Even for a vampire, Blacula moves pretty fast.
It was just two months ago that plans were unveiled for a reboot of the 1972 cult favorite Blacula, and now a graphic novel trilogy starting the vampiric character is in the works, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Check out the dramatic cover art on this page.
The three comic books will be handled by veteran television and comic book writer Rodney Barnes and illustrator Jason Shawn Alexander for Barnes’ Zombie Love Studios. The projected release date for the first in the series is the spring of 2022.
Barnes–who said he grew up on the classic Universal monster movies–said he was “blown away” when he watched the original Blacula at age eight. “It was a lot more authentic than anything else I’d seen until that point,” he said. “It lit a small flame in my imagination.”
The first graphic novel will pit Blacula against (who else?) Dracula. Barnes explained that the two undead icons “have lived for hundreds of years. They’ve seen it all.” Both vampires, he said, are “able to hear the past, to speak to the present. Vampires are manipulative. They have good memories–they know who they were.”
The Blacula reboot–based on the original film directed by William Crain and starring William Marshall–will pick up where the original and the 1973 sequel left off. The new film will be set in a metropolitan city in the days after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The reboot–directed by Deon Taylor from a script he wrote with Micah Ranum–will follow Blacula, “an ancient African prince cursed by Dracula after he fails to agree to end the slave trade,” according to the synopsis. Blacula is entombed and awakens 200 years later “to avenge the deaths of his ancestors.”
Keep reading Horror News Network for updates on the Blacula reboot and the graphic novel series.
