It a long shot but someone might know.
I'm trying to find a book I loved as a child for research. Anytime between late 70's to around 1990 I'll try and explain it as best I can.
I think it was mainly about a vampire (either called Vlad or Dracula, and he was quite fat and old looking) but the book also heavily featured Frankenstein, werewolves, etc.
What was great about the book was the awesome illustration style it had, very sketchy and loose. The book was quite dark for a childs book as well. I remember lots of blood splashes everywhere. It feature a double page spread of Dracula's castle and lots going on.
The book was all illustration with text running through the pages, more like a graphic novel than an illustrated book. The book itself was larger than A4 and may have been published by Usborne, but i'm not sure.
also, I'm in the UK so it might have only been available over here.
Cheers
Replies
Dracula: Everything You Always Wanted to Know, But Were Too Afraid to Ask
artist Victor Ambrus.
http://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/index.php?pid=113&subid=9
http://www.google.com/images?q=ralph+steadman&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1581&bih=857
http://img3.nnm.ru/3/b/9/2/2/3b922f01860151e674d3425c00fbe019_full.jpg
speaking of kids books with an edge ... Sian Pattenden. She also writes those cheapy cash-in biographies of rising (soon to fail) kiddy popstars, but does them under the name Sian Solanas so in the british library they get stored next to the SCUM Manifesto. I like this.
a bit of both really. I did a bit of children's book illustration at college and really enjoyed it. I have some characters i'd like to make a few short stories about and I was toying with the idea of making it quite dark and gross and I remembered this book. Although my ideas doesn't really have anything to do with vampires, etc.
Fungus the Bogeyman is also great reference for what i'm after. Thanks for reminding me danr.
Theres a whole series of these Dracula books and I also vaguely recall this one. I'm gonna have to buy these i think.