Recently in Tomb of Dracula Category

The Marvel Monster mags had some great illustrations on the inside front covers and contents pages.

This one by Pablo Marcos was featured in Vampire Tales 6, 1974.  I thought it was an outstanding visual of Morbius (the Living Vampire) meeting Lilith (Daughter of Dracula).  Marcos always had a great take on the horror characters—and his ink and grey wash tones were perfect for the black and white magazines.  There’s the violence on the left—with Morbius about to chow down on the woman—and Lilith’s bold sexuality on the right stopping him.  Alas, this was another case where the illustration did not fit the story inside—the two characters did not meet at all.

The cover to this issue also featured Lilith, a painting by Boris Vallejo.  Marvel probably intended Lilith to become the co-feature in Vampire Tales, giving the magazine two strong characters (along with Morbius) to attract readers. 

But Marvel’s decisions were often haphazard—was this due to the round robin of editors or illegal substances in the Marvel offices?  Lilith is a vampire, she belongs in Vampire Tales!  No wait, Lilith is Drac’s daughter, let’s put her back in Vampire Tales!  Oh no, we have a Lilith inventory story by Steve Gerber that was never published.  Dracula Lives is cancelled.  What to do?  Put in Marvel Preview #12 and call it the Haunt of Horror!

I suppose all these stories are collected in some Essentials trade, right?  Nuff said!

Marvel Comics started producing calendars in 1975.  For the very first calendar (which I've been able to acquire recently, thanks to eBay), they tapped the best artists of that year...including Mike Ploog, who they unleashed in the month of October.

The October illustration featured the trio of monsters that Ploog had drawn in their own comics: Frankenstein, Man-Thing, and Werewolf by Night!  The big bad daddy of all supernatural characters, Dracula, lorded over all of them--Ploog had drawn this character as well, when he teamed up with Jack Russell in Werewolf by Night #15.

The month of October itself is ridden with monster-sized jokes by Marvel staffers. 

Oct. 4th: Man-Thing with the caption: Save the Everglades--Or Else!  That scares me into taking care of the environment.

Oct. 8th-9th:  Son of Satan asks pop for the hell-horse drawn chariot, but sister Santana asked for it first.

Oct. 13-15: Three nights of the full moon with Werewolf by Night.  Jack Russell's eyes go left, middle, right.

Oct. 19th: Jim Starlin's birthday.  Which is today, Happy Birthday Jim!

Oct. 28th-29th: Two creatures called IT!  The first one was featured in Supernatural Thrillers #1, the second one was a hero who appeared briefly in Astonishing Tales.

Oct. 30th: The Halloween party in Rutland Vermont, which was featured by Roy Thomas in both Avengers and Defenders (Marvel Feature #2).  Several comics creators made the trek to this party.  If only we could go back in a time machine! 

Many thanks to Sanctum Sanctorum Comix for providing the scans of the Marvel Calendars!  Nuff said.

Gil Kane drew his share of Marvel Monster covers during the 1970s.  Here are a few favorites:

Tomb of Dracula #26 always brings a chill down my spine.  The perspective of this scene, taken right below the girl’s waist, is just perfect.  She’s walking alone down the streets of London, obviously afraid, knowing that someone is following her.  She looks around, but there’s no one behind her.  Her senses are working fine—Dracula is stalking her from the rooftop!

Tom Palmer inked Kane on this cover.  I always liked the end product when these two artisans worked together.  To my knowledge, Palmer only inked Kane on covers, never on an interior story?  If you know of one, drop me a line.

Another Kane/Palmer cover, which I’ve gushed over previously, featured Morbius on Adventure into Fear #23.  Kane’s covers to Amazing Spider-Man #101 and Giant-Size Superheroes #1 are pretty kick ass, too.

A fan on the Comic Book Resources message board suggested I take a look at the cover to Where Monsters Dwell #17.  It reminds me of those Hammer horror films.  Nuff said.

