Vampirella Dracula Unholy #01

Vampirella Dracula Unholy #01

Dynamite Entertainment 2021

Written by Christopher Priest

Illustrated by Donny Haddiwidjaja

Coloured by Mohan

Lettered by Willie Schubert

The honeymoon begins! The adventure of several lifetimes begins as Vampirella and new husband Matt journey to Castle Dracula in Transylvania in an attempt to cheat fate by preventing both a high-tech virus and an ancient curse from using Matt's body to resurrect the deadliest threat the world has ever known. Meanwhile secrets and mystery grow around Vampi's spouse, who may not be nearly as innocent as he appears to be.

It is stories like this that remind me why I love Vampirella as much as I do. Side note, this is a continuation of a thread that shows up in Vampirella #24 but if you haven’t read that don’t worry you can follow along here just fine as it’s completely new reader friendly. Anything you need to know is presented within these pages. The opening here really catches your attention and instils the desire to see what is going on. Precisely what an opening is supposed to do, and it does it oh so well. From there we go to the main story and see how things progress and I have to say part of me was shocked and another part of me completely understands how Vampirella could have fallen in love with Matt.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information are presented exceedingly well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in bringing out their personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story and this keeps drawing us in with what we see.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow. I also like the way that we see these layers open up new avenues to be explored. Whether or not these layers will be explored or not they all add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably handled.

The interiors here are bloody gorgeous. The linework is utterly brilliant and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality of detail within the work that we see is phenomenal. I will say that I wish Matt had a hairy chest though. That backgrounds are utilised to enhance and expand the moments as well as how we see them work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story makes me such a happy camper. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a sensational eye for how colour works.

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There are so many great threads happening within this issue, so many you’d almost think it would feel crowded but it doesn’t. The flow of the book and how we see these threads relate to one another and they can potentially link up is fantastic to see. Each one would be a great thread to follow but to see at least three being opened for exploration is just perfection. I’m excited by the prospect of what we’ve seen expanding. The writing is stupendous while the characterisation is flawlessly rendered and these bloody gorgeous interiors bringing it all to life the way they do is just the icing on the cake.