About this design
Vampires have, since there first appearances in Western-European Literature and Film, exerted a strong hold over the public imagination. I think it's a meme thing. The virtual pleasure of imagining submitting to a will stronger than your own in an activity that apparently risks everything.
In their first appearance, in John Polidori’s The Vampyre, we meet Count Ruthven, who was actually based on Polidori’s friend, the Poet Byron. One evening, Byron, Polidori the poet Shelley and his wife Mary Shelley, held a wager over whom could write a best-selling horror. Mary Shelley’s offering, of course, turned out to be Frankenstein, but Polidori’s was to ignite the public’s thirst for blood-sucking. Through Bram Stoker, F.W. Murnau, and most recently, Elisabeth Kostova, the Vampire has never been out of our macabre affections. This design lists some of my favourites, as well as some of the landmark appearances.
Celebrate the pleasures of virtual risks, wear our Drakula t shirt.