Mike Mignola’s cover may not be as intricately painted as last month’s but through clever used of colour, and the changing of the logo to suit, we’ve another atmospheric introduction to the latest issue of Dark Horse International’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This third edition went on sale this day 32 years ago and continues with its regular format for now, with a 28-page chapter of the movie adaptation and four pages of extras bringing up the rear.
I have to say I still love the comic’s editorial page every issue. Written in the style of the Van Helsing character from the film it’s an inventive and fun way to kickstart things every three weeks. It certainly makes the plain contents pages of DHI’s Jurassic Park comic feel like a wasted opportunity. Here, Anthony Hopkins’ voice reminds us who some of the other characters are who’ll be featuring heavily in this issue, an issue with a surprising amount of iconic imagery, which I’ll get to later.
After such a great start in the first two editions, as we get into the meat of the second half of the film it feels like the strip is having to play catch up. It’s racing along, jumping back and forth between scenes after only paying lip service to them. Even as a fan of the film who watches it every Hallowe’en it felt confusing, like it’s been hastily chopped up and squeezed in rather than being properly adapted to another medium.
Don’t get me wrong, thanks to an interview with the writer of The Lost World: Jurassic Park’s adaptation we know how difficult it can be to adapt a movie to comic form and this film in particular couldn’t have been easy! I get that. So please do not see any critiques as being critical of writer Roy Thomas, this must have been a next-to-impossible task, it’s an incredibly visual film and delivers a lot of its thrills through original direction.
There are moments where I’d defy anyone who hasn’t seen the film in a long time to instantly recognise what’s happening. I last saw it only a few of months ago and I still had to reread some pages and look longer at some panels to remember what was meant to be going on. The problem is it’s suddenly trying too hard to follow the film moment-for-moment, instead of adapting it like we know the team is more than capable of from the previous issues .
As the film used its quick cuts, speeded up moments and dramatic music we easily followed what was going on while at the same time feeling bombarded and breathless, as intended by Coppola. But trying to do that with still images just isn’t going to work. However, the quieter moments between Dracula and Mina are again the highlight of the issue and highly enjoyable.
Special mention again to letterer John Costanza for the various forms of diary entries. A pattern emerges as I continue to read. The human moments are handled particularly well but the horror elements fall flat and end up confusing. Thankfully, there are some dramatic moments that come from the more chatty human scenes instead of the visual flair of Coppola, and in these instances the comic’s potential shines.
I mentioned iconic imagery, but what do I mean by that? Simply that there were certain images in the film that perfectly captured its intent as a whole. There are also fan favourite moments, as well as scenes which perfectly summed up Francis Ford Coppola’s vision with just a quick snippet.
These are largely intact here and the first is that iconic moment when the Prince and Mina dance by candlelight, Winona’s character in that elegant and memorable red dress set against the darkness, perfectly capturing the colour palette of the film and thus encapsulating more than the moment itself. These were moments also used in the marketing at the time and ever since for good reason.
The ancient texts telling the story of Vlad, Sadie Frost’s Lucy character receiving her final bite to transform her and the giant man bat moment that the behind-the-scenes feature below actually talks about. All of these and more are present and correct, and all are brought to the page superbly by penciller Mike, inker John Nyberg and colourist Mark Chiarello.
The creepy, terrifying crypt scene involving the now undead Lucy takes up a good chunk of the end of this issue’s chapter and I love Mark’s decision to not use any shading whatsoever when drawing her. As a result she stands out from the page as an ethereal entity, the contrast of the blood feeling all the more gruesome.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still enjoying this but in a different way than it was intended. Instead of reading it like a normal comic and being drawn into its story it’s like a love letter from the artists to the film. I’ve spoken at length in the previous reviews about how the artists have been able to craft the same atmosphere through a brave, original stylistic choice and it continues here. But you might struggle if you’re hoping the comic can tell the story on its own.
Dracula was released in the UK right at the beginning of 1993 and 32 years later as I began this real time read through a certain other movie was released, coincidentally enough. This timing passed me by until I read these panels below, which are our final highlight of the issue’s strip.
To the extras now and as usual things kick off with Inside Coppola’s Dracula and this time Gary Gerani is focussing on the special effects of the film. Famously, director Francis eschewed the new CGI trend and very deliberately used old fashioned movie-making techniques to give it the feeling of something made around the time in which it was set. Imaginative and genius use of classic “smoke and mirrors” techniques were used and interestingly we get the origin of that phrase here too.
The comparisons to Lucifer are interesting in explaining the use of a literal bat man rather than the usual, clichéd tiny bat in basically all other vampire films up to that point. The explanation here makes so much more sense. The transformation into a wolf was new to me when I first saw it as a teenager, werewolves were a completely separate entity from Dracula as far as I was concerned, so it was a surprise to be proven wrong.
“Two newish magazines with more than a passing interest in the orthodontic removal of corpuscles via the jugular vein.”
Dave Hughes
But what about that hand prop? I’ve never seen any photo or video of it but I can’t help but think of the hand effects from the short-lived 80s TV series Manimal. There’s a blast from the past! I think the prop for this film would’ve looked quite a bit better though, to say the least. Moving on to the Bloodlines news pages and Dave Hughes certainly doesn’t hold back with some of his reviews this time around.
Interesting to read that some comics prices really weren’t that much different to today (despite complaints about today’s prices), Ellen Datlow’s anthology books certainly sound interesting and on the second page some quotes from Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman are missing the context given to them last issue and so unfortuanately come across as tabloid-like here. That’s a shame because otherwise this is the most enjoyable Bloodlines yet. Written in a more relaxed and chatty style it’s really rather fun, even if it is missing the promised interview with Sadie Frost that I was particularly looking forward to.
We’re obviously approaching the end of the movie’s storyline and after such a promising and atmospheric start I find myself more excited about what’s to come after the main strip ends rather than it’s climax. The comic still offers up that art though and the extras are fun, then there’s that mysterious future for the remainder of the issues to find out about. That’s enough for me to eagerly anticipate #4 on Sunday 23rd March 2025.
If you’re unfamiliar with this logo it belongs to the digital anthology comic, Aces Weekly, the creation of its editor David Lloyd (V for Vendetta, Wasteland, Knight Rider) and Bambos Georgiou (The Real Ghostbusters, Knights of Pendragon, Spider-Man). Every volume contains a variety of strips from across a wide spectrum of creators and genres, with each of these volumes consisting of seven weekly 20-page issues designed specifically for your iPad, computer or TV and you can purchase a full volume for only £6.99 (€7.99). That’s £1 per issue!
There are over 70 volumes in total so far and one of OiNK’s fan favourite characters has appeared on a handful of occasions along the way. David Leach’s Psycho Gran began (her late) life back in #15 of OiNK and, alongside her own print publications, she also makes the leap into the digital world now-and-again in Aces Weekly. That’s just what’s happened recently with a brand new three-page strip called Tiger! Tiger!
Pig pals will instantly be trying to work out why she’s pouring a powdery substance onto the road in the middle of the night . Of course, nothing she’s innocently doing at the beginning of a strip is ever really all that innocent, and any OiNK fan will know those police officers are about to find out! I obviously won’t ruin the surprise, but even if you’re only wanting to read this one strip it’s worth the entrance fee of one issue on its own! Yes, you have to buy a complete volume of Aces at a time, but you’ll get your money’s worth with up to 150 pages for the price!
As I said though, this is far from her first appearance in the comic. Some previous strips (again, I’ll only show quick previews) include Dog Toffees which sees the little old dear taking her flight-capable dog Archie for a walk in the park when someone approaches her to ask for a doggy bag for their own pooch’s plops. For anyone unfamiliar with Psycho Gran it’s an innocuous beginning, but we know better don’t we? Just like her pages in OiNK, David’s strips never fail to surprise with where they end up!
Fantastic Voyage II was a rather topical outing for ol’ Psycho when it was released during the Covid pandemic, and quite literally there’s something in the air. But don’t fret about her age. Don’t fret about her unknowingly walking into danger. Don’t even fret about the fact the virus has easily entered her body. If there’s anything we know about her it’s that she can hardly be described as vulnerable. In what ends up feeling like something akin to a hilarious cross between Psycho Gran and Jeremy Banx’s Burp, you’ll love the outcome of this one!
