Topic: question on the quality of castlevania mangas, novels, spin offs, ect..

[Patashnik]

Just recently got invested in the Castlevania franchise ( for just over a month in fact) and wanted to try my hand at pieces of fiction expanding the universe beyond the game series ( but still part of the canon.. if that's possible). Was wondering if any of the mangas, novels, or anything of the such were worth looking into?. I heard about The curse of Darkness mangas, however apparently they only have two volumes in which their third was abruptly cancelled, which doesn't really bode well as a first impression on my part...  any recommendations guys ? (otherwise I might just look into Castlevania strategy guides and  Ayami Kojima themed castlevania artbooks).

[Nagumo]

The mangas are only interesting if you want some backstory on Hector and Isaac. Other than that, there is nothing much going on in them. You also got a radio drama that you can listen which is set after the events of Symphony of the Night. It's in Japanese but somebody here translated the entire thing. It's a fun little side story and expands on Alucard's past. There are also two short tie-in mangas for Curse of Darkness and Symphony of the Night. The Curse of Darkness one is called Prelude to Revenge which is also about Hector and Isaac. You can find both of those online. Finally, there's a sequel novel to Dawn of Sorrow, and a manga adaptation of Lament of Innocence but those haven't been translated yet. That sums up the canon stuff I think.               

     

[Patashnik]

ohh might give that radio show a look-see . * sigh * look like in terms of castlevania merch and things, I am gonna have to stick to the guides/artbooks + perhaps maybe the NECA figures ( though I've heard polarized opinions on those, the closed mouth alucard kind of looked cool though.., strange they have open mouth/closed mouth molds...) thanks Nagumo =D

[X]

I personally wouldn't use the Curse of Darkness manga as a reference due to the game feeling more like a side-story to Castlevania. Look to the games for their stories to see where they all fit and work your way into them through that method. It's about the only real way to fit your work into the CV canon without violating the canon itself. But you can also do side-stories that fit into the canon as well. There are lots and lots of Belmonts out there to write about. Even if they aren't the direct descendants or use the vampirekiller. Even if they don't confront Dracula they are still a warrior clan that hunts down evil wherever it may rise up.

[K.G. Morder]

The LoI manga is a cellphone manga if im correct. Ive never seen any pics of it other than the character mugshots in the CV Wiki.

[Patashnik]

I personally wouldn't use the Curse of Darkness manga as a reference due to the game feeling more like a side-story to Castlevania. Look to the games for their stories to see where they all fit and work your way into them through that method. It's about the only real way to fit your work into the CV canon without violating the canon itself. But you can also do side-stories that fit into the canon as well. There are lots and lots of Belmonts out there to write about. Even if they aren't the direct descendants or use the vampirekiller. Even if they don't confront Dracula they are still a warrior clan that hunts down evil wherever it may rise up.

thanks X + flame I'll keep this in mind.

I wanted to try and find decent art work interwoven with each piece as well,  which was a slight factor for the CoD manga but I guess the art style would probably be boilerplate styled anime drawings  anyway (from the scans I found online this seemed the case) as if it was continued onwards in serialized installments then they wouldn't exactly be of an artisan kind of intricacy like what Ayami Kojima produced...