‘Anno Dracula 1895: Seven Days In Mayhem’ Brings Action And Adventure To A Complicated World – ComicsAlliance

Anno Dracula #1, Titan Comics

I dont want to oversell it or anything, butKim NewmansAnno Dracula novels are pretty much everything I want out of literature. Theyre set in a world where Draculas victory doesnt just have the immediate effect of leading the Count to control over Britain, but leads vampirism out of the shadows and into everyday life,transforming Dracula into the driving force of the 20th century. Hesrarely seen himself, but his influence iseverywhere, manifesting in thrilling and compelling ways.

But really, thats only half of the appeal. The novels take place in a world whereDracula isnt the only source, a literary mashup with everything from classic literature toThe Rockford Files toBlacula to Jack Kirbys Fourth World. And honestly, thats what made me a little nervous about experiencing it as a comic.

I have, after all, been burned before. When youre dealing with this kind of universe, a tapestry sewn together from references to and twists on other works, its easy for those references to become the focus, overpowering the story in a way that detracts from it instead of adding to it. I mean, we see that happening all the time in superhero comics, soyou can imagine how bad it can get when the continuity youre drawing from includesthe entirety of literature.

Newman has done a good job of avoiding that trap in the novels over the past 25 years, but one of the luxuries of prose is that you have the space for asides. Thats how a lot of it tends to work, actually. While the books have a pretty broad cast of major roles, the main characters tend to be Newmans own: Charles Beauregarde, from hisDiogenes Club series, and Genevive Dieudonn, an alternate-continuity version of a character he created for Warhammer Fantasy novels.

Seriously.

Even Kate Reed, whos in the spotlight here and has a major role throughout the series, is a character who was in an early draft of Bram StokersDracula but didnt make the cut for the published version. At this point, thats functionally indistinguishable from an original character anyway.

With that being the case, and with the space thats afforded with prose, a lot of that background tapestry is weaved together with asides and cameos, especially once the story progresses into the modern era and out of the public domain. You end up having characters who, by necessity, are referred to in ways that file off the serial numbers, like the scene set in the 70s where a vampire is confronted with a gang of vigilantes that features Ms. 45, Frank Castle, Blade, Shaft, Charles Bronson from Death Wish,and Shaggy and Scooby-Doo.

Again:Seriously.

And incidentally, that comes into play here as well. One of our major characters is the daughter of a Certain Notorious Chinese Crime Boss who, due to legal reasons, can only be referred to here as The Lord of Strange Deaths. Which, to be fair, is the only nameId go by if it were an option.

With comics, you dont really have that luxury.Even if abook starts with a text piece to give context which this one does all the space that you have in a novel to do that weaving is gone, compressed down intojust what the reader can see in the page. Its a tricky balance to pull off, especially since a move into a new medium is bound, at least theoretically, to bring in readers that might not be familiar with the novels.

As a fan of the novels, thats what worried me most going in, and there was a moment right at the beginning where I thought the comic was going to devolve into the kind of overpowering reference trainspotting that eventually killed my love ofLeague of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Yet Newman and artist Paul McCaffrey manage to land the transition in the first issue of Anno Dracula 1895: Seven Days In Mayhem. And they do it in a way that ties in pretty closely to the ongoing saga of the novels, in a really interesting way.

Thats not entirely unexpected the story weaves its way through short stories and additional material pretty frequently, and when the novels leading up toJohnny Alucardgot new printings a few years ago, each one came with an additional novella thrown in for good measure but the way that Newman and McCaffrey present ithere touches on some fascinating stuff.

Im particularly fond of how McCaffrey draws the flashback for new readers, giving a weird, almost cartoonish take on Draculas bloody rise to power. Its a great visual example of how were always one or two steps removed from seeing him for what he is.

By the timeAnno Dracula starts, Draculas been in power for a few years, establishing a police state in Britain, and stocking the government with his own handpicked vampire lieutenants, which also serves to spread his own particular cursed strain across the country. Also, in one of my favorite bits, he establishes prisons for political dissidents, including Sherlock Holmes because, as Newman has admitted, having Sherlock Holmes around makes trying to write a murder mystery without anyone figuring it out for a couple hundred pages pretty difficult.

The unspoken question, then, is why the rest of the world allowed this to happen. I mean,its friggin Dracula. If that dude is installing himself as the unquestioned commander of one of Europes major powers, how did that even get past the first year without everyone else showing up to take him down? And if nothing else, where was the homegrown resistance in the years before Charles and Genevivefinally got the job done?

That first question is answered in the opening pages of the comic, and the second is what the rest of the series is set to focus on.

The thing is, it certainly doesnt get away from that tapestry of references that make up the background. Far from it, in fact. The Council of Seven itself a notion drawn from GK ChestertonsThe Man Who Was Thursday, from which Newmans Thursday, Gabriel Syme, is also sourced is stocked fullof references to literature and history, almost all of which relate to 19th century anarchists and terrorists.

Alexander Ossipon is drawn from Joseph ConradsThe Secret Agent, Christina Light and Paul Muniment fromHenry Jamess The Princess Cassamina, and Peter The Painter Piatkow was a Latvian radical who may or may not have actually existed in London circa 1011.

Theres a lot of research to do if youre curious (or if youre Jess Nevins, I suppose), but honestly, none of comes off as distracting. By letting us see this through Kates point of view, we get the same kind of introduction that wed get toany new team in comics. Its established and then made useful in the story, while we also focus on the real business of the plot. Which, in this case, involves Fu Man er, the Lord of Strange Deaths, Draculas Tin Jubilee, and the impending threat of a World War.

In short, itworks, and while I cant speak to how new readers might find it, its exactly the first issue I wanted as a die-hard fan of the novels.

And its also the place where I found out that the next one is calledAnno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju, which ispretty exciting.

Anno Dracula #1 will be released next Wednesday, March 22, from Titan Comics.

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'Anno Dracula 1895: Seven Days In Mayhem' Brings Action And Adventure To A Complicated World - ComicsAlliance