Virgin's Embrace , bd

AUK Studios Presents
StokerVerse Novel #1


A Stoker/McAuley Production
Original Story
Bram Stoker
Script
Dacre Stoker & Chris McAuley
Pencil & Inks
Jessica Martin
Letterer
Bonnie Dixon
Cover Image
Ester Cardella
Additional Contributions from
Robert Marzullo, Nicholas Tiseo, Emily Botta & Joe Larkins






The Virgin’s Embrace
Published in 2021 by
Stoker McAuley Productions
facebook.com/StokerMcAuleyProductions
in association with
AUK Studios
www.aukstudios.uk
Distributed worldwide by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
Artwork Copyright © 2021 Andrews UK Limited
Original Story The Squaw by Bram Stoker
The Virgin’s Embrace Text Copyright © 2021 Stoker McAuley Productions
The rights of Dacre Stoker, Chris McAuley and Jessica Martin to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without express prior written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted except with express prior written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.
The views and opinions expressed herein belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Stoker McAuley Productions or Andrews UK Limited.
PLEASE NOTE: There are some scenes within this graphic novel which may cause distress to readers of a sensitive nature.
Stoker McAuley and AUK Studios respect the creativity and legacy of Bram Stoker’s work. As with the author’s original material, this graphic novel contains an act of violence against a feline. We take this opportunity to state that neither Stoker McAuley nor AUK Studios condone acts of intentional harm towards animals.
A number of images featured within this presentation are taken from the Bram Stoker Unearthed Rare Papers Project. For further information regarding this project, or to request use of the material featured, please contact bramstokerestate@aol.com




This book is dedicated to Pat Mills, a mentor and a friend who provided an introduction to graphic novel narratives
—Chris McAuley



Foreword
by Dacre Stoker


Being well aware that Bram’s story—originally The Squaw —was written back in 1893 when the world was a different place, Chris and I decided to rename this modern adaptation The Virgin’s Embrace, a title that better reflects today’s mores. I believe Bram would approve.
When my great-granduncle Bram Stoker wrote The Squaw, he had for fifteen years been both personal secretary to the famous actor Sir Henry Irving and manager of Irving’s Lyceum Theatre in London. Irving’s job offer came unexpectedly, accelerating the plans for Bram’s marriage to Florence Balcombe and their subsequent move to London; there is no record of them having had the time for a proper honeymoon. When the story was published, Bram had already been to America at least five times while on tour with the Lyceum Theatre troupe. Each tour lasted from four to six months, requiring travel by train to most of the major cities across the United States and sometimes even Montreal and Toronto in Canada. Each of these particular aspects of Bram’s life plays into the storyline of The Squaw .
Over his lifetime, Bram had a habit filling his notebooks and diaries with descriptions of the characteristics of people he met; sometimes he even sketched the layouts of entire scenes. These notes formed a key component of his literary production and he would later flesh them out further by borrowing from research or overheard stories.
Bram was once described by a journalist as “an author who writes with the eye of a painter.” In fact, in their youth both Bram and his sister Matilda won awards for their artwork from Dublin’s Royal Hibernian Society; Bram would also later be a founding member of the Dublin Painting and Sketching Club. Particularly when describing landscapes and vistas, Bram’s writing was greatly enhanced by his ‘painter’s eye.’
I believe it is quite possible that this story was based in part on Bram’s real honeymoon (if indeed there was one) or at least his imagination of a honeymoon supported by memories of a ‘real-life’ trip to Nuremberg. Bram wrote in his two-volume biography Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (1906) that Irving led a party from the Lyceum to Nuremberg in 1885 to research set design for Faust , which was to be produced at the Lyceum Theatre later that year. Although no hard evidence exists to show Bram went along on the trip, it is widely believed that Bram did in fact accompany Irving and the others.
It makes sense that Bram gleaned his ‘vision’ of Nuremberg firsthand. In The Squaw he accurately depicts the city’s “myriad of quaint old gables and acre-wide red roofs dotted with dormer windows, tier upon tier.” Interestingly, this line closely anticipates Mina Harker’s evocation of Nuremberg in her description of the English coastal town of Whitby in Dracula (1897): “the houses of the old town—the side away from us are all red-roofed, and seem piled up one over the other anyhow, like the pictures we see of Nuremberg.” Bram didn’t mind re-using descriptions he liked!
He also borrowed elements of interesting people he knew to create ‘composite’ individuals in his stories. This helped create very believable characters—he simply added on layers of fact and fiction until he reached the depth that he was looking for. The origins of Elias P. Hutcheson, the central character in The Squaw , can be traced back to some of the fascinating experiences and notable people Bram encountered on his trips to America with the Lyceum. In 1886 while in New York for theatrical engagements, Bram and Irving visited the Erastina Amusement Grounds on Staten Island to witness Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, which was drawing forty thousand patrons to the new facility each day. Bram and Irving were most impressed with Bill Cody and his theater: large-scale wars between ‘cowboys and Indians’ with smoking guns and on galloping horses, all staged outdoors on massive painted plywood sets... and even an orchestra dressed as cowboys themselves. A long friendship ensued between Cody, Irving and Stoker based on kindred spirit and a certain level of fascination.