Back in the spring of 1974, after a winter of Marvel’s indecision of naming it’s giant-size books (SuperStars, Chillers, SuperTeams, etc), they finally announced Giant-Size Spider-Man #1.  This was going to be a super-sized version of Marvel Team-Up, with guest stars so big that the regular title couldn’t handle them!  And who would be the very first bombastic guest star?

Yes, Dracula.  Tomb of Dracula was selling very well for Marvel at the time.  I just couldn’t imagine how Peter Parker would deal with a supernatural creature like Dracula.  Waiting for this title to finally appear seemed like an eternity, but after weeks of stalking out various stores, I finally found it one weekend.  I think John Romita drew an excellent cover with Spidey ina classic pose…

All in all, the story was a big letdown.  Dracula and Peter Parker wind up on the same cruise ship, with different agendas.  While Dracula walks around killing people, Parker is looking for a serum to save Aunt May.  They only appear together in one panel:

Gerry Conway tried his best, but I suspect they just didn’t want to have Drac facing off against a costumed Spider-Man.  I enjoyed the reprinted story of an early Human Torch team-up much more than this one.

In later issues, fans would ask for another monster-sized team-up with Simon Garth, the Zombie.  Alas, Marvel could not accommodate them—the Comics Code Authority prevented any appearances of “the walking dead” at that time.  Nuff said.

Back in 1973, vampire hunting was the province of white dudes with English accents.  But Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan shook up that entire dynamic when “His Name is—Blade!” appeared in Tomb of Dracula #10!  He was athletic and street smart in a way no other vampire hunter had ever been.  Blade was the only guy who did what I thought was common sense: don’t bring just one stake—bring a dozen wooden knives to kill those suckers with!

Blade wasn’t afraid to get physical with Dracula.  Looking back at these old issues, I wonder if we would have had Buffy without Blade?  Blade’s daring and physical prowess in this series almost seems like a blueprint for Buffy.  Blade’s “costume”—trenchcoat, glasses (to protect his eyes from blood spatters) and blade-holding sash belt—may seem funny today, but back then it was pretty cool.

Nor did Blade take any guff from the rest of the Dracula-hunters (Quincy Harker, Frank Drake, etc).  In Tomb of Dracula #12 he told Quincy his origin story—that a vampire attacked his mother as she was giving birth to Blade!  Little did we know that this vampire—Deacon Frost—was also the maker of vampire detective Hannibal King.

In Tomb of Dracula #13, we were stunned to see that Blade had actually succeeded in staking Dracula through the heart.  However, killing Dracula and ending Dracula were two separate things.  A horde of villagers were able to carry away Dracula’s body before Quincy and Blade cut remove his head.  Dracula was revived in Tomb of Dracula #14 by a disillusioned preacher.

Tomb of Dracula reads like a 70 part max-series when you go back and re-read it.  Dracula takes revenge upon Blade in TOD #17 by forcing him down and drinking his blood.  By TOD #19, Quincy Harker has found Blade’s body and is prepared to put a stake through his heart.  Not so fast, Jack!  It turns out that Blade is immune to vampire bites, as a result of Deacon Frost’s attack at birth.

Just as I mentioned about the Falcon drawing me into Captain America, Blade—while not the single most important element—definitely helped make Tomb of Dracula one of my top favorite all-time Marvel comics.  He’s featured on a number of TOD covers, including this one (#42), the only original art cover that I own.

This nifty pinup here, by Gene Colan, appeared in the black and white magazine Marvel Preview #3, Blade’s first solo adventure!  It looks like a rare piece that Colan inked himself.

I definitely think that Blade is one of the best creations that came out of Marvel during the 1970s.  Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan gave Marvel an incredible gift that resulted in the Wesley Snipes films.  It’s unfortunate that they do not share more of a financial royalty from Blade. 

This concludes Black Marvel Heroes from the 1970s week, hope you enjoyed revisiting Brother Voodoo, Black Panther apartheid, Panther’s Rage, Power Man, Power Man in the FF, the Falcon, and Storm!  As one commenter wrote, maybe there should be a super-team with all these dudes!  Nuff said.

