Count Dracula in popular culture
The character of Count Dracula from the 1897 novel "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, has remained popular over the years, and many forms of media have adopted the character in various forms. In their book "Dracula in Visual Media", authors John Edgar Browning and Caroline Joan S. Picart declared that no other horror character or vampire has been emulated more times than Count Dracula. Most variations of Dracula across film, comics, television, documentaries predominantly explore Dracula as he was portrayed in film with only a few more closely adapting Stoker's original narrative. These including borrowing  the look of Count Dracula in both the Universal's series of "Dracula" and Hammer's series of "Dracula", including include the characters clothing, mannerisms, physical features hair style and his motivations such as wanting to be a nearby home away from Europe. Stage. Musical. Early musical adaptions of "Dracula" played for camp. At the Dublin Theater Festival in 1965, a musical comedy "Dearest Dracula". The musical contained 15 songs and received a positive review from Robert B. Byrnes of the "Los Angeles Times". Other musical adaptions would follow such as "Dracula, A Musical Nightmare" (1978) starring Joe Spano. Musical  adaptations continued into the 1982 with Jack Sharkey's "Dracula, The Musical?" in 1982 which was written under the pen name of Rick Abbot. "Possessed, The Dracula Musical" was produced off-broadway with a production of $1 million. The story is re-imainged into a modern-day asylum. It received a negative review by Alvin Klein of the "New York Times" who suggested that "Perhaps there are no bad ideas for musicals, only bad musicals, like this one." The United Kingdom had "Dracula, Another Bloody Musical" which opened at the Westminster Theatre in London. In 1998 Halifax's Neptune  Theatre debuted "" which ran for which ran for six months at Canada's Stratford Festival in 1999. This version was not a parody or based on the Deane-Balderston play, but more of an iteration of the original novel. I 2001, "Dracula, the Musical" premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse where it was staged by Des McAnuff. McAnuff stated believed that "there's been a tendency to parody [Dracula] or to not trust it. We all felt that if we really tapped into what made the book powerful, that really would translate on stage." The musical received poor reviews from  The Los Angeles Times, the "San Diego Union-Tribune". Joop van den Ende saw a workshop of "Dracula, the Musical" and opened it on Broadway in 2004 adding new songs and different staging. This version was also not received well by critics. The show closed after 154 performances, but proved to be a hit in Europe. Opera. Prior to Stoker's novel, there were operas based on vampire fiction such as Heinrich Marschner's "Der Vampyr" composed in 1828 based on John Polidori's short work "The Vampyre" (1819). The later half of the 20th Century had Count Dracula had  composers attempting vampire themed operas with Count Dracula, such as Sue-Ellen Case "non-opera" "Johnny Appleseed/Dracula - The Universe in Infancy" performed in April 1970 in Los Angeles. John Deak of the New York Philharmonic presented two scenes of his "Lucy and the Count" for string quinteted at Cooper Union in February 1983. A review in the "New York Times" declared the presentation as "amusing and a little more - intentionally absurd" Composer Robert Moran was commissioned to create "The Dracula Diary" in 1994 which received a negative review in the "New York Times" by K. Robert Schwardz who found  it to have "Generic chord progressions, clumsy text setting and cheesy synthesized sound effects" In March 1999, David Del Tredici's Dracula premiered based on Alfred Corn's poem "My Neighbor, the Distinguised Count". Films. Pornography. The character of Dracula has been an inspiration throughout the history of pornographic film in various high and low budget productions. The character is usually represented either emphasizing the combination of sexual and dangerous aspects of the character. Dracula and Dracula parodies would continue to appear in pornography as production on these films moved from theatres, to home video to the internet. Dracula often  appeared in various sexploitation and hardcore adaptations from the 1960s onward. In these films, Dracula is not always exclusively heterosexual or male. During these periods, pornography films would often parody popular genres leading to Dracula making brief appearances in pseudo-documentary films like "Kiss Me Quick!" (1964) and later in narrative sexploitation films like "Dracula, the Dirty Old Man" (1969) and "Sex and the Single Vampire" (1970). Dracula would appear in the early hardcore pornography film "Dracula and the Boys" (1969) which is the first homosexual vampire in film. Television. TV adaptations. "Dracula" has been adapted for TV several times , with some adaptations taking many liberties and others trying to stay faithful more or less to original source. Animation. Dracula has even been adapted for children's literature and entertainment, serving as the basis for several vampire cartoon characters over the years, although in the interest of creating child-friendly characters, the vampiric nature of the character is often understated or not referenced at all. A prequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, Robert Statzer's "To Love a Vampire" (), chronicles Dr. Abraham Van Helsing's