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With Further Ado #171: The Original Dracula is Back

With Further Ado #171: The Original Dracula is Back

Posted on by Ed Catto

The world changes quickly. It’s that time of year when Americans unite on the one thing they can all agree upon – to decry the early blitz of holiday marketing.  But it’s inevitable; Halloween gets swept away quickly and it’s Christmas time again – with just a passing nod to Thanksgiving.

But one holiday campaign, a celebration of that spooky stop motion classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas, reminds us that Halloween and Christmas “kind of” go together. Just like the way that Tokyo Pop and Cracker Barrell “kind of” go together with this wonky promotion. It turns out that Cracker Barrel will be distributing copies of a manga retelling of this story.

So, with all that in mind, I rationalize that its entirely appropriate to shine the spotlight, in a November column, on a new spooky book: Dracula: The Original Graphic Novel.

This one is the latest from Vanguard publishing, and it’s a beauty.  Dracula: The Original Graphic Novel is an impressive re-presentation of the 1966 Dracula Graphic novel by Otto Binder (with Russ Jones & Craig Tennis) and Alden McWilliams.

Publisher J. David Spurlock and Vanguard have done it again.  Dracula: The Original Graphic Novel presents this material in lovingly timeless fashion. Each illustration is big and bold, with plenty of room to marvel at the art. Too often, I find, when reading comic strips, I can buzz through them too quickly.  Keeping up with the story can take precedence over drinking in the artwork.

Thankfully, this book almost seems to whisper, “read it slowly” and “enjoy it thoroughly”. Continue reading “With Further Ado #171: The Original Dracula is Back” →

Don’t Let’s Start #003: The Comic I’ve Had The Longest

Don’t Let’s Start #003: The Comic I’ve Had The Longest

Posted on by Adriane Nash

Contributor Bob Harrison posed the question in his first column here at Pop Culture Squad. Not what is the oldest comic in your collection, but rather what comic have you held onto the longest. I immediately knew my answer, and that it was 3 comics I had bought at the same time when I was in 3rd grade.

Now I don’t remember the actual date (I was 8 years old) but it was a snow day during the 1983/84 school year. Being raised by a single mother, snow days often meant I went to work with her when I was too young to stay home all day alone. At some point that day I walked from my mom’s office to the newstand around the corner and bought myself some books off the spinner rack. Zyn’s News & Cigars is still in the same spot on Greenwich Avenue in Greenwich Connecticut today.

I was a voracious reader even then and a rather precocious child. I say that not to toot my own horn, it’s a thing I heard adults say about me and it often didn’t seem like they meant it as a compliment; I say it because the books I bought were not exactly the Archies that society seemingly wanted me, a little girl, to be reading.

As I look back at the 3 books that are the subject of this column I see so much of the foundation of my fandom laid out in these issues. Wonder Woman. Black Canary. The Huntress. Deadshot. Alfred Pennyworth. Doctor Strange.  Continue reading “Don’t Let’s Start #003: The Comic I’ve Had The Longest” →