Blacula graphic novel coming from Zombie Love Studios in 2022

Last Updated on February 7, 2022

About two months ago, we heard that director Deon Taylor (Fatale) will be directing a modern day reboot of the 1972 blaxploitation classic Blacula (watch it HERE), which received a sequel called Scream Blacula Scream in 1973 (and you can watch that one HERE). Now it has been announced that Blacula isn’t just returning to the screen, he’ll also be returning in the pages of a graphic novel that’s coming our way from Zombie Love Studios. The graphic novel is expected to be released in February 2022.

Zombie Love Studios founder Rodney Barnes is writing the Blacula graphic novel, with Jason Shawn Alexander providing the artwork. “Expanding from the original film”, Barnes’ story

builds a bridge from the 70’s version of the iconic bloodsucker to our present-day world and all of its complications.

The original film had the following synopsis:

During a visit to Transylvania, an African prince (William Marshall) gets turned into a vampire by Count Dracula (Charles McCauley). Sealed in a coffin for several lifetimes, “Blacula” reawakens in 1970s Los Angeles. Leaving a trail of bloodless victims in his wake, he pursues Lina (Vonetta McGee), a woman who bears a striking resemblance to his dead wife. Meanwhile, Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala) and top cop Lt. Peters (Gordon Pinsent) are hot on the bloodsucker’s trail.

According to the press release our friends at Bloody Disgusting got their hands on, Blacula appealed to Barnes because of the film’s “storytelling and layered subtext”:

Using vampirism as a metaphor for slavery’s long-term repercussions, the original film offered cultural commentary that spoke to a deeper social and psychological curse inflicted upon a whole people. This creative characteristic is one that falls very much in line with Barnes’ approach to genre and content as a whole, but also speaks directly to the inspiration and motivation for launching his own comic studio and publishing imprint. Launched with the goal of being a creative space dedicated to storytelling from BIPOC perspectives in a format where they typically aren’t told, Zombie Love Studios allows Barnes to simultaneously expand his creative footprint while also making a larger impact on the comic industry by eliminating any limitations on such stories to get to the honest depiction of the culture.

I’m a fan of Blacula and Scream Blacula Scream, so I’m glad to see the character making a comeback nearly 50 years after his last movie.