days as a medical student, depicting his first confrontation with the occult during an encounter  with Countess Elizabeth Bathory and her niece, Carmilla Karnstein. Originally published as a serial in the pages of "Scary Monsters Magazine" from March 2011 to June 2013, a revised version of "To Love a Vampire" was reprinted in paperback and Kindle editions in June 2018. Books. "Makt Myrkranna" (Powers of Darkness, 1901) by Bram Stoker and Valdimar Ásmundsson (10. July 1852 – 17. April 1902), is a rewritten Icelandic version of Stoker's novel, and also contains an original preface written by Stoker himself. First appeared in serial form in the newspaper "Fjallkonan" (The Lady of the Mountain) between January 1900  and March 1901, before being published in book form later the same year. New characters include detective called Barrington and a whole group of villainous aristocrats: Romanian Prince Koromesz, his sister, the beautiful Countess Ida Varkony; Margravine Caroma Rubiano, a medium; and Madame Saint Amand, an elegant young woman noted for taking a number of distinguished lovers. A Swedish version from 1899, serialized in the country's newspapers "Dagen" and "Aftonbladet" under the title "Mörkrets Makter" which, just like the Icelandic title, means Powers of Darkness. The translations contains parts not present in neither "Dracula" or "Makt Myrkranna" and was  translated by someone who used the pseudonym "A—e." "Dracula" has also inspired many literary tributes or parodies, including Stephen King's "Salem's Lot", Kim Newman's "Anno Dracula"-which features a world where Dracula defeated Van Helsing's forces and took over England-, Fred Saberhagen's "The Dracula Tape" and its many sequels, Wendy Swanscombe's erotic parody "Vamp", Dan Simmons' "Children of the Night" and Robin Spriggs' "The Dracula Poems: A Poetic Encounter with the Lord of Vampires". The novel "Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula; or, The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count" by Loren D. Estleman features Sherlock Holmes  and Dr. Watson becoming involved in the confrontation with Dracula, told as though the two were dealing with Dracula when he was not confronting Van Helsing's crew (although Holmes and Watson were not part of Van Helsing's core group, as the professor feared the extra publicity the detectives might attract to their cause). In "The Diaries of the Family Dracul", a trilogy by Jeanne Kalogridis, Vlad's relationship with his mortal descendants is explored, as are the specific terms of his vampiric curse and his pact with the Romanian peasants who serve him. The novels are written in  epistolary form and the story is intertwined with that of Stoker's novel, as well as events from the life of Vlad the Impaler, expanding on minor characters and details from the Dracula mythos and Romanian history and culture. Elizabeth Kostova's 2005 novel "The Historian" follows several historians whose research has led them too close to Dracula as they hunt the vampire across Europe. Meg Cabot's 2010 novel "Insatiable" has a main character named Meena Harper who has a relationship with Dracula's son, Lucien. In the book series "Vampire Hunter D", which takes place 10,000 years in  the future, D's adversary Count Magnus discovers that D is the son of Dracula, who is referred to as "the Sacred Ancestor" in the series. Freda Warrington's "Dracula the Undead" is an unofficial sequel to "Dracula". Will Hill's "Department 19" is about Jamie Carpenter, a descendant of Henry Carpenter, Van Helsing's valet who saves Van Helsing's life multiple times. Department 19 (or Blacklight), is an organization started by the people from the original "Dracula", and they fight vampires across the world. Dacre Stoker, who is a great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker, co-wrote with screenwriter  Ian Holt a sequel to "Dracula" titled "Dracula the Un-dead" (Stoker's original title), which reveals that Dracula was not actually the true villain, but sought to eliminate the more dangerous Elizabeth Bathory, the storyline also revealing that Quincey Harker is actually the son of Mina and Dracula and ending with the death of all the characters while the sole survivor, Quincey, is last seen boarding the "R.M.S. Titanic" on her maiden voyage. Dacre Stoker claims that parts of the work are based on excised material from the original novel and Stoker's notes. In North America, the book  was published by E.P. Dutton. "A Betrayal in Blood" by Mark A. Latham takes an unconventional interpretation of the original novel when Sherlock Holmes is hired by his brother Mycroft to investigate Dracula's death. In the course of the novel, Holmes confirms that Dracula was not a vampire, but in reality his death was part of a complex plan orchestrated by Van Helsing; a former German agent, Van Helsing was acquainted with Dracula in their youth, but after Dracula had an affair with Van Helsing's wife that resulted in the birth of a son, the son was given  up for adoption to become Arthur Holmwood and Dracula was told that he was dead. In the course of the novel, Holmes determines that Van Helsing set up various complex deceptions to create the illusion of Dracula as a vampire, killed Quincey Morris because he realized the truth, hired an actress to pose as the vampire Lucy to reinforce his deception and blackmailed Jonathan and Mina to assist him due to their role in the death of Jonathan's employer Mr. Hawkins, while Renfield was the solicitor who was actually