Glenn Garvin, The Miami Herald's television critic, has also been a foreign correspondent for the paper. His books include ``Everybody Had His Own Gringo: The CIA and the Contras'' (Brassey's, 1992). He asked this of Sid Jacobson, co-author (with Ernie Colón) of the graphic novel ``Vlad The Impaler: The Man Who Was Dracula'' (Hudson Street Press, $25.95):

Q: The 15th-century Wallachian prince Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), the historical model for Count Dracula, headed what we might call these days a front-line state, wedged between the Muslim Ottoman Empire and the Catholic kingdom of Hungary. He was battered by both sides, but is remembered in Romania (of which Wallachia is now a part) for repelling several Muslim invasions with notorious brutality. One Ottoman army retreated when it ran into a forest of 20,000 Turkish prisoners that Vlad had impaled on massive stakes. And when Ottoman ambassadors refused to take off their hats in Vlad's presence, he had them nailed to their heads. When it comes to the present-day confrontation between the West and the Islamic world, are there any lessons to be drawn from Vlad?

A: Yes, definitely. The big one is that the troubles of Vlad's time can't really be drawn as a strictly split confrontation between Christianity and Islam. Vlad and his family were Christians. But his father gained the throne of Wallachia with the help of the Ottoman Turks, and then he was murdered by Hungarian Christians. Vlad regained the throne with the help of the Turks, and then was deposed by Christians.

Later he did help Hungary against the Muslims. But I really think he just took help from wherever he could get it. And that's important to remember today, that it's not a simple matter of Muslims against Christians. It's a lot more complicated than that.

The brutality, well. Well. I met a couple native-born Romanian women living in America while I was writing the book -- my wife knew them -- and they said, oh, ``Vlad is a big hero in our country, we learn about him in school and he's greatly admired.'' I said, um, what about all those people he impaled? ``Oh, he had to do that,'' they said. ``That's what kept us free and independent.'' I was a little, ummm, surprised. But I guess whatever helps you, you accept, and that's very much like today, too.

• 5 p.m. Saturday in Centre Gallery. With Tim Hamilton, ``Fahrenheit 451'', and R. Sikoryak, ``Masterpiece Comics.''

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