{"id":30662,"date":"2024-10-07T16:21:39","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T16:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30662"},"modified":"2024-10-07T16:21:39","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T16:21:39","slug":"dracula-a-symphony-in-moonlight-and-nightmares-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/10\/07\/dracula-a-symphony-in-moonlight-and-nightmares-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Dracula: A Symphony in Moonlight and Nightmares"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy John J Muth<\/strong> (NBM\/Marvel-Epic)
\nISBN: 978-1-56163-060-8 (HB) (Marvel Graphic Novel<\/em> #25: 978-0-87135-171-5)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

As part of an adventurous foray into the then-budding world of graphic albums, the Marvel Graphic Novel line combined experimental projects and storytelling alongside glorified giant comic books. This particularly arty package from came from gallery guy\/award winning children\u2019s book illustrator Jon J. Muth.<\/p>\n

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio on July 28th<\/sup> 1960, he is much travelled, and studied sculpture and shodō (brush calligraphy) in Japan, and in England mastered painting, drawing and printmaking. For a brief moment, years ago, he was a new force in sequential art, scoring much attention on Sandman: The Wake<\/strong>, Lucifer: Nirvana<\/strong>, Swamp Thing: Roots<\/strong>, and The Mystery Play<\/strong>, after turning heads at Marvel and Epic with Moonshadow<\/strong> and Havok and Wolverine: Meltdown<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Also a writer, in 1986 Muth appropriated and accommodated elements of Bram Stoker\u2019s classic novel, reweaving them as the framework for a painterly tour-de-force of gothic set-pieces and moving, intimate images. Familiarity with the original\u2019s plot is not essential – if not actually ill-advised – as mood rather than narrative is favoured in Dracula: A Symphony in Moonlight and Nightmares<\/strong>, and the pictures are of paramount interest even if, jarringly and inexplicably, Muth\u2019s narrative mixes first-hand accounts from protagonists Lucy Seward<\/em> and her father, prose and \u201cnewspaper excerpts\u201d, with faux film-script pages into this dark tale of bloody obsession.<\/p>\n

For all these problems, it was picked up by NBM in 1992 and re-issued as a gloriously enlarged upscale hardcover album (with eventually a paperback edition) which particularly enhanced those extended sections where Muth\u2019s paintings were allowed to carry the story without the distraction of text.<\/p>\n

Although this is so much more \u201cGraphic\u201d than \u201cNovel\u201d and not quite as clever as first seems – all beautiful surface with no depth at all – it is staggeringly pretty, and a delight for any fan with an appreciation of the visual arts and dark delights.
\n\u00a9 1986, 1992 John J Muth. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John J Muth (NBM\/Marvel-Epic) ISBN: 978-1-56163-060-8 (HB) (Marvel Graphic Novel #25: 978-0-87135-171-5) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. As part of an adventurous foray into the then-budding world of graphic albums, the Marvel Graphic Novel line combined experimental projects and storytelling alongside glorified giant comic books. This particularly arty package … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Dracula: A Symphony in Moonlight and Nightmares”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[81,300,122,66,225],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-books","category-dracula","category-historical","category-horror-stories","category-mystery"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7Yy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30662"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30666,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30662\/revisions\/30666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}