The Borgo Cast - The Intersections of Dracula

BBC - Netflix Dracula

We are back from the crypt with a super short episode reviewing the new Netflix Dracula . Find out Dustin's thought and participate in our little poll - Send responses to The Borgo Cast's twitter account @borgocast1 Shall we keep our episodes a little on the shorter side as they have been, tackling only text or textual unit at a time, or would your rather a longer, segmented show running several marathons at once: i.e. a Universal Monsters segment, one for Tomb of Dracula, and a third looking at a novel or short story. We are good to go in either case, but we are curious about your preferences.

Now, tune in to our discussion of Netflix Dracula!

Dracula. Lugosi. Browning. Freund. Frye. What more could you want? Dracula 1931 is the ur-text. We dive into a quick review of one of the most important movies of all time, let alone the most important Dracula film ever. Important doesn't mean good, though. Does it still hold up? Is it worth your time? Listen and find out!

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Finally, The Borgo Cast has it’s own Twitter account here.

Hello children of the night! We are back with Tomb of Dracula 7-9. This marks the beginning of the Marv Wolfman run on the series, which will be helmed by him and artist Gene Colan until the end at issue 70. 

Our first journey into this comic series was a little on the light side, but we are getting into it deep now with Tomb of Dracula 7-9 because we now have consistency at the helm and a core of characters to begin to examine. I am a big fan, and I think this is a far under appreciated corner in the world of Dracula and recommend you check it out!

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If you haven’t yet, you can connect with us through our various means of social media. Hit us up and let us know what you like and what you don’t like. Also, it would mean a lot if you left a review on iTunes or Stitcher after you finish subscribing.

• Follow Us on Twitter
• Subscribe and Review us on iTunes
• Listen on Stitcher Internet Radio

Supporting the GenreCast

If you’re interested in offering financial support for the show, that would be awesome. We use these funds to cover production costs and hosting and domain fees, as well as occasional events and merchandise. Support on Patreon comes with a variety of rewards and additional content, such as physical rewards, bonus shows and fun stuff and even programming opportunities.

Finally, The Borgo Cast has it’s own Twitter account here.

We are back from a week off due to Easter with Edgar Allen Poe's Ligeia. That's right, its another Cold Reading From a Cold Grave! I feel the need to explain this week's choice. As you all know, Cold Readings From a Cold Grave are just that, short stories I have never read before. Thus, Ligeia has a reputation for being the closest to a vampire story Poe ever gets. That being said, its not super vamp-tastic. There are definitely vampire connections and the story definitely fits the bill of a Gothic or Dark Romantic cousin, like The Woman in White. So though I was mislead on the Vampire connections, I was very pleased to read this short story. 

In what follows we suss out the vampire connections (what little there are) and also situate Dark Romanticism with Transcendentalism, which Poe is taking to task in Ligeia. So tune in and let us know what you think! 

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If you haven’t yet, you can connect with us through our various means of social media. Hit us up and let us know what you like and what you don’t like. Also, it would mean a lot if you left a review on iTunes or Stitcher after you finish subscribing.

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Supporting the GenreCast

If you’re interested in offering financial support for the show, that would be awesome. We use these funds to cover production costs and hosting and domain fees, as well as occasional events and merchandise. Support on Patreon comes with a variety of rewards and additional content, such as physical rewards, bonus shows and fun stuff and even programming opportunities.

Finally, The Borgo Cast has it’s own Twitter account here.

Nosferatu (1922)

Back from the grave and into the cinema, children of the night. Here comes Nosferatu (1922)! This week we get into a deep analytical dive into the film, German Expressionism and Nationalism. We also discussion production history, and intellectual property rights. Nosferatu (1922) is probably one of my favorite Dracula films despite its ideological issues. Do you feel the same way? Listen in and find out!

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If you haven’t yet, you can connect with us through our various means of social media. Hit us up and let us know what you like and what you don’t like. Also, it would mean a lot if you left a review on iTunes or Stitcher after you finish subscribing.

• Follow Us on Twitter
• Subscribe and Review us on iTunes
• Listen on Stitcher Internet Radio

Supporting the GenreCast

If you’re interested in offering financial support for the show, that would be awesome. We use these funds to cover production costs and hosting and domain fees, as well as occasional events and merchandise. Support on Patreon comes with a variety of rewards and additional content, such as physical rewards, bonus shows and fun stuff and even programming opportunities.

Finally, The Borgo Cast has it’s own Twitter account here.

Tomb of Dracula 1-6

We are out of the crypt and back into Dracula territory with Tomb of Dracula 1-6. Here we look at the first six issues of Marvel Comic's Tomb of Dracula starting in April of 1972. Though there is a revolving door of writers Tomb of Dracula 1-6 provides the beginnings of a narrative that will live for 70 issues. Is it messy? Yes? Is the analysis a little icky? Yes, again? Is it fun? ABSOLUTELY. So tune in and listen to a summary and review of the first issues of Marvel's Tomb of Dracula!

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If you haven’t yet, you can connect with us through our various means of social media. Hit us up and let us know what you like and what you don’t like. Also, it would mean a lot if you left a review on iTunes or Stitcher after you finish subscribing.

