Dracula: A Symphony in Moonlight and Nightmares

Marvel Graphic Novel #26

by Jon J. Muth

A sparse retelling of the classic Dracula story, with changes to the original story of the sort comparable to a film adaptation. Muth's version of the tale is accompanied by his fantastic watercolor paintings, which at times replace the text altogether and propel the story forward almost like a graphic novel without any word balloons.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Graphic Novels Comics, Art, Marvel, Vampires

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Jon J. Muth is an American comic artist. His works include J. M. DeMatteis' graphic novel Moonshadow, Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: The Wake (along with Michael Zulli, Charles Vess), Mike Carey's Lucifer: Nirvana and Swamp Thing: Roots. Muth has gone on to an award-winning career as a children's book writer and illustrator. He received a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators for his illustrations in Come On, Rain! by Karen Hesse.

He has also created a version of the Stone soup fable set in China.

Reviews

[رزی - Woman, Life, Liberty · Rating 4 out of 5]

تمام آن‌چه می‌بینیم، و به نظر می‌آییم؛ چیزی جز رویا نیست. رویایی در میان یک رویا.

داستانش مثل فن‌فیکشنی از دراکولا می‌مونه. آرتش زیباست:





من ترجمه‌ش رو از کمیک اسکواد دانلود کردم و خوندم:
https://comicsquad.ir/%D8%B1%D9%85%D8...

[Samane Hatam · Rating 4 out of 5]

چه طراحی چشم‌نوازی داره. دلم می‌خواد همین‌طور نگاهش کنم.

[Dara Naraghi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jon J. Muth, one of my favorite artists, takes a shot at capturing the tone of the Dracula novel in a 48-page graphic novel. As you can well imagine, this isn't an adaptation, not even an abridged one. It's more of a "reimagining," with liberties taken with characters and plot. And actually, it's not exactly accurate to describe it as a graphic novel, as the presentation is more of a collage of writing and art. The story is told through various devices: excerpts of ship logs, diaries, traditional prose, conversations, and even a movie script. The evocative artwork, beautifully painted as always by Muth, is sometimes in the form of a full page illustration, other times as a collage, or even pseudo-comic book sequentials. The overall effect is a wholly unique book that is light on narrative, but heavy on atmosphere and emotion, which I found befitting the material. A worthy experiment from a fantastic artist.

[Sud666 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dracula: A Symphony In Moonlight and Nightmares is not a retelling of the original tale. Rather it is an artist's version of a tale inspired by the Bram Stoker novel. John Muth does a wonderful job illustrating the different scenes. The dialogue, almost told in the form of a storyboard, is there to highlight the scenes.
The story itself follows the bare outlines of the Bram Stoker story. One interesting twist that I enjoyed was Muth's representation of Renfield. This is more of a love story that plays out between Mina and Dracula. Also I'm not sure about the ending. To be honest were I judging this as a novella or a graphic novel this would have been a 1 or 2 star effort.

But I choose to view this as what I assume is Mr. Murth's original intent. A work of art based loosely on the Dracula tale. For that, this is a good collectors book. One I gladly add to my library. If you're going to read this book, read it for the art. If you're looking for story-take a pass, that is not what this is.

[Jerantino · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short retelling of the Dracula story more based on the stage version than anything else, this volume contains both Muth's own rearranged take on Bram Stoker's original novel as well as Muth's wonderful watercolor paintings. Muth captures the proper emotion and atmosphere of the tale in his paintings like a master, and, for the most part, his writing is sparse in that good way that allows the paintings to aid the imagination in filling in the many details.

Some madman actually posted the whole damn thing on the web.
Check it out here:

http://grantbridgestreet.blogspot.com...

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well done Dracula story. OK art and good plot. Recommended

[Jefferson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really a graphic novel, more of a heavily illustrated storybook. Jon J Muth turns in some truly gorgeous artwork here, but the text is...perplexing, to say the least. It skips between diary entries in the style of the original book, traditional prose, and dialogue formatted like a movie script. Even more bewildering, it's based in particular on the 1979 movie version of the story, with all the structural differences and character name changes that are unique to that version. That film version would have been the most recent at the time this book was produced, but it still seems like an odd choice.

[Lia C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on Bram Stoker's famous novel, this reinterpretation takes elements from the original but has a different outcome.
While the ending had a much different flavor, I was amused by some of the characters' role reversals and appreciated the twist. Truly, Jon J. Muth's watercolor illustrations are the real highlight of this graphic novel. Some text is completely omitted in favor of full-page sequential storytelling and knowing the original helped in some scenes.
This graphic novel is a worthwhile read for fans of the original novel and for those in love with moody watercolor pictures.

[Gipsy.fgl · Rating 5 out of 5]

The text is nothing to compare with the original text but I am not a graphic novel expert so maybe it works in that way. Buuuut the drawings or paintings are awesome. The five stars that I gave are only for them

[Reyel2107 · Rating 4 out of 5]

amazing art !!!

[Tim Vargulish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stunning visual interpretation of Dracula. Muth's moody visuals really highlight the atmosphere and the horror. Just really beautiful stuff here.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abstracted and altered, but still recognizably “Dracula.”
With gorgeous painted artwork.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork (watercolor paintings) is amazing. The story is thin.

