Brides of Dracula
Boo Koo © Geoff Coupland
| Brides of Dracula Azim Mohamed (script) & Al Reid (art) |
A comic, which the Saphire-Matrix conglomerate acknowledges, is it's debt to Hammer horror films but in fact has more in common with the Italian shock horror pocket comics, where female nudity and violence mix freely, unfettered by the concerns of the outside world.
This is unapologetic boys, stuff that shows elements of promise in amongst the blood, guts and suspenders; notably the scene when the Van Helsing descendant has a cup of tea with his vampires' adversary whom threw him out of a window in the previous scene. Naturally it is she who makes the tea, do these boys know nothing, a woman's place is no longer in the kitchen, perhaps that why she blows it up on the next page.
The story is steady climb through some updating of the vampire myths to the traditional denouement with big bad Drac in Transylvania. Cue some gratuitous nudity and everybody gets impaled apart from the ones who get their heads lopped off. The artwork needs a little naturalising, especially during the action sequences, where it has a bizarre naiveté, which almost makes you forgive it its unrighteous bloodletting. Most of the figures are drawn the same size, in long shot which give the comic a stylisation which lessens the impact of the violence. It's what's known in the trade as the Bayeaux Tapestry effect.
Azim and Al deserve some credit for putting together a confluent piece of work, but now it's out of their system it will be interesting to see whether their favored territory will be the kitchen sink or the gore-soaked Romanian flagstones.
Chris Webster.
| Brides of Dracula:52 A5 pages. | Received at ZUM! HQ: 1997 (still available - hint, hint) |
£1 +P+P?. | Azim Mohamed, 276A Southamton Road, Eastleigh, Hamps, SO50 5QG.
Note: this address may be out of date - if you have any further information or updates please mail me. |