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Andy Warhol's Dracula

Kim Newman

PS Publishing

UK Hardcover

ISBN 1-902-88005-6

Publication Date: 07-01-1999

66 Pages; £25 ($40)

Date Reviewed: 08-20-02

Reviewed by Rick Kleffel © 2002

Foursight/Andy Warhol's Dracula

Kim Newman

Victor Gollancz / Orion

UK Hardcover

ISBN 0-575-06870-1

222 pages; £15.99

Publication Date: 05-16-2000

Date Reviewed: 08-05-02, 08-19-02

Binary/Andy Warhol's Dracula

Kim Newman

Victor Gollancz / Orion

UK Paperback

ISBN 1-857-98760-8

176 pages; £3.99

Publication Date: 12-28-2000

Date Reviewed: 08-19-02

Reviewed by Rick Kleffel © 2002

REFERENCES

COLUMNS

Horror

04-18-02, 09-11-02, 10-08-02, 11-13-02, 12-13-02

In 'Andy Warhol's Dracula', Kim Newman's excursions into the alternate history, started in Victorian England in 'Anno Dracula', reach the New World and the 1970's. Interspersed with hilarious bits of academic satire, 'Andy Warhol's Dracula' describes the coming of the newly minted vampire Johnny Pop to an America at war with itself. While those unfamiliar with the rest of the saga can still most certainly suss out what's going on in 'Andy Warhol's Dracula', readers would be better off reading the first three novels set in this alternate timeline before tackling this novella. But, just like any Newman work, 'Andy Warhol's Dracula' is full of insightful changes, excellent prose and delightful humor. This time around, Newman filters everything through a decidedly punk sensibility.

Newman's English Vampire tours of New York in 1970, bringing with him his own version of the British Invasion. In this case, it's a new spin on vampirism that incorporates allegories for both STD's and drugs. It's a matrix at the center where the two viral forces meet, grinding humanity into dust. And it's there that Andy Warhol finds his inspiration. Newman's prose special effects keep the reader from ever being able to see the bluescreen as he maps in his special guests from a variety of disciplines. The novella is a disturbingly organic whole, even the interspersed bit of academic analysis. There's a real feel that this novella is the document of the exact, whole universe that Newman has created.

This is also a novel that successfully mixes disturbing horror and dark humor. But unlike the usual 'kill kill ha ha' methodology used when mixing H&H, Newman's brand of dark humor grows out of the depths of his horror, like mushrooms on a rotting corpse. The laughs are danker but more sincere.

If there is any problem with 'Andy Warhol's Dracula', it's that it really whets the reader's appetite to see the story continue beyond its. Steve Jones 'The Mammoth Book of Vampires' contains only party of the solution, 'Coppola's Dracula'. It's clear that Newman is on the way to another novel in his alternate reality. Pretty soon he'll catch up with the present. One can only hope that it will not be a work of non-fiction.