The dark history of Vlad the Impaler -- the 15th-century Wallachian despot who would inspire Bram Stoker's famous vampire -- comes to colorful life in a graphic novel by comic-book stalwarts Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon.

This certainly doesn't fall under the "funny book" umbrella, although there are probably some readers who would giggle at these bright, cheerful depictions of battle, murder and rape. But readers interested in a short, easily digestible history of the real Dracula would do worse than to give this book their attention.

Vlad Dracula was not a nice man, and there's no way to prettify his story and make him the hero of the tale. Sure, some Romanians today might revere Vlad's memory for his defense of their land and faith, but his feral, blood-hungry biography is disturbing stuff. Maybe it's not the atrocities he committed so much as the way he enjoyed them that's so troubling.

Anyway, Jacobson and Colon put it out there, telling Vlad's story in gory, nonjudgmental detail. The art is simple, cartoony and drenched in red. The narrative packs a lot of information into the space. And, when Stoker's Count Dracula appears at the end as narrator of the tale, bemoaning his own relatively minor evil compared to his namesake's, you believe him. This was a really bad guy, y'all.