The Tomb of Dracula

Luke Blanchard December 22, 2023 at 8:59pm

Do you remember if the story was colour or B&W? Marvel published the colour Giant-Size Dracula for five issues (with pre-Code reprints in the back) and the B&Ws Dracula Lives and Vampire Tales, and (if Jeff will pardon me for getting ahead of him) followed Tomb of Dracula with a B&W The Tomb of Dracula.

Or, if you were young enough when you read it to mix them up, it may have been a Gene Colan Dr Strange story.

Dracula nearly broke his contract with Marvel over the title Dracula Lives. He found it offensive.

Jeff of Earth-J December 23, 2023 at 8:26pm

ISSUE #64 - "Life after Undeath"

Satan spends the first seven and a half pages talking at Dracula and Topaz. Man, he's a wordy bastard! The practical upshot is that Janus has the power to kill Satan, but if Satan kils Dracula first, Janus' power will be nullified. Similarly, whe Topaz reaches her 21st birthday, she will come into power enough to destroy Satan as well. "Across reality, in Boston, and in Quincy Harker's rented apartment," Quincy explains to Domini why he must kill her husband. She seems to sense what has happened to Dracula in Hell and tells them that Dracula is dead. Then she says he's not dead. Then Rachel lays into her, but Domini turns the argumant back on Rachel, accusing her of being full of hate and asking her when was the last time she ever felt love. Rachel admits she has never felt love, which priobably cones as somethign of a shock to Frank, who is standing, like, right there. Domini says that that's what she was like until she met Dracula. Rachel stalks out, crossbow in hand.

"Sixty-fifth Street and Park Avenue, in New York City": A rich guy pays a killer $50K to kill the vampire who turned daughter.

Back in Hell, Satan continues his rant (for five more pages). He tells Topaz that Dracula has not been slain, but rather "he has been changed... in a way that will grieve him." He then tries to kill Topaz, prematurely releasing her power. she fights back and, apparently, destroys Satan. Meanwhile, Rachel encounters Dracula who has suddenly appeared on the streets of Boston. But he no longer has his fangs. Rachel suddenly realizes, "Dracula is no longer a vampire!"

Jeff of Earth-J December 24, 2023 at 3:40pm

ISSUE #65 - "Where No Vampire Has Gone Before!"

This issue seems to begin right after the end of #64 but, as soon as the page is turned we realize Rachel is relating the encounter to Quincy, Frank and Janus. (How it ended we don't know.) Now that dracula is human, they discuss whether or not to kill him or let him live. Meanwhile, the as-yet-unnamed "cowboy" vampire killer tracks down the vampire who turned his employers daughter: Dracula. Elsewhere, Dracula himself encouters a junkie in an allyway. She takes him back to her pad. He is at first uneasy when he sees the crucifix hanging on her wall, but it doesn't affect him like it did when he was a vampite. Soon, two men break in and give her a hard time. Dracula beats them, but then the cops show and haul them all in to the local precint house. It is now moring and Dracula walks in the light of day for the first time in 500 years. Eventually he is cleared, but he flees before giving a statement.

His plan is to find a vampire to turn him again, and soon decides to seek his daughter Lilith in New York City. A young boy asks him for money to buy a pretzel but Dracula doesn't have any. He then realizes he will have to find some actual food to eat soon. He runs afoul of a crowd on the street simply because he doesn't know how to interract with humanity. He ends up on the news, where he is seen by Rachel, Frank and Qunicy. Eventually making his way to an airfield, Dracula hijacks a small private plane. The cowboy vampite hunter is at the police station looking for leads when the crime is called in.

Gene Colan draws Dracula "softer" as a human, more "Clark Gable" than "Jack Palance."

Jeff of Earth-J December 25, 2023 at 2:55pm

ISSUE #66 - "Showdown in Grennwich Village!"

Dracula wanders the streets of Manhattan looking for his daughter Lilith. He has no idea where to find her, and he is getting hungry... for food. Having no money, he mugs a young couple but all the man has in his wallat is a single one dollar bill. Dracula (unsuccessfully) tries to spin his actions as "following his own rules" and always taking what he needs, but he still feels like a common thief. A priest tries to comfort him, but he turns away. He makes his way to a bar & grill (a "Disco Bar" according to the sign) and orders one of "those round patties of meat." A hot-to-trot divorcee with a motor-mouth picks him up and takes him back to her apartment. Her name is Ann Keats and he introduces himself as "just Drake." They are mugged, but Dracula beats them up. The cowboy vampire hunter who hired them to attack Dracula in order to get his measure watches from a rooftop nearby.