Billed as a Christmas horror story, Confessions of Psycho Gran sees her head off to the local church to speak about her sins. I think it’d take a whole 20-page issue of Aces Weekly to fully cover this lady’s confessions but, brilliantly, the focus of the strip is on the poor priest who’s just there to listen and forgive. As you can see from this first page it appears she’s taken quite a toll on him. Just a little bit. It’s a darker story than usual even by Psycho Gran standards, but as always it’s laugh-out-loud funny.
These last two samples may not actually feature Psycho Gran much (or at all) on the pages I’m showing you, but fans will already feel her presence in their set ups and will surely look forward to seeing her impact in both. Still Waters takes place at the local swimming pool where Gran is enjoying a paddle in the swim lane. None of the other swimmers want to share it with her but one man isn’t having it, he’s paid for his swim time and so pushes through, jumping the entire queue and into the water. I’m not even going to hint at what comes next but it’s a brilliant final page which I personally found particularly funny, and it includes a nice nod to a classic comic star.
In conclusion, what are you waiting for? You should get yourselves over to the Aces Weekly back issue page where you can scroll down and find each volume that contains David’s brilliant creation. Alternatively, he’s also personally published a whole bunch of Psycho Gran’s digital strips in the third issue of her Comics Cavalcade physical comic, a review of which you can check out on the blog. Between that and a subscription to the simply superb Aces Weekly you’ll never miss out on a bit of psychotic happiness.
It’s Opposites Day in Marvel US’ sixth issue of Transformers: Generation 2. The six-page back up strip Tales of Earth is up first, with the main, 16-page The Gathering Darkness starting on the very next page. The shorter story’s build up must be coming to its climax and melding into the main story. But even more excitingly than that, the human co-stars who started this whole series return.
That’s right, G.I. Joe are back! With Bludgeon’s Decepticons levelling city after city across the globe it was only a matter of time until they were the only appropriate human response. But they’re not happy! First though, writer Simon Furman’s back up kicks off with an explanation at last from Megatron as to his choice of Deceptions to resurrect. Although, what he says is more like proof he was right after the fact, rather than the reason he chose Starscream in the first place.
It’s a bit better than, “Because it’s a Transformers comic and it wouldn’t be the same without our tête-à-tête, and they reissued his toy so I had no choice. All hail Hasbro!” Tales of Earth ends with the page below and the return of Optimus Prime to our planet at last. I love how this momentous moment is completely undercut with Duke’s response to his arrival. Derek Yaniger’s art is perfect for this comic once again and I love his rough-and-ready depiction of the Joes.
Standing in the flattened Capitol, Hawk lists a handful of major world cities all destroyed by the Decepticons. I’d no idea this comic went this far! It makes Prime’s reasoning all the more ridiculous though, especially when he just stands there and watches Starscream shoot down a G.I. Joe jet with its pilot still inside. While he states every human life lost weighs on his “already overburdened conscience”, he suggests that an assault by the Autobots would aggravate the situation. I think that ship has sailed!
There aren’t many Decepticons and the majority of the damage was done by their ship in space, which is one big target! It’d be an easy win (especially given how easily the Autobots do win their battle later), but the threat of Jhiaxus is so great that Prime wants to talk to Megatron instead. Is this going to come down to putting differences aside or they’ll all die again? This feels somewhat overdone by this point after the first generation. Although we do get to see Prime fighting his way to Megatron through Tantrum, a fan-favourite Predacon and it was great to see them again after their terrific Marvel UK stories.
Penciller Manny Galan, inker Jim Amash and colourist Sarra Mossoff really do pull out all the stops with the set pieces here, I can’t deny that. Still loving Richard Starkings’ and John Gaushell’s speech balloons too. So it’s already not going to plan for Prime, but surely he should’ve known that would happen? Then again, his actions so far (or rather, lack thereof) feel like he’s forgotten about his promise to our planet and the people on it, so maybe he’s had a bump to the head and thought Megatron wouldn’t obviously betray him.
Unfortunately, this is immediately followed by another issue I have with this chapter. Megatron defeats Prime far too easily and his plan is so basic, and accomplished so effortlessly, I can’t help but wonder why he never did it before now? With Optimus down he rips open the chest of the Autobot leader and connects a siphon to drain the Matrix of its power which he can then use to raise a new Decepticon army.
I do like the fact Prime has a mouth in behind his plating. It reminds me of how the live-action movies depicted him and the cheer that came out of the audience (and me) when his plating slid out in battle. But why does he have teeth? Anyway, I’m getting distracted, so back to the story. A few pages earlier Grimlock and Prowl were arguing (as always) about what to do and Prowl reminded the Dinobot leader that Optimus wanted to go in alone to prove the gravity of the situation to Megatron.
Obviously this didn’t sit well with Grimlock (who now has a speech pattern that’s a combination of the original UK and US comics) but orders are orders, right? Well, this led to that inner thought about orders above. On the opposite page to that is the image below which you can’t help but notice upon turning the page, resulting in that thought above being superbly funny!
What follows are a few pages of good old-fashioned fighting between a lot of the classic characters from the earlier days of the original comic, so they’re a blast to read. Even the art continuing not to show transformations (instead showing a ‘before’ and ‘after’ image of the character in the same panel) can’t dampen what is an exhilarating battle. In the end the Autobots win, naturally, and the Decepticons tractor beam themselves off Earth, taking the drained Matrix energy with them. Again, they could’ve done this in the beginning!
The last two pages hark back to the gathering darkness of the title. Prowl recycles a line from the cartoon movie as Prime gives us a hint of what battles we should expect in coming issues. I’m going to guess Megatron takes on Jhiaxus’ Decepticons and the Autobots have to come to their rescue. Of course, when I try to guess what’s going to happen in my comics I’m hoping my guess is always wrong and that I’m going to be surprised instead. Speaking of surprises, the people of Fara get a particularly nasty one.
This darkness reminds me a lot of both the void creatures Skids battled in the Marvel UK comic and the corrupted Matrix when it took over Thunderwing in the later issues of the original run. This kind of sums up this issue for me. It’s just too familiar. The nostalgia is welcome in the battle between the opposing sides but elsewhere it feels like a well-trodden path. It’s still enjoyable, in the way that catching a repeat of Knight Rider on TV is enjoyable even though my complete Blu Ray set is on a nearby shelf.
I own the complete Marvel UK run of Transformers G1 and admittedly am reading Generation 2 just after finishing it instead of a few years later, but it still feels a bit too much like a repeat in its overall story and some of its character moments. Unfortunately, there’s also a sense of trying to rush through the plot to get to a certain point, such as with Prime’s sudden disregard for us and Megatron’s ease at gaining the power of the Matrix. Had word reached Simon that the comic wasn’t going to be the ongoing epic he’d envisioned?
Nostalgia isn’t always a good thing
As a result this is the weakest issue so far. The fact it’s still so enjoyable from the nostalgia point of view speaks volumes to the high quality of this series as a whole. This is the first issue of the second half of the run, so I’ll be interested to see if it continues at this pace in order to reach a proper ending. Before I go, an advert in the middle of the comic caught my eye to prove that nostalgia isn’t always a good thing.
To say that’s a problematic advert is a bit of an understatement. In these more enlightened times it’s quite a shock to see it in a kid’s comic. It doesn’t exactly send the right message about women to any young boys reading, does it? I remember the TV show (and the movie it was based on) but I’ll admit I never watched it. From what I’ve heard she actually taught the boys a lot about women throughout the series, but even when I was the exact target audience it never sat right with me, maybe because there were a lot of girls in my friends circle.
Anyway, as I close this latest issue and see that front cover by Derek again I lament how the inside didn’t quite match up to its promise. If the plot having too many convenient things happen is to ensure we’ll reach a proper ending point before cancellation then it’ll go down as a necessary evil. Let’s see how things pan out when Transformers: Generation 2 #7 hits the blog on Sunday 30th March 2025.
