"Hello Alex, You don't know me, but you actually sent me some books 17 years ago, and I read your column here. You sent my unit in Afghanistan a couple dozen tpbs, when we were fighting the mother fucking Taliban. I wanted to write to you then, but for the life of me I couldn't find the original letter that had your name on it.
Then recently, I remembered you'd signed the story you did on the Sasquatch book, I looked you up and found you all the hell over the internet. Your work on it was easily the best, but I liked most of the stories, even the silly or cheesy ones. I guess anything is good when you sit in a tent or laying around on off duty, rereading the things reminding you of the good things you left back home. I am a 60 year old man, retired US military, and yes, I still love comic books, and anything that reminds me of off duty times. You called some films comfort food in a recent interview, what a great concept, well comics and novels are my comfort food.
I love comics, wonderin' if I am wrong here... is Tomb of Dracula the only well respected vampire comic? I've read all of Anne Rice, and Bram Stoker as far as books go, but I love comics and love vampires, I am sure there's more, only have so much money and only so much success trying to find them, of course you know what I mean, so much to buy, so little money to buy with. Haven't ever been to a comic shop, I live in Montana, many miles from any town big enough to support one. I order comics off ebay, so I don't have a considerable knowledge of comics. Ebay made comics finding much easier for me. Stationed in Alaska, there was barely a book store in the entire fucking place, let alone a comics store. I find lots on ebay. I don't own a computer, riding a bike or walking to the library (No, I am not the UNIBOMBER) daily to get my fifteen minutes on the library's internet and computer, I print off to later read your stuff, read the news sites daily, and do ebay. Thanks so much for what you did back then, thank you for what you do now. I know its not a big thing, but I love vampires and really think I wasted my money buying Tomb of Dracula. That shit sucked major ass. When I read reviewers and fans saying how great is? The books and the fan boy drool, what a clusterfuck.
Your friend
DG Bonner"
Thanks Mr Bonner. Please forgive my edits of your email, I want people to see what you said, with the original terms, but some words were hard to make sense of. But I appreciate your message very much. Despite my not supporting the 2003 Iraq War I tried to make life better for troops in the field, they deserve support whether the war is one I agree with or not. And I think the Afghan war, no matter how difficult a foe, and how hard it was for all of you folks fighting, it was a righteous war. Or if those people who think I am a fascist think I am saying yay war is great, it was as righteous a war as there could be. Thank you for your service to this great country.
I tried to elicit some answers what others in the comics community might think of TOMB of DRACULA, creative and fandom, but apparently no one cared enough to respond. So, this is an opinion, but, while I think Marv Wolfman is/was a fine writer, and Gene Colan was a spectacular and mood creating artist, the work didn't work for me. It reminded me of House of Dracula with John Carradine as Dracula. For me it was corny, barely tolerable shite, and didn't evoke fear. Rather than a work that felt real, and threatening it felt like a mockery of truly frightening films of the same series (that is, the Universal Monsters). I didn't like the look of it, I didn't think it felt like horror, it felt like a story describing horror, not the actual thing. I am absolutely sure others would disagree with me. It is a beloved comic, but, for someone used to modern movies and comics, it seemed dated, mild, and ineffective.
And this edition of my column will deal with offerings of the specific nature of subject matter you inquire about. And yes, I do enjoy some vampire comics, most I think do not capture what the best of the legend or myth of the sort of character. Prose novels, especially by Anne Rice take the space allowed in the luxury of words and time to invest in a scene, really explore vampires and the complex and layered dance of characters, predators and prey. But the comics recommended here I think are good, very good or even excellent. If you like horror in general there are more comics to suggest, but I'll limit the selection here to vampire stories in comics.
Starting with illustrated prose, Dracula by the great Bram Stoker, illustrated by two magnificently moody talented artists, Jae Lee, and Ben Templesmith. I won't say which I like better, but, both are amazing, and worth every penny you might spend.
Steve Niles is a talented person, who has a somewhat polarizing affect on people. Whether the work is good or not, that is. I think his work is quite good, but whenever I wrote about him in the past I'd get hate mail and people accusing me of sucking his cock and balls. His work, with aforementioned Ben Templesmith, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT had three huge reasons to love it. He took the concept of sunless days during winter in the arctic and there, in the cold wastelands of Alaska, the Vampires came to feed. Then, he wrote an awesomely effective love story of two of the people in the way of danger. And finally his is a fast, merciless style that allows artists to tell the story in a quick effective, dark, and action packed fashion. 30 Days of Night, the first three volumes uppermost, were incredible and I loved them. Works in the series thereafter were less incredible, but, that is on me. I am aware that not everyone has the same taste, the turns and twists of the series went in directions that no longer moved me, and I didn't care for the movies. But 30 DAYS OF NIGHT is incredible, in concept, in writing, in art, and in physical product. IDW who published it knew how to produce beautiful product.
Kind of like the moody art of Jae Lee and Ben Templesmith, Kent Williams paints beautiful, dark, emotive figures. In this work, BLOOD with J.M. DeMatteis, the vampires are not so much evil, as tormented, and eternal life for them means eternal suffering. It is amazing, really, BLOOD looks at the power, the eternal life, the ability to control and harm others, and sees it as a curse. With the art, and deeper evocative story, there is a feeling of an unique spiritual journey. As such, the vampire sees the world as fleeting, while he stands still. He might love a thousand people, and see them all die, and lose them, over, and over again, and he doesn't die. He is hated, but he was forced to live with this curse. The more I remember reading this, the more I enjoy it.
During the days of 1970s when the comics code of content was relaxed, numerous companies were free to do work that was of the living dead, actual horror, and other aspects of content that were mostly off limits for a couple decades. I, Vampire features a man who becomes a vampire and hates his curse, but the woman he has now cursed as well revels in it. She gathers an army of the dead, and over time he has fought battles with her, and her horde. Josh Fialkov took this amazing concept, and made it darker, and have more impact. He is quite a talent.
Topps released a beautiful adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, with Mike Mignola art. Innovation received a ton of my money with its comic adaptation of Anne Rice's Vampire LeStat. Oh I loved it. I wasn't so much a fan of Batman and Dracula's story, but that art, holy shit, Kelley Jones just is perfect for it.
SEA OF RED has the concept and fruition that is the reason why I loved it. With bone toned paper, and ink that was red, a vampire infects a ship of pirates, and they sail the seas. Both heroism and horror make this story effective, and emotive. The art is amazing, and the story and writing is tight, thoughtful, and, for some reason, I've bought and given out dozens of sets of it, and it moves me. I am not, otherwise, a fan of pirates, so, it didn't work for me for that, and while I like vampires, I don't buy a lot of their comics. This was a moment of excellence, and every participant, including the genius who decided to make it capture the concept of blood red ink on parchment, it was a genius work. And sadly, I don't have copies to share any longer. But I did my part, I promise.
And I include Necroscope because I am a fan of Brian Lumley. However, I am far more a fan of Lumley's Cthulh u additions, and his vampires, more psychic than physical or supernatural, don't scare me nearly as much as they kind of disgust me. However, I've read the books, and this is a good adaption of it. I do quite like the art, and if you like Brian Lumley's work, you probably would also enjoy it. It is a candidate to be captured in tradepaperback, but I suspect that is not in the cards.
No comments:
Post a Comment