The cowboy's name is Francis Leroy Brown and he actually goes by the name of "Cowboy." The girl whose death he has been hired to avenge turns out to be Mary Jo Bentley (#62), who wasn't killed by Dracula after all. Dracula admits to Ann Keats who he is, probably to get her to stop calling him "just Drake." He finally thinks to call Domini, but he doesn't tell her where he is so what's the point? The Cowboy bursts in, and their fight carries them out the window, onto the fire escape and up to the roof. Dracula takes a bullet in the arm, but eventually ends up throwing Cowboy off the roof to his death on the street below. Ann arrives on the roof and tells Dracula she has called the police, just as he passes out from te pain. The next day, his picture appears in the paper and Lilith sees it.

"I see my father is here in New York--and he is somehow no longer a vampire" Lilith monologues. "Yes, this is quite interesting indeed."

"Lilith gives a silent laugh... and mles away, a sleeping Dracula involuntarily shudders."

Jeff of Earth-J December 25, 2023 at 7:29pm

ISSUE #67 - "At Long Last--Lilith!!"

Dracula seeks Liltih in a art gallery in Greenwich Village. Because she has the ability to live in a host body, she could be anyone. Dracula's attention is drawn to a young couple, Martin Gold and a woman he refers to alternately as "Angel" and "Love" and "Darling." Dracula has a feeling about the woman so he follows them home. What follows is a pretty racy shower scene for a Code-approved comic book. Dracula lets himself into their apartment and makes his way to the bathroom. He instincts prove correct as out of the shower steps Lilith, fully clothed. She hates him as much as ever, refuses to help him, and leads him on a merry chase through the village.

"Across the street, around a winding corner, the Cherry Lane Theater stands proud." In the audience is Harold H. Harold and his date, Darlene. Darlene is an actress and Harold has promised her a role in the movie version of his book but, accordiung to Harold, "Figures I'd go out with the only starlet who never heard of the casting couch." They are there to see a play titled "The Passion of Dracula" which, according to Harold, was co-written and co-produced by "this guy I met at a comic book company I occasionally sell ideas to." [A note at the end of the story credits the play to Bob Hall and Dave Richmond.] Lilith flies into the theater in the form of a bat. Dracula gives chase, while Harold and Darlene (and another mousey couple named "Mickey" and "Minnie") provide comic relief.

Back in Boston, Domini and Janus discuss Dracula. She begs him not to kill his father, her husband, but Janus replies that "it has been written." Meanwhile, Dracula and Lilith battle spills out into the street. At first she commands rats to attack him, then dogs, then humans. Harold finds a payphone to call Quincy in Boston. His answering service tells him Quincy is in New York, staying at the Clinton Hotel. Harold calls there, Frank answers and Harold brings him up to speed. By this time, Dracula has broen free of the mob, but is badly bloodied. A homeless man accosts him for a handout, then changes his mind when he sees Dracula's condition. Dracula has given up on his plan to seek help from Lilith. He now sets his sights, inexplicably, on Janus.

Jeff of Earth-J December 26, 2023 at 12:39pm

ISSUE #68 - "The Return to... Transylvania!"

This issue opens with Dracula standing atop the Empire State Building railing at the heavens. This may look dramatic, but let's consider this for a moment. He is somewhere above the 86th floor observation deck, yet beneath the 102nd. How did he get there? First of all, he's human now so he would have had to have taken the elevator most of the way. Then he would have either had to go the the 86th floor and climb up, or the 102nd floor and climb down. For a human, that's going to be difficult if not impossible. And what does it get him? Not much. Dracula has one bad idea after another. First he sought out the daughter who hates him to restore his vampiric nature. When that didn't work, he wants his son who has vowed to kill him. Somehow Janus knows that his father is looking for him and suddenly appears. He predicts that Dracula's vampiric powers will be restored, but that he cannot help directly. He does, however, transport Dracula and himself all the way back to Dracula's castle in Translyania.

