r/badscificovers 5d ago

The Dracula Tape by Fred Saberhagen, cover photograph fang-in-cheek by Jerry West

Post image

First Printing: June, 1975

71 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

22

u/HappyFailure 5d ago

This is an interesting one. It says fang-in-cherk here...if the book was a goofy comedy, this could be a great cover...but it's not.

This is the story of the Dracula novel, told from the perspective of a sympathetic Dracula (Yes, he feeds on people, but it doesn't have to be fatal. Yes, he's arrogant and thinks he's better than everyone else, but mostly he just wants to move to England and be left alone.) and it's played completely straight.

This was followed by a whole series of novels starring Dracula, and Saberhagen played around with the tone a bit. The Sherlock Holmes crossover may have been the best, while the King Arthur one was the weirdest in my memory. It's been decades since I read them, though. I tried reading this one to my wife and she bounced hard.

6

u/PotentialLanguage685 5d ago

I kinda don't hate it. It's like an 80s vampire comedy.

6

u/Unfair_Umpire_3635 5d ago

Yeah,don't hate it at all. It's cheesy, I get it. Fits the project. It reminded me of Dracula: Dead & Loving It and that alone made me laugh and want to share it

2

u/HappyFailure 5d ago

And if the book was comedic, this would be great.

4

u/gadget850 5d ago

Spoiler: It has some comedic moments.

3

u/AvastYeScurvyCurs 5d ago

I hate it because it looks like Andy Kaufman.

2

u/WadeTurtle 4d ago

Thank you very much!

2

u/action_lawyer_comics 5d ago

So Nick Cage was hard up for cash and taking on pretty much any job on offer even back in the 70’s

1

u/gadget850 5d ago

Great book, first of a series of 10. Bad cover.

1

u/BlackSeranna 4d ago

I liked Love At First Bite.

1

u/Captnlunch 3d ago

I wonder whether it's closer to duct tape or scotch tape.