Renfield: A Tale Of Madness

Renfield: A Tale of Madness #1-5

by Gary Reed, Galen Showman

The saga of a mad prophet consumed by an evil darkness in this presentation of Renfield from writer Gary Reed (Deadworld, Daker Street) and artist Galen Showman (Hellboy, Justice League). As the tale of the bug eating inmate in Bram Stoker's Dracula unfolds, a man descends into passion against his own humanity.

Genres: Horror, Graphic Novels, Comics

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1995

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Gary Reed was a prolific comic book writer and publisher. He was formerly the publisher of Caliber Comics and Vice President of McFarlane Toys.

Also wrote under assumed names (including Brent Truax, Kyle Garrett, Randall Thayer).

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obviously, this borrows its plot and sections from Bram Stoker's Dracula (the book) and some liberties taken from the film versions (including Bram Stoker's Dracula - Comic zum Filmklassiker) as well. We see this is in the borrowed phrasing and styling of the asylum --although the eisogetecial morphne addiction is left out of this one, thank goodness.

This story is much kinder to Jack/John Seward than other ephemeral Dracula stories. He appears to be a kinder, less quack-based man of medicine and science who approaches his management of the asylum in a more modern way. It's a frankly unrealistic depiction of Seward that is far too kind. The people paying to watch the lunatics in the yard and the wealthy using it to hide out are the most realistic parts of the story. We are supposed to believe Wilhelmina is kind and good because she is one of the few people who sees Renfield with pity rather than as an objectified patient/non-human/feeble man as his caregivers likely would have seen him. (And saying caregiver is more than a little kind as readers of Nellie Bly will recall.)

Seward's interviews of Renfield in the original text were almost certainly used to advance his academic presence in a forthcoming publication and possibly to continue the fight of quackery that medicine was dealing with at the time --you know, the time of traveling dentists with pliers, snake oils (like the fictional Pirelli's Miracle Elixir of Sweeney Todd fame), and cocaine to cure the blood pains. Seward is clearly still an up and coming doctor with middling success and no fame as he is still trying to get advice from his professor --an older, more successful doctor --on an interesting case. Lucky for Lucy (and London) he also happened to be an eccentric vampire hunter.

From a literary perspective, the interviews were simply to give the reader an alternative perspective on the events that were both related to Lucy (and Mina by extension) and Renfield (and Dracula/Jonathan by extension). Initially, Renfield is meant to be a foil to Jonathan as the first failure of the mission to Transylvania. Renfield is weak and easy to conquer, but Jonathan is stronger and more willful with a fight connected to his desire to marry Mina. Renfield is a lonely man with nothing else to live for --seriously, even in this text we get no expansion of Renfield's life outside the story within Stoker's initial work. The same epistolary style in the book is used here with the diary, journal, letters, and interviews in shorter formats interspersed between chapters. These book sections are actually pretty awful to read because they don't match the tone of the text and often use a pretty unattractive cursive font.

There is too much trying to connect Renfield to the story where it is just unlikely to exist: his relationship/connection to Mina is expanded, his jealousy toward Lucy is expanded, and his interactions with Dracula are expanded. Stoker initially left the reader to decide if Renfield was properly mad and hearing things in a hallucinatory way or a legitimate vampiric thrall. I think the appearance of Lucy outside of his cell window cheapens his and Lucy's stories for nothing --well, for no real reason, it's clear that the creators were trying to push Renfield from the sidelines. He is still a minor character who serves as a comparison for what could have happened had Jonathan Harker been weaker in spirit.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can count on Gary Reed for solid story throughout interpretations of classics or of actual history- he keeps the flavor of the subject AND freestyles with panache.

Make sure to read his interesting and informative post-script.

[Micah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciate the alternative viewpoint of telling Renfield’s story, but come on, was there not a proofreader in the building?! I have never been so annoyed at typos in a comic. It wasn’t an awful book but I can’t get past the lack of basic editing.

[Danii Savage · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like Dracula, you’ll like this graphic novel. I kind of wish half the book wasn’t letters from the Dracula book, but overall it worked well.

[Elliot · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF, bored

[D.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't find it in me to actually dislike this book, as so much love obviously went into it. Sadly, though, that doesn't make it all it aspires to be. It is, perhaps, telling that the authour is the publisher, and that the editor is his associate publisher, because I question whether this book would have seen fruition otherwise. It's not very well written, and even worse edited (I don't remember the last time I've read a comic with so many errors of spelling and grammar), but Galen Showman's art is a pleasing middle ground between the delicate light touch of P. Craig Russell and the blocky darkness of Mike Mignola.
Though Reed set out to tell a story from within the story of Dracula, his attempts to keep Renfield tied firmly to the source material often strains the narrative. His characters behave in fairly modern ways, and the chronology of events is hard to believe (could the trip from England to Amsterdam and back really be accomplished overnight?), so the whole thing just ends up kind of a mediocre mess. I'm reminded of the Marvel Dracula book by Jon J. Muth: really a great idea, and I'd love to see it done right. This, though, is not quite right.
This edition (which finishes a mini-series that had accomplished only three issues) includes an introduction and 'About the Graphic Novel' page from Reed, interstitial letters pages new to this volume and a pinup section including art from Brian Michael Bendis, Jay Geldhof and others. The front cover's by Vince Locke, the back by Jill Thompson. My copy is signed by both creators.

[A.C. Wise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found Renfield: A Tale of Madness to be very uneven. There were moments of brilliance, and the art was incredibly striking, but the writing varied wildly in my opinion. Partially, this may be because of the way the book was constructed - both in the fact that it combined excerpts from Stoker's original narrative with the author's words, and the fact that there was a gap between the first three issues and the graphic novel which completed the arc. The book feels stitched together (as it seems it was, based on the author's introduction), which is unfortunate. There was a lot of potential here, but it was never fully realized.