He also transports Quincy Harker, Frank Drake, Rachel van Helsing and Harold H. Harold (as well as Saint, Harker's German shepard), which must have come as something of a shock to them, with no posessions but the clothes on their backs and no passports in the heart of Europe. (Rachel is carrying her crossbow and a quiver of arrows, however.) Frank decides to kill him, human or not, but it is Saint who manages to draw first blood, causing Dracula to flee down a corridor and into a secret panel. That doesn't fool Saint, though, and Rachel soon discovers the lever which opens the door. Meanwhile Dracula has entered a tomb and awakened a vampire named Marissa. He commands her to make him a vampire once more, but she no longer considers him to be her master and refuses. She says that "Torgo rules us now!" (I assume she is not referring to the robot from Fantastic Four #93).

Frank, rachel and Saint cath up to Dracula again and they fight for three pages. Dracula retreats and Frank follows with one of Rachel's arrows to use as a weapon. He only manages to get himself stabbed in the shoulder, though, and Dracula escapes from the castle into the nearby cemetary. the cemetary is filled with his victims, though, who rise from their graves and attack. Then Harold arrives pushing Quincy in his wheelchair. At his lowest ebb, Dracula gives up and uncharacteristically calls on God and Heaven. Quincy asks him if he renounces Satan, and Dracula says he does. Then "Quincy" stands up and transforms into Satan. He's his usual wordy self, but basically he asserts that callong on God and renouncing Satan "is a damnation worse than you will ever suspect!" Then the real Quincy and Harold (and Frank and Racel and Saint) appear on the scene and discover that Dracula is a vampire once again. But Quincy determines that there is something "different" about him now, and orders the others to stand down, saying, "He is a broken man... as if he faced his own mortality... and lost. He'll never be the ame again."

The Baron > Jeff of Earth-J December 26, 2023 at 2:01pm

She says that "Torgo rules us now!" (I assume she is not referring to the robot from Fantastic Four #93).

Torgo?

Jeff of Earth-J December 26, 2023 at 3:30pm

ISSUE #69 - "Batwings Over Transylvania!"

Dracula is on the run from a cloud of bats, fearful for his life. In a farmhouse nearby, a young, widowed mother named Maria Turaka cares for her feverish daughter, Teresa. She lost her husband and eldest son the previous year and doesn't know how she will cope if she loses Teresa as well. Teresa will certainly die if she doesn't get medicine, but she knows that evil is abroad that night, so she leaves her young son Anton in charge of her other two children and heads for town with Teresa. The vampire bats will be able to kill Dracula through sheer force of numbers. First he changes to mist, then takes the form of a bat. He leads the vampires through a barn, where they are delayed killing the horses. He swoops down to attack Maria and Teresa, but Teresa is armed with a crucifix and drives him away.

He reaches the farmhouse in advance of the vampite bats, but cannot enter because he hasn't been invited. He demands to be let in, but the children's mother left strict orders not to let anyone in until the sun was high in the sky. Seeing the flock of bats approaching, Anton invites Dracula in. Anton offers him some soup, but Dracula knocks it out of his hand saying, "Bah! I do not drink soup! I crave other nourishment!" It is then Dracula notices the crosses worn by all three children for the first time. Dracula assures the children that the bats will not be able to enter the house, but they neverthelessstart hitting against the roof of the old wooden shack. The sound of the flapping wings and the bats hitting the roof drives Anton's sister Kirry to try to open the door, but he stops her. Outside, the vampires have resumed human form and start taunting the occupants like the vampires did Vincent Price in The Last Man on Earth.

Meanwhile, Maria's wagon has become stuck in the muddy road. Then, who should come along but Frank, Rachel and Quincy. Seeing that Teresa is in a bad way, they abandon their search for Dracula for the time being in order to get her to a doctor. Back at the farmhouse, the vampires can't get in, but they have managed to break out all the windows. Then they send in a plague of rats, and Dracula is unable to turn them away. The children manage to keep the vampires from getting too close by burning them with their crosses, "but their courage quickly fades, and fearfully they fall back and down to the floor crying." (These kids are going to suffer from PTSD, no doubt.) the Dracula himself picks up one of the fallen crosses and attacks the vampires, despite the fact that his hands are burning. He presses his advantage and chases after them in bat-form as they all transform and retreat.

