Dracula: Vlad the Impaler

Dracula: Vlad the Impaler

by Roy Thomas (story) and Esteban Maroto (art)

IDW, March 2021

The Great Comic Book Boom of the early 1990s saw comic book companies issue trading cards.........and trading card companies issue comic books. So it was that in February 1993 Topps published the first of a three-issue series of color comic books about 'Dracula: Vlad the Impaler'.

Written by comics veteran Roy Thomas, and featuring art by the great Spanish artist Esteban Maroto, the series was one of a number of Public Domain properties issued by Topps from 1993 to 1998. 

In March 2021, IDW issued a 96-page graphic novel compiling all three issues, albeit in black and white rather then the original color. 

'Dracula: Vlad the Impaler' is a companion volume to other IDW graphic novels presenting past work by Maroto: 'Prison Ship' (2018) and 'Lovecraft: The Myth of Cthulhu' (2018).

Thomas's plotting for 'Dracula: Vlad the Impaler' relies for the most part on historical accounts of the rise and rule of Vlad, the Prince of Walachia in the 15th century. Throughout the Balkans and Eastern Europe, this was an era of fratricidal conflicts among the princes of the various provinces, who would occasionally cease from their infighting in order to take on the Turks and Sultan Mehmet II. 

Thomas portrays Vlad as a psychopath with a lust for cruelty and torture, which, if you believe the accounts of his life that circulated in the 15th century, is condign. It also makes for a provocative comic book, one with lots of scenes of blood and death and gore and, of course, impalements.

The supernatural / occult themes of the Dracula legend don't really show until later, in the closing pages of the third issue, but Thomas lays plenty of ground work in terms of presenting Vlad as someone predestined to become a villain of profoundly ill repute.

Maroto's artwork for 'Dracula' is really not his best. Perhaps because he knew the comic would be printed in color, Maroto used a loose, sketchy style that doesn't translate well when presented in back-and-white.

Summing up, I can't recommend this black-and-white printing of 'Dracula: Vlad the Impaler' as a must-have, like Maroto's 'Prison Ship' and 'Lovecraft' volumes. Given that the original comic book series can be found for a reasonable price, these better represent this franchise. Diehard fans of the artist, or those dedicated to early 90s comics, may be sufficiently motivated to acquire the IDW version of 'Dracula', but others can pass without penalty.