sent to Dracula's castle and driven insane by Dracula 's manner. At the conclusion of the novel, the Harkers have been arrested, Holmwood is psychologically broken and Van Helsing commits suicide to escape a trial after he is caught by Holmes and Watson. "Vlad: The Last Confession" by Chris Humphreys mixes myth and historical facts. The novel retraces the life of the historical figure of Vlad III who inspired the Dracula legend. While the story is based on the historical 15th century ruler of Wallachia, it also draws inspiration from the vampire legends that surround the Wallachian Prince. Gabrielle Estres' novel "Captive" retraces the life of Vlad Țepeș, the  Wallachian ruler who inspired Bram Stoker's "Dracula". The book combines historical facts and contemporary 15th century pamphlets with the vampire lore created by Stoker. A version of Dracula (who hates the name and is known as Vlad Tepesh) appears first as a supporting character in the "Night Huntress" series by Jeaniene Frost, then in a more central role as the protagonist's love interest in the spin-off "Night Prince" series. He is depicted as a powerful master vampire who was turned by a vampire named Tenoch and has the ability to control fire and read human minds in  addition to the abilities common to vampires. Comics. Horror comics suffered in competition from the Superhero fiction genre, with Dracula and other vampires sometimes finding their mythos absorbed into the genre, such as Dracula's cape seem in films being part of the inspiration for the look of Batman. "Dracula" was first adapted into a comic in the Avon in August 1953 as "Eerie" #12. The comic generally faithful to Stoker's book with a changed ending. The comic book industries self-regulation of American comics forbid vampires from appearing in major comic publications such as Marvel Comics, DC Comics  and other major publications from 1954 to 1971. In 1962 and 1963, Dell Publishing released comics based on the Universal horror properties including "Dracula". These comics featured new stories, not based on the films. Dell re-thought "Dracula" in 1966, where a follow-up comic turned a descendant of "Dracula", who turned into a character that resembled Batman. "The Tomb of Dracula" was released by Marvel in the early 1970s that led to Count Dracula later battling superheroes such as Spider-Man and Captain Britain. "Dracula Lives!" (1973) and "Giant-Size Dracula" (1974) followed with Marvel endings its Dracula comics  in 1980. The 1980s included Dracula titles including "Blood of Dracula" which ran for 19 issues. Other titles ranged from Eternity Comics's adaptation of Stoker's novel to Pioneer Comics' "Vegas Knights" which had Dracula fighting ninjas. In the 1991, Marvel recreated "Tomb of Dracula" for a four issue limited series By the end of the year, Marvel released "Batman & Dracula: Red Rain" which sold well. Topps comics released based on the "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992) film. In 1992 to 1993, Dracula would battle several characters ranging from Zorro, to several superheros including Spider-Man, The Silver Surfer  and the X-men. Several indie publishers such as IDW Publishing and Dark Horse Comics making darker and horror themed comics such as "30 Days of Night" led to an illustrated issue of the novel "Dracula" in 2009 as well as Konami's "Castlevania" franchise. Toys and games. In his article on horror-themed toys and collectibles in "Rue Morgue" magazine, James Burrell found that in the late 1950s as a new generation of children watched Universal Pictures catalogue of horror films on "Shock Theatre", which gave the series a "kid-friendly" status. Most toy manufacturers conformed to the Toy  Advertising Guidelines created by the Code Authority of the National Association of Broadcasters. In 1963, the American retailer Montgomery Ward mailed out copies of their Christmas catalog which features models of various popular monsters including Dracula made by the Aurora Plastics Corporation. These were followed by various bubblegum cards, stickers, board games, battery-operated and wind-up toys, rubber marks made by companies like Leaf Brands, Remco, and Don Post Studios. By 1964, Phil Shabecoff of the "New York Times" reported this as a "Monster-mania" for toy companies while a spokesperson from Remco stated "Our monster toys aren't  nearly the hot item that our The Beatles dolls are." These toys continued to be produced into the 1970s resembling the Universal Horror look of Dracula with less and less produced with the release of "Star Wars" leading to more toys developed by for that line. Toys of the Universal monsters were re-introduced in the mid-1980s by Imperial Toy Corporation who put out a set of four Universal monster figures. In 1998, Sideshow Collectibles was the first toy companies to sculpt Toys and action figures of Count Dracula that were accurate to actors like Bela Lugosi. Toys featuring the  character of Dracula continued to be produced into the 21st century with by various companies including McFarlane Toys, NECA, and Funko. Video games. Count Dracula has appeared in video games ranging from being a lead character to brief cameo appearances. Among the first Dracula-themed computer games was 1981's "The Count" by Adventure International. The 1986, the game "Dracula" was released which contained static graphics considered gory enough to become the first computer game to be rated "15" by the British Board of Film Censors. The game series "Castlevania" by Konami which