Here and elsehwere, I've read about lots of fans who appreciate the Wolfman/Colan/Palmer Tomb of Dracula series from the 70's. Some of these same
readers are also quite fond of the Blade b/w series. I am quite fond of Colan/Palmer on Dr. Strange. But for some reason, I never made the connection with
Marvel's take on Vlad the Impaler. I don't plan to in the future either. But I am interested in satiating my curiosity. Can some of the TOD fans
here share with us what they like about Dracula in comics (or in books or movies if you like)? What is appealing or interesting about this character
specifically, and the vampire/horror genre generally? Thanks for the thoughts!
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Why Dracula?
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 Sentry 459 |
Why Dracula? |
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Posts: 92 (06/27/09 5:47 PM) |
Last Edited By: Sentry 459 06/27/09 5:50 PM.
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 HighlandRay |
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Posts: 4743 (06/27/09 7:19 PM) Registered Member |
Wolfman/Colan/Palmer
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Dr Mirakle32 |
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Posts: 175 (06/27/09 7:31 PM) |
Like me, fans of ToD probably grew up on the Universal and Hammer horror series; Plus, Dracula is a classic icon of literature, history and film, who has been
around as a fictional vampire for over a century. Unlike most of the other Marvel characters who were created for comics, Vlad already has a built-in fanbase.
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turncoat |
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Posts: 82 (06/27/09 7:42 PM) |
With its underlying themes of seduction, sensuality and addiction, vampirism, in general (and Dracula in particular), will always have an audience; no
matter the medium.
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leveret1 |
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Posts: 2252 (06/27/09 7:46 PM) |
turncoat wrote:   
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turncoat |
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Posts: 84 (06/27/09 7:51 PM) |
Hey leveret,
Didn't you mean to post that in the great covers thread? |
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Punisher89 |
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Posts: 1084 (06/27/09 8:39 PM) |
Dracula, is like many of the other famous names to appear in the Marvel Universe, such as Satan (Mephisto ) and Merlin and Wendigo, Marvel likes to play on
Mythological creatures and characters in Modern literature and film.
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KOBE27 |
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Posts: 2939 (06/27/09 8:56 PM) Bronze Age |
Well, to be fair, DC also has used Satan (Lucifer Morningstar in Gaiman's Sandman, and his own Vertigo series) and Merlin (a variety of places like
Kirby's Demon) and to much better use, IMO. It would be an interesting debate, but I believe DC has used MORE mythological/folklore/historical figures than
Marvel.
Regarding the subject of THIS thread, I can only speak for myself. Of course, I was already a Dracula fan from the Hammer movies (more than from the Universal version, to be honest) but if you're asking me why I liked the COMIC, then I would refer you to Ray's answer. Indeed, it COULD be argued that the comic was NOT really about Dracula, but rather about the rather large cast of characters Marv Wolfman created around him. All had been touched somehow by Drac's destructive presence. Quincy Harker (obviously the descendant from the novel's character just like Rachel Van Helsing) , Frank Drake, Blade himself, Hannnibal King(a hardboiled PI, who has NOTHING to do with his movie counterpart) poor Aurora (who thought Dracula could genuinely love her) , Dracula's hated daughter Lilith, his son Janus, and so on. Wolfman kept them all interesting for almost seven years. Which is not to say that Dracula was overlooked. His character grew as his personality was carefully fleshed out. His own peculair code of ethics was fascinating when compared to all those super heroes and villains with their simplistic black & white view of the universe. Of course, its greatest strength wasalso its weakness. With so many running subplots (certain issues were nothing but subplots) the new reader had a hard time picking up the latest issue and trying to make heads or tails of it. I was a reader from the start, so I didn't have a problem but still... |
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mr Articulate |
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Posts: 53 (06/27/09 9:31 PM) |
I started reading TOD somewhere around issues 5 or so and stayed with the book until it ended. One of my favorite series back then that I looked forward to.
The stories were an ongoing soap opera, moodily drawn by Gene Colan. There was of course a resurgence of popularity with the Universal monsters showing up on
late night tv back in Chicago as "Creature Features" and of course the Aurora models that were big then. This was as close as we came to action
figures, until Aurora released the Monster Scenes kits that had switchable parts and limited articulation - almost an action figure though about equal to early
Marvel Select. I was already reading some other Marvel books and got into Werewolf by night and then tried Tomb of Dracula. For me the supporting cast was more
interesting than Dracula, and in fact, my recollection is that he appeared rarely and was treated more like a tragic Marvel villain in the tradition of Doctor
Doom.
