Lugosi: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Dracula

by Koren Shadmi, Koren Shadmi (Illustrator)

Overview

A biography chronicling the tumultuous personal and professional life of horror icon Bela Lugosi.

Lugosi, the tragic life story of one of horror’s most iconic film stars, tells of a young Hungarian activist forced to flee his homeland after the failed Communist revolution in 1919. Reinventing himself in the U.S., first on stage and then in movies, he landed the unforgettable role of Count Dracula in what would become a series of classic feature films. From that point forward, Lugosi’s stardom would be assured...but with international fame came setbacks and addictions that gradually whittled his reputation from icon to has-been. Lugosi details the actor’s fall from grace and an enduring legacy that continues to this day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643376615
Publisher:	Humanoids, Inc.
Publication date:	09/28/2021
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	1,139,261
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Koren Shadmi is an award-winning illustrator and cartoonist. He studied illustration at The School of Visual Arts in New York where he now teaches. Koren’s graphic novels have been published in the US, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Korea and Israel. His latest book, Rise of The Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and The Creation of D&D (Nation Books), is a collaboration with esteemed tech writer David Kushner. Koren has contributed illustrations and comics to: The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Playboy, Mother Jones, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Wired and others.

Koren Shadmi is an award-winning illustrator and cartoonist. He studied illustration at The School of Visual Arts in New York where he now teaches. Koren’s graphic novels have been published in the US, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Korea and Israel. His latest book, Rise of The Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and The Creation of D&D (Nation Books), is a collaboration with esteemed tech writer David Kushner. Koren has contributed illustrations and comics to: The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Playboy, Mother Jones, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Wired and others.

Editorial Reviews

★ 08/09/2021

Shadmi (The Twilight Man) delivers a poignant graphic biography of horror star Bela Lugosi (1882–1956) that depicts the Dracula actor’s real-life and on-screen personas with equal aplomb. Interspersing Lugosi’s dying days of morphine-induced hallucinations (colored in sepiatone) with black-and-white flashbacks, the brisk history narrates his rise to silver screen success, his extravagant lifestyle, self-delusions, and (many) marriages and divorces against Hollywood’s evolution from the silent era to the glut and decline of horror pictures. Shadmi’s artwork flows in uncomplicated but immensely expressive lines. Cartoon caricatures of figures including Boris Karloff, James Whale, and Tor Johnson are instantly recognizable, while Lugosi’s vampiric glare hits appropriately chilling, with detailed scene-work conveying the moody atmosphere of films such as Dracula or White Zombie. Both humorous and heartbreaking, Lugosi’s final screen appearance in Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space closes the book with a triumphant curtain call: “Perhaps I am... immortal,” Lugosi muses. Shadmi smoothly blends characterization with chiaroscuro to perfectly spotlight Lugosi’s uncanny magnetism. On the screen—and in this fine portrait—his legacy lasts. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Lugosi is nothing short of a masterpiece. With riveting style and a storyline that drives full-tilt from the opening panels, Shadmi tells the tale of the man behind Dracula—his immigrant struggles, his wild love life, his dope fiend torments, his heinous treatment at the hands of studio moguls—with such vision and heart, you find yourself rooting for the monster from beginning to end. It is Shadmi’s special genius to render his subject an Everyman, so that his story is the story of every artist trying to live off their art only to be ground to pulp by the real bloodsuckers, the Hollywood execs who feast on talent, who bleed genius until there’s nothing left but memories and pain.

Jerry Stahl (Permanent Midnight

“Poignant and informative.”

Joe Dante (The Howling

Lugosi is a fantastic, wonderfully illustrated look at the real life of the man behind Dracula.

Jeremy Haun (The Realm

Lugosi welcomes you to explore the life of one of film history’s most evocative, mysterious figures in a journey that’s both haunting and humanizing, something cut from the cloth of Adrian Tomine and the Coen Brothers alike. A moving bildungsroman...with bite!

