What If Dracula Survived? Book IV The Undead Graphic Novel – Collectors Confessions

What If Dracula Survived? Matt Wagner and Kelley Jones Open the Final Chapter of Their Epic Dracula Saga

By Chad Farley

For more than a century, readers have believed they know how Bram Stoker’s Dracula ends. Count Dracula is hunted back to his castle, his enemies finally catch him, and the legendary vampire is destroyed.

But what if they got it wrong?

That question sits at the heart of Dracula: Book IV—The Undead, the fourth and final chapter of the ambitious Dracula saga created by comic-book legends Matt Wagner and Kelley Jones. After spending the first three volumes exploring the untold history surrounding Stoker’s famous vampire, Wagner and Jones are finally venturing somewhere they haven’t gone before: beyond the ending of the original novel.

And their starting point is wonderfully simple. What if Dracula survived?

The idea isn’t simply a gimmick designed to resurrect one of literature’s most famous monsters. Wagner found his opening within Stoker’s own story.

Professor Van Helsing establishes very specific rules regarding how a vampire must be destroyed. Yet during the frantic final confrontation with Dracula, those instructions aren’t completely followed. And the sun is setting.

That discrepancy provides Wagner and Jones with the doorway they need to continue Dracula’s story without simply ignoring Stoker’s ending. Rather than rewriting Dracula, they’re asking readers to reconsider what they thought happened.

It’s also the natural culmination of the unusual approach the pair have taken throughout this entire series.

They never set out to create another comic-book adaptation of Dracula. Instead, they’ve been exploring the stories that could have existed in the shadows of Stoker’s novel.

Book I: The Impaler reached into Vlad’s bloody past and his connection to the Scholomance. Book II: The Brides explored characters Stoker made unforgettable while leaving much of their history untold. Book III: The Count brought the saga closer to the familiar events of the novel. Now there is no familiar story left to follow.

Book IV takes them past Stoker.

Jones has described The Undead as perhaps the most evil of all four books. Considering the territory Wagner and Jones have already explored, that’s quite a promise. Think about Dracula’s situation if Wagner’s premise is correct.

He has just survived a group of people who came extraordinarily close to destroying him. What would that do to a creature as ancient, powerful and prideful as Dracula?

Does he disappear?

Does he rebuild?

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Or does he want revenge?

That’s what makes The Undead such an intriguing conclusion. Wagner and Jones aren’t merely asking whether Dracula survived. They’re asking what kind of Dracula survived.

And because they’ve moved beyond the events of the original novel, they are no longer filling gaps in somebody else’s narrative. For the first time in the series, there isn’t another chapter of Stoker waiting around the corner.

The future belongs entirely to them.

Mike Mignola has reportedly described this series as possibly “the book Kelley Jones was born to draw.” It’s difficult to argue with that assessment.

Wagner has also specifically written these books with Jones’ strengths in mind, creating a collaboration where the writer can seemingly ask himself, What would I love to see Kelley draw? and then put exactly that into the script.

The result is a Dracula who can be seductive in one moment, regal in another and absolutely monstrous when the story demands it.

Perhaps one of the most surprising parts of this entire project is that Wagner and Jones had been friends for more than 30 years before finally collaborating.

And somehow, Dracula was the character who finally brought them together.

Their respective careers make the pairing even more fascinating.

Wagner created Grendel and Mage and has worked with some of pop culture’s most enduring characters, including Batman, Zorro, The Shadow and Green Hornet. He even co-wrote Django/Zorro with Quentin Tarantino.

Jones developed one of the most recognizable interpretations of Batman ever put on the page while building an extraordinary body of supernatural and horror work through Deadman, The Sandman, Swamp Thing and more.

Their Dracula saga feels like the intersection of those careers: Wagner’s fascination with complicated and sometimes villainous protagonists combined with Jones’ ability to turn darkness into something simultaneously beautiful and horrifying.

They’re joined by José Villarrubia on colors and Rob Leigh on lettering and design, completing the visual language of the series.

Dracula: Book IV—The Undead contains 122 pages of story and art.

For collectors, the physical presentation has been an important part of this project from the beginning. The Kickstarter editions have been produced as European-album-sized hardcovers, with those particular editions available through the campaigns. The series has also reached a broader audience through Dark Horse paperback editions.

That distinction matters.

These aren’t merely stories designed to be read and forgotten. They’re being constructed as books that collectors will want sitting together on a shelf.

When all four volumes are finally lined up—The Impaler, The Brides, The Count and The Undead—they will represent a project that has followed Dracula from his hidden beginnings, through the familiar shadows of Stoker’s novel, and finally into completely unexplored territory.

Jones has discussed the series as something approaching a crowning achievement in his career, while Wagner has used the term “magnum opus” for their collaboration.

Those are significant words from two creators with careers this substantial.

What I find most compelling about The Undead is that Wagner and Jones don’t need to replace Bram Stoker’s story to continue it.

Instead, they’re looking closely at something readers have accepted for generations and asking one dangerous question:

Are we absolutely certain Dracula died?

That’s exactly the sort of question that can send you back to the original novel looking for clues.

And maybe that’s the greatest compliment you can give a project like this. More than 125 years after Stoker introduced Count Dracula to the world, two veteran comic-book creators have found unexplored darkness hiding inside one of horror’s most familiar stories.

The first three books told us what might have happened before and between the pages of Dracula.

Now Dracula: Book IV—The Undead asks what happened after the final page.

Because you can stake him.

You can cut off his head.

You can chase him all the way back to Transylvania.

But apparently, there’s one lesson we’ve learned after four books with Matt Wagner and Kelley Jones:

Never count Dracula out.

Banner Image: Dracula Book IV cover. Image Credit – Matt Wagner & Kelley Jones