began in 1986 on the Nintendo Entertainment  System featured Simon Belmont who traverses into Castle Dracula to have a final confrontation with the final boss character of Dracula. The series continued for decades, with Dracula being resurrected continuously throughout the series. As "Castlevania" were released throughout the 1990s, Dracula continued to appear in early Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis following the highly popular "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992) film. Several Dracula related video games followed such as "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1993) and "Dracula Unleashed" (1993). At the turn of the millennium with the rise of the survival horror video game genre, other Dracula titles  appeared such as "" (1999) . These games were set years after the event's of Stoker's novel, while Charles Herold of the "New York Times" found these "Dracula" games having settings and themes to those of Christopher Lee. Four sequels were followed in the next thirteen years. Music and audio recordings. Count Dracula began appearing on musical records as early as 1958 when horror host John Zacherle recorded the novelty single "Dinner with Drac" which charted on the "Billboard" Pop Singles chart the same year. When Dick Clark played it on his "American Bandstand" television show, he requested Zacherle record  a less-violent version. Other novelty songs followed such as Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers with their song "Monster Mash" which made reference to Dracula among various monsters while imitating the voice of Boris Karloff. In the early 1960s, horror-themed spoken word albums were released, such as "Famous Monsters Speak" (1963) featuring actor Gabriel Dell imitating Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula. Similar albums followed recorded by Christopher Lee reading a variation of Stoker's novel. Similar recordings were released into the 1970s. Power Records released audio recordings accompanied by comic adaptations of "Dracula" such as their "Tomb  of Dracula" series in 1974. Some rock musicians made reference to horror characters in the 1970s, such as Blue Öyster Cult having several references to vampirism in songs like "Tattoo Vampire", "Harvest Moon", "After Dark", "I Love the Night" and more specifically to Dracula with "Nosferatu". The British group Bauhaus would write the 1979 song "Bela Lugosi's Dead", a track that described an exaggerated funeral of Lugosi, with Alexis Petridis of "The Guardian" stating the track "would have been just another piece of post-punk experimentation had it not been for the lyrics, which depicted the funeral of the  Dracula star, with bats swooping and virgin brides marching past his coffin." Petridis declared the song spawned several similar bands to Bauhaus in its wake leading to gothic rock becoming a codified musical genre. Songs outside rock music making references to Dracula were in hip hop music ranging from small references in The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" (1979) to more broad takes including Outkast's song "Dracula's Wedding" from "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" (2003). Films adaptations of Count Dracula would influence the extreme metal music scene. J. Benett of "Decibel" described Emperor "In the Nightside Eclipse" (1994 ) as establishing the band as "the reigning masters of a more complex, atmospheric style of "symphonic black metal"". Emperor guitarist Samoth specifically described that among their visual and musical influences of "Lord of the Rings", the band had a period where they were obsessed with Dracula noting "Nosferatu" (1922) and "Nosferatu the Vampyre" (1979) as being a "part of our ambiance and visual influences." Others. The General Mills cereal mascot Count Chocula is a vampire who craves Count Chocula cereal rather than blood. His title of Count is an allusion to that of Count Dracula's. The association of the  book with the Yorkshire fishing village of Whitby has led to the staging of the bi-annual Whitby Gothic Weekend, an event that sees the town visited by Goths from all over Britain and occasionally from other parts of the world. In addition, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution runs a fundraising bungee jump event in the town every April named the Dracula Drop. "Mad" magazine has published countless spoofs of Dracula. In one, appearing in the "Mad Summer Special 1983", on the inside front cover, a cartoon sequence drawn by Sergio Aragonés shows Dracula attacking a hippie who has taken  LSD; Drac staggers away, seeing colorful hallucinations including blood, bats and such. In the film "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", composer Peter Bretter (Jason Segel), in a subplot, finishes his Dracula-themed rock opera titled "A Taste for Love". Russian authors Andrey Shary and Vladimir Vedrashko in 2009 published a book "Sign D: Dracula in Books and on the Screen" devoted in particular to Dracula image implications in Soviet and Russian popular and mass culture. In the United Kingdom, discount store Poundland changes the voice of its self-service checkouts to that of Dracula throughout the Halloween retail period. Tourism. There are  several locations associated with Dracula and Bram Stoker related tourism in Ireland, Britain, and Romania. These include Whitby in North Yorkshire and Transylvania in central Romania, where especially Bran Castle is marketed to tourists as "Dracula's Castle".