[Brett Marcus Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very very light on story, jumping between script and prose, but gorgeously illustrated. Muth's watercolors are simply incredible.

[frilly em · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art was nice, did not give me the Victorian vibes I like from Dracula. The changes to the story were fine but lacking .

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Der sehr kurze Text von Muth ist keine "Nacherzählung" des Dracula-Romans von Stoker. Er ist zusammengesetzt aus Erzählpassagen, Tagebucheinträgen und wörtlicher Rede und wirft kaum mehr als Schlaglichter. Das funktioniert nicht gut, zumal die dramatisierten Passagen sprachlich und inhaltlich eher belanglos sind und erzählerisch hätten wiedergegeben werden können. So nehmen sie allerdings mehr Raum ein, und es scheint mir auch Muths Motivation gewesen zu sein, eben auf diese Weise den kurzen Text zu strecken. Inhaltlich nimmt sich Muth einige Freiheiten, persönlich finde ich die Abweichungen von Stokers Klassiker aber in Ordnung, es handelt sich eben um eine freie Bearbeitung.
Problematischer ist es, dass Bild und Text nach meinem Dafürhalten keine engere Beziehung eingehen.
Muths Tuschezeichnungen sind zum größeren Teil stimmungsvoll und toll gemacht, einige wirken allerdings auch klischeehaft und sind mehr Kunsthandwerk als Kunst.
Vielleicht hätte Muth einfach eine Mappe mit seinen Zeichnungen ohne Text herausgeben sollen unter dem Titel Inspiriert von Stokers Dracula.
Manchmal ist weniger mehr.

[D.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another of Muth's self-penned attempts, and again his writing falls well short of his exquisite paintings. However, the writing -- merely inspired by the original Dracula, rather than retelling it -- is a firm step above earlier attempts.
In this book, Mina is Van Helsing's daughter and plays Lucy's 'seducted' role, while Lucy Seward (whose father is the local doctor) is closer to Mina Murray's role in Stoker's original. Renfield has an equally minor role as before, with a slightly different bent. The tale is told in the same fragmented, excerpted-from way as before, but at times slips into straight narrative and at others into screenplay mode. It makes for a disjointed read, overall. The paintings, as always with Muth, are stunning.
This is not a bad book, but a disclaimer warning the reader this was a reinvention of Dracula The Book wouldn't hurt. Personally, I'd rather see Muth lend his considerable artistic talents to a 'straight' illustrated copy of the original.

[Jerantino · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short retelling of the Dracula story more based on the stage version than anything else, this volume contains both Muth's own rearranged take on Bram Stoker's original novel as well as Muth's wonderful watercolor paintings. Muth captures the proper emotion and atmosphere of the tale in his paintings like a master, and, for the most part, his writing is sparse in that good way that allows the paintings to aid the imagination in filling in the many details.

Some madman actually posted the whole damn thing on the web.
Check it out here:

http://grantbridgestreet.blogspot.com...

[Mary Mourning · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up because of it's beautiful water colour illustrations Jon Muth. However the story was a little dissapointing. It is all over the place. If you are not familiar with the Dracula story already, you would be completely lost. Even knowing the story very well, I was a little lost because it mixes up the roles of the main characters. It follows the storyline of the 1979 Dracula film starring Frank Langella more than Bram Stoker. Still, the illustrations are worth picking up the book if you are a Dracula collector.

[Brenton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short retelling of the Dracula story, this volume contains both Muth's own rearranged take on Bram Stoker's original novel as well as Muth's wonderful watercolor paintings. Muth captures the proper emotion and atmosphere of the tale in his paintings like a master, and, for the most part, his writing is sparse in that good way that allows the paintings to aid the imagination in filling in the many details.

[Don · Rating 2 out of 5]

Um. Weird. Jon J Muth's paintings are gorgeously atmospheric, as they always are ... but the story doesn't live up to that at all. Not quite an adaptation or retelling, this is more akin to "Dracula Remixed", as it has many of the elements of the original novel, but in bizarrely rearranged form. For instance, Lucy & Mina are sisters, and Van Helsing is their father. Why? No idea.

The new story that's told is okay, but I'm not sure what the point is.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A condensed re-telling of the original Dracula story.
Although the story itself is pretty un-inspiring, (we ALL know the story) the Jon J Muth art more than makes up for it.
Muth has a style all his own and it fits perfectly with pretty much everything he adapts. Every page is frame-worthy... that is, they would be if I actually had the heart to split em up and have them framed.

[Mayank Agarwal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful Art, terrible storytelling.The watercolor art is like classical paintings, hauntingly gorgeous going well with the theme but the storytelling left a lot to be desired. It’s confusing and keeps changing the form in which it’s told, it skips out on events which may have happened, felt like moving from chapter 1 to chapter 3, i had to guess what happened in middle.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful artwork!
Some of the best I've seen in a graphic novel

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A definite departure from the story, but the artwork is beautiful

[Alesia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Text is okay, but the illustrations are gorgeous.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible, absolutley beautiful. I'm tempted to put this on my favorites.

[Kirsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous illustrations and free, but interesting version of Dracula, very much influenced by 1979 Frank Langella movie. Short but sweet.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dracula a Symphony In Moonlight (Marvel graphic novel) by Jon J. Muth (1993)

[Mir]