I Got 99 Problems But A Vamp Ain’t One

I’m a fan of vampires in all their forms; from the B-movie clichés of Buffy to the oversexed “Jean Claudes” of Laurell K. Hamilton. I’ve taken a class of the history of vampires and have dozens of books and comics featuring these undead fiends.

But what irks me is that when I ask many people about vampires - those who claim to be fans of the genre - have not even read Dracula. They’ve seen Interview with a Vampire and maybe read I Am Legend. Big whoop, I say. Vampires are part of a larger tradition than any one author and their legacy is rooted in the myths of Eastern Europe - myths of horrible, homicidal beasts that lurked in the night.

Author David Wellington gets that. I interviewed Mr. Wellington regarding his new novel, 99 Coffins, a novel that gets back to roots of vampire fiction. Read the rest of this entry »

Cut It Out

I’m a comic book guy, so why am I giving my two bits about a movie? Well, many people know that Sweeney Todd the movie is based on the Stephen Sondheim Sweeny Todd musical from the late 70s and 80s. What fewer know is the musical was based on an obscure 1840 penny dreadful titled The String of Pearls.

Wikipedia attributes the creation of Sweeney Todd to Thomas Peckett Prest, a hack writer that plagiarized the works of Charles Dickens among writing other penny dreadfuls. The original String of Pearls was published by Edward Lloyd, a man constantly on the run for plagiarism and other illegal enterprises. When Lloyd published a book, according to Dick Collins in his introduction to the Wordsworth Edition, he would buy a story cheap from the original writer and then have his hacks, Prest and J.M. Rymer (supposed creator of Varney the Vampire) creatively edit the work so they could pass it off as their work. Read the rest of this entry »

I went to Kansas to visit family this Christmas and I was giddy to learn that Santa found my hotel and left me gifts in the night! How did he know I wasn’t at home? I feel bad for not leaving him cookies, and his reindeer carrots!

To make up for this, I decided to research Santa’s mythology and I was surprised to see that Jolly Old Saint Nick has snicked his way into several relatively unknown fictions. I don’t know which ones are real (I’ll have to wait until next year to ask Santa my one question to know for sure), but these stories shed new light on Father Christmas. Read the rest of this entry »