The Dracula Brothers, review of the untold story of the vampire count
Going beyond the joke, it is evident that saldaPress has a pay attention to the figure of the vampire. Starting with the modern progenitor of vampires, Bram Stoker's Dracula, there have been numerous attempts to rewrite the myth of the deadliest bloodsucking in the collective imagination. From the Universal Monster Universe movies, to the Hammer Production version, up to the world of comics, where even Marvel has tried its hand at characters like Morbius and Blade. And the company is well fed.
The Dracula Brothers: the story as we do not know it
One wonders how much there is still to change about the vampire myth, after decades of reinterpretations and representations. Sometimes, in reality, it is not necessary to distort a character, but simply to look for a different, unusual interpretation, playing with different narrative elements, such as history and folklore.The Dracula Brothers, seen from this perspective, it therefore seems to take a good risk, but every prediction on the success is conditioned by the name of the author: Cullen Bunn. Bunn is no stranger to these narrative experiments, as he demonstrated with Unholy Grail, a dark and horror retelling of the myth of the Knights of the Round Table and their quest for the Holy Grail.
And as he also says the same Bunn in the introduction to the volume, saldaPress, there is a deep connection between the Unholy Grail and The Brothers of Dracula , was born during the processing of the retelling of the legend arthurian:
“ Mirko sent me a short e-mail in which I basically said, ‘Hey...you know who I always liked? That bastard bloodsucker Dracula!’ (only she said it with the eloquence typical of Mirko) ‘Maybe we should do a vampire story!’”
Without detracting from the beauty of the cycle own be to rewrite the myth of the vampire par excellence, however, is another story . Dracula was treated and presented in every way, from the serious to the humorous, from cartoons to comics. Every interpretation he extolled the unique features, offering a certain degree of adherence to the key points of the collective imagination linked to the Prince of the Night.
Bunn decided to try another way, relying to a starting point of the narrative is different, in which it is presented, first of all, the human side of the famous count . Forget the aspect of decadent romanticism that is often associated with this figure, Bunn wants to make it concrete and human, going to dig into the past of the future, the bloodthirsty Vlad Tepes.
“And immediately I was struck by an idea. In a matter of a few minutes, I responded to the e-mail Mirko, and saying: ‘Hey, Vlad and his brother were imprisoned by the Empire Ottomona from the boys. And if, during those years, they had been trained to become a slayer?’ ”
The adolescence of young Dracula
Drawing on the history, Bunn tells of the consequences harmful to the vovoida Vlad Dracul , a nobleman from Eastern Europe, medieval defeated by armed ottoman must yield to the muslim ruler, with his two sons. The historical norm, which was implemented to tie the future rulers of the areas subjected to the royal house, cementing a fidelity that in the future would guarantee a political framework the most quiet. But what would happen if instead of this custom was another truth?Radu and Vlad , the two young people taken as hostages by the ottoman empire, are trained to be the bodyguards of the heir of the ottoman empire, Mehmed . A role, that of the young muslim, not trivial, not only because it is destined to rule an empire, but as in charge of carrying out a sacred task: exterminate the vampir.
Bunn finds a way to weave what seems to be a tale based on historical events with a narrative that offers a different interpretation of the myth of the vampires, based on a characterization of the protagonists.
The contrast emotional between the two brothers Dracul and Mehmed is one of the cornerstones of The Brothers Dracul . The two Dracul face in a way that is completely the time of their imprisonment, in a more positive way of Being, and with ferocity and posting Vlad. Their dynamic fraternal accords best with the spocchiosa arrogance of Mehmed, convinced that his being a son of the sultan makes it automatically superior to all.
The discovery of the true mission of the heir to the throne and the role of the two brothers are the emotional turn of The Brothers Dracul . Cullen Bunn, taking advantage of the narrative through flashbacks , gets a dynamic winner that takes advantage of to give a human interpretation, and authentic to the monster, which usually associate the image of Dracula. The ferocity of Vlad the adult, of the famous Impaler, it is constructed about his past, his feelings, and the renunciation imposed by her tragic past become the triggering element of a personality that is complex and profound.
the origins of The Dracula myth
The reinvention of the Dracula myth created by Bunn is a perfect graphical interpretation in the drawings of Mirko Colak . After the excellent synergy demonstrated in the Unholy Grail , the duo Bunn – Colak strikes again with an equal intensity , thanks to the excellent work of Colak. The drawings are raw and bloody of Colak create the right atmosphere to generate the predisposition in the reader to appreciate the narrative context.Colak best interprets the emotional tensions of the protagonists , portraying the best faces and poses of the bodies, especially in the most dynamic scenes. A dynamic artistic, enriched by the colors of Mary Santaolalla , who uses colour contrasts to add to the dark atmosphere and violent of The Brothers Dracula .
The volume of saldaPress shows the family care editorial typical of the publishing house, which combines a graphics satisfying a small segment of extra, dedicated to a gallery of dedications to The Brothers of Dracula, in which, however, would be welcomed with other sketches and work-in-progress. The end of the story, although bringing the word order, can lead us to hope that in the future, Bunn and Colak can carry over the history of this Dracula.
