Stoker's Dracula notes
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:13 am
I do not see this in anyone's chronologies yet, but aside from Dracula himself, Abraham Van Helsing and a young Quincy Harker (at age 0-1) appear, so perhaps someday it will get logged. If it does, I just wanted to note an annoyance I found in art with this series. Whenever they show a newspaper, the year of the date on the newspaper always got truncated to "189-". They probably did this since scholars debate as to when Stoker set the novel; the dates he mention seem to match up very closely to 1893. As Kim Newman points out, the technology seen in the novel (e.g. the dictaphone) also seem consistent with 1893.
However, as Kim Newman and others pointed out, the epilogue of the novel (also part of the Stoker's Dracula adaptation) features the introduction of Quincy Harker, and locates the main action of the novel seven years earlier. The publication of the novel took place in 1897. 1897-7=1890.
Peter Gillis, in an article in Tomb of Dracula#3 (magazine format) places the events of Dracula's encounters with Jonathan Harker et al. in 1890 and reaffirms that on Earth-616, Stoker's novel saw publication in 1897. Gillis also reaffirms the birth of Quincy Harker taking place in 1897.
Incidentally, Gillis continues in his article that "Van Helsing pursues Dracula back to Transylvania where he kills him along a country road". This seems to refer to the brief fb in Tomb of Dracula I#1 which showed Van Helsing staking Dracula (at odds with the novel's end-writer Gerry Conway not only did not seem to have read the novel, he misspelled Van Helsing as "Van Helfing").
He then writes that in 1898 "After he kills Dracula, Van Helsing decides to settle in Transylvania, where the populace give him the informal title of "Baron". This refers it seems to the story in Tomb of Dracula I#5. Gillis recounts the time travel story in that issue, and then notes that Van Helsing encounter with the time traveling Dracula (who had traveled from the modern era) leads to "Van Helsing sustains injuries which result in his death a year or so later". So does that mean that the fb in Tomb of Dracula I#20 (showing Dracula returning years later) just regurgitates a scene from Tomb of Dracula I#5?
However, as Kim Newman and others pointed out, the epilogue of the novel (also part of the Stoker's Dracula adaptation) features the introduction of Quincy Harker, and locates the main action of the novel seven years earlier. The publication of the novel took place in 1897. 1897-7=1890.
Peter Gillis, in an article in Tomb of Dracula#3 (magazine format) places the events of Dracula's encounters with Jonathan Harker et al. in 1890 and reaffirms that on Earth-616, Stoker's novel saw publication in 1897. Gillis also reaffirms the birth of Quincy Harker taking place in 1897.
Incidentally, Gillis continues in his article that "Van Helsing pursues Dracula back to Transylvania where he kills him along a country road". This seems to refer to the brief fb in Tomb of Dracula I#1 which showed Van Helsing staking Dracula (at odds with the novel's end-writer Gerry Conway not only did not seem to have read the novel, he misspelled Van Helsing as "Van Helfing").
He then writes that in 1898 "After he kills Dracula, Van Helsing decides to settle in Transylvania, where the populace give him the informal title of "Baron". This refers it seems to the story in Tomb of Dracula I#5. Gillis recounts the time travel story in that issue, and then notes that Van Helsing encounter with the time traveling Dracula (who had traveled from the modern era) leads to "Van Helsing sustains injuries which result in his death a year or so later". So does that mean that the fb in Tomb of Dracula I#20 (showing Dracula returning years later) just regurgitates a scene from Tomb of Dracula I#5?