Matt Melvin, one fourth of the team behind the webcomic Cyanide and Happiness has written a book titled . It's full of illustration from Melvin and DJ Coffman, but basically it's a text book. Which is kind of out the usual bailiwick of ComixTalk. (Is there a TextTalk?) Still we got a free copy of the book for review purposes and there is a pretty strong connection to webcomics so…
It's set up as kind of an guide book, but as much a parody of parody guide books like The Zombie Survival Guide than a parody of the real thing. Much like that book on zombies, Dracula Is A Racist (subtitled "A Totally Factual Guide to Vampires) goes through the "basics" of vampires with chapters on history, fact vs. fiction, survival and "living with vampirism". Speaking of zombies, Melvin has a running jokes comparing vampires to zombies throughout the book, needless to say this book puts vampires well ahead of zombies.
The book deals with key questions such as:
- Was Dracula really a racist?
- How do vampires do their hair if they don''t have any reflection?
- Is dressing in all black and acting snobby toward everyone enough to fake being a vampire?
I found a few other reviews out there: Coyote Trax does not like Melvin's new book but he also doesn't like his contributions to the C&H webcomic. In contrast, the University of Nebraska's Gateway newspaper writes:
The bloodsucking topic and juvenile tone disguise smart humor and social criticism. Nothing is off limits: disabilities, homosexuality, women's rights, circumcision, famines and even plane crashes. Melvin finds odd political humor in everything, while somehow relating it to vampires.
I'd say it felt like an extension of the C&H webcomic in terms of tone and sense of humor. It's blunt, obnoxious and sometimes just stupid, but it did have some laughs in it.
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