Just finished this four-part 30-year long adaptation of Bram
Stoker's great novel, and it was pretty good. The artwork by Dick
Giordano is very good, and often excellent. The covers in particular
are very striking and vivid images (see Photo Album). Roy Thomas and
Dick Giordano began this adaptation way back in the 70's when Marvel
was all about monsters, and they ran the series in the back of the
B&W magazine Dracula Lives. After about seven chapters and about 100
pages of material, the magazines were cancelled and the adaptation
was put into limbo. Eventually after years of other things to do,
they have come around to it again and it's a good adaptation.

Dick Giordano is a personal hero of mine. His Action Hero line at
Charlton is arguably my favorite comic book run. His tenure at DC as
editor was remarkable and important. His artwork has always been
clean and dramatic. But it's clear that he's moved on from where he
was in the mid-70's. The early chapters of this saga have an energy
that's sadly missing from the later stuff produced last year.
Giordano's storytelling might be better, but the sense of scope and
drama is diminished. The characters have lost some of their iconic
feel, and the panel size seems oddly reduced, perhaps a limitation
of page count caused Giordano to squeeze the adaptation a bit.

It's good. But it's not as good as it might have been had Thomas and
Giordano been able to complete it way back when. Still it's worth
the price, though I'd wait for a collected edition.