An Exposé - Bram Stoker's Dracula - illustrated by Ben Templesmith

I saw this book some time ago at my "local" Waterstone's on Oxford Street (i.e. the one opposite Selfridges) and dithered about buying it, mostly because it had been well-thumbed by previous customers.  So I went to Amazon and put it on my wish list.

Until late last week when the lovely Sarah noticed it, was intrigued by it and bought it for me.  With her permission, I give you the second expose on MFB of a novel we've fallen in love it purely because of it's concept and design.

Front Cover

Plain black matte pages

Deepest darkest gorgeous red...drawing us in

Beautiful and freaky title page - double spread

Skulls - gotta have skulls 

First official sketch, showing Jonathan Harker's journey to meet Dracula

Extract of page, in "handwriting" font - the rest of the journal is in normal font

Jonathan's very special friends are waiting to meet him

The beast itself 

Loving the little bat!

Back of the novel 

It is a gorgeous hardback, definitely an item to own if you are a) a fan of Stoker's Dracula b) a fan of Ben Templesmith's artwork c) into all things dark and Gothic.

The pages are from thicker than usual paper and also not pure white.  They feel lovely to the touch.  There are a lot of sketches dotted throughout the book and they vary from breathlessly beautiful to bloody awful and scary.  Templesmith is a very talented guy.

My one warning would be this though: the hardback, although gorgeous is bound quite loosely.  This means that the covers move quite a bit.  And because of this, my back cover, on the inside, has already torn slightly.  I don't mind, no one will see it, but it is a bit annoying.  Also, if the hardcover scuffs on the outside, the black will come off.  This also already happened, purely from me carrying it home in a bag, during commute.  Again, this didn't bother me as I touched it up with black permanent marker.  I know, I am a barbarian.

The designer for this beautiful book is Justin Eisinger and the publisher is IDW.

Find Ben Templesmith's website here.