The next chapter in a Dracula graphic novel series from Matt Wagner and Kelley Jones is due to be released soon. It’s called Dracula Book 3: The Count, and it continues a re-telling from the the point-of-view of everyone’s favorite Transylvanian nobleman.
Jones is noted for work on Batman with Doug Moench including Red Rain and work on The Sandman as well. He and Wagner had wanted to tackle a Dracula tale for a while when the idea came around for this series. A Kickstarter is now underway for the new volume in the series that’s already receiving high praise.
Leslie S. Klinger, editor of New Annotated Dracula said: “You may think you know Dracula, but Wagner and Jones show us a whole new perspective on those fateful weeks in London and Transylvania! Brilliantly done—not to be missed!”
Leslie S. Klinger, editor, New Annotated Dracula
Wicked Horror posed some questions for Kelley about creating the art for this project.
WH: You’ve really created a lush visual style for Dracula Book 1: The Impaler and Dracula Book 2: The Brides. It feels really fresh while even evoking some feel of past eras. Can you identify any specific inspirations?
Kelley: The atmospheres of past eras which is essential to Dracula—and it’s incredibly fun to make them not just real but fresh and new. I made a point to not do stereotypical fantasy-type shots. I wanted a grounded functional setting, one where the reader was exploring a world that did exist and wasn’t fanciful for its own sake. When I believe in what I’m drawing I know readers will too, and so I do a lot of research, yet I don’t let that research snuff the life out of the scene.
WH: How did you begin your planning for this undertaking? The first two really include quite a number of pages, and many more are included in Dracula: The Count.
Kelley: Matt writes scenes that build and expound from one to the next and in these scenes he wastes nothing. This allows me to draw them almost as stories within stories. This also builds tension where the climax of these scenarios gives me a lot of powerful visuals. I read these over and choose those moments to highlight based on Matt’s intent and I also pull a few rabbits out to give something fresh to try and match his original take on Dracula.
WH: What’s your workspace like? Do you have items of inspiration around you like, say, Ray Bradbury’s office that he revealed for his TV show, or is it spartan?
Kelley: My studio is not a big place and is filled with the flotsam and jetsam of being a fan and collector over the course of my life. From old posters from when I was a kid to records and cds and books of all sorts. It’s an eccentric place to others but not to me. It’s got a north-facing window so there is no direct sunlight and it’s on the second floor, nestled in the tree branches just outside, which I like when the wind blows. I never go in there unless I’m working.
WH: Since you looked back in the first two books, you were really dealing with a different era and locale. What sort of shift did you have to make with the Count beginning to look toward Victorian London?
Kelley: I see that shift as the fact that Count Dracula is suddenly an excited young predator, and that imperious warlord prince now lurks in his memory. Arrogant but far more into a longer strategy of his own desires.
WH: You’re blazing new territory, but in the past, have you had a favorite version of Dracula on film or in the comics?
Kelley: I will always love Hammer films Dracula Prince of Darkness if only for its feral and gothic portrayal of Vampirism.
