Tuesday 25 June 2013

The Vampirologist on Facebook

Soon after writing the previous entry, I decided to do something I've been holding off for a while: create a Facebook group spin-off of this blog. It's now set up and you can join it by clicking here.

David MacDowell Blue, editor of The Annotated Carmilla (2011) and author of Your Vampire Story (And How to Write It) (2012), created the group's banner:










Nifty. I've also created a Facebook page, too. Feel free to like that. Although there'll probably be a lot of crossovers, I'm aiming to feature different content on the group and the page. In the meantime, hope to see you on either of them!

Bite This!

I've been intermittently reading Kevin Jackson's Bite: A Vampire Handbook (2009). Bought it at a local book stall for $5 on the 10th. 

Anyway, there's a passage which caught my attention: "The word 'vampire' entered the English language in printed form in May 1732, in an article in the Gentleman's Magazine entitled 'Political Vampyres'" (p. 33).

No, it didn't. The article Jackson's referring to is actually an extract from another periodical. Indeed, if the author had actually consulted the Gentleman's Magazine issue, he would've seen its source writ large:

Google Books

Though the article in question is popularly titled "Political Vampyres", that wasn't its original name. It was the title Gentleman's Magazine bestowed upon it. It must've been for convenience, because the original article was untitled:

Eighteenth Century Collections Online

But most importantly, both sources point to an earlier source for the word: the London Journal's 11 March 1732 issue. This is the relevant portion of "Extract of a Private Letter from Vienna":

 
The issue incorporated a report from "Medreyga in Hungary [sic]" dated "Jan. 7, 1732", detailing a vampiric outbreak in the Serbian village of Medvedja, then under Austro-Hungarian rule. Savvy readers will recognise this as the famous Arnod Paole case.

So, to correct Jackson's assertion, The London Journal 's 11 March 1732 issue was actually responsible for the word's introduction to "the English language in printed form".

Monday 17 June 2013

Who Is Peter Stan?

Al Giovine, a fellow Count Dracula Facebook member, posted a particularly impressive image on the group recently:

Facebook



































Fans of the Stephen King miniseries, Salem's Lot (1979), will immediately recognise the riff on Kurt Barlow's Graf Orlok-like head, hovering over the Marsten House.

I was so impressed by the pic, I decided to do a search for the source. The "Peter Stan 2010" signature was the obvious starting point.

It turned out "Peter Stan" is actually Bulgarian artist, Peter Stanimirov. He's also famous for illustrating Stephen King's works. His illustrations appear Knowing Darkness: Artists Inspired by Stephen King (2009) and Черно-бели илюстрации, вдъхновени от Стивън Кинг (2011). You can view his other artworks here.
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