Renfield: Visions of Madness #0 (Digital)

(Written by Chris McAuley, Illustrated by Steve Cange)

From the files of the StokerVerse archives, we bring to Legacy Comix a story about RM Renfield. I have been thrilled to work with Chris McAuley on this comic. Digging into Bram’s working notes and the Dracula typescript we have noticed that Renfield is an enigmatic character. A first he was named Flyman, his backstory is vague but it appears he was from a well-to-do family from high society. What caused his mental illness? Is it possible that he was originally destined to play a large role in the novel?

Bram described in the short story Dracula’s Guest, which was once part of the Dracula Typescript before it was excised due to length, an unnamed traveler journeying to Transylvania to meet Count Dracula, having an overnight layover in Munich.  I believe Renfield could easily have been this solicitor set off from London to close the real estate transaction with Count Dracula. He decides to take a carriage ride out into the countryside only to have a horrific experience in a cemetery with a mysterious apparition in a crypt and later a very close encounter with a large grey wolf.  Could this have been the trigger to cause Renfield’s lunacy? Did he return to London to seek help at Dr. Seward’s Asylum? I believe it is certainly plausible.