Captain Britain and MI-13 9 has a very satisfying ending to the “Dream Corridor” arc.  Spoilers ahead…

Pete Wisdom figures out how to sever everyone’s addiction to their greatest fantasy.  “You are going to take responsibility for your dreams.”  The sword that Dane Whitman has been carrying around has an even deeper mystery surrounding it.  There’s a lot of characters to juggle around in this book, but everyone gets a bit of love, there’s even hope for Meggan and Captain Britain.  Blade and Spitfire go from being enemies to lovers by the end, as someone predicted.  Then there are the last few pages…

Dracula is back, no big surprise, as Cornell has mentioned this in a few recent interviews.  But look at where he lives—on the friggin’ Moon!  The best home for a vampire, where he never sees the Sun.  “Get me Doctor Doom.”  Fantastic.  Dracula’s playing on a scale that he never has before.  I can’t wait for the Dracula arc.

Captain Britain is one of the best books Marvel is publishing now, I hope you are all picking it up.  Nuff said.

Back in 1974, Marvel hit their loyal legion of zombies straight in the pocket-book with a new series of giant-size comics.  The first one in the horror line was called Giant-Size Chillers.  A real hokey name, right?  It was supposed to be one of those rotating titles that featured alternating characters, like Dracula, Werewolf by Night, and Man-Thing.  This concept fell apart right after the first story appeared, as you can tell by this long explanation in Marvel’s Bullpen Bulletins: “Hope that’s all clear, Flame-Keeper, cause as or right now—you’re on your own!” Giant-Size Chillers was renamed Giant-Size Dracula with issue #2.

But this was a terrific launch to a line of giant-sized horror comics.  Written and drawn by Tomb of Dracula regulars Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, it introduced fans to Dracula’s long-lost daughter of darkness, Lilith.  I just loved this cover by John Romita, introducing his tarted-up vamp offspring to the legion of Marvel adolescents about to go through puberty.  That costume is a classic Romita design, split down the middle in just the right place.  Cher used to wear Bob Mackie designs that looked like this, true believer!

Look at how many logos they had to cram onto this cover to covey the content.  Giant-Size Chillers!  The Curse of Dracula!  Her name is Lilith!  She is—Dracula’s Daughter!  Sheesh!  And yet we somehow we are just blinded by that tiara.

You would never know from this cover that Lilith and Dracula just can’t stand each other.  I’ve written a nice little explanation of their family dysfunction over at Photon Torpedoes:  Lilith: Ungrateful Daughter of Dracula!  Nuff said. 

Marvel had two surprise announcements in their August 2008 catalog preview.  This nifty Tomb of Dracula poster featuring art by Gene Colan will be released at that time!  As I've mentioned on Photon Torpedoes in my Tomb of Dracula retrospective, this is one of my favorite horror comics of all time.

Even more staggering is the announcement of the Tomb Of Dracula Omnibus Volume 1 Hardcover.  This will be a whopper of a book.  It will reprint Tomb of Dracula #1 thru #31, which covers the introduction of Blade, Hannibal King, the bodiless Dr. Sun, and Quincy Harker's gang of Dracula-busters.  I have all the original comics, but I suspect I will get this edition just to have them all in pristine condition.  I am hoping that the re-mastered color will be competent and not overpower the original artwork.  Tom Palmer's inks on Gene Colan's art was spectacular, and he often did the coloring.  Palmer was a master of applying the proper color to fit the mood of the story that he worked on.

But wait, this Omnibus has even more stuff!  Giant-Size Chillers #1, featuring the origin of Lilith (Ungrateful Daughter of Dracula), will be included.  And since one of the Tomb of Dracula issues was the second part of a confrontation with the infamous lycanthrope Jack Russell, Marvel is also inserting Werewolf by Night #15.  This may be my only chance to see Mike Ploog art in an oversized format!

You may have heard the recent sad news about Gene Colan's health problems due to his liver.  According to this article at the Hero Initiative, proceeds from the Dracula poster above will be routed to Gene.  You may already know that Clifford Meth is running an auction to benefit Gene as well.  Lots of ways to help Gene...please do.  Nuff said.