Sword of Dracula: Dracula War @ Digital Webbing

[ENGLISH] Digital Webbing says: The creators of the high-tech military horror comic SWORD OF DRACULA return this Christmas with THE DRACULA WAR, and this time Dracula– « the world’s most dangerous terrorist » has a new target in his sites: a major airport. The new three-issue miniseries is from publisher Digital Webbing (Bloodrayne) and creators Jason Henderson and Greg Scott. « For fans of SWORD OF DRACULA, you’ll see a lot of returning characters, » says Henderson. « But THE DRACULA WAR is a story to introduce our version of the ‘ultimate Dracula’ to all-new audiences. »

In THE DRACULA WAR, Dracula retaliates against an attack on one of his vast reserves of blood by seizing the Denver International Airport overnight. « By morning you’ve got thousands of zombies and an army of vampires, and Dracula, holding the tower and beckoning an attack. And the only person who can get a bead on how Dracula thinks is Veronica « Ronnie » Van Helsing, the star of the series.

« The Denver airport presents a fantastic backdrop for an action scenario– what do you do when the most dangerous terrorist on the planet holes up in the tower and hunkers down with his army? » asks Henderson. The SWORD OF DRACULA series presents a re-invention of Dracula for a whole new generation of vampire fans. With new powers, a darker, more intense attitude and a milieu that has as much in common with « Mission: Impossible » as it does vampiric fright fests, SWORD OF DRACULA’s slogan is: « You’ve seen Dracula — but you’ve NEVER seen him like this! »

Art for SWORD OF DRACULA is provided by artist Greg Scott, whose realistic, high-contrast art on previous issues has been called « Black Hawk Dracula, » says Henderson. « Greg’s art is very gritty and cinematic– you can feel the bullets in the air. »

Previous SWORD OF DRACULA stories have ignited the kind of coverage rarely afforded an independent series with a reinterpretation of Dracula called « one of the coolest reinterpretations of Bran Stoker’s character in years » by Cinescape and « creepy cool » by Entertainment Weekly.

Explaining the team’s take on Dracula, Henderson said, « What really differentiates our Dracula is we followed what everyone says: we went ‘back to the book,’ but in a way that no-one ever does. Dracula in Stoker’s novel is just at the start of his vampiric powers — Van Helsing refers to him having a ‘child-brain’ as far as power goes — and we wanted to show, what would he be like if he kept growing. He’s not romantic; Dracula in the novel feeds a live child to his vampires and sics wolves on the mother. He’s a twisted man who has very big plans and is used to leading a whole country.

« We wanted to see Dracula as a king, in a war. Dracula needs to be big, the way Christopher Lee was big in 1958 and Lugosi was big in 1931. He needs to be an onslaught of power and evil. In THE DRACULA WAR, Dracula is every bit as evil as he is in Stoker’s novel — and moreso, every bit as twisted as the historical Dracula — and he’s proud of it. He’s grown in power — he knows how to use blood, and lots of it — he has an army of vampires at his disposal. He’s honed his power over blood to keep them entrenched in a protected fortress wherever he sets up his ‘kingdom.’ He’s constantly moving because as far as he’s concerned, the earth is his. »

SWORD OF DRACULA: THE DRACULA WAR is wall-to-wall vampire/commando/zombie action, coming to comic racks from Digital Webbing Press starting December 2008. The first 156-page SWORD OF DRACULA trade paperback is available from IDW Publishing and can be found at comic stores-or by visiting http://www.swordofdracula.com , where you can find SWORD OF DRACULA memorabilia, forums and gossip. Publisher Digital Webbing is at http://www.digitalwebbing.com.