Then Rachels and Frank arrive. Maria asked them to find the children and assure tham that Teresa would recover. Anton tells them, "Th-the dark ones attacked us... but there was a good man here... and he told us to believe... to believe in the power of God! And that he was going to chase the dark ones... all the way to hell itself!"

Jeff of Earth-J December 26, 2023 at 5:30pm

Back in 1992 I bought Requiem for Dracula, reprinting Tomb of Dracula #69-70. Back when I started this discussion, I wasn't certain whether or not I had ever read it. I can confirn now: I had not. I read all of the other Dracula one-shots reprinted around that time, but I wanted to save this last story until I had the opportunity to "read up to it." Little did I know it would take me more than three decades to get around to it.

ISSUE #70 - "Lords of the Undead!"

Dracula pursues the vampires back to the cemetery, first as a bat, then as mist. Somehow he manages to hold on to the cross the whole time. One of the vampires is Karla, one of his most loyal handmaidens who has served him for more than 100 years. She always desired him, but turned against him when he married a "human pig" and "forsook [his] own kind for a damnable, degrading human" and left Transylvania, leaving them all without a leader. She strikes him across the face, scratching his face badly. He demands to see Torgo, their new leader, but they refuse to take Dracula to him. Watching the scene unfold from above is Janus. Dracula realizes his is still holding the "damnable crucifix" and tosses it aside. As Dracula and the vampires begin to fight, Torgo himself appears.

Torgo has long red hair. He is wearing a blue outfit with a green sash. The entire ensemble is covered by a purple robe with yellow trim. He really is a sartorial mess! Dracula challenges him to a fight and Torgo accepts, but first he feels compelled to tell Dracula his origin story. Surprisingly, Torgo is actually much older than Dracula. His story is quite similar to Dracula's in many respects, but his dates back to the time of Attila the Hun. He and Dracula have never met. They fight for three or four pages but, although Togo cheats, Dracula wins. In the village, Harker and the rest plan their strategy. Quincy has something very specific in mind.

As soon as Torgo is defeated, the rest of the vampires fall in line behind Dracula, but he is now disgusted by them. "Did I rule toads such as this?" Dracula wonders. "Were these vermin the army I was once so proud of?" Promising to deal with them later, Dracula retires to his castle, where he finds Quncy Jarker waiting for him, alone, on the highest turret. (I guess Frank Drake made the castle "handicap accessible" during the brief time he owned it with plans to turn it into a tourist trap.) Quincy removes one of the spokes from his wheelchair, a spoke made of silver, and rises to his feet! He leans on the chair and depresses a small button on its side, telling Dracula they now have only thirty seconds. Quincy attacks and does manage to stab Dracula with the silver spoke. Then he pulls out a silver-bladed knife and stabs him through the heart. By that time the thirty secords are up and the bomb he had wired to his chair explodes, taking Dracula, Quincy and the entire castle with it.

In the village below, Frank, Rachel and Harold all hear the blast and, realizing Quincy is not there, make their way to the castle. The villagers are already there, picking through the remains. Rachel finds a part of Quincy's wheelchair. Several days later, Frank and Rachel are at the Harker estate, preparing it to be sold. Rachel feels nothing. Then the postman arrives, delivering a letter from Quincy addressed to her. He wrote it the day he died and sent it to Rachel at his home address, assuming that's where they would go. He tells he that he was given less then a year to live after his most recent heart attack. He advises Rachel to marry Frank, and the letter in general provides her with the closure she needed.

Back in Boston, Domini is visited by Janus. He tells her, "There is a spirit which inhabits my body... a spirit which has guided me these many months--but it is no longer needed." He embaces her and turns to mist. When the mist clears, he himself floats out through the window leaving an infant in her arms.

This story was originally intend to run three issues: #70-72, but when the decision was made to canel the series with a double-sized #70, twelve pages had to be excised to accomodate the new format. The tpb contians all of these uninked pages: five from #70, completly lettered; three from #71, pencils only; and four from #72, pencils only. I would like to see Marvel present these "as is" someday, but slotted into their originally intended order.

Wolfman and Colan give Dracula a four-page send-off: a two-panal page, followed by a two-page montage, followed by a full-page panel. His eulogy concludes by pointing out: "Dracula was a man... and never should that be forgotten." (I feel like a bum for pointing it out, but Dracula looks kind of crosseyed in that final splash.) We have seen Dracula die many times within this series alone. What makes anyone think this is final?

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