INTO THE TOMB OF DRACULA

THE ROOTS OF MARVEL'S MOST SUCCESSFUL HORROR COMIC BOOK TITLE

Most importantly, one could always tell the good guys from the bad guys and at the end of the day, good would prevail and crime would never pay. It was a world of primary colours and happy endings, and although the bad guys would usually end up being caught out after a physical clash, blood or even just bruises were never to be seen.

Stoker (1847 - 1912), who had graduated in mathematics, initially wrote stories and novels (often dealing with horror and supernatural themes) because he enjoyed it and because it supplemented his income (Belford, 2002). In 1889, he started to research European folklore and stories of vampires, and by March 1890 Stoker had decided to write a vampire novel, although the name for his principal character was to be Count Wampyr. He then found the name of Dracula in a book that he borrowed from the Whitby Public Library in the summer of 1890 and recorded in his notes that according to this source “Dracula in the Wallachian language means Devil" (Miller, 1998).

A good six years in the making, Dracula is an epistolary novel, i.e. the story is told as a series of diary entries and letters written by several narrators who also serve as the novel's main protagonists. Events not witnessed directly by the story's characters are related through occasional newspaper clippings.

Jonathan Harker arrives back home from Budapest, where Mina had joined and married him after his escape from Dracula's castle, and they both join the coalition who now turn their full attention to dealing with the count. When Dracula learns of this rallying against him, he seeks out Mina and feeds on her blood. Over the next days, she slowly succumbs to the blood of the vampire that flows through her veins, switching back and forth from a state of consciousness to a state of semi-trance during which she is telepathically connected with Dracula. It is this connection, however, which Van Helsing and the group start to use to deduce Dracula's movements. The count flees back to his castle in Transylvania, followed by Van Helsing's group, who track him down just before sundown and destroy him by stabbing him in the heart with a Bowie knife. Dracula crumbles to dust and his spell is lifted from Mina. Quincey Morris is killed in the final battle, stabbed by Gypsies who had been charged with returning Dracula to his castle. Finally, the survivors return to England.

"His face was a strong - a very strong - aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips (...) For the rest his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor (...) [The hands] were rather coarse - broad with squat fingers. Strange to say, there were hairs in the centre of the palm. The nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp point." [Bram Stoker, Dracula, chapter 2]

In terms of visualization and popular culture images, there is little to nothing, however, which can compare to the powerful influence of the motion picture, and for the horror genre, movies proved decisive and definitive in shaping the general public's expectations of what a certain character should look like. However, the first movie to feature the vampire count had virtually no influence on the creation of the iconic imagery of Dracula.

Set in the highly stylized format of the German expressionist silent movies, the portrayal of the vampire count in F. W. Murnau's 1922 movie Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror) differed markedly from Stoker's Dracula.

Max Schreck as Count Orlock in F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922)

Having thus almost nothing in common with the description Harker gives in Dracula, the physique of Count Orlock as portrayed by Max Schreck (the actor's real name and a true case of nomen est omen, "Schreck" meaning "Fright" in German) has become almost iconic for the German expressionist silent movie - and so out of this world that in E. Elias Merhige's 2000 movie Shadow of the Vampire, a fictional account of Murnau's filming of Nosferatu, Schreck is portrayed to be an actual vampire.

However, within a month of acquiring the film rights to Dracula, Chaney died of cancer and the Great Depression hit Hollywood.

Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula in Tod Browning's Dracula (1931)

Christopher Lee as Count Dracula in Hammer Films' Dracula (1958)

Starring Peter Cushing as Van Helsing and Christopher Lee as Dracula (both actors would become stars thanks to their appearances in numerous Hammer movies), the imagery used did not deviate from Universal's 1931 movie and only reinforced the visuals by updating them thanks to the use of colour. Otherwise, the popular culture image of Dracula remained unchanged: a tall, elegant and dark figure shrouded in a cape.

All in all - apart from the moustache - Jonathan Harker's description through the pen of Bram Stoker was not only still valid, but now an established image of popular culture.

"You've waited a long time for it - you've demanded it - and here it is! The most famous, most fearful vampire of all! Yes - Count Dracula lives!" (Marvel Comics, February 1972 Bullpen Bulletin)

It is somewhat unclear who actually made which kind of contribution to the storyline of the first issue. According to the official Marvel statement, Stan Lee plotted the first issue (as per the October 1971 Bullpen Bulletin), whereas Roy Thomas seems to remember plotting that issue himself, working on just a few verbal sentences made to him by Stan Lee (Cooke, 2001).