• Follow Us on Twitter
• Subscribe and Review us on iTunes
• Listen on Stitcher Internet Radio

Supporting the GenreCast

If you’re interested in offering financial support for the show, that would be awesome. We use these funds to cover production costs and hosting and domain fees, as well as occasional events and merchandise. Support on Patreon comes with a variety of rewards and additional content, such as physical rewards, bonus shows and fun stuff and even programming opportunities.

Finally, The Borgo Cast has it’s own Twitter account here.

Another Cold Reading from a Cold Grave

We are back again with more short fiction, this week: A Little Night Music. Mike Resnick's short story appears in the now out of print, The Ultimate Dracula. Its a collection of short fiction that has been sitting on my shelf for a couple of years now. Thanks to this new podcast project, I now have an excuse to read it! I am not going to read the stories in order, rather I am using a randomizer to select a story each time we return to The Ultimate Dracula collection. This week the randomizer chooses, A Little Night Music so here we go!

A Little Night Music is a change of pace for Resnick, who seems to more of a sci-fi writer. I can't say I loved the story, but it is a fun visit to the world of Vampires. There are lots of fun Easter eggs for fans of the Wallachian Count and a heavy metal aesthetic that I kind of enjoy. For more listen below:

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If you haven’t yet, you can connect with us through our various means of social media. Hit us up and let us know what you like and what you don’t like. Also, it would mean a lot if you left a review on iTunes or Stitcher after you finish subscribing.

• Follow Us on Twitter
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Supporting the GenreCast

If you’re interested in offering financial support for the show, that would be awesome. We use these funds to cover production costs and hosting and domain fees, as well as occasional events and merchandise. Support on Patreon comes with a variety of rewards and additional content, such as physical rewards, bonus shows and fun stuff and even programming opportunities.

Finally, The Borgo Cast has it’s own Twitter account here.

Greetings Children of the Night! I'm back out of the crypt with Salem's Lot, Stephen King's follow-up to Carrie. 

Here the Dracula connections are obvious. Clearly King wants to place Dracula in the US within the fictional Maine city of Salem's Lot. Like Castle Rock and Derry, this is a story that is as much about its place as it is about is characters and plot. This makes a lot of sense, since Dracula is a novel very concerned with real estate. 

Salem's Lot is full of Dracula character parallels and is a rare case of the modernized vampire story that also keeps the Catholic religious stuff in too. 

Finally, the story feels like research and development for King's later novel, IT. That is not a bad thing as I love that book. So tune and listen up for all the Dracula goodness that is Salem's Lot.

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If you haven’t yet, you can connect with us through our various means of social media. Hit us up and let us know what you like and what you don’t like. Also, it would mean a lot if you left a review on iTunes or Stitcher after you finish subscribing.

• Follow Us on Twitter
• Subscribe and Review us on iTunes
• Listen on Stitcher Internet Radio

Supporting the GenreCast

If you’re interested in offering financial support for the show, that would be awesome. We use these funds to cover production costs and hosting and domain fees, as well as occasional events and merchandise. Support on Patreon comes with a variety of rewards and additional content, such as physical rewards, bonus shows and fun stuff and even programming opportunities.

Finally, The Borgo Cast has it’s own Twitter account here.

That's right, dear listener, we are back with "For the Blood is the Life" by Francis Marion Crawford. This is the first instance of a new show format. Occasionally I will do a show format that I am calling A Cold Reading from a Cold Grave. On those shows (this show is the first one) I will read a vampire or vampire related short story that is out of print or public domain. It's an experiment and there are a half dozen of these slightly longer shows in the can, but I would love to hear your thoughts on this format. The Cold Reads are followed by my hot takes on the story read, because my commitment is to read them for the very first time ever on the air. I will still do longer analysis of novels and films that intersect with all things Dracula, but short fiction seems to get short shrift. We tend only to focus on the longer works and miss a lot a great gems. I discovered some of them last season. Look for that in the back catalogue. Anyhow I see a problem and I intend to fix that here.

"For the Blood" is the Life by Francis Marion Crawford

First of All, you can read the story yourself here.

I'll give a little extra analysis now that I have had a little time to think about it. Note:this is not in the show, you only get this by reading here! First of all, it uses a wrap-around story that I think implies the author is involved in the events, look for the mentions of miners, and servant-women. Secondly, this Vampire doesn't infect, but rather mesmerizes victims only. Thirdly, it's a lady who's aggressive romantically and reflects a thorough fear of empowered femininity. It's pretty good and I think you should check it out.

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If you haven’t yet, you can connect with us through our various means of social media. Hit us up and let us know what you like and what you don’t like. Also, it would mean a lot if you left a review on iTunes or Stitcher after you finish subscribing.

• Follow Us on Twitter
• Subscribe and Review us on iTunes
• Listen on Stitcher Internet Radio

Supporting the GenreCast

If you’re interested in offering financial support for the show, that would be awesome. We use these funds to cover production costs and hosting and domain fees, as well as occasional events and merchandise. Support on Patreon comes with a variety of rewards and additional content, such as physical rewards, bonus shows and fun stuff and even programming opportunities.

Finally, The Borgo Cast has it's own Twitter account here.

This one is bad folks, but for Dracula obsessed completists, it is also essential. Listen as we talk North English legends, vampires, racism and misogyny in Bram Stoker's The Lair of the White Worm. Plus, there's a delightful kid's song!