48 Scares of Casper #48

Well, it's about time. What goes around comes around, I guess.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

31 Days of Dracula | Hotel Transylvania (2012)

On the most recent episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour, Stephen Thompson talks about how Halloween children's entertainment has lately been mostly about demystifying monsters by presenting them as the good guys. To be fair, Anne Rice kind of started that whole deal, but Thompson is right and Hotel Transylvania is the worse for it. Beyond how difficult it is to get past Adam Sandler sounding exactly like Adam Sandler doing a Lugosi accent, it's also tough to see everyone's favorite vampire seriously afraid of humans.

If you can deal with that though, there's a nice story in Hotel Transylvania about being a domineering parent or just a control freak in general. And in a very broad way, domination and control-issues seem like appropriate character traits to make a comedic Dracula have to deal with. It's also a very funny movie and does a great job of creating a believable world that's fun to spend time in. For all the Adam Sandlerness of it, it's also a Genndy Tartakovsky film. You can see those aspects duking it out onscreen, but for me, Tartakovsky wins and I ultimately enjoyed the movie. Depending on the strength of your feelings about the two men, your mileage may vary.

48 Scares of Casper #47

Don't worry, I haven't miscounted! Stay tuned for the Casper's last scare (this year)!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Don't let the monsters get you!

[Photo via Tassels]

31 Days of Dracula | Kate Beaton (2010)

Kate Beaton draws lots of wonderful comics, but my favorites are when she picks a piece of literature and teases the crap out of it. Like she did with Dracula. I don't have a lot to say about this other than, "Go! Read!"

48 Scares of Casper #46

31 Days of Dracula | All-Action Classics (2008)

Ben Caldwell’s version of Dracula may just be my favorite representation yet. He strikes just the right balance between seductive and menacing. I’ve never seen anyone pull that off before. As we've seen this month, the Count is usually either horrendous and disfigured or he’s dapper and handsome. Caldwell’s design with its switch-thin frame and terrible, crooked teeth leans toward the horrendous, but Dracula’s body language conveys a confident, powerful, compelling presence. Caldwell’s Dracula can seduce, but it’s a seduction based on the vampire’s awful will rather than romance.

The lettering in All-Action Classics: Dracula helps with this image too. The tails on Dracula’s word balloons don’t point straight at him like everyone else’s in the book. They curl and wind, suggesting a silky, hypnotic voice.

Seriously, if you consider yourself a fan of the character and Bram Stoker's novel, do yourself a favor and check out this version.

48 Scares of Casper #45

31 Days of Dracula | The Cownt (2009)

You knew I was gonna have to include my own Dracula-inspired character, right?

For those who don't know, my wife's brother and I created our vampire-cow character during a slow session of tabletop role-playing many years ago. Artist Gavin Spence and I eventually worked the Cownt into a parody of Steve Niles' Cal McDonald and 30 Days of Night stories for the horror anthology Tales from the Inner Sanctum. Then in 2009, Gav and I teamed up with Jessica Hickman and Paul Taylor to make Cownt Tales, a one-shot anthology of three stories all written by me and each drawn by a different artist. It's full of udder gags, cow puns, and some fantastic, hilarious art. It makes me extremely happy to know that it exists in the world.

I have a few copies left if you'd like one. Just shoot me an email and we'll work out the details.

48 Scares of Casper #44

Song of the Week | "If You Wanna" by The Vaccines