- Nosferatu: Plague of Terror
-
Nosferatu: Plague of Terror was a four-part comic series put out by Millennium Publications in 1991-92. Conceived as both a prequel and sequel to F.W. Murnau’s silent film, Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horrors, it was written by Mark Ellis, designed by Melissa Martin, with art provided by Rik Levins, Richard Pace and Frank Turner. The storyline presented a more complete story of Graf Orlock, the Nosferatu, separate and distinct from the Dracula legend.
Contents
Plot
Returning from the Crusades in the eleventh century, English knight Sir William Longsword stops at the castle and finds the nuns dead or dying of plague. Longsword’s squire, seeking treasure, inadvertently frees Orlock who kills the man. He bites Longsword but does not turn him into a vampire—rather, he becomes immortal for reasons known only to Orlock. The series tracks Orlock throughout history as he perpetuates his evil, instigating wars and bringing down plagues. Longsword tracks him through 19th century India and the madness of the Vietnam War and finally catches up to him in an abandoned cathedral in contemporary Brooklyn.
The final chapter ends in a conflagration in which both Orlock and Longsword are killed but the curse of the Nosferatu is passed onto an innocent, as it was to Longsword ten centuries before. The series was notable for presenting a vampire character drawn from European folklore rather than the refined Anne Rice model that was in vogue at the time.
A Nosferatu: Plague of Terror compilation in graphic novel format was released by Millennial Concepts in October, 2009.
Reception and influence
This work was included in J. Gordon Melton’s reference work, The Vampire Gallery.
References
External links
Categories:- Vampires in comics
- Nosferatu
- Horror comics
- 1991 comic debuts
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