I’ve been excited for this ninth issue of Dark Horse International’s flagship Aliens comic for a few reasons. First up, it includes the free gift mini-comic, a rare treat when buying classic comics. Secondly, Hive finally comes to its long overdue conclusion. Thirdly, the epic Colonial Marines strip I remember from the one issue I bought as a teenager begins. But there’s something else above and beyond all of that.
This issue contains the first British strip, never before printed anywhere else in the world. This must’ve been a hugely exciting development for readers, given the success of Marvel UK’s comics with similar mixes of imported and original stories, such as Transformers. The promise here is that every single issue will include an exclusive from now on and even decades later I’m excited by the prospect.
The excitement for the American Colonial Marines strip is tempered somewhat though, knowing I’ll not get to read the end. Unfortunately the comic would be cancelled before it’s 24 parts played out, but I’m still here for it and to experience it as readers would’ve at the time. The features pages have had a freshening up too as evidenced with the editorial above (where you’ll find full credits for this issue), and then it’s straight into the very-90s-UK-comic painted art of Sacrifice: Part One.
I remember not being a fan of this art style at the time in a friend’s 2000AD but it’s grown on me in the years since. Back then I didn’t like the lack of inked outlines and sometimes found them hard to follow, but now I think they look glorious. For Aliens, artist Paul Johnson is a very welcome addition to the inside of the comic after his previous covers for #2 and #3 (and this issue’s is his too).
For the first few panels of the story I thought it was set underwater (teenage me would’ve been lost, no doubt) but Peter Milligan’s (Eagle, Egypt, Skin) story begins in a more familiar setting with a crashing spaceship. Of course I assumed the ship had been in distress because of an alien but we soon find out this story’s alien is actually already on the planet where Ann McKay finds herself as the lone survivor of the crash.
Sacrifice: Part One is 12 pages long, a typical length for a British strip and it’s certainly the star here, even if the story seems made up of several clichés pasted together. After stumbling upon a set of man-made stone blocks covered in blood and an alien nearby, Ann runs, falls and knocks herself unconscious. She awakes some time later and soon finds herself in a settlement filled with strange people acting strangely who don’t like strangers. You know the type from any horror film set in a remote village.
Sacrifice has definitely got potential and as the first British strip commissioned it’s got my attention
Ann finds out the alien has been stalking the settlement for nine months and it doesn’t take a genius to work out the link between the fact it didn’t chase her, the blood covered blocks (clearly altars) and the name of the story. So we’ve creepy people sacrificing one of their own to the alien on a regular basis and an alien who has decided it’s a good enough arrangement that it doesn’t attack? It can’t be that simple. It can’t be that bizarre!
The characters might be clichéd (we even see a nighttime scene of the villagers heading to the altars by torchlight carrying something that looks suspiciously like a baby) and the dialogue is stilted, but the art is superb and there’s an atmosphere and a mystery about it that intrigues me. Perhaps the alien just can’t get into the settlement and the sacrifices made are in vain? But why didn’t it chase Ann?
This final page is of Ann’s recurring nightmares of an alien floating above her bed. She’s imagining it with eyes, curious as to what the alien sees in her after she didn’t tell the one kind villager that she saw the blocks. She’s scared but can’t understand why. Sacrifice has definitely got potential and as the first British strip commissioned it’s got my attention.
Of course, Hive also had great potential during the first few issues but now I can’t wait to see the back of it and its characters. So it’s with great delight that I turn to the final chapter. Again, Kelley Jones‘ and Les Dorscheid’s art of the aliens themselves is superb and I’d love to see them team up to do a story involving likeable humans and a more interesting plot. Narrative captions wouldn’t hurt either, so I was glad to see their occasional use here.
Even though they’re meant to be taken from Dr Mayakovsky’s scientific journal on ants they help explain things that the plot and art sometimes struggle to. It’s only in the story recap (before the strip) that I realise the ship that landed last time belonged to the team’s rivals and not the main characters. The captions are a simple fix and ultimately allow the art to shine. So anyway, this is the final part and despite the story going downhill previously these final nine pages manage to be even more terrible.
Basically, Mayakovsky sends synthetic human Gill to the ship to ask for help off the planet, but when he realises they’ll take all of the alien jelly from him he orders Gill to self-destruct and blow them up instead! But then he contacts his own ship and tells the captain he can have it all if he just rescues them? This makes no sense. Then, with rescue on the way he and his lover Lish overdose on the jelly to enter a state of euphoria and start making love instead of doing anything to try to delay the aliens getting to them.
So they’re all dead and I’m trying my best to not be glad about that, because we’re meant to be rooting for the humans and terrified of the aliens. But I was cheering the xenomorphs on by the end. To add insult to injury the art on the last two pages above looks very rushed. In particular that chest buster looks awful, like a child has drawn it. I don’t know what happened to the saving grace of the strip but boy, am I glad Hive is over!
No matter how bad that got over the past few months, I could always rely on the Motion Tracker news pages to bring me some retro goodness and it doesn’t disappoint again. There are a couple of funny ‘shock’ headlines to begin with and that story regarding Sigourney Weaver shows just how much the world has moved on. These were the days when actresses were less likely to be hired for movies and TV just because they were brunette!
I wonder if that list of directors would’ve had a different order just a few months later after the release of Jurassic Park? Especially with innovation being a key factor. The comic gives away a copy of Alien³ on VHS despite panning the video’s pan-and-scan 4:3 ratio elsewhere in the issue. It also categorically states a Terminator 3 would be impossible, and there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it first mention of a movie that would spawn a future TV obsession of mine. These sorts of things are the reason I love looking back via these pages every month.
Written by Chris Warner, artist on the comic’s Aliens/Predator crossover, our second new strip, Colonial Marines: Part One is 12 pages (the strips are more evenly distributed this time around) and we’re treated to an exclusive Technical Readout of the corps before it for context. It kicks off on board a Sungun, a device set up on an asteroid by another huge corporation which literally fires barrels of toxic waste into a nearby sun. Clearly in the future universe of Aliens we’ve just taken our shit elsewhere. An autopilot dumpster arrives and there’s no response when it’s hailed. So far, so ‘Aliens’.
Elsewhere, Lt. Joseph Henry of the Colonial Marines is in trouble for striking a captain. Despite the fact the captain had been beating up a young female prostitute, only Joseph is in trouble. Recently his mum had died and because he was so far away in deep space he couldn’t be with her in her final hours, nor was his powerful military father who chose the job over her. The fact she died alone is eating away at Joseph, so I can’t blame him for punching the captain given what he was doing! In fact, I like him already.
His punishment sets up our story. Ordered to fly a team of replacement workers to an unfinished communications array in deep space, he’ll stay with them for a full year. So that’s an area of space where they can’t call for help, then. Plot point one established. But first he has to drop off a company executive to something called a ‘Sungun’ where an inspection is due to take place. Plot point two established. So exactly how are things going at the Sungun where they’d just docked the unmanned ship? Let penciller Tony Atkins (Terminator, Wonder Woman, Fables), inker Paul Guinan (Boilerplate, Chronos, Barb Wire) and colourist Matt Hollingsworth (Preacher, Catwoman, Death: The High Cost of Living) fill us in.
There we go, the plot is established and it’s so very in keeping with what we’re used to with this franchise. However, there’s a very likeable, relatable character in the middle of it all. Let’s hope the rest of the cast fall into that category. If they do, then we’re sure to be in for a great ride for the rest of the year. In fact, for the rest of the comic’s real time read through here on the blog!
For some reason the Aliens Vs Predator II strip is a reprint of the one from two issues ago. Hopefully that’ll be rectified next time, but before we finish off let’s take a quick look at that free eight-page comic. Originally printed one page at a time in Dark Horse Insider in the States it treads a very familiar path in two ways.
Firstly, the art by Denis Beauvais (videogame The Revenant, Aliens novels, Predator comics) is gorgeous throughout. Because this was created for publication at a rate of one page per month the love and detail that has gone into every one is nothing short of spectacular. However, the script by Mike Richardson (who also wrote Newt’s Tale in our previous seven issues) is sorely lacking.
The problem is that the story itself is nothing more than a series of scenes from the film in a different order with different characters. There’s a lot of recycling here. But just look at that art! For a freebie this is just stunning to look at, if not to read. What a shame that my next issue doesn’t contain its free comic with the second half of this, I’d just love to see more of that exquisite artwork by Denis. If you’d like to, you can also check out his official website. (UPDATE: It does! Although it’s rather cheeky calling it a free comic next time. Check out the review to see what I mean and how I missed its inclusion originally.)
After two great new strips this month there’s hype for more new stuff to come! According to the Dark Horse Comics Checklist, Aliens #10 replaces Hive with a new Predator strip (great, because I’ve already been missing it) and there’s a prose story joining the mix too! I seem to remember there being one in that issue I bought as a teen so it must be a regular addition. Given how great the prose stories were in my Marvel UK and Grandreams Annuals I’m eager to see what Aliens does with the format. We’ll find out when #10 comes to the blog on Tuesday 25th March 2025. I can’t wait!
This evocative cover by John Bolton (Jurassic Park, Aliens, Black Dragon) shows us Count Dracula descending on poor Lucy Westerna (played by Sadie Frost in her first film role) and it has me wondering exactly what the comic will show from certain scenes in the film. We’ll find out as we creak open the coffin lid and gaze upon #2 of Dark Horse International’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. But first, I assumed my copy would be missing its free gift and was very happy to be proven wrong with this glossy movie poster still attached to the staples!
Returning to the opening pages and again Anthony Hopkins’ voice welcomes readers to the second chapter of the movie adaptation, which three weeks ago I praised for its art direction, style and atmosphere. Although, at times it could be confusing to anyone who hadn’t seen the film in a while. This was because some scenes didn’t translate that well to the page. Fortunately, this time around there’s less of this criticism to be found.
We kick things off with Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) trying to find his way out of the castle and instead traipsing through a living nightmare, before trying and spectacularly failing to kill the Count while he sleeps. (This moment in the film belongs to Gary Oldman!) Over in England a vast storm unlike anything ever recorded has hit the country and we may be missing the powerful music from this moment but it plays in my head as I read the following few pages.
As we see the animals going wild and a wolf escaping the zoo, the rain soaking Lucy and the storm getting worse, we know it’s all because the ship with Dracula on board is getting ever closer, hence his eyes in the sky watching over everything. While the film offered no narration for this moment it was clear what was happening. It’s a very stylised moment, very Coppola, and can’t have been easy to bring to the page.
Any fan of the film will know what’s coming next
It works better than last issue, but of course I’ve seen the film recently so I don’t know how easily it could be followed without narrative captions for new readers or lapsed viewers. I personally like the fact there aren’t captions, just the diary entries now and again. It matches the film in this regard, but in a different medium should it have contained more text? The jury is out, but if you know the film (or even the original story) you’ll enjoy this sequence and the lovely, shadowy art once more by penciller Mike Mignola, inker John Nyberg and colourist Mark Chiarello.
Any fan of the film will know what’s coming next and it relates to what I said about the cover. While there’s no obvious nudity it’s still surprising to see the scene play out in a comic if I’m honest. Although, without all of the dramatic build up and the actual horror and suspense leading up to this moment it feels a bit random and gratuitous.
After this terrifying sexual encounter comes one of my very favourite scenes in the whole film, when Dracula and Mina meet properly for the first time on the streets of London and simply chat. Gary and Winona Ryder were perfect in this scene and it pretty much all plays out in the comic, taking up eight pages in total of Roy Thomas’ adaptation (his script lettered by John Costanza). Of course the medium doesn’t lend itself to translating the slow, deliberate acting in what is a touching, yet mysterious scene (unless you read it that way of course), but the art remains fascinating.
Their initial introduction ends on this image of a bat rising out of the scene against a pure white background. This is an example of the comic taking inspiration from the visuals of the film and producing its own to get across narrative elements of the story it may have otherwise struggled with. Opposite from this is the rear of the poster so coincidentally this feels like a natural chapter end in itself.
The comic has also improved its translation of such moments to the page. Take when Arthur Holmwood (Carey Elwes) comes to check on his fiancée Lucy, who has been in the care of Dr. Jack Seward (Richard E. Grant). The visual moment in question is actually a scene transition after Arthur agrees to bring in Van Helsing, finally admitting to himself there’s something ‘else’ wrong with his love.
Lucy is holding onto her dress collar and we zoom in past it to see the two red holes in her neck where she was bitten by Dracula in his monstrous wolf man form. Just like in the film, as we get closer to the bite marks they turn into his eyes and then into the eyes of the wolf that had escaped from the zoo. This transition takes us back to the London scene, ending with ol’ Drac easily taming the wolf, and the wolf then letting Mina pet it; a key moment in the development of our lead characters’ relationship.
While earlier in this review I did lament how some scenes could’ve done with more explanation and room inside the comic, I’m glad to say the London scene isn’t the only one that gets space to breathe. Some of the smaller moments are actually given prominence, such as when Dracula arrives at the window of Lucy’s bedroom.
This could’ve been summed up in a couple of panels but instead it’s presented in a way that adds such atmosphere to the comic. In that regard I think it’s the best example to sum up the title as a whole and a page that could be framed for the wall by anyone who’s a fan of the film. Perhaps alongside that poster.
Moving on to the extra features and again it’s made up of Inside Dracula and Bloodlines, the making-of and news pages respectively. It’s here I take issue with one of the headlines on the cover. “Interviews (plural) with the cast of the smash-hit movie”, editor Dick Hansom boasted. What we actually get are two pages with small profiles of six of the cast members. For three of them we get some quotes taken from actual interviews elsewhere and a fourth where the quote is from Francis Ford Coppola instead.
There are some interesting nuggets here, such as Francis’ insistence on a young cast in keeping with the novel (which went against the grain of previous adaptations) and Winona’s role in getting the whole thing started in the first place, which was touched upon last issue. I can sympathise with how reading the novel is described as a “formidable task” and in Sadie’s profile the comic mentions “the much-publicised sensual aspects”, which you just know referred to what British tabloid rags thought were the most important scenes in the film.
Bloodlines rounds up the movie’s takings so far and the glut of vampire flicks which went into production off the back of the news Francis Ford Coppola was making Dracula. News of Tale of a Vampire has a different feel to it now, after we tragically lost the great Julians Sands in 2023. I’d never heard of this film but the role seems just perfect for him so I’ll probably track it down on a streaming service and check it out.
The mystery behind Innocent Blood’s release was probably more to do with its complete flop in the States than with our movie. Described on Wikipedia as a “mixture of the vampire, gangster and buddy cop genres” but with a ton of nudity and gore, it doesn’t scream ‘John Landis’ to me. As for Interview With the Vampire, I can’t find proof of Sting being approached but coincidentally Julian Sands was considered!
Then, on the glossy inside back cover is the first of Dark Horse International’s subscriptions pages for their range, something I would become very familiar with towards the end of the same year when I discovered their Jurassic Park. I started reading that comic from #6 and by then two of the three titles below had already been cancelled and replaced by others, which probably shocked the publisher as much as the readers, given what they were based on.
On the back page is the same Aliens advert from last time promoting #9 of that comic and its brand new UK strip, the review of which will be up on 18th February 2025. For now Dracula slinks back into his coffin to await the next review of his own comic. This is the most promising movie adaptation yet on the blog, so let’s hope #3 continues the trend on Sunday 2nd March 2025.
Originally created for the 2024 London Comic Con, Lew Stringer’s Comic Sampler does exactly as you’d expect with a title like that. Inside its card sleeve is an abundance of Lew’s characters in a seemingly random selection of reprints that shows off the wide variety of funny strips he’s produced over his career. Beginning with a small introduction and a sample of his earliest work from Marvel UK’s The Daredevils, it’s a smorgasbord of delights for fans.
Transformers fans are well catered for with Robo-Capers and a couple of Combat Colin strips, the first of which features not only the debut appearance of his archenemy The Brain, but also a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him cameo from none other than OiNK’s brainless bully, Tom Thug. Tom also appears in a small cover strip from his time in Buster comic and Lew’s perennial superhero Brickman is also here.
Above is a sample of the second Combat Colin strip printed in digital anthology comic, Aces Weekly. So for any Transformers UK readers out there it’s a new adventure for you to enjoy. Alongside this new (for me) Colin strip there was another duo I’d never read anything of before, namely Tough Guy and Scruffy from the pages of Triffik! comic, a two-page story from the front and back cover of that publication. Here’s the first page.
Triffik! was a very short-lived comic, lasting only 12 weeks in the early 90s, a time when I’d moved on from humour comics as a child (hey, we all make mistakes). Lew’s Tough Guy strip is fun and at the end there’s a small advert for a free digital comic collecting together his misadventures over those 12 issues, so watch out for a review of it soon on the blog. (Or, you know, go and download it now from Lew’s site, what’s stopping you?)
The whole comic is printed in monochrome which adds a lovely retro, homemade fanzine kind of feel to it. On Lew’s blog he elaborates on why even the cover itself is in black-and-white when his reprint collections usually have a colour front page. “Why is the cover monochrome?,” says Lew. “Mostly to keep the costs down for this one-off special, but also I wanted to go ‘back to basics’ and do an entirely black and white comic like I used to many years ago.” And now, Daleks!
Haha, I have to admit I did chuckle at the “Oops, too late” bit of that Christmas with the Daleks strip. Lew’s comical killers pop up every month in Doctor Who Magazine, a publication I personally only buy irregularly so it was nice to get a glimpse of Lew’s work I usually miss out on. Similarly, the back page has another I hadn’t read before, namely a Sgt. Shouty strip from The 77.
Robo-Capers, two Brickman strips, two Combat Colin strips, Tom Thug, Tough Guy and Scruffy, Derek the Troll’s hilarious spoof role-playing game, the Daleks and Sgt. Shouty, packaged together on high quality A5 paper (with card cover) and all for only £3.50. If you’re a fan of any one of the aforementioned characters then you really can’t miss out on Lew Stringer’s Sampler Comic.
When I decided to include this in a future OiNK Contributor Releases review it was available on Lew’s eBay page. However, as is the way with small press comics, at the time of writing the comic has currently sold out but that doesn’t mean it won’t make a return at some point as other titles of Lew’s have, so go to his shop and see what you fancy. *
In the meantime, make sure you also check out the Contributor Releases page of the OiNK Blog for more of Lew’s comics (link at the bottom of this post) and Lew’s own blog to keep up to date on his latest published work as well as news of future comic releases, such as the fact there’s brand new Brickman coming this year as mentioned in this comic! So bookmark his site now, pig pals!
(* Due to some ridiculous changes eBay are introducing, Lew will no longer be selling his comics on it. His original artwork will remain, but he’s currently considering options for where to sell his comics. As soon as he decides I’ll update all blog links.)
My heart sank a little with this Derek Yaniger cover. Don’t get me wrong, it’s another superb piece by him, we’ve come to expect nothing less these past few months (unfortunately his only contribution to this issue). The problem for me is that Bludgeon is my favourite leader of the Decepticons! He may only have come to the fore over the last year or two of the original Marvel UK run but he made a huge impact on me.
That’s for our backup strip though and first we’ve got the next chapter in our main story, which begins by setting the tone in a familiar way to long term readers, describing Cybertron in a way we’ve seen a few times before, and drawn by Manny Galan, inked by Jim Amash, lettered by Richard Starkings and John Gaushell, and we welcome Chia-Chi Wang (The Punisher, Venom, G.I. Joe) on colours. This familiarity isn’t a complaint, it’s evocative and usually comes before some epic moment or storyline so the levels of anticipation are high. Plus I love the word “bio-chanic”!
But there’s a twist. Optimus Prime is beginning to doubt all of this. Hooked up to a new machine in a vast resonating cavern to allow connection between him and the small part of the Matrix in his mind. No, it doesn’t make sense but it’s a comic about giant alien robots that transform into cars, it only has to sound like it does. The story plays on the psychic nature of the Matrix, which the UK comic did quite a bit. So did the live-action films, again proving some “fans” who complained about such things need to go back and read the original comics.
Meanwhile, on a beautiful, natural, green world somewhere writer Simon Furman doesn’t hold back with his eco message for young readers. This isn’t new to Transformers, their own world was dying and the Decepticons wanted to strip Earth of its natural resources way back at the very beginning of the original comic. Simon also wrote more environmental messages into the UK comic like the wonderful Christmas tale, The Greatest Gift of All.
However, Jhiaxus is more concerned about an attack from the Autobots. Interestingly, it’s the fact they haven’t attacked that concerns him. It must mean Prime is up to something much bigger if this wanton destruction is being ignored. Back with Prime and what’s consuming his thoughts, and we actually get to see Primus create the first ever Transformer life. This is cool, even if the comic always struggled to produce original designs anywhere near as good as the toys.
So what are these disturbing visions trying to tell him? For us, it’s a rewriting of Transformers history as we know it, when Prime realises that they weren’t just created and left to use the Matrix to create new Transformers like all who had come before. For a long, long period of their history they too evolved just like organic life on other planets.
Primus couldn’t just create the life needed to destroy Unicron, his creations had to learn and grow and evolve until they were ready. But they were programmed to stop doing so. Somehow, Jhiaxus unlocked this genetic code, he and his fellow Transformers continuing to evolve into something… else. I have to say, this is a neat way of getting ‘Generation 2’ into the actual story of the comic rather than just being the name of the toy line. It’s quite wonderful, in fact.
Angry, Prime rips himself out of the machine. His race was already at the edge of what it was created to be: a force for good. Megatron and the Decpeticons crossed that line, but what have the Transformers become under Jhiaxus, without a conscience? But as Prime leaves, we readers get to see what the machine would’ve shown him next.
It’s Jhiaxus’ evolutionary process, repeating and repeating until the darkness within transforms into something else and makes its way out into the cosmos. Is this what Prime’s visions in previous months were all about? Is it linked to the vast powers from the time of Primus and Unicron, the reason their evolution was programmed to stop? The story is going very big, very quickly and I like the messages and questions it’s bringing to what would’ve been younger readers at the time. My anticipation for the rest of the run is sky high!
The six-page Tales of Earth: Part Two is also written by Simon and is drawn by the same team, however I’m glad to see Sarra Mossoff back on colours. According to Bludgeon modern day Earth has been completely subjugated by the Decepticons. This is a strange route to take, seeing as how kids could look outside and go, “No it hasn’t.” Personally, setting it just a year or two later as a possible future would’ve made it more dramatic.
Why has Starscream got what looks like a snake’s tongue all-of-a-sudden? Anyway, the story is basically a fight between the two leaders, the outcome of which we already know thanks to the cover and Megatron easily rips off Bludgeon’s head. He’s a Pretender though, so while we know any pain felt by a Pretender shell is also felt by the occupier, Bludgeon battles through, throwing himself out of his shell and straight into his tank mode. Behind all of this we get a funny moment showing the newly restored Starscream is still the same Starscream he’s always been.
At one point Megatron blows up one of Bludgeon’s Decepticons and calls the now-deceased jet ‘Darkwing’, but the colour scheme is that of Dreadwind, a fan favourite among Marvel UK readers as he was one of our letter answerers. I hope it was just a colouring error! In the end things are finished quite easily, with Megatron simply turning into his new tank mode and destroying Bludgeon. A shame, because I always preferred him over Megatron or Galavatron.
On the letters page, Vincent Grisanti may have (unbelievably) preferred Nel Yomtov’s colouring over Sarra’s and he may not like Richard’s word balloons, but he does bring up one good point. Namely, he questions the continuity between the end of the old series and the sequel, in particular the Nucleon storylines which resulted in some Transformers gaining great strength but losing their ability to transform, something they can all do again in Generation 2.
I hate the answer given here. The Action Masters toys may have been criticised at the time (these days non-transforming Transformers seem to sell well) but Simon crafted a wonderful storyline to explain them. This is thrown out with a pithy one-sentence response that I feel mocks all of those dramatic stories (particularly for Grimlock), stopping just short of ignoring them completely.
Of course, here in the UK the final Transformers Annual had a wonderful, character-driven prose story which opened up the doors to those Autobots transforming again. But who cares, right? Just chuck all of that wonderful work away! If the comic carried on beyond its first year I’d loved to have seen this addressed but clearly it wasn’t going to be. I feel cheated. Anyway, before we finish off two adverts from this issue caught my eye from the perspective of cost!
$70 for Sonic the Hedgehog 3?! A game even I could finish in an afternoon? I remember the prices of Sega’s and Nintendo’s cartridges being on the news at the time. No wonder! The Screen Posters are desktop wallpapers. When we now can take any image from the internet or any of our own personal photos and make them our wallpapers with a few clicks, it’s so quaint to remember a time when companies could sell them to us. But without that offer they’re $30! The fact the prices from these adverts are from the early 90s makes them even more shocking!
The best issue so far in this series comes to an end. As the two strips appear to be coming closer together, and as the main one becomes more complex, I can see why this run has been held in such high regard. I can’t believe this is a comic series that would ultimately be cut short. Next month we’re only half way through though, so there’s still plenty to get stuck into yet. The sixth issue of Transformers Generation 2 will be here on Sunday 23rd February 2025. It can’t come bloody soon enough!
Any Aliens fan will recognise this scene depicted by superb Irish artist Kilian Plunkett (The Unknown Soldier, The Mask, Star Wars – The Clone Wars TV series) so we know the final part to the movie adaptation is inside #8 of Dark Horse International‘s monthly from 1993. Two of the strips come to an end this issue, while Hive will conclude next month so it’s all change for the first time since it began, as the editorial explains. The most exciting news is that one of next month’s new strips will be an exclusive created for the UK comic.
Given this news and the change in lineup the comic appears to be in rude health! As it was. It was a success for the publisher (as was Jurassic Park) but unfortunately the UK arm of Dark Horse wouldn’t survive for more than another year or so and their collapse would take these superb titles with them. But 1993 was quite the year for DHI and the same is true of the blog.
The conclusion to Newt’s Tale is the shortest strip this month, coming in at seven pages. I know it’s not officially an adaptation of the film but it’s long given up retelling the story from Newt’s point of view, which still disappoints me. It had done so, and brilliantly, in those first few chapters. But I can’t quibble about the art by Jim Somerville, Brian Garvey and Gregory Wright (full credits for all strips on the page above).
The alien Queen in particular is brilliantly portrayed and, while the human characters don’t look like their actor counterparts, they’re at least distinct enough from each other this month to follow along. Then again, there are only three left, including Bishop the synthetic. A rare piece of swearing makes it into the comic but it’s not like they could leave that line out! There was a great opportunity to see the terrifying chase between the alien and Newt from her perspective; her crawling under the floor panels, the alien ripping them off and just missing her each time. Instead, it takes up a mere three panels before concentrating on the climactic battle with Ripley.
Ironically, it’s in the final moment of this scene that they decide to show us something from Newt’s point-of-view. I know people will have seen the film before reading this, but when the past several months have been a beat-for-beat adaptation, to suddenly eschew that feels like a rushed cop out. If the whole strip had done this then these final moments would’ve fitted in fine, but those early compelling chapters and these final two pages aren’t enough to make this any different than any other movie adaptation. It’s a shame, but thankfully the art has sustained it for the most part and there’s that added surprise at the end to fit in with the newly released Alien³.
I didn’t rent Alien³ from a local video store at home originally, instead it was a year later while holidaying in the highlands of Scotland when I did so for the first time, from a mobile van library! Anyway, I never got to see the special extra video. Looking back now after watching the third film’s Special Edition it’s frustrating how director David Fincher’s vision was originally cut down so much. Oh, and it appears I was by no means alone with my thoughts about the comic’s review of the Aliens Special Edition.
In the middle of the comic the back up Predator: Cold War strip takes up ten pages for a brilliant ending to what has been the stand out strip so far. The solution to last month’s cliffhanger sees Lt. Ligachev rescue Detective Schaefer by gunning down the Predators and blasting out the wall behind him to loosen the wire traps. Then a very interest dynamic plays out.
As another Predator drops in, General Philips and his men arrive, firing off a warning shot for both the alien and the humans! The Americans want to get their man out of there so as not to interfere, instead letting the Predators leave before the Russians arrive and claim any weaponry. One of Philips’ men even threatens Schaefer and the whole situation is surprisingly tense for a comic.
The fact the alien is right there, observing, trying to work out what’s going on is a suspenseful moment. When Schaefer throws an explosive towards the ship an American soldiers opens fire and takes him down! I was genuinely shocked by this. Schaefer lies at the feet of the Predator, who replicates a human laugh and runs back inside, seemingly having worked out what’s going on. The soldier who shot Schaefer takes aim again and we see the targeting reticle dead centre on his head! General Philips, the character Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) was last seen with in the film just stands by and watches.
Rasche may not have appeared much previously but he made a big impact, and that’s coming from someone who never read the previous story he and Schaefer starred in. It’s left to Lt. Ligachev to bring the story to a suitably explosive end. She knows neither the Americans nor the Russians can win. Seeing Schaefer helped to his feet by Rasche, by a friend, she realises he’s found peace at last so she has to find her’s. He watches her set the timer on the explosive and grins. Despite being on opposite sides of the Cold War, they are simpatico.
“As the American says, screw it!”, Ligachev screams as she kicks the charge into the escaping ship, recalling her football skills from an earlier issue. The ship explodes above their heads and Arnie-replacement Schaefer just has to get in the final punchline and shouts, “Yeah! That’s what you get for driving an import!” Hey, it’s based on an 80s action flick, what did you expect? Then on the final page Ligachev turns the tables on her superiors with one simple question.
After reading this strip for over half a year I’m really going to miss these characters and I think a story set in New York with these three would be a great read. It doesn’t even have to involve extraterrestrials! For now though, the Predator back up strip leaves Aliens on a high. As you’ll see below it won’t be here next month, although from checklists and adverts in Jurassic Park I know the series pops up elsewhere. The legacy of Predator: Cold War for me though? It got me watching the films for the first time!
Tucked away in the middle of the comic is Aliens: A Dire Tribe by Dave Hughes, a quick one-page feature about writer-director Clive Barker’s (Hellraiser, Nightbreed, Books of Blood) views on the Alien franchise after being approached to write Alien³. I was excited to read this but came away with a negative impression, not of the comic or of the article, but of Barker himself.
Such a famous and talented writer couldn’t find anything interesting about the aliens? The many various sequels since suggest that he just couldn’t personally come up with anything interesting. That’s fine, but instead of admitting this he blamed the franchise and the alien creations themselves, as if they were beneath him. Of course I can only give my own impression, my own takeaway, but that’s my conclusion from reading this, which is a shame.
Now we move on to the penultimate chapter of Aliens: Hive and unfortunately it’s the longest strip this time around. After barely making a whisper last month it takes up a whopping 18 pages here, more than the other two combined! I don’t want to sound like a stuck record as far as Hive is concerned, but the only reason I’m so disappointed with these last few months of the strip is because the first few chapters were so good and had so much potential.
Instead, that potential was swapped out for a run-of-the-mill thriller with unlikeable, stupid human characters who keep putting themselves into ludicrous situations. It’s like a bad teen horror, but with aliens. Captions are really needed here too because there’s a lot of very confusing art. I have no idea what’s going on in any of these panels.
We also get a sudden sub-plot involving synthetic Gill crushing on Julian Lish and it’s the creepiest thing I’ve yet seen. As well as poking her in the face and grinning maniacally while she’s unconscious, later he starts examining her hair and then kisses her, again while she’s unconscious and unable to consent. There’s no meaning to this in the plot from what I can tell, apart from giving the android some kind of thrill!
Hive is also frustrating because in scenes involving the aliens it’s clear artist Kelley Jones could produce some excellent Aliens comics if given a decent script. I pray he’s given something better at a later point in the run because as these two separate pages below show, the potential is there. Story-wise though, by this point I’m rooting for the aliens, which I shouldn’t be doing.
On to the Technical Readout and I have to hand it to Lee Brimmicombe-Wood, he has an incredible ability to take models from the movie that were created simply to look cool and fit in with an aesthetic and make it seem like every nut and bolt was very purposely created for a specific real-world reason. The ‘Jordan Tractor’ can be seen at the beginning of Aliens when Newt’s prospector parents drive out to investigate the crashed spacecraft from the first film.
I can understand having all of the Colonial Marines’ weaponry and vehicles broken down into very intricate details, but to do so with something like this is testament to Lee’s dedication to a movie he’s clearly a huge fan of. There’s simply no way someone could produce these to this quality if they were just a writer assigned a job. Plus, I want to see those races played out in a future film or TV series!
Not much happens in the latest two-page chapter of Aliens Vs Predator and on the letters page Terry Jones (not him) has a thing or two to say about “fans” who demand things of their franchises and attack those who think differently or who don’t create the exact sequel they wanted. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? No one tell Terry it’d only get worse with the advent of social media. Then there’s a special full-page Next Issue promo on the back cover.
This was also on the back page of Dracula #1 (even though it was released two days before this issue of Aliens) and I am super hyped for the next issue. There may be no Predator strip but the two new Aliens stories (and finally being able to say goodbye to Hive) will more than suffice, I’m sure. Plus, I’ve just checked and the free mini-comic is in my copy! You can check out Aliens #9 in its real time review on Tuesday 18th February 2025.
The first new real time read through for 2025 adds a third title to the Dark Horse International menu on the blog with Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1993. This was released in the same year as their Jurassic Park comic and follows a similar formula, the movie adaptation taking up all of the comic strip space inside and followed by some extra features. This is similar to the Alien³ Movie Special mini-series from the previous year and has the same description down the left-hand border.
However, much like Jurassic Park, this comic would continue beyond the end of the movie and become an ongoing monthly, albeit with a rather big caveat (which we’ll get to when the time comes). The atmospheric cover by Mike Mignola (Hellboy, Rocket Raccoon, Baltimore) cements the dark, gothic feel of the strip and upon opening we’re met with a suitably black interior design.
I defy anyone who has seen the film not to read the introduction in Anthony Hopkins’ voice. I note that subscriptions are offered so clearly DHI were hoping the adaptation issues would be enough of a success for them to carry on. However, while it was advertised as a fortnightly in other comics it’s actually triweekly like the aforementioned adaptations.
Edited by Dick Hansom (Jurassic Park, Aliens, Speakeasy), the 36-page comic has a lovely glossy cover with matte interior pages, a 28-page first chapter and two two-page features at the rear. So far, so DHI. The real stand out here is the strip’s art. Regular readers will know how I feel about movie adaptations but to see an original art style filled me with confidence for this one.
The art goes the opposite way of the elaborate, ornate movie. It may have quite simply drawn scenes and characters, but it’s the use of shadow that ties it in so neatly to the film. There’s simply no way of capturing the intricacy of the design and the style of Francis Ford Coppola’s direction so instead it feels like penciller Mike, inker John Nyberg (Action Comics, Doom Patrol, Nexus) and colourist Mark Chiarello (Batman/Houdini, Hellboy, Hush) have gone for atmosphere over detail.
It works. It looks old-fashioned but I don’t mean in an ‘out-of-date comic’ kind of way. I mean the individual panels feel like they could’ve been drawn around the time the story is set and cleaned up for the 90s. Simple, sometimes scratchy line work with a mixture of bold colours for the more horrific scenes and subdued, almost washed out colours for the spookier moments, with the swathes of black in all the panels capturing that claustrophobic, haunted feel of the film, it’s just perfect.
John Costanza (Jurassic Park, The Tomb of Dracula, Red) does an incredible job on lettering Roy Thomas‘ (Conan, Secret Origins, Stoker’s Dracula) script too. Whether it’s historical prose, different handwriting (or typed text) for each character’s diary or his regular style, it’s all very clever and captures the narrative aspects of the film, as you can see above. The original US comic edited by story by Jim Salicrup (writer on Transformers, Sledge Hammer and The A-Team), credited here as story editor.
Sometimes, however, the use of shadow can make it difficult to work out sequences of events and once or twice I found myself perusing panels a few times to work out what was happening, and that’s with me having seen the film recently. Like most comics adaptations the main audience would’ve been those who’d seen the movie already rather than new readers. Even more so with this one, I feel.
I’ve criticised previous movie adaptations for rushing through their screenplays or for being poor copies of their big screen originals, but I’ve also praised those that took the time to properly adapt the story to a different medium. Bram Stoker’s Dracula falls into the latter category. While what’s written on the page is basically verbatim from the script, the art does a perfect job of taking the movie fan back into that world to enjoy it in a different way.
A perfect example of this is the moment when the carriage comes to pick up Jonathan Harker. In the film a massive set was built for this scene and it was full of highly detailed, creepy imagery. Here, all of that is stripped back. Instead, the sparse nature of the art and the use of shadow captures how that moment felt for the viewer. This brings the chill of the scene to the reader much better than any attempt to just copy it ever could have.
The shadow work brings another benefit too. Previous attempts at adapting a movie have had mixed results in portraying the actors. Most times there’s no attempt at all (and that may have been due to rights), other times they’ve tried so hard to capture their likeness they become stilted and expressionless. This team does something different. Through clever use of dark shadows the characters look enough like the actors without having too much detail, meaning they retain their expressiveness and, most importantly (and something Alien³ failed to do) their faces remain distinct from each other’s.
Not all of the film’s iconic visuals translate well to the page though, the best/worst example being Jonathan’s train journey. While that marvellous model shot couldn’t hope to be replicated on the page, the zooming in on the peacock’s feathers makes no sense here and Dracula’s eyes in the sky just look weird. These moments were great examples of the film’s iconic style but I can’t help thinking they’d have been best left out here, or at least have the Count’s eyes elaborated on to make more sense in this medium than the seemingly random panel below.
The first chapter of the story ends on that horrible/terrifying scene with the baby. Anyone who has seen the film will know exactly which moment I’m talking about! Then it’s quite jarring to come to white pages. I kind of wish they’d kept them black, but that may have made them hard on the eyes. As with the first five issues of Jurassic Park, Gary Gerani’s behind-the-scenes feature is in parts and begins with the original source material. I remember at the time some people complaining about what they thought were “changes” to the character (e.g. Dracula walking about outside), so thankfully that’s all put to rest here, confirming this film is the one that follows the book and portrays the character most accurately.
I’m usually one who likes to read opening credits and link the names listed to other films I’ve watched, but I was surprised to find out which family-friendly Steven Spielberg movie James V. Hart had written! Although, I do disagree with him on the best way to read Bram Stoker’s novel. If it’s your first time reading any novel it shouldn’t be the annotated version, or at the very least ignore the annotations until your second reading. They can be fascinating on second reads, but they interrupt the flow of the work and can also contain spoilers for later in the book.
Dave Hughes’ Bloodlines is the news feature of the comic, similar to his Motion Tracker pages in Aliens. With Bram Stoker’s Dracula still in the cinemas at the time of publication the comic was keeping us up to date with its takings so far. It would go on to rake in over four times that amount. Also truly placing the comic in the past is the description of Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace) as a new actor on the scene! But it’s surely another film release that will catch blog readers’ attentions.
Who knew that silly film would go on to be reincarnated as a hit TV show? A show I really enjoyed until (coincidentally) Dracula turned up. Treating him like an easily-slayed villain-of-the-week was annoying and I remember that season becoming too sombre and lacked the humour of previous years, so I stopped watching. But anyway, it’s another example of placing this comic in our own timelines.
The news pages also mention Malcolm X, another film of the same era that I must revisit sometime, and Anno Dracula, an alternate history novel by Kim Newman which sounds fascinating, although I admit even all these years later I’ve never heard of it. Upon doing a bit of research I found out that in Anno Dracula, the Count’s first wife is called ‘Elisabeta’, a name taken from this film. Also above, you’ll see the usual fun competition and address our comics and magazines like to do at the time.
Rounding off the issue on the inside back cover is this advert for a very 90s jacket tie-in The Master from Doctor Who would’ve liked, and on the back page is an advert for #9 of Aliens. Even though #8 was still to be released two days later, the next one had some exciting new additions and this was also used as a Next Issue page in the Aliens comic itself.
It’s never going to tell the story as well as the film for newbies but this comic was clearly aimed at those who had just enjoyed Bram Stoker’s Dracula at the cinema. In that regard this is the best movie adaptation I’ve come across so far on the blog. That art, that brave decision to create its own unusual style that somehow feels just right, is wonderful. There’ll hopefully be for wonderfulness in just three weeks with #2 on Sunday 9th February 2025.
I seem to recall this cover being used on one of Fleetway‘s UK issues, although after dipping my toes in with #1 of their comic I’d decided it wasn’t for me, so I must be remembering it from the newsagent’s shelves. Any fans of the Dinobots would’ve lapped this up, Derek Yaniger’s art perfectly capturing what drew young children to these characters. They were just so much fun, and inside Grimlock is the star.
He actually goes through quite a bit here, from leader, to remorsefulness, to having a blast stomping on baddies, making this the best issue yet! This fourth edition of the original US Transformers: Generation 2 begins with Optimus Prime having more visions of a dead world, slain Transformers rising from the ashes and once they touch him his body begins to dissolve, revealing his inner workings.
Interestingly, he hasn’t hidden these visions from his friends; everyone knows of them and no one is questioning his leadership. After his visions in the G1 comics this makes sense. Everyone appears to be on hand to help. It’s then we find out Grimlock has taken a captured Deception shuttle craft and left with some troops. Has he abandoned Prime? No, not quite. In fact, he’s doing it for Prime, even though they were all instructed to stay put.
Grimlock has decided to use a Decepticon craft to land aboard Jhiaxus’ ship Twilight and use the element of surprise to overwhelm the crew and stop their evil crusade in one fell swoop. This hasn’t come out of nowhere, there’s reasoning behind it, although he could’ve told the others. Judging by the panel below they all look miserable as hell!
They’re probably meant to be looking mean, ready for the attack, but instead they look like they’ve been told they’re not allowed any sweets before dinner. Behind all the bravado though, Grimlock has embarked on this unsanctioned mission to try to redeem himself in his own mind. He sees his “running to Prime” in #1 (when he realised the scale of the problem) as a sign of weakness, even though no one else does.
After everything he went through in the last couple of years of Generation 1, especially his dalliance with Nucleon which almost saw the end of the Transformer race’s most unique ability, he’s become much more critical of himself. Though he’ll never admit it out loud, his inner thoughts betray how he worries about his friends and the danger he puts them in with his decisions. I’ve always loved the comic version of Grimlock and here he’s better than ever.
Well, it was meant to be a surprise hit-and-run attack anyway. After pages of build-up, including Grimlock’s detailed tactics being really rather interesting, I actually laughed at it all coming to an ignominious end as soon as they set foot aboard the Twilight. However, Jhiaxus doesn’t kill them. Instead, he tells them they’re now prisoners and will be taken to “The Leige Maximo”, but not before Red Alert tries to launch his own surprise attack which fails spectacularly.
This comic certainly isn’t shy about killing off recurring characters right out of the gate! Grimlock asks what The Leige Maximo is, a person or a place, but he gets no answer. However, as their shuttle takes off Jhiaxus ponders if Grimlock will end up wishing they’d been killed by the Decepticons, and he appears surprisingly remorseful about sending them off to this… thing. Has Jhiaxus been on the receiving end of whatever this thing is? Is it his secret boss? Colour me intrigued! (No spoilers please.)
Back on board, Grimlock’s internal struggle resurfaces. Despite the cartoon depicting him as a dimwitted brute, the comic always gave him great depth. Well, apart from that awful moment in the original series when he became more like the cartoon just as he became Autobot leader but that was thankfully temporary! Apart from that blip he’s always been one of the more interesting characters.
Once again he’s wracked with guilt over the death of someone under his command and his respect for Optimus Prime is clear, albeit internally. I actually feel for him. His pride stops him from admitting any of this and it keeps getting him into trouble, despite his honourable intentions and clear wish to do good by Prime. Ironically, his internal struggles are what make him perfect leadership material, he and Prime unaware they both share the same doubts about themselves.
Who’d have thought all of this would be part of a toy comic, eh? Anyway, they’re soon attacked by another Decepticon craft and Grimlock is quick to transform into his dino mode and take advantage of the confusion to free his troops. And who says T-rex arms are too small to be of any use?
As it turns out the ship had actually been commandeered by Prime, Hot Rod, Kup, Hound and Prowl as a rescue mission. Below, Prime’s politeness while brandishing a huge cannon against the pilot he’s being so polite to is funny, and I can hear Peter Cullen’s voice when I read his “I disagree” speech balloon. Plus, doesn’t Grimlock just look like he’s having the time of his life in that middle panel?
I’ll give penciller Manny Galan kudos for how expressive his dinobots are in their alt-modes! Jim Amash’s and Marie Severin’s inks are as bold as ever and Sarra Mossoff’s colours pop more than ever. Still loving how Richard Starkings’ and John Gaushell’s letters give differently coloured boxes to each character and how they can change depending on the intensity of what they’re saying. A little bit of genius, that.
All of this fun art distracts somewhat from the ludicrous necks to be found elsewhere (see last issue) and writer Simon Furman rounds things off with a final twist in the tale as our two leads meet up and Prime offers Grimlock the position of Commander of the Autobots! Prime is returning to Cybertron as he believes his visions are a warning from the Matrix and he jokes that Grimlock’s only mistake was not stealing the crew too (because they clearly reported back). I think it’s clear Prime actually did know Grimlock struggled mentally and sees a kindred spirit.
The main strip was fantastic this month but yet again the back up (same creative team but with Derek’s art) is even better and begins with this apocalyptic scene on Earth as Bludgeon’s ship bombards the surface from orbit, his plan being to lure Optimus out from wherever he is in the galaxy, kill him and steal the Matrix in order to bring life to new Decepticons. I have to say, Bludgeon and his fellow Decepticon Pretenders are perfectly drawn by Derek.
News reports claim hundreds are already dead which makes this probably the most successful Decepticon strike ever. Well, apart from that alternate future where we saw Galvatron reduce America to rubble. Back in our reality this new, smaller army seems unstoppable. Unstoppable that is, until Bludgeon’s sword is blasted away by another Transformer weapon and we turn the page to be met with this scene.
Oh my! There’s so much to be excited by here! This is also just ‘Part One’ so it feels like one of those self-proclaimed ‘mini-epics’ the original UK comic ran to add depth to the main stories (when it switched to the three-story format), and given their history it’s interesting Megatron chose Starscream to reanimate! This begs the question, “why”? Whatever the answer, it can’t be good for Earth.
It’s the season of goodwill to all and someone really should’ve told Marvel US’s Ralph Macchio. His column in this month’s Bullpen Bulletin is horrendous! Some creatives had become disgruntled by Marvel and had left to set up their own indie comics. I can understand he’d be upset, but comparing that to communism?! Really? Wow! Around the border of the page there’s a disclaimer from the company. If they were so worried by this column they simply shouldn’t have printed it!
That’s insane, isn’t it? At least in the main bulk of the page we find out about Transformers Generation 1 colourist Nel Yomtov’s musical talents and his “Golden Harp” nickname, so there’s always that. But just… wow. I can’t get over that column. ‘Bitter’ doesn’t even cover it and this really paints Marvel in a bad light. I can’t understand how he thought that would be a good column to write and I’d say it probably had the opposite to the intended effect.
To end on a brighter note, the stories this month have been brilliant, the art has been incredible and I’m fully invested in this superb sequel comic. It may not have lasted as long as it so clearly deserved to but there are still eight glorious (I’m sure they’ll be glorious) issues to come and I can’t wait to see what 2025/1994 has in store. We’ll continue our galaxy-spanning adventure on Sunday 26th January 2025.
