CULT OF DRACULA #1 – Review

In CULT OF DRACULA #1, available from Source Point Press on March 31st, 2021, all members of a secretive cult are found murdered in their tiny church. Before the slaughter began, investigative reporter Mina Murray took her film crew inside to find out what makes the cult tick and what ties it has to her own troubled past.

The Details

• Written By: Rich Davis
• Art By: Henry Martinez
• Colors By: Trevor Richardson
• Letters By: Ed Dukeshire
• Cover Art By: Gyula Nemeth
• Cover Price: $3.99
• Release Date: March 31, 2021

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Was It Good?

Yes. We love vampire comics. and we’ve found some good ones and some not-so-good ones. This title is one of the better vampire comics we’ve encountered in recent years. The setup has familiar elements (e.g. characters with the same names as the original Dracula book), but the premise here is an original one.

That said, original ideas are pointless without the execution to back them up. The writing goes all-out on the horror. Discovering an entire cult, slaughtered in gruesome ways (including children) is not common these days, so you can tell the Davis isn’t pulling any punches, and that’s what we like to see: bold choices.

To be fair, the art is okay. Not great. Just okay. The characters tend to have slightly distorted anatomy, especially with the shapes of heads and faces. Those distortions were a bit of a distraction, and you occasionally could feel more time was needed to work on the art.

It’s important to get the art right when at least a third of the book has no dialog at all. When whole sections of the story are completely carried by the art, the art has to be perfect. It’s not bad in this issue, but it’s not perfect.

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]

We start in the now with a Detective arriving at a crime scene. A lonely church surrounded by a few outbuildings and trailers in the middle of nowhere is the headquarters of the Ordo Dracul, The Order of the Dragon. The entire cult is dead — men, women, children. Yes, even the children are shown ripped apart.

The Detective takes notes as a small army of police and coroners collect evidence and bodies. Except for a brief panel where the Detective speaks into a recorder for notes, there isn’t a hint of dialog or narration in the first 7 pages of the story. That’s an excellent creative choice for the reader to feel the numbness and shock of what the police discover.

Flashback to a young woman getting her gear from a van (The remainder of the issue remains in this flashback). Mina Murray is an investigative news reporter, and she’s been granted access to a controlled interview with the cult members via connection with her college professor, Abraham van Helsing, who’s been studying the cult. Her cameraman, Jonathan Harker, is her encouragement and her backup.

Before the news crew can enter the main hall and begin the interviews, they encounter a collection of new but familiar characters. Quincy Morris is the cult leader’s liaison and enforcer. Lucy Westenra is a cult member who seems lost, troubled, and secretive. Arthur Holmwood is the crook who donated generations of his family wealth to atone for a white-collar crime he got away with. And we see from news clippings collected by the Detective the cult leader is a defrocked and excommunicated priest who’s not named at this point.

As they proceed through the church’s main entrance, Mina sees an old teddy bear on the floor and it floods her with memories of a nightmarish experience when she was a child. Before she escaped her home with the help of an adult, she witnessed a demonic orgy that would turn the stomach of the most jaded adult. It’s not clear if Mina was a former member of the same cult as a child or if her memory is unrelated, but it’s an unsettling vision regardless.

We conclude the issue with the beginning of the end.

“Wait,” you say. “That’s it?” you say. It may not seem like a lot of plot progression, but the setup more than makes up for it. So many characters are introduced with nuggets of potential, you feel like you get your money’s worth from essentially two scenes.

We conclude the issue with the realization Lucy’s Papa has been doing his work for a long time. There are some things you can never unsee. “But… Lulu!”

Final Thoughts

CULT OF DRACULA #1, available from Source Point Press on March 31st, 2021, takes the Dracula concept, spins it into a modern, mid-West cult massacre, and gives you just enough info to whet your appetite. The concept is exciting for vampire fans, the writing is impactful, and the art is serviceable.

Score: 7.5/10