Happily, Roy Thomas wasn’t satisfied to let the nineties Hollywood remake stand as his final word on the character. The result is more of a mix of the 1960s American vampire soap opera, Dark Shadows with ITV’s contemporaneous revisionist television adaptation of Stoker’s novel, with Denholm Elliott wearing eyeglasses straight out of swinging Carnaby Street (Gary Oldman’s vampire count just seemed even more alien for donning nearly identical eyewear a quarter of a century later in the Coppola film). Roy Thomas and Mike Mignola would tackle the comic adaptation of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film, Bram Stoker’s Dracula for Topps’ short-lived comics division.įor those unfamiliar with the film, the title is misleading. Sadly, the English translation was not as skillfully handled with jarring typos, missing words, and awkward sentences somewhat lessening the impact of Fernandez’s work outside of his native Spain. Fernandez’s art is far more sophisticated and accomplished than what is usually seen in the United States. It was Creepy that brought Fernando Fernandez’s stylish Spanish adaptation of Stoker’s novel to a larger audience worldwide. Marvel’s magazine division was a direct response to the success of Warren Publications such as Eerie, Creepy, and Vampirella. Their masterful adaptation was left incomplete for nearly thirty years. The one unpublished chapter they had completed turned up in the pages of another magazine title, Legion of Monsters, before it too was cancelled. Unfortunately, sales were not on their side and the title was cancelled. Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano teamed up to provide a faithful, elegant, and leisurely-paced adaptation of the Stoker novel as an ongoing feature in the black & white comic magazine. Happily, a superior adaptation was brewing in Marvel’s companion magazine, Dracula Lives. Marvel Comics would later reprint it in the 1970s with new cover art to make it appear consistent with Gene Colan’s magnificent portrayal of the character for Marvel’s long-running Tomb of Dracula title. The Classics Illustrated adaptation was professionally produced, if somewhat anemic. Frederick Wertham got his dirty little hands on the comic business and did his best to keep the children of the world safe from twisted people just like himself.

While Bram Stoker’s infamous vampire count has been prevalent in comic books whenever the prevailing bluenoses of each generation have deigned to allow horror books to be printed, there have been surprisingly few attempts to faithfully adapt the classic novel in comic book form.Ĭlassics Illustrated tackled the book shortly before Dr.

Stoker's Dracula by Roy Thomas