Sunday, March 29, 2015

Dracula 2

This second issue of Dracula starts off again with an Enrich cover, this time of a warrior (perhaps Wolff?) holding a partially bloody sword.

Wolff again starts off the issue in "The World of the Witches", drawn by Esteban Maroto. Things continue where they left off the last time, with Wolff seeking revenge upon the witches that slayed his wife Bruma (or captured her? Dialogue here makes it seem like Bruma was captured, not killed, but this could be poor translation in this story or the last one). Wolff calls out to the witches for them to bring forth their best to fight him. They respond by opening up a chasm in front of him which he dives into. Along the way he slays a giant worm then fights Sadya, a whip bearing woman riding a red bird. Wolff is then summoned upward by the sorceress of the red mist, who wants her to battle for him. This second entry for Wolff is already going in odd places and it looks like Wolff will be participating in some strange adventures as this series continues on.

The second Sir Leo story is next, "The End of a Legend" with art by Jose Bea. The story continues where we left off the last time, with Sir Leo firing at the creature from the lake, which keeps changing its shape. This causes the creature to depart. The next day however the body of the innkeeper is found dead by the lake. Leo recalls that those who have perished by the lake were all evil people in someway. Leo reads up on the Necronomicon and realizes that the evil creatures can only materialize through the evil in the minds of men. He confers with some friends of his and assembles a silver bullet which he uses to fire at the creature and destroy it. This story is a bit fast paced and wraps up this storyline after only 2 issues. It seemed fitting to see the Necronomicon, which was frequently referenced in stories by HP Lovecraft, referenced here since the creature was clearly inspired by those in Lovecraft stories.

Third is "The Village in the Sea", the second entry in the Agar-Agar series by Alberto Solsona. Agar-Agar and Aquarius depart from each other, since he can only appear once every 500 years and his time has come to an end, for now. He provides her with a vehicle, which she uses to head into the ocean, the domain of the God Neptune. Agar-Agar finds a submerged city and some sick children. A man named Gandor arrives and says a strange pestilence has infected them. This is due to some white flakes that fell upon the city, causing bubbles to arise which infects those it touches. Agar-Agar discovers that this is due to a crashed oil tanker, and that the government has been using detergent on the ocean to clean things. She casts a spell which causes the bubbles to vanish and saves everyone. She agrees to stay with Gandor for a night as the story ends. Another rather poor story (with Agar-Agar again casting a spell to save the day at the end), and unlike the last issue's story which at least had some good art, it simply isn't as good this time.

Last up is "Krazy" with art by Enric Sio. Whereas Sio's last story had pretty much no dialogue whatsoever, this one is more traditional. It features a pair of young women who are friends with each other. One of the women gets a present for the other, an adorable little white kitten. She then heads off, leaving her friend alone with it. The woman goes to sleep after feeding the kitten some milk. While she sleeps the kitten lets in some other cats from outside. When her friends comes to get her the next day she finds her friend has been killed by the kitten and the other cats it let in. This story doesn't make all that much sense, but at least it is some interesting art again from Sio.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As I'm sure you're aware (indeed, you may have reviewed them elsewhere), Warren recently published a series of attractive hardback anthologies devoted to individual artists' work for Eerie and Creepy. I have three -- Dikto, Wrightson and Toth -- and plan to get the Corben volume at some point (it's currently rather more expensive than the other three). Maroto cries out for similar treatment, as does Colon among others.