{"id":33905,"date":"2025-09-27T08:15:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T08:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=33905"},"modified":"2025-09-26T15:42:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T15:42:30","slug":"vlad-the-impaler-the-man-who-was-dracula-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/09\/27\/vlad-the-impaler-the-man-who-was-dracula-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Vlad the Impaler: The Man Who Was Dracula"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Sid Jacobson<\/strong> & Ernie Col\u00f3n<\/strong> (Plume\/Penguin Group USA)
\nISBN: 978-1-59463-058-3 (HB) 978-0-452-29675-2 (PB)<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a handy Heads-Up and Horrible History<\/strong> hint if you\u2019re looking for something to set the tone for the Halloween we\u2019re probably ALL NOT GOING TO ENJOY THIS YEAR. It\u2019s available in hardback, soft cover and digital editions and well worth staying in with.<\/p>\n

As writer and editor, Sid Jacobson masterminded the Harvey Comics monopoly of strips for younger US readers in the 1960s and 1970s, co-creating Richie Rich<\/strong> and Wendy, the Good Little Witch <\/strong>among others. He worked the same magic for Marvel\u2019s Star Comics imprint, overseeing a vast amount of family-friendly material, both self-created – such as Royal Roy<\/strong> or Planet Terry<\/strong> – and a huge basket of licensed properties.<\/p>\n

In latter years, he worked closely with fellow Harvey alumnus Ernesto Col\u00f3n Sierra, aka Ernie Col\u00f3n, on such thought-provoking graphic enterprises as The 9\/11 Report: a Graphic Adaptation <\/strong>and its sequel, After<\/strong> 9\/11: America\u2019s War on Terror<\/strong>. In 2009 their epic Che: a Graphic Biography<\/strong> was released: separating the man from the myth of Ernesto Guevara de la Serna<\/em>, universal icon of cool rebellion.<\/p>\n

Col\u00f3n was born in Puerto Rico in 1931: a creator whose work has been loved by generations of readers. Whether as artist, writer, colourist or editor his contributions have benefited the entire industry from the youngest (Monster in My Pocket<\/strong>, Richie Rich <\/strong>and Casper the Friendly Ghost <\/strong>for Harvey, and a ton of similar projects for Star Comics), to the traditional comic book fans with Battlestar Galactica<\/strong>, Damage Control <\/strong>and Doom 2099 <\/strong>for Marvel, Arak, Son of Thunder<\/strong> and Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld<\/strong>, the Airboy <\/strong>revival at Eclipse, Magnus: Robot Fighter <\/strong>for Valiant and so very many others.<\/p>\n

There are also his sophisticated experimental works such as underground\/indie thriller Manimal <\/strong>and his seminal genre graphic novels Ax<\/strong> and the Medusa Chain<\/strong>. From 2005 until his death in 2019 he created the strip SpyCat <\/em>for Weekly World News<\/strong>. Working together Jacobson & Col\u00f3n are a comics fan\u2019s dream come true and their bold choice of biography and reportage as well as their unique take on characters and events always pays great dividends.
\n\"\"
\nVlad the Impaler<\/strong> is by far their most captivating project: a fictionalised account of the notorious Wallachian prince raised by his mortal enemies as a literal hostage to fortune, only to reconquer and lose his country not once, but many times.<\/p>\n

The roistering, bloody, brutal life of this Romanian national hero and basis of Bram Stoker\u2019s Count Dracula<\/strong> is a fascinating, baroque, darkly funny yarn, capturing a troubled soul\u2019s battle with himself as much as the Muslim and Christian superpowers that treated his tiny principality as their plaything.<\/p>\n

With startling amounts of sex and violence this book makes no excuses for a patriot and freedom fighter driven by his horrific bloodlust and (justifiable?) paranoia to become a complete beast: clearly the very worst of all possible monsters: a human one.
\n\"\"
\nSharp, witty, robust and engaging, with a quirky twist in the tale, this is a good old-fashioned shocker that any history-loving gore-fiend will adore.
\nText \u00a9 2009 Sid Jacobson. Art \u00a9 2009 Ernie Col\u00f3n. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1927 graphic novel trailblazer Jack Katz<\/strong> was born. If any of us live, expect us to finally cover his epic First Kingdom<\/strong> sometime soon. Also making their first appearances in 1927 and 1955 respectively were Italian Disney cartoonist Romano Scarpa<\/strong> – as seen in Walt Disney\u2019s Donald Duck Volume 2: The Diabolical Duck Avenger<\/a><\/strong> – and the inestimable Charles Burns<\/strong> whose Black Hole<\/a><\/strong> is only one of many Must-Read-Before-You-Die classics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sid Jacobson & Ernie Col\u00f3n (Plume\/Penguin Group USA) ISBN: 978-1-59463-058-3 (HB) 978-0-452-29675-2 (PB) Here\u2019s a handy Heads-Up and Horrible History hint if you\u2019re looking for something to set the tone for the Halloween we\u2019re probably ALL NOT GOING TO ENJOY THIS YEAR. It\u2019s available in hardback, soft cover and digital editions and well worth … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Vlad the Impaler: The Man Who Was Dracula”<\/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":[115,300,122,66,156,254],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography","category-dracula","category-historical","category-horror-stories","category-world-classics","category-young-adult"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8OR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33905","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=33905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33909,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33905\/revisions\/33909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}