Van Helsing's text and semi-humorous drawings.

"The Dualists" is an illustrated text piece of two friends and their passion. By far the most gruesome of the lot.

"The Judge's House" is comic book style, a haunted house story.

"The Bridal of Death" is adapted from "The Jewel of Seven Stars." A mummy tale.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yes, Bram Stoker did more than "Dracula" and this comic book proves it, September 12, 2005

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Like Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker is considered to be a one-hit wonder in the world of literature. Of course when you are talking about novels like "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus" and "Dracula," that is enough to establish your literary immortality. Both authors did write other works, and while Stoker does not have anything else in his literary resume as good as Shelley's novel "The Last Man," overall his writing output was superior. "Lair of the White Worm," his last novel, written fourteen years after "Dracula," is the centerpiece of "Graphic Classics, Volume 7: Bram Stoker," but to no one's surprise his vampire count pops up in a number of pieces as well.

"Lair of the White Worm" is illustrated by Rico Schacherl and adapted by Tom Pomplum in 32 pages. Adam Salton arrives from Australia to meet with his great uncle Richard as the last surviving members of the Salton family. Adam travels to the old kingdom of Mercia in the heart of ancient Britain where strange things start happening. For example, snakes quickly crawl away from Lady Arabella March but later a mongoose attacks her. Eventually we get to the well by which the legendary White Worm came and went, and Lady Arabella has an even stranger encounter with a mongoose. Eventually Adam figures out what is going on and the goal becomes to destroy the titular creature. Do not think that the cover painting by Glenn Barr gives an indication of what the artwork is like for "Liar of the White Worm" because Schacherl's work is a lot more cartoonish. But the adaptation is solid and does a more serviceable job than the Ken Russell movie version.

"Dracula" pops up in a variety of ways in this collection. The book's introduction is a letter to Stoker by Mort Castle with a modest proposal for a new dramatic presentation of "Dracula" as a ballet (which makes sense to anybody who has seen Guy Maddin's "Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary," which both Castle and I have done). "Dracula's Voyage: An Excerpts from Dracula by Bram Stoker," adapted by John W. Pierard, retells the story of the journey of the "Demeter" that brought the count from Varna to Whitby. The black & white illustrations are more white than black, which is an interesting approach, and if Pierard is thinking about doing the entire novel that would be fine. "The Dracula Gallery" has a dozen one-page illustrations based on the novel displaying a wide variety of drawing styles. Those by Michael Manning, Jeff Gather, Lisa K. Weber, Todd Schorr, and Todd Lovering stand out from the others. Then there is "Professor Abraham Van Helsing's Vampire Hunter's Guide," freely adapted by Tom Pomplun and illustrated by Hunt Emerson to humorous effect.

The rest of the volume is an interesting variety of approaches and visual styles. "Torture Tower," adapted from Stoker's "The Squaw" by Onsmith Jeremi, uses a dozen panels per page to tell the story of a man on his honeymoon in Germany who makes the mistake of killing a kitten (think E.C.'s "Tales from the Crypt"). "The Wondrous Child" is a fanciful fable by Stoker where the text has been edited down and there are a half dozen illustrations by Evert Geradts. "The Funeral Party" is a very short story by Stoker on one page with a Richard Sala illustration opposite. "The Dualists" is another edited text story, this time illustrated by Lesley Reppeteaux, which also evidences Stoker's grim sense of humor. By the time you get through these you will definitely be revising your estimation of Stoker as a one-hit wonder.

The final selection of stories gets us back to conventional comic book presentations. Artistically "The Judge's House," adapted by Gerry Alanguilan, is the most effective. I liked his close-up of the rat steadily glaring at our hero with baleful eyes; for that matter, I like the eyes of the judge and the ill-fated hero on the last couple of pages of the story. "The Bridal of Death," an excerpt from "The Jewel of Seven Stars," is adapted and illustrated by J. B. Bonivert, with an almost art deco style that seems rather ill suited to Stoker's story but which is certainly striking.

Tom Pomplun's name pops up a lot in this volume because he is the designer, editor and publisher of "Graphic Classics" (he specifically edited down the text stories presented herein). You can find "Graphic Classics" devoted to the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Jack London, Ambrose Bierce, H.G Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, and O. Henry. This venture has been successful enough that a revised and expanded second edition of "Graphic Classics: Edgar Allan Poe" has been released. There are few recognizable names (e.g., Richard Corden, Gahan Wilson), involved in these retellings, but you will see some of the names in this volume in others and will certainly come to have your favorites. I look forward to more of these volumes, especially if we get to the likes of Arthur Machen, Clark Ashton Smith, and Robert Bloch that I was read in my formative years.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Especially recommended to the attention of Bram Stoker fans, November 17, 2003

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Graphic Classics: Bram Stoker presents illustrated novel adaptations of classic tales of terror by Bram Stoker, best known for his classic novel "Dracula." Stark black-and-white imagery by a variety of different artists (Hunt Emerson, Rico Schacherl, J.B. Bonivert, Evert Geradts) adds a stringent and often visually provocative touch to these spine-chilling and narrations which are especially recommended to the attention of Bram Stoker fans and Horror Fiction enthusiasts.