Friday, May 1, 2015

Dracula 11

Esteban Maroto provides the cover for this issue of Dracula, featuring Wolff fighting an ape-like creature. Unlike the previous Wolff cover, this one has nothing to do with the story inside (and Wolff's hair color is wrong).

The issue begins with Wolff in "The Lair of the Witches" by Esteban Maroto. Wolff heads towards Ghamada, the coast of corpses. Wolff heads inside a castle there, finding the sorcerer Khet-ahm. Khet-ahm summons his master, Sa-Ghot. Wolff comes across a girl Jehane, the companion of Sa-Ghot and warns her to be quiet. Wolff follows her thorugh the castle and then she embraces and kisses him. Khet-ahm as does Sa-Ghot, revealed to be a giant horned creature. Sa-Ghot crushes Jehane in its hands and throws her aside. Wolff attacks it and calling upon the power of Nadira, daughter of Jupiter destroys it. Khet-ahm dies, but warns the witches that Wolff is coming. The absense of Katarina from this story, or her father makes it come off as if we've skipped an issue. This story seems more similar in tone to the earlier stories in this series. With only one issue left, it will be interesting to see how they wrap up this storyline.

No Sir Leo this issue, rather Jose Bea provides us a stand-alone story, "A Story of The Stars". A man looks at the stars each night and ignores 2 friends who head out in their car. He notices a metal star appear in the sky and fly off. The man finds his friends gone, but their car still around. As he touches the car, a bizarre, blob/octopus-like alien arrives and starts absorbing him. The alien says they have taken his friends into the stars, a place far better than they have known and will do the same to him as well. The man and his friends are never seen again, but three new stars appear in the night sky. A story with some very bizarre artwork, this is quite good and reminds me of the story "The Other Side of Heaven" from Vampirella 28.

Next is "Over the Rainbow" by Alberto Solsona, the final story in the Agar-Agar series. Now back on Xanadu, Agar-Agar is told she has neglected her mission to find a new place that those of Xanadu could move to. Agar-Agar returns to the blue prince (last seen in issue 8) and he fights a seven headed dragon, killing off evil with each head he cuts off. The prince returns to her and she realizes this place would be perfect for her people to come to. Agar-Agar remains with the prince and they talk of the children they may have some day. This series comes to a very abrupt and lackluster end. Throughout Dracula's entire run this series has been the big weak point and that doesn't change with this final segment.

The story concludes with "Again Highway 61" by Enric Sio. An accident has occurred at the intersection of Highway 61 and Route 84. There are 2 survivovrs being transported in an ambulance. The narrative then changes to some people mourning the death of a woman named Claudette. The group wants to take her to a place named Lourdes; to get there they need to go across the highway. They carry her coffin and head across the highway, causing a large accident. Like with many of Sio's stories, the narrative here is a bit confusing at times. I am guessing that the ending of the story is telling how the accident at the beginning took place.

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