I have terrible timing.

I should have done this last weekend, but today’s meditation is on Dracula. The character and the mythology, specifically as it relates to comics.

*WARNING: LJ readers, I’m unable to do LJ cuts on WordPress (or at least, I haven’t figured out how to yet), so this might be a little long. I will do my best to entertain, so hopefully this’ll be worth it.

Moving on…

I’ve come up with a new concept and it involves the other “Bat” man. Without going into what the concept is, at least not yet, the impetus was really trying to find 1. a public domain character, and 2. a new twist on that character that fits with a story that I’m comfortable with writing. The title really came to me like a bolt of lightning. Like Mark Wahlberg said in Boogie Nights, I wanted a title that could “cut glass,” and I’m pretty sure I have it (it’s both corny and evocative and totally fitting).

Today, I was thinking of logo design (totally not my forte, but I’ve done all right in the past). Logos are extremely important, as important as art can be to a book. It’s not necessary for a writer to be this hands on, but I have a great relationship with my letterer of choice, Jeff Powell, and we always collaborate on logos that as the creator, I’m always happy with (see above).

Before I forget, Todd Klein, multiple Eisner winner, has a great dissertation on logo design. Check it out..

I’m digressing, but I had to get that out. In that headspace, I decided to look at some old Dracula-centric comics. Here’s what I found (and feel free to throw in some of your own in the comments):

You really have to read about this comic. So over the top and hokey, but I love it.

This looks like a horror comic.

This one is a little too frilly for me, but I love that cover art.

The legend. The one that really gives me the most in terms of inspiration.

I love the incorporation of the “sword” in the logo. And the art really fits with that logo, almost in perfect synchronicity. This is another one that inspires.

This is probably supposed to be a companion to “Tomb” but I like how they aren’t exactly on model with each other.

I love how ballsy this title is.

Nothing too risky about this logo…it conveys the title of the book, doesn’t detract from the art, but it’s a little ordinary.

What?

EDIT: Two new ones thanks to Steven over on LJ:

I asked my mom and my older sister if they could remember what I used to read as a kid. My mom’s response:You were always reading.
I know That you like reading in the dark like Abe Lincoln.
I use to tell you to read in the light and you use to tell me Abe Lincoln use to read with a candle in the dark.
You mentioned, “Ben Frankin read by candlelight.”

Interesting, but not quite what I was looking for in the way of an answer. My sister, Maria, however, was more helpful:

hand hand fingers thumb i remember bc you liked the monkey (and you are a monkey), hop on pop, and the rest of the dr seuss books we had.

Two days later, Michelle and I were at the mall, where I walked into the Borders to buy the new Meltzer book. As I’m being rung up, what do I see behind the counter?

Needless to say, I added to my purchase.

Here’s the funny thing about…not the book, but about me, I guess. I sat in bed that night (or the night after) and read the book, and I was instantly transported to being a kid and learning how to read. The art is fantastic…on par with the best art in the best comics. I read it and could see how I learned how to read, but also, how I understood music at an early age. There is a cadence, a rhythm to the book…I found out that I still love this book. I wonder if anyone else has a book like this…something that they can clearly point to and say how it shaped them.

Cool, huh?

The NY Press has an interview with the author of Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk.  It’s pretty decent, but the article has a good piece of advice, almost a call to arms, that comic writers, established and starting, should see.  Ready?

“Books have so few advantages over other forms of mass media, which have continued to develop over the last century,” Palahniuk says. “They’ve gotten so good and have trained their audience to be so smart. The audience gets smarter, the technology gets smarter, the movies get smarter, but books still hold onto this 19th-century model, which is comforting but can’t compete with the immediacy of movies or television.”

Palahniuk’s shocks strive to capitalize on the uniquely intimate connection to the reader’s imagination that fiction enjoys. “I think the advantage that books still have is the intimate nature of consumption,” Palahniuk says. “You make an ongoing consent and effort to read a book so a book can depict things that are so extreme and so challenging that movies could never get away with. I want to play to that strength. I want to tell the stories that really only books can tell.”

Now, this is an interesting way to look at writing, and particular, writing for comics. We always forget that we have, what the movie companies call, “an unlimited budget.” We have an advantage over movies: They cost too much to make, cost too much to watch, and then there’s the DVD (the movie version of waiting for the trade). I don’t know how (or if) using shock value will sell comics. I sincerely doubt it. But the idea of telling stories that only comics can tell is freeing because comics can tell ANY kind of story. It becomes an issue of weighing shock value vs thought provoking. I don’t think Palahniuk could work well in comics (although I’ll admit, I’d be the first in line to read it). Shock value gets old real quick in a comic (or can), and you need more substance to keep them in the seats. But I’m just trying to get my fellow comic book writers out there to start thinking about stories that only comics can tell…

…but only after you figure out the story only YOU can tell.