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"Vlad, the Impaler," I'm afraid, is my first attempt at a graphic novel. I have edited several in the past, even one by my co-creator Ernie Colon, but this is the first one I've ever written. Ernie and I have had successes in NON-fiction graphic novels, especially in our rendition of the graphic 9/11 Commission Report. But Vlad is fiction.
Not pure fiction by any means. The creep actually existed and is the inspiration (sinspiration?) for Dracula. He existed and perpetrated most every vile act we depict and describe in the book and certainly caused more pounds of blood to fall than Ernie's red ink indicates.
His personal life may not have been as damning or, if you prefer, as delicious as is illustrated here. But, frankly, I don't know. I made assumptions that it was and wove the story around those assumptions and judgments of his personality.
But Vlad, the historical Vlad Dracula (for so was he named) was indeed the source for Bram Stoker's creation of Count Dracula, the vampire. The two even lived in neighboring provinces: Vlad in Wallachia, Count Dracula in Transylvania, both provinces of today's Romania.
Now why would I choose such a man to be the central character (I retreat from calling him the protagonist) of my first graphic novel? My answer, to begin with, is embarrassing. You see, I was researching a person named Janos Hunyadi, known as the White Knight-and who incidentally makes a bloody appearance in the book-and came across the story of Vlad. To tell the awful truth, I had never heard of Vlad before.
"Wow!" I exclaimed, or something not that succinct. "Now that's a story I'd like to tell."
And for many reasons. Not just for the man's cruelty against both Muslims and Christians. Not because he became the inspiration for our most famous vampire. Not to show what was once considered heroic and necessary. Not just to show from whence we have come. Not just to show that perhaps we have not come very far in almost 500 years.
Very simply, at least all of the above.
Vlad the Impaler Dracula Sid Jacobson Hudson Street Press Bram Stoker
