Oct 14
Click for larger imageAlessandra Kelley Comments: I recall Saberhagen’s book, which I read in the 1980s, to be a not-at-all-bad retelling of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” from the pov of Dracula himself. While the book has a certain dry wit and self-aware sense of humor, it is not, as this 1975 first edition cover might suggest, a wacky goofball comedy precursor to “What We Do In The Shadows.”
Special bonus interior cigarette ad because 1975.
Published 1975
(Average: 6.73 out of 10)
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October 14th, 2019 at 10:43 am
Did they… have tapes in 1891?
October 14th, 2019 at 1:27 pm
Are you sure it wasn’t Anne Rice who sent this cover in?
October 14th, 2019 at 2:46 pm
“I am The Count and today’s number is 7. Seven awful stars … just awful!”
October 14th, 2019 at 2:50 pm
I recognize the guy in the photo. He was the chiropractor of Ed Wood’s wife.
October 14th, 2019 at 3:08 pm
Dracula’s business manager is an idiot having him endorsing tape instead of blackout curtains.
October 14th, 2019 at 3:42 pm
Dracula’s fervent retort “I am not a crook!” did not help his case much once the tapes had been leaked to the newspapers.
October 14th, 2019 at 4:59 pm
Steve Carell to star in remake of Dracula: Dead and Loving It.
October 14th, 2019 at 6:24 pm
Okay, now I really want a goofball comedy precursor to What We Do in the Shadows just because of this cover.
October 14th, 2019 at 7:06 pm
When did vampire teeth become readily available to the masses? Clearly after 1975.
October 14th, 2019 at 9:17 pm
Based on the historical Vlad Tapes?
October 14th, 2019 at 10:22 pm
For those confused by the premise, the idea is that Dracula is sitting with a tape recorder in the modern day (a year or two before “Interview With the Vampire” was published) explaining what “really” happened back during the events of Bram Stoker’s book.
It’s a marvelously self-serving narrative, plausible but noticeably slanted, giving a completely different view of the original story. Jonathan Harker comes across as pale and passive, Van Helsing as a real monster himself (“the old sadist,” Dracula calls him). I think this may be the earliest book I’ve run across that suggests actual affection between Dracula and Mina Harker.
Also, A.R.Yngve, THX 1139 and the rest of ye: Augggh, I admire your wit.
October 15th, 2019 at 12:28 am
I looked at the cover, read the blurb and thought, “This can’t be…” but alas it was. Poor Saberhagen. Alessandra’s right, this is a pretty good book that has a horrible cover.
They couldn’t have made it look more like a bad movie novelization if they’d tried. It’s basically the poster for the low-budget rip-off of “Dracula: Dead and Loving It”.
And GSS for the usual fine comments.
The cigarette ad mention (I always hated that) reminds me of our late correspondent Harlan Ellison’s sending of a dead gopher to a publisher who put one of those in one of his books. The much-embellished tale is told by the man himself on YouTube. I don’t know what small percentage of it is true, but he held the entire room captive with telling it. That’s not a laugh track — we were all roaring the whole time. Despite his… problematic elements, the man was a great storyteller.
October 15th, 2019 at 2:43 am
Dracula Tape?
Does it have more bite than, say, Gorilla Tape?
For those not familiar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvlyEcf8o3g
October 15th, 2019 at 5:09 am
Since I fixated immediately on that awful hairpiece he’s wearing, I at first thought the title was The Dracula Toupe.
October 15th, 2019 at 7:06 am
Magnetic tape: one of the lesser known weaknesses of the common or garden vampire.
October 15th, 2019 at 9:54 pm
So we only get to hear one tape about one year of Dracula’s life? Is there a set by century available?
October 16th, 2019 at 12:20 am
Oh, and “fang-in-cheek” sounds like it’d be mighty painful…
October 16th, 2019 at 11:52 pm
Mr. Dracula, Dead and Taping It, seems to be using reel-to-reel. Guess being immortal, he can afford the primo stuff; everyone I knew in the 70s had cassette.
@A-S: The Dracula Tape of the Month Club! Your first tape is only 1c as long as you commit to buying 4 tapes in the next 2 years. But make sure you send those cards back to Columbia House or you’ll get years you don’t want. “1694: Slept in coffin entire year”.
January 22nd, 2022 at 4:36 pm
The font is so close to his head that I first read it as “The Dracula Jape”. Which would explain the expression on his face at least.
January 23rd, 2022 at 12:13 am
@JJYoho: nyuk nyuk
And that T isn’t even as bad as the first one! It’s like someone took all the serifs off one font and pasted them onto this one.