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Castlevania Comic to be Released Soon

Gamegossip has the word that IDW Publishing, the same folks who do the Silent Hill and Metal Gear comics, will be releasing a Castlevania comic book in March. The comic is to be entitled Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy 01. From the article: "It is 1576, and the legend of the Belmont family's vampire-hunting prowess still echoes through the Romanian countryside. While Christopher Belmont celebrates his nuptials, dark forces conspire to raise Count Dracula from his unholy slumber. With this ancient evil unleashed once more, young Belmont must to prove he is worthy of the Belmont legacy."

15 comments

  1. IDW Publishing by EnderWigginsXenocide · · Score: 2, Interesting

    At least they have a track record for putting out some good stuff. Hope they're up to Castlevania. I'm looing forward to it.

    --
    Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups. -- 0 1 My two bits
    1. Re:IDW Publishing by superpulpsicle · · Score: 1

      As long as the comic is not 3D, it'll be fine. They mind as well call it "symphony of the night" comic, if they want a real success.

  2. Comic? by Donoho · · Score: 3, Funny

    Although the "MATURE READERS This title is recommended for readers over the age of 18" is promising, am I the only one that thinks this should be in manga format?

    1. Re:Comic? by siegesama · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's what you have Hellsing for

      --
      what the hell is a 'junk character', anyway?
    2. Re:Comic? by MagicDude · · Score: 1

      You joke, but it can be done. Take this site containing a few scans out of the Star Wars Manga Comic Book. Some of drawings work really well surprisingly.

  3. That's all very well but... by ringbarer · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Where's the Open Source games? Everyone knows Worldforge is infinitely better than Everquest 2 AND World of Warcraft combined.

    It's only an amount of time when such classic Worldforge spinoffs like Archipelago
    deserve their own respect from the realm of sequential graphic media.

    After all, with WoW-beating graphics like these, surely there's a 'raft' (pun intended) of opportunities for quality comic art.

    --
    "Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
  4. Are their existing works any good at all? by pnice · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Maybe someone that has actually read through a few of the Silent Hill and Metal Gear comics could let the rest of us know about the quality. It's obvious that they are going with a theme here (comics based on video games that already have a story, characters, etc, established) so I'm curious as to how good these comics actually are. I mean, it sure seems like the easy way out. Wouldn't it be much more creative to design your own characters from scratch...or is this just easy money?

    1. Re:Are their existing works any good at all? by StocDred · · Score: 1
      The Metal Gear series is really good. Most dialogue is taken straight from the game (they're doing the PS1 original/Twin Snakes storyline now), and they've gone to great pains to keep the art reminiscent of the series actual concept art, all stylized and sketchy. I'm hoping they keep going and do Sons of Liberty (and beyond), because I would like being able to read/see the storyline in the nice digestible visual chunk format that comics provide.

      Remind me not to use the phrase "nice digestible visual chunk" ever again.

    2. Re:Are their existing works any good at all? by MagicDude · · Score: 1

      Creating new characters always comes with the risk of the project bombing. People need a reason to invest their money in different forms of media and entertainment. Think about it, when's the last time you pulled some unknown comic off the shelf and bought it, knowing nothing about it. When people have the option of buying the latest edition of X-Men, or perhaps splurging on "Super Bulldog Man" #1, what do you think they're going to do? X-Men has history and caracters that everyone knows and is familiar with, so each edition will make money. The whole key to making something a success is to make people want it, which is why everyone advertises things like critic's reviews and ratings and such, to convince people that there are many sources who say that their item is the best out there. To continue with Bulldog Man, if your friends said it was the awesomest comic of the year, then you'd probably go get it, wouldn't you? It's all about people believe that they will get their money's worth. Anyone who grew up with a Nintendo will definately have fond rememberances of Castlevania, and thus will probably buy the comic if the opportunity presents itself. The history is already planted, all they need to do is harvest the cash crop. As for developing new characters within the Castlevania world, well, you remember how much bitching there was when the Doom movie wasn't going to have demons or be on Mars. Geeks demand consistancy, and since only a very specific population buys comics, they have to cater to the comic buying geeks, unlike movies who are marketed to appeal to every Joe Average out there.

    3. Re:Are their existing works any good at all? by pnice · · Score: 1

      Just for fun I tried to remember the last comics that I just pulled off the shelf and bought with no known information about them, etc. I came up with: Ninja High School, Propellerhead and Pitt (or was it The Pitt).

    4. Re:Are their existing works any good at all? by Bob+The+Fish · · Score: 1

      I've read both the Silent Hill miniseries (5 issues) and the Silent Hill stand-alone story put out by IDW. As a pretty heavy fan of the Silent Hill series, I could tell try tried to stay faithful to the series. The art/coloring was sketchy in the literal sense; it was hard to make out a couple panels here and there--but I liked it.

      My friend who bought the MGS series liked what IDW did with it.

      If the CV comic had Ayami Kojima (concept artist for GBA CV games, Lament, and SotN) to do the art, that alone would be worth the price of admission.

    5. Re:Are their existing works any good at all? by DarkZero · · Score: 1

      It's obvious that they are going with a theme here (comics based on video games that already have a story, characters, etc, established) so I'm curious as to how good these comics actually are. I mean, it sure seems like the easy way out. Wouldn't it be much more creative to design your own characters from scratch...or is this just easy money?

      Just a small note: The Silent Hill and Castlevania comics both contain (mostly) original characters and storylines. The Silent Hill comic, as far as I know, is all new, with the exception of possible cameos. The Castlevania comic covers a Belmont that was in the original Game Boy games, and thus was basically Generic Randomly Named Belmont with hardly any storyline. The Castlevania Dungeon even says:

      "There's not really a whole lot to say about this Belmont, except for the fact that he's yet another one of the family that killed Dracula when he arose again."

  5. Could make for some pretty sweet cross-overs by Mofo196 · · Score: 1

    Anyone ever read "Archie Meets the Punisher" or "Jughead Meets Wolverine"?

    I would love to see Simon Belmont meet up with Casper.

  6. Ok where's my new SotN game? by ShawnMcCool42 · · Score: 1

    I've been waiting and waiting and what do i get? Lament of Innocence? Barf. Your fans want a new symphony of the night like game! DADDY NEEDS HIS MEDICINE.

  7. If the Belmonts are such good vampire hunters... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... why are they having to kill Dracula again every sixteen months since 1987?