Dracul
Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle | Audiobook
By Dacre Stoker, J.D. Barker
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons | Penguin Books
Release date: October 2, 2018

It’s been about 125 years so I’m sincerely hoping that, by now, everyone is at least tangentially familiar with the legend of Count Dracula as published by Bram Stoker. Yes? Good. No? For shame!!

Now consider if you were told that the story of the world’s most infamous and influential vampire was based on true events in the life of its author.

Well, I’m not about to tell you that this is the case. However, Bram’s great-grand-nephew Dacre Stoker, along with co-author J.D. Barker, is here to do just that with Dracul, a prequel to the classic Dracula.

After winning an auction for the rights, Paramount Pictures is developing a prequel to Dracula, author Bram Stoker‘s 1897 vampire tale.

Attached to direct the prequel is Andy Muschietti, who also directed Mama and this week’s IT, the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s work of the same name.

Anno Dracula: 1895: Seven Days In Mayhem #1
Written by Kim Newman
Art by Paul McCaffrey
Colors by Kevin Enhart
Letters by Simon Bowland
Cover A: Paul McCaffrey
Cover B: Tom Mandrake
Cover C: Brian Williamson
Cover D: Jeff Zornow
Cover E: Mike Collins
Cover F: Ben Oliver (Forbidden Planet/Jetpack Comics Variant)
Cover G: Ben Oliver (“Phoenix Event Exclusive” Variant)
Titan Comics
Release Date: March 22, 2017
Cover Price: $3.99

I loved the original 1992 Anno Dracula novel by British writer Kim Newman. Let’s just get that out of the way, okay? So it stands to reason that I would jump at the chance to review the new comic book Anno Dracula: 1895: Seven Days In Mayhem #1, right? Well, you would correct. And for a fan like me, the comic was pretty much what I would want and expect. But for the first-time reader, not so much.

Dracula
Illustrated Classics Edition
By Bram Stoker
Illustrations by Becky Cloonan
Harper Design
Release date: April 10, 2012
Hardcover | Kindle

Vampires are all the rage these days, with Twilight and True Blood, and no doubt Johnny Depp will make his mark on the genre next month with Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows. But everyone knows there would be no vampire tales today if not for the granddaddy of them all, Dracula.

Now, Harper Design has released a new illustrated edition of Bram Stoker‘s 1897 novel with art by illustrator and comic book artist Becky Cloonan (American Virgin, Conan The Barbarian). This illustrated classics edition is not a mash-up or an redo — this is the full version as written by Stoker, the words are exactly the same, nothing has been changed or deleted. What is different about this version of the novel is that it is now a 384-page hardcover book which contains more than 50 original illustrations by Cloonan and it’s damn gorgeous.

The Kindle eBook deal of the day over at Amazon today is Dracula’s Guest: A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories, an anthology of Victorian-era vampire stories edited by Michael Sims, for only $1.99 (that’s down from the usual digital price of $8.99 and 88% off the list price of $17.00).

Note – this deal is valid only for today, Thursday, February 16, 2012, until 11:59pm PST.

If you’d like to purchase a physical copy of Dracula’s Guest: A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories, the book is also available in paperback for $6.80.