Steve Orlando (Commanders in Crisis

With a cultural icon as large as Bela Lugosi, it’s easy to forget he lived a whole life off-screen, one as complex as it is tragic. Shadmi’s book reminds us that, more than fangs and a cape, Lugosi was an artist, a lush, a romantic, and a wonderfully flawed human being consumed by all sorts of monsters.

Lonnie Nadler (Black Stars Above

A fascinating look at the most infamous face of Hollywood Horror, Lugosi offers a beautiful deep-dive into the life and career of Bela Lugosi that is not to be missed.

Stephanie Phillips (Harley Quinn

Lugosi is one of those characters you always come across if you’re obsessed with Hollywood or movie monsters. Whether it’s the iconic voice or his rivalry with Boris Karloff, the idea of the man lingers long. Koren’s wonderful graphic novel beautifully depicts the real monsters lying beneath the skin of a man we asked to portray one.

Sean Lewis (Bliss

 “With a cultural icon as large as Bela Lugosi, it’s easy to forget he lived a whole life off-screen, one as complex as it is tragic. Shadmi’s book reminds us that, more than fangs and a cape, Lugosi was an artist, a lush, a romantic, and a wonderfully flawed human being consumed by all sorts of monsters.” 

—Lonnie Nadler (Black Stars Above

Lugosi welcomes you to explore the life of one of film history’s most evocative, mysterious figures in a journey that’s both haunting and humanizing, something cut from the cloth of Adrian Tomine and the Coen Brothers alike. A moving bildungsroman…with bite!” 

—Steve Orlando (Commanders in Crisis

“Poignant and informative.” 

—Joe Dante (The Howling

 “Lugosi is one of those characters you always come across if you’re obsessed with Hollywood or movie monsters. Whether it’s the iconic voice or his rivalry with Boris Karloff, the idea of the man lingers long. Koren’s wonderful graphic novel beautifully depicts the real monsters lying beneath the skin of a man we asked to portray one.” 

—Sean Lewis (Bliss

A fascinating look at the most infamous face of Hollywood Horror, Lugosi offers a beautiful deep-dive into the life and career of Bela Lugosi that is not to be missed.” 

—Stephanie Phillips (Harley Quinn

 “Lugosi is a fantastic, wonderfully illustrated look at the real life of the man behind Dracula.” 

—Jeremy Haun (The Realm

Lugosi is nothing short of a masterpiece. With riveting style and a storyline that drives full-tilt from the opening panels, Shadmi tells the tale of the man behind Dracula—his immigrant struggles, his wild love life, his dope fiend torments, his heinous treatment at the hands of studio moguls—with such vision and heart, you find yourself rooting for the monster from beginning to end. It is Shadmi’s special genius to render his subject an Everyman, so that his story is the story of every artist trying to live off their art only to be ground to pulp by the real bloodsuckers, the Hollywood execs who feast on talent, who bleed genius until there’s nothing left but memories and pain.” 

—Jerry Stahl (Permanent Midnight

★ 12/03/2021

Another masterful graphic novel biography written and illustrated by Shadmi (The Twilight Man: Rod Serling and the Birth of Television). In 1955, an ailing 72-year-old Bela Lugosi checks into the hospital hoping to kick a debilitating addiction to morphine. As he hallucinates, charms his nurses, and chats with visitors, his life story unfolds. Born in Hungary, Lugosi first sought stardom on stage in Budapest. Despite winning mostly minor roles, the dashingly handsome actor assumed a lifestyle befitting the leading man he hoped to become. Following World War I, he immigrated to New York, where a critically lauded turn as Count Dracula in a 1927 Broadway production led to his being cast in the film adaptation a few years later. International fame and fortune followed but proved difficult to retain; within just a few years, Lugosi's lavish spending, combined with poorly considered business decisions and the machinations of Hollywood moguls, resulted in his declaring bankruptcy. Relegated to appearing in shoddy B-movies, Lugosi's faltering career only exacerbated his personal issues and physical decline; his creative partnership with filmmaker Edward Wood was a lone bright spot in the years preceding his death. VERDICT A masterfully illustrated and poignant biography presented with a sense of drama that's well-suited to its subject, who gave a performance powerful enough to remain iconic after almost a century.

Library Journal