Check out the Todor Hristov interview below and back the campaign!
ABLAZE: Do you have any specific working practices? What tools do you use? Do you need a specific routine/environment to help the workflow?
TH: Honestly, nothing too specific or fancy. I use both traditional and digital mediums for my projects. Some scenes just look and feel better on paper, others are more complicated, and digital just allows more freedom and saves time. As for routine, I prefer to work in isolation and silence these days. Rarely, I’ll put on a podcast or instrumental music, but I found my brain works best and fastest when there is no background noise.
ABLAZE: What have been your greatest creative influences?
TH: Ahh, this will be hard. My artistic influences are in the world of fine art, comics and cinema. Honestly, there’s too much to name just a few, but lately I am looking a lot at some classic Russian painters and reading a lot of manga and American mainstream comics from early 2000s.
ABLAZE: The Book of Nosferatu has specific time-and-place influences when it comes to the environment and character design. Was there any interesting research required going in? And do you have a favorite aspect to portray within this story?
TH: Yes, the period is very interesting. The story takes place in the territory of the Habsburg Empire, but it’s closer to the region of Transylvania and Hungary. And they have very specific cultural heritage and costumes and clothing that is different from the Austrian and German. It’s closer to what we see in Bulgarian and Wallachian ethnic clothing from the period. It’s very richly ornamented, especially women’s clothes, so I had to find a way to simplify but keep the overall feel of the period and geographic area. As for a favorite aspect to draw, Emil has a big scarf that was knitted by his wife, and he’s wearing it almost all the time. Of course, that’s not in the script and Mike doesn’t know about it, but it makes so much sense to me that it’s canon in my head.
ABLAZE: Readers and viewers keep coming back to Nosferatu. What do you think is the appeal of the character?
TH: The appeal is universal! It’s the first unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the visuals, despite being limited by the era in which it was created, are quite well composed and impactful. There’s something quite visceral and unforgiving about the raw black-and-white footage, and to see the monster come to life for the first time, so dangerous and haunting. It holds a special place in the pantheon of cinema.
