Solina the Hidden
If you want to see/read this series of portraits from part 1, go here.
This one in particular is based on a photograph by Ellen Rogers, and I thank her permission to do so. Go look at her fantastic pictures. I also thank Jhayne who worked through the English text to give it the shape it finally has, and many thanks to readers of The Secret Knots for their comments on this experiment. Next time, it’s comics again!
I really love this series!
I was excited by the first one, and was then surprised to be even more thrilled with each new one.
Lovely! Thanks so much for showing them!
Very well done, I enjoyed this series a great deal.
The conclusion to your portraits was extremely satisfying. I was in no way disappointed by what was behind the door.
I very much enjoyed this series of comics you did, the entire set building up to this moment with Solina was brilliant. Your writing is just as beautiful as your art and I am thankful that you chose to share it with us all.
A spectacular finish.
This is very beautiful, very well thought out and well executed…
Thanks everybody for your comments. I’m glad you liked the ending.
It’s odd to me how sad she looks, instead of insatiabbly cureous as described. Perhaps it’s just disappointment that the room is nothing special. Her existance does explain things though and that’s lovely.
Perhaps if I pleed convincingly enough you’d write a bonus of the count himself and his thoughts about being the shadow by the door and why he takes wives at all.
Please? I love a good epilogue.
The brides tales have to do with a bigger story I wanted to try at certain point, but for now this is the manifestation of that project. I can’t deny that there are still many secrets in castle Dracula to unveil, who knows. On the other hand, I tend to leave blank zones in stories. I’m currently writing a comic that has a lot to do with the untold in fantasy stories…
Thanks for your comments.
These 4 were beautiful, and I liked this one the best.
It’s always much more fun going in doors you weren’t meant to…
This is a well written piece. It is interesting, novel, and compelling.
I have the same problem with it that I have with all derivative works of Dracula. It disrespects the source text, and attempts to romanticize monsters. This is in stark contrast to the intention of the book, which I think is important and neglected. We can have empathy for monsters, we can pity them, but we cannot admire them. What does it say about us when we do?
Still a well written piece.
Thanks. I agree with you in recognizing that particular fault in works based on Dracula, though this tale probably isn’t trying to cope with the style and mentality behind it. I also think that derivative works are inherently disrespectful in some degree, perhaps the only “respectful” attitude would be to leave original works untouched.
On the other hand, consider that the episodes at Dracula’s castle are supposedly told by a scared, man who is about to get married with an intelligent and lovely girl he loves.(who will, if he survives, read his letters and notes) We can imagine a skewed point of view in his diaries and letters, a certain -let’s say- exaggeration about the weird castle owner and its treacherous and devilish female inhabitants…
I have a friend from Hungary who claims that the Stoker’s Dracula is a derivative work itself, and that the idea of vampires has more to do with the women than the monster. Any powerful woman-stealer gathered the reputation of a vampire, and it was a term of grudging respect when a man of the mountains in eastern Europe could entrance women so. There would often be much anger and dispute in that respect… and violence could easily become of it.
In that light, this story is excellently in line with the legend, and I enjoyed it immensely, especially the ending. You, sir, are as a good a writer as an artist, and that’s saying something.
Thanks! I wasn’t aware of that idiosyncratic precedent for the character, it’s interesting.
I confess that I feel particularly proud when someone comments on these texts.