Dracula: Book One — The Impaler

We’re all familiar with Dracula, the vampire, but who was he before he became the bloodsucking Prince of the Night?  Writer Matt Wagner and artist Kelly Jones take a page from the character’s alleged real-life inspiration and imagine him as a warlord from Wallacia in the 1400’s  One best known for the brutal way he impaled the corpses of his enemies around his encampments as a warning to others who might challenge him.  However, when he’s finally defeated, Vlad Dracul III realizes that he’s going to need greater knowledge and power than he can obtain on Earth to dominate everyone before him.  Which is why he turns to SATAN HIMSELF to grow stronger no matter the cost.

You may find yourself thinking, “Do we really need another riff on the ‘Dracula’ legend?”  After all the ones that have come before, are here right now (hello “#DRCL”), and are likely to come in the future?  Well, Wagner and Jones have found a new angle here in that they’re blending history and fiction together to show us what the character was like before he appeared in the classic novel.

The result is an enjoyably trashy read that may not come off as a compelling character study, yet still entertains with a protagonist dedicated to being unrepentantly eeeeeeevil.  Make no mistake:  Drac was bad before he became undead and the creators are clearly having a good time showing us how bad this guy can be.  Wagner is certainly up to the challenge of writing a character with worse morals than any “Grendel” protagonist, and Jones clearly delights in the gory, demonic grandeur of the world he’s asked to create.  While I don’t think this is something that they can sustain indefinitely – this is billed as the first in an ongoing series of graphic novels – I was still entertained enough by what I saw here to be on board for what the creators will have to offer in “Book Two – The Brides.”