Tag: Graphic Novel

Dracula’s Legendary Comics Life is Classic

Most readers know the origins and this adaptation offers enough material to recount that history, say the blood is life and make the vampire omnipresent. To have snippets of Stoker’s novel in this book in the dialogue and narrative is simply tops.

Bela Lugosi to Star in 'Bram Stoker's DRACULA' Graphic Novel from Legendary Comics – Jimmy Star's World
Available to pre-order on Amazon USADracula

By Ed Sum
|(The Vintage Tempest)

Release Date: Nov 3, 2020

By Hunter’s Moon, ask any cineaste who the best actor was to play Dracula, it’s reasonably safe to say Bela Lugosi tops the list. He’s appeared in the classic film that started it all and also the horror-comedy Abbott and Costello Meets Frankenstein that cemented his status. To this day, I still get goosebumps. I remember my babysitter letting me watch that film and his entrance. As a seven-year-old, I ran screaming from his home back to mine! Somehow, all that helped kindle my interest in the supernatural and horror. Learning how genre movies were made decades ago helped lessen the scars.

Legendary Comics graphic novel release of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (starring Bela Lugosi) shows Halloween won’t be over. He’s on the prowl, and this publication faithfully adapts the seminal book, brings some of that cinematic prowess from Francis Ford Coppola‘s adaptation, and bridges all those letters, journals and recordings into a solid tale where you don’t notice it’s being told from multiple perspectives. Robert Napton made the transitions between these products unnoticeable.

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From Him to Her, Katie Batchelor’s Spy Name Is… Savage!

When Savage is ready for any mission at all, it’s “Have Gun – Will Travel.”

Her Name is... Savage! Cover
Available to purchase on Amazon USADracula

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Published by Paper Movies and ComicMix

Comic book artist Gil Kane is a pioneer. not only is he the co-creator of Green Lantern (and many other fan favourite characters) but also is a tour de force. He’s been in the industry since the 40s. In the late 60s, his independent work His Name Is… Savage gave birth to the graphic novel format and a little more than 50 years later, Katie Batchelor is bringing back that legacy with her own interpretation, Her name is… Savage.

This modern take is co-authored with Shane Riches and drawn by Jesus Antonio Hernandez Portaveritas. Not only are they involved in bringing all the hallmarks of a Gil Kane work–to be treated like a cinema—to life, what’s presented presents the violence to something you’d see out of a John Wick movie. We also see a vulnerable side to this protagonist. Her motherly instincts will kick in. It’s not about seeing the flat end of a frying pan when you cross her. With a license to kill, she’s not simply protecting everyone who is close to her.

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Nicnevin and the Bloody Queen is Ready for the UK! An Interview with Helen Mullane

It’s these incredible old TV movies like Robin Red Breast from the era that plays with the pastoral idyll of the British countryside which make the world seem freaky and threatening in Nicnevin and the Bloody Queen.

Helen MullaneUK Release Date
August 20, 2020
Available to purchase on Amazon USADracula

For our readers who are unfamiliar with your work, could you please introduce yourself?

Sure. Hello! I’m Helen, a comic writer and dog musher from London who now lives in Swedish Lapland. I wrote the folk horror graphic novel Nicnevin and the Bloody Queen. I used to work in the film industry in London and produced the documentary Futureshock! The Story of 2000AD, and worked on the release of a lot of great anime and genre cinema before that.

When handling the releases of many works from Studio Canal and eOne, does film distribution also involve you becoming intimately knowledgeable in the movies you’re helping to promote? What were some of your favourite movies?

You don’t necessarily need to love every film you work on (it helps!) but a good release strategy depends on an intimate understanding of what someone else might love about it. You need to get into the headspace of the film’s potential fans, to understand how and where to reach them.

I worked on so many amazing films at both StudioCanal and EOne. I managed the release of Ponyo and a lot of home entertainment Ghibli releases. But my favourite projects were often the older movies I got to sink my teeth into and make new extras for–I made a pop up box set of Guillermo Del Toro’s Spanish language films, a special edition of Quatermass and The Pit with a cover by Ollie Moss and a Hardware special edition with a Kevin O’Neill Futureshock in that I am particularly proud of.

My favourite ‘new release’ campaign was for The Losers because it was through that I got to know Jock and Andy Diggle. Quite apart from the fact that they’re both cool dudes and awesome creators, that relationship eventually led to the dream of The Bloody Queen eventually becoming a reality!

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Pikachu Heads to a Graphic Novel!

Detective Pikachu Logo
Available on AmazonPikachu I Choose You Graphic Novel

The highly anticipated POKÉMON Detective Pikachu graphic novel adaptation from Legendary Comics, in collaboration with The Pokémon Company International, is now available for purchase onlinePikachu I Choose You Graphic Novel.

Last summer’s popular big-screen adventure starred Ryan Reynolds as the adorable super-sleuth Detective Pikachu and was the first-ever live action Pokémon movie. Fans are now invited to relive the adventures of Tim Goodman and his crime-solving Detective Pikachu partner in comic form.

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Recognizing Noisemakers during Women’s History Month

Book Cover
Available to purchase on Amazon USANoisemakers DVD Cover

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

For much of March, Women’s History Month will have many events taking place all over the world to honour those who helped make this world great. Noisemakers: 25 Women Who Raised Their Voices & Changed the World – A Graphic Collection comes from the creators of Kazoo, a quarterly magazine for girls ages 5-12. This anthology encourages young readers to aim for the top. Plus, it’s a very affordable book!

The women profiled here did more than just inspire. While it’s easy to name Amelia Earhart and Joan of Arc, there’s a lot more. Hedy Lamarr is a brilliant inventor actress. The underlying radio technology she developed with composer George Antheil is in use today in the form of Bluetooth. Josephine Baker was more than just a spy during World War I. She was pivotal to the Civil Rights Movement afterwards–all while being a fabulous cabaret singer. Kate Warne was more than the first lady detective. She saved the life of President-Elect Abraham Lincoln and the list does not end there. In the literary front, Mary Shelley’s influence goes beyond simply writing Frankenstein.

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Mark Twain’s Niagara, the Graphic Novel & Book Two Plans

Mark Twain once said, “A classic: a book people praise but don`t read,” I’d be at attention and make sure I’ve looked this work more than once.

Mark Twain's Niagara Book Cover
Available to purchase on Amazon USA

Mark Twain is a man of the world. To say history is alive in Niagara is an understatement and this adaptation into a graphic novel form by AH Comics has many accolades. It was published two years ago and I didn’t get a chance to discover this book until now. I am amused how book one finishes–almost as if though teasing about his future and appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Time’s Arrow.”

Honestly, I feel that’s more of an influence of the artist having seen the episode. Chapter 10, Into the Unknown, sees Samuel L. Clemens witnessing Niagara Falls getting illuminated on September 14, 1860. The beauty he conveys with watercolour on canvas of a star field is a fine way to close off book one.

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