Reviews

Dracula: The Company of Monsters Vol. 1 by Scott Godlewski, Kurt Busiek

ogreart's review against another edition

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4.0

Another variation on the Dracula legend. I will probably continue with the series. I want to see where it goes from here.

helpfulsnowman's review against another edition

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2.0

The minute I finished this I was sure what I wanted to say about it. Then another minute went by and I thought, “Wait a minute. Why the hell did I read a Dracula comic in the first place?”

Credit where credit is due, I have to take some of the blame for reading this one. Because there is really no excuse for reading another Dracula book. There just isn’t. Mark Waid did his best to try and invent one for me, but that might have only made things worse.

We all know Dracula as the guy who kicked ass, impaled mofos, and did a bunch of evil magic shit to turn himself into a vampire. Until now, however, we didn’t really appreciate him as a shrewd businessman, because after all, what is a medieval country if not the equivalent of a modern-day big company?

Therefore, the characters conclude, if we want to instigate the hostile takeover of another company, the easiest way of going about it would be to resurrect Dracula and use his powers of magical persuasion to convince CEO’s to sell their companies to us, an extremely costly and dangerous endeavor that will force us to close a bunch of plants in order to shore up enough cash to get everything rolling.

With that reasonable, well thought-out, foolproof, unambitious, clearly defined plan with no real endgame, I don’t see how anything could go wrong.

It reads a little bit like one of those weird business books where we try to learn business plans from the unlikeliest of sources. Like “How to Manage Like Oscar the Grouch” with chapter titles like “Managing in the Can: the Essence of Hands-Off Management.” Dracula is presented as being a good manager because he worked out a small country and fought battles with swords and shit. I’m no historian, and I am certainly no city planner, however I would say that a city surrounded by people staked on large poles that were intentionally blunted and greased to increase both the pain and the sliding action is not a city that is operating in a sustainable, realistic fashion that is enjoyable for all. Just a hunch.

Even if I were convinced that Dracula was a great middle manager at heart, I think it’s still a tough sell to convince me that we really should bring him back to life in order to solve some kind of problem. For starters, trying to create what sounds like a great business plan out of sheer craziness is a little hard to swallow. It would be like watching the Social Network, and halfway through the Mark Zuckerberg character decides that they need a great mathematician to help out, and because Egyptians were known to be very mathematical, they decide to resurrect a mummy. Or maybe we take it in an Air Bud sort of direction and bring back a lagoon creature to be on the high school swim team. It’ll be a great laugh when he’s filling in his age on the form and has to say 4389, huh?

And of course, we have our crew of vampire hunters which consists of the standard formula: hot babe, crazy person, and one guy who seems sort of effective, or at least big.

It’s partially my fault for picking it up, but rarely does a book combine so fluidly two of my strong disinterests: business and vampires.

This last part goes out to CEO’s, business people, and anyone in a movie, book, or whatever who comes up with a crazy scheme involving evil forces or super-powered robots or anything of the such:
Whatever you do, just kill the thing the second it starts fooling around. Don’t give into its demands for a nighttime rooftop meeting, don’t give it a telephone that it rewires into a deadly taser, none of that shit. Just make it do what you want and then throw it in a goddamn volcano.

silver_star08's review

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4.0

This was a very interesting take on the Dracula legend. A corporate entity's CEO spends resources & funds to track down the final resting place of the doomed prince. He then tasks his nephew with decoding ancient texts that unlock the key to how Dracula become a vampire in the first place. This first volume is all about funding Dracula & bringing him back to life.

silver_star08's review against another edition

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4.0

In this volume, Evan tries to fix the mess Conrad made in his dealing with Dracula.

Evan makes Conrad a vampire & all hell breaks loose. Dracula goes to great lengths to buy out B.I. from Conrad & Evan is caught in the middle.

This volume is just as bloody as the first & a wild ride.

silver_star08's review against another edition

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5.0

Ok, so volume was action packed! I loved it. I really want to find out more about Evan & his dealings with B.I. corporation. This volume pits Evan vs. His uncle turned vampire vs. Dracula.......who will win out in the end?

avoraciousreader68's review

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4.0

*Book source ~ Library

A powerful corporation finds Dracula and decides to use him to further their agenda. Whether he wants to or not.

This is an interesting take on Dracula. Who knew there was a way to resurrect a vampire? I didn’t. I really enjoyed the story and the artwork is fantastic. The end is a cliffhanger, but then it is a new series and a graphic novel, too. So, I’ll forgive it. I do want to get the next one in the series to see what happens. The library doesn’t have it so I guess I need to suggest the purchase.
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