Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire

1914-1918

Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire

Mike Mignola, or at least his flagship character, Hellboy, achieved celebrity status with a highly successful underground comic series which spawned a highly successful series of movies which spawned a semi-successful series of animated movies and Superbowl commercials.

Mignola draws equally upon the writings of Hans Christian Anderson and Bram Stoker to tell the fable of a World War I soldier who incurs the wrath of a powerful vampire. (By the way, you skipped that Hans Christian link, didn't you? Shame on you. Go back and check out that website. It's so worth it, trust me.) Mignola's recognizable artwork marks this as a graphic novel, but it is more of an illustrated novel, really. In terms of review, the novel hits the aura of gothic-ness it aims for right between the bloodshot and hypnotizing eyes, but it's format of seperate stories breaks up the flow and relies on a theme of overbearing misery which makes it hard for the reader to invest themselves at times.

In terms of my timeline, this book is my only mark of the first world war. That being the case, it's important to mark WWI as a time of vampire infestation and plague. And only 21 years after Drac caught a boat to London.

I know that Baltimore is reappearing in comics or other media, and I welcome it. Although the story is dismal and slowgoing for fans of Wesley Snipes at a blood-rave, the artwork and character of Lord Baltimore the Vampire Hunter is great horror-fun.

Dracula

1893

Bram Stoker's Dracula originated the vampire genre and continues to inspire horror writers, pre-teen book series adored by housewives and legions of goth freaks. And while monsters and scary stories have existed since the dawn of time, Stoker probably defined the modern horror genre better than anyone.

It is easy to understate the importance of Van Helsing, though. Dracula is full of young, healthy men and women who are pretty easily seduced, intimidated and attacked by the Count. From Helsing's earliest notes and appearances you know right away that he is The Man. Not infallable, but his overall knowledge and wisdom makes him the only thing standing in Dracula's way. And his age is what makes him so uniquely cool; the idea of him as a young Indiana Jones type totally goes against everything that makes Van Helsing awesome. No disrespect to the Twilight fans lusting over some 18 year dude with his shirt off, but back in the day being smart counted for a whole lot more.

Has Dracula ever crossed over with other fictional characters? Oh yeah. Like Sherlock Holmes, he's appeared everywhere. Including with Sherlock Holmes. He has been in 100's of cartoons, is a regular in both DC and Marvel comics (including his own popular title in the seventies, Tomb of Dracula, which itself spun off the series Blade: Vampire Hunter), hundreds of adaptations, television appearances, and of course Mr. T!



I can't resist posting this one, too:



OK, back to Dracula. Suffice it to say that as one of the most popular fictional characters ever, Drac has his spot in any fictional universe.

As for reading the book- this is another one that I had tried to read as a kid and got pretty bored with. The letters and diary format combined with the turn of the century victorianism and generally slow pace lost me immediately as a child. Picking it up again a year and a half ago was a much different experience, even without the crossover universe context. Sure, there are parts that drag along and put me to sleep, but much of the story contains imagery that is as intense and frightening as when it was written. Compared to most dumb brute monsters, vampires are sexy, invasive and... dirty. It all started here, albeit with the help of centuries of folklore and myth, building up to the southeastern european legends that inspired Stoker.

The version I read was an annotated version- a very serious take on researching every little reference in the book. This version came out around the same time as the above-average movie version of the nineties. I was excited to have so much information at my fingertips, but as the book dragged on it became apparent that most of the info in the indentation was redundant and filler. Perhaps other annotated/expanded versions are more exciting, but mine made the book much slower and harder to read, to the point that I began ignoring the annotations.

Just for good measure, here are some other semi-random Dracula pictures to make your day a little better. Because Dracula is awesome.