The essential thread across my two Universal Monsters: Dracula reviews thus far have been the exquisitely tantric levels of teasing. That’s to say, the creators (James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds) have deliberately and methodically teased out Bram Stoker’s Dracula in such a decidedly masterful way.
But there’s another part: as methodical as they have been, each of the issues still packs a lot of story and context into 25-ish pages. They’ve distilled a rather large story by focusing on its essence and most important moments, giving us a novel perspective into the tale. (And, of course, heaps o’gore.)
This dynamic really informs a lot of what makes issue #3 so deeply effective. Because, yes, it’s another slow burner of an issue, where we got a lot of earnest attention paid to Mina Harker — specifically, her interactions with her father, Renfield, and even Dracula himself. While those don’t seemingly amount to much, they’re massively important for a few different reasons. One, Ms. Harker will clearly play an important role in the final chapter, and having her “step up,” as it were, is essential. But it’s also in how she “ascends” that we see something just as important. Her interactions with Renfield, for instance, define her as a deeply curious and massively empathetic character; that not only explains why she enters Dracula’s orbit, but how she might react once she comes face-to-face with with King of the Vampires.
Said interactions are handled with a grace and nuance that makes them feel like succulent teasers even as Tynion and Simmonds are expertly distilling so much of the novel’s efforts in a brilliant and efficient manner. The same goes with the Renfield-Dracula interactions, and the continued development of Van Helsing — both feel mostly unassuming, and thus a tad more palatable, but their true value remains in your understanding of this story as well as to what’s being implied or deliberately understated. It feels like a proper accomplishment to give us so much and to yet make us feel as if we’ve only gotten a mere taste. It speaks volumes to the pair’s dedication in distilling the story’s essence as well as how this approach makes this story all the more bloody tasty.
A big part of this is that Tynion’s story hits the big beats with heft and accuracy. But you also have to give it up to Simmonds for his role in balancing actually telling the story and teasing it as to further entice the reader.
Variant cover by Julian Totino Tedesco. Courtesy of Image Comics.
Much of that comes from Simmonds’ overall approach to building and depicting this world. Whether it’s the gorgeous horror that is Renfield’s continued depiction, or the long shots of Dracula that show his emerging presence in this world, Simmonds has been as inventive as ever even as his work remains as doubly, nay triply visceral. Issue #3, especially, turns the volume up on those devices and then some.
That includes juxtaposing “normal” conversations with pops of awful horror, which has the effect of drawing our interest and expertly hinting at the larger ideas and sentiments behind these convos. (The same goes for his use of bright bloody red — it’s as much just blood as it is this device for drawing our attention, tying threads together, and further conditioning how we approach this world.) Even a page with various eyes depicted does a lot to both unsettle the reader as much as it’s meant to further draw these characters together and to explore the inner workings of these vital connections.
I also think where a lot of great comics try to align art and story to really engage the reader, Simmonds is just as likely to do the opposite. Which is to say, he might have a page where the important convo is laid against some abstract backdrop/moment, or some visual that feels like it’s more of a dream or even a mere implication. Or, the way he cuts between scenes (especially in #3 with a Renfield-Dracula convo dropping directly into a Seward/Van Helsing convo). All of these instances not only further extend these aforementioned connections, but they create fresh pockets of context and invite the reader to spend more time developing their own layout for the story. In that way, the story feels even bigger and all the more brooding/assaultive/beguiling/etc.
I re-read issue #3 and it quietly amazed me at how this really feels like a kind of sped-up clip show (in all the best ways). There’s so many pockets of interest and tiny events across the novel, and yet Tynion’s story tries to grab as much as what those represent even as he focuses on those most compelling tidbits. (Again, Simmonds’ visuals clearly help facilitate this approach to adaptation.) Everything feels really exciting even as its quite temporary — and it’s that dynamic likely gives this book its true strength.
Can we keep up this novel pace into the fourth and final issue? I sure hope so, especially since there hasn’t really been a misstep yet. My only concern is that they’ve been pros at weaving this story together because there’s more threads to pull from. When they get to a place where “The End” looms like a massive wall, will things still have as much understated power? Like Renfield, I’m practically clawing at the wall to find out.
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