Tomb of Dracula #1 (April 1972)
Cover by Neal Adams

The link between the original novel Dracula and the first issue of Marvel's new comic book title was forged by introducing the last living descendant of Dracula, an American named Frank Drake.

At the same time, Stoker's book itself becomes a link, as the existence of this literary work is not ignored or denied (as could well have been the case - none of the Universal or Hammer Dracula movies make a direct reference to Stoker's novel within their storylines) but rather portrayed as a grand misconception: the book is not, as everybody thinks, a work of fiction, but rather an account of actual events.

One important implication of this approach is, of course, that the other main characters of the novel - and most importantly Dracula's adversary Professor Van Helsing - were just as real as the newly revived Dracula himself. This logic enabled Marvel to set the scene for actors such as Rachel van Helsing (granddaughter of the famous vampirologist) and Quincy Harker (son of Jonathan and Mina Harker) - who is the only protagonist apart from Dracula himself who grew out of Stoker's imagination:

"Seven years ago we all went through the flames. And the happiness of some of us since then is, we think, well worth the pain we endured. It is an added joy to Mina and to me that our boy's birthday is the same day as that on which Quincey Morris died. His mother holds, I know, the secret belief that some of our brave friend's spirit has passed into him. His bundle of names links all our little band of men together. But we call him Quincey. (...) We were talking of the old time (...) [and] I took the papers from the safe where they had been ever since our return so long ago. We were struck with the fact, that in all the mass of material of which the record is composed, there is hardly one authentic document. Nothing but a mass of typewriting, except the later notebooks of Mina and Seward and myself, and Van Helsing's memorandum. We could hardly ask any one, even did we wish to, to accept these as proofs of so wild a story. Van Helsing summed it all up as he said, with our boy on his knee. 'We want no proofs. We ask none to believe us! This boy will some day know what a brave and gallant woman his mother is. Already he knows her sweetness and loving care. Later on he will understand how some men so loved her, that they did dare much for her sake.'" [Bram Stoker, Dracula, chapter 27, final page]

Tomb of Dracula #1 (the extension to the vampire count's name was necessary for Marvel to be able to copyright the title) gave a fast-paced start to the initial storyline by introducing the resurrection of Dracula: Virtually broke, former millionaire Frank Drake ventures to Transylvania together with his fiancee Jeanie and long-time friend Clifton Graves after learning that he is a descendant of the legendary Count Dracula and thus the inheritor of the ancestral castle. Their scheme is to make a fortune by refurbishing the alleged vampire count's estate and opening it as a tourist attraction. However, Graves plans to lure Drake into the castle and then dispose of him, leaving himself in sole possession of the lucrative business of running the castle. But then things start to go quite unlike planned once the trio actually reaches Castle Dracula: Separated from the others, Graves falls through a rotting floorboard and finds himself in an underground chamber, face to face with a coffin containing a dust-covered skeleton with a wooden stake protruding from between its ribs. Graves mocks the superstitious locals who desecrated the grave of their former lord by removing the stake and casting it aside before he leaves in search of his companions - unaware that, in the damp darkness of the tomb, Dracula has risen again...

According to Roy Thomas, Marvel's editor-in-chief at the time, Tomb of Dracula had a good start and eventually became a good, solid seller for most of its run (Cooke, 2001). Despite an initial lack of constant authorship (Gerry Conway worked on issues #1-2, Archie Goodwin on issues #3-4, and Gardner Fox on issues #5-6), Marvel's newest horror title found favour with its readership, and the title went from bi-monthly to monthly publication as of Tomb of Dracula #9 in June 1973. Eventually, the book would become the longest running Bronze Age Marvel horror genre title as well as the longest running comic book title of all with a villain as its namegiving hero before it was finally cancelled after a staggering 70 issues in August 1979 - the "superhero from the crypt" par excellence.

"I kind of improved as the series went on. The more you work on something, the better you get at it. I felt that the character became my own (...) It was a monthly book and it was the only monthly book that held up at the time. They had other books like that but they didn’t last. Dracula did though." (Dlugos, 2002)

Colan established a distinctive look for Marvel's vampire count while maintaining many of the features readers would come to expect from the established popular culture imagery (based on the Universal and Hammer movies mould - except that Colan added a thin moustache, which made his Dracula closer to Stoker's literary description), and embedded this in a general visual atmospheric setