HORROR COMICS #10 & 11: WHAT IF DRACULA WAS…ZORRO?

Before we begin our story, we are greeted by an introduction from our writer, Gianluca Piredda in which he reflects on the legacy of the titular count. Citing the various films, books, plays, and parodies that Dracula has appeared in since Bram Stoker’s novelization, Piredda muses, “everything has been said about him…or has it?”

With the audience’s curiosity peaked we find a horseman, draped in an ornate cape and hat, fatigued and out of place, as he and his equine companion slog through the deserts of the American Southwest. Falling to an almost-certain death as the rising sun begins to catch his skin aflame, Dracula is discovered by a small Native American boy, who covers him and rides him into his village.

Dracula is reluctantly healed by the boy’s grandmother, the shamaness of the tribe, who can see into his merciless past. Yet she gives him an herbal concoction that would allow him to temporarily walk in the sunlight, under the condition he leaves their village. Upon his departure, he learns that all the young women of the tribe have been taken into slavery by a man named Torres, the criminal lord of the nearby Penny Town. Bound by his duty as a prince, he swears to repay the tribe for saving his life by returning the girls and wiping out Torres.

Issue 11

After the dramatic conflict of the previous issue concludes, Issue 11 picks up the very next day, where Dracula now lives in Torres’ estate after he and the local gravedigger (bewitched to be the count’s chief servant) took care of some proverbial business. Thinking he will now be able to live in peace in America away from the attention he received in Europe, he is quickly informed that a vampire murder occurred the night he fought Torres. Knowing it wasn’t him, Dracula, fearing his demons have followed him to America, answers the summons of the mayor of Penny Town to help protect the people as their new sheriff. Yes, that’s right… Sheriff Dracula.

As he ponders the offer, the local sex worker, with whom Dracula has become enamored (not out of carnal desire, but out of respect for her grit and kindness to him) is taken up to the sky by a monstrous, vampiric creature. After seeking out and destroying the vampire, Dracula tends to his traumatized beloved, and rides off as the supposed new sheriff of Penny Town.

Analysis

“Dracula in the West” follows apocryphal events from what seems to be the world of Stoker’s novel, in which Dracula narrowly escapes death and flees to America in search of refuge and peace. Having these events take place at the same time as the novel (the late 19^th Century) puts Dracula at the height of “Wild West” period of American history. But does the story work? Absolutely. Gianluca Piredda has crafted both a very fun and yet very dark and introspective world. Despite the absurdity of the premise, there is enough here to substantially connect it to the canon of the Stoker-verse of Dracula if you really wanted to.

But how is Dracula as a character? Piredda has crafted a truly well-rounded and complex protagonist. He is written as a noble wanderer who feels he is at the end of his life, and is motivated by that to do more good. But Joss Whedon’s Angel he is not. This vampire does not have a soul and is not repentant of his deeds. Just when we get the sense of the nobility and good nature of Dracula, we are quickly reminded of his dark and evil tendencies. He is an anti-hero that is hard to root for, just how Dracula should be.

The art of Luca Lamberti (Issue 10) and Emiliano Albano (Issue 11) is excellent and fits the story very well. They keep a consistent groundedness to everything, using realistic proportions, scaling, and expressions. Though I feel Albano’s photorealism, particularly in his facial features were a bit jarring and took me out of the story, as he seems to have used Hollywood actors as templates for his characters.

I only have one major criticism of this book: Indie publishers, particularly Antarctic Press often print black and white comics. That comes with the territory of beginning and excelling at manga-inspired work for so long. However, I can’t help but feel this work would have been elevated with the right colorist. To be clear, the artwork stands great on its own; and it was originally published in black and white. However, it appears that the paper stock chosen to reprint this story was much lower quality than its Italian counterpart. As a result, the contrast can be too high at times, and the nuance of black line work gets lost and smudged. The art is almost exclusively presented in simple black and simple white, meaning we lose some of the sheen and gradients in the tones from its original presentation.