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quincyjb |
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Posts: 527 (06/27/09 11:19 PM) Bronze Age |
KOBE27 wrote: I don't think that was a problem. I picked up issues sporadically, probably a total of eight or ten issues scattered throughout the original publication. Never had a problem understanding what was going on. I think Marv Wolfman tended to write fairly complete exposition to make the book accessible to new readers. I'm not sure whether the same was true of the magazine, as I never read any of those. |
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fourtimer |
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Posts: 229 (06/28/09 6:12 AM) |
Like most kids in the late 60s, my initial fascination with vampires came from TV. Bela Lugosi was the definitive Dracula, and not just from the original movie
but also Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein, the greatest monster mash of all-time reruns (it was like a comic book annual with all its guest stars: Drac,
Frankie and Lon Chaney Jr. as Wolfman). We didn't get to see many Christopher Lee movies on TV, but every weekday at 4 pm we had Barnabas Collins on Dark
Shadows. The soap popularity of the latter, bringing blood suckers more into mainstream culture, undoubtedly made it easier for comic book codes to loosen up
circa 1970.
When TOD came out the timing was ripe. The premise of villain as lead character in an ongoing title is always awkward-- not even Doctor Doom could pull it off-- so credit the creators for sustaining 70 issues of what was basically one long continuous chase. |
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wallapin websnappers |
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Posts: 133 (06/28/09 8:49 AM) |
I think an essential part of the success of any series is how long a creative team stays with the book. The silver age books speak for themselves (nuff said).
The bronze age is another story. Dracula's success was a result of this team staying on until the end, no question. There are other series that went
through so many writers and artists from issue to issue that did not come close to that success. Marvel Premiere with Doc Strange was like that until
Englehart and Brunner took over. Even that ended too soon in Doc's next series. Take a look at the list of writers and artists on the new Doc Strange
Essential book. Yes there are some crossover titles in there but it's huge! Super Villain Team-Up was like that as well. I'm enjoying the Dracular
Omnibus very much because of art and writing here.
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mr Articulate |
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Posts: 54 (06/28/09 7:35 PM) |
fourtimer wrote: Yep, I forgot about Dark Shadows! That show probably started the resurgent craze for the Universal Monsters as the Dark Shadows show never seemed to have enough budget to show much of the monsters (Werewolf and Collins). I'm no historian on this, but per my quicky google search I put together this timeline: Late 1950's - Universal releases monster movies to tv 1958 - Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine published 1961 - Aurora release first monster kit - Frankenstein (monster) - 1966 last kit "Forgotten Prisoner" (Skeleton) released - Aurora advertises in Famous Monsters and DC comics. 1964 - Munsters tv show runs until 1966 1966 - Batman craze & Dark Shadows premiers 1967 - Vampire, Barnabas Collins appears on DS. 1970 - WGN Chicago starts reruning Universal Monster movies under "Creature Features" banner. 1971 - Comics Code allows vampires to appear again. 1971 - Aurora releases Monster Scene kits of Dr Deadly and his torture chamber, Vampirella, and more 1971 - Aurora monster kits re-released with Glow in the dark parts until 1975. 1972 - Marvel launches Werewolf by Night, then Tomb of Dracula published.
Last Edited By: mr Articulate
06/28/09 7:38 PM.
Edited 1 times.
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Heathenson |
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Posts: 868 (06/28/09 7:51 PM) Registered Member |
I had the Aurora Dracula which glowed in the dark. I used to have to sleep against the wall it frightened me but I liked it.
I always wanted one of those Aurora torture chamber kits. 
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NewWorldKam |
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Posts: 1015 (06/28/09 8:29 PM) |
The 4:30 Movie was a television program that aired weekday afternoons on WABC-TV (Channel 7) in New York from 1968 to 1981. The program was
mainly known for individual theme weeks devoted to theatrical feature films or made-for-TV movies starring a certain actor or actress, or to a particular
genre, or to films that spawned sequels. The more popular episodes were "Monster Week," "Planet of the Apes Week" and "Vincent Price
Week."
This was where, as a little kid, I was first introduced to Bela Lugosi's DRACULA and all the other Universal Horror films. I was mesmerized by the poetic way in which the monsters were portrayed. There was a certain elegance about the Universal films that made me a lifelong fan of horror films from that period. They were not gross or disturbing or terrifying as most of the horror films of the 70's were. They were , for lack of better words, "creepy" and "eerie" in a wonderfully imaginative way! Shortly after that, I discovered Ackerman's FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine, then the AURORA monster model kits, and finally, Marvel's TOMB OF DRACULA, MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN, and WEREWOLF BY NIGHT comics. I loved them mainly because they continued to give me my "classic monster" fix in a time before home video. |
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LewStringer |
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Posts: 18 (06/29/09 6:09 AM) |
Sentry 459 wrote:Personally I found it was being the right age at the right time. In 1972 I was 13 and beginning to think I was too old for comics but the changes in the Comics Code, and Marvel's new horror line kept me interested. They just seemed a bit more adult than the superhero comics even if, on reflection, there wasn't a great deal of difference. The other thing was that around that time there was a season of classic Universal horror films being shown on British tv on Friday nights. This was the first time I'd experienced the movies of Karloff, Lugosi etc - and it was followed by a season of Hammer movies. These films hooked me at just the right age, - and Marvel's horror comics complimented that. If you've never read Tomb of Dracula I'm not sure how it'd stand up today, but putting it into the context of the period it's a great book. |
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Chris of The Old School People |
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Posts: 914 (06/29/09 12:35 PM) |
I agree with Lew that timing has a lot to do with it for many folks. But I would add I think TOD holds up better than ever today. The cast of continuing
characters, the development of Dracula himself as a character....it all plays out very well.
For me personally, even though TOD was on the stands when I was buying comics as a kid, I had to grow up a bit before I could fully appreciate it. I was more of a werewolf kinda guy in my childhood, and Dracula was over my head a bit. "Tomb of Dracula" is now one of my favorite all-time comics....EVER. I also had to grow up a bit to appreciate the vampire genre as a whole. As I matured, I became a bigger and bigger fan of Hammer Films - particularly their vampire pics. Just as werewolves and Frankenstein seemed to suit Universal so well, so did the vampire genre work better at Hammer. I thought Marvel did a great job of combining elements of both studios, and then throwing their own original take in the mix. In addition, I always got a kick out of seeing characters from literature like Dracula participating in the Marvel Universe.....and seeing a superhero's reaction upon realizing Dracula was REAL. "Dracula? I thought he was just a character from a novel!" As for what I love about the vampire genre......well......I always thought that there was something inherently creepy and eerie about an otherwise attractive human (particularly females since I'm a male!!!) suddenly opening his or her mouth and exposing a set of horrific fangs. The sharp teeth contrast in a really frightening way with the face of beauty......somehow giving vampires an edge in psychological horror over werewolves, Frankenstein monsters or mummies. |
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Sentry 459 |
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Posts: 137 (06/30/09 6:36 PM) |
Thanks to everyone who took time to answer the question, "Why Dracula?"
My name is Oedi and I soar amidst the stars far from the planet of my birth. I guess this starship is the closest thing I've got to a home now, for I am a refugee and an outlaw. Vanth Dreadstar, Syzygy Darklock, Willow 327, Rainbow and Skeevo are my family. We are revolutionaries. Our goal? To bring an end to the 200 year old war between the Instrumentality and the Monarchy! |
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fubarthepanda |
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Posts: 2 (06/30/09 8:50 PM) |
Personally, I think TOMB OF DRACULA transcends the traditional trenches of horror and/or vampire fiction, hence its popularity at the time of its publication,
as well as the continued interested in the collected editions. I discovered it long after its initial publication, having resisted it on the grounds of not
being terribly interested in yet another take on Dracula, despite my fondness of the original novel and movie. However, I'm glad I eventually relented as
the rich characterization, engaging plotlines, and atmospheric artwork land it firmly on my Marvel top 10 list.
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Charlie Brownest |
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Posts: 139 (06/30/09 11:59 PM) |
Why Dracula? Gene Colan. I think his work on the title is legendary and mandatory viewing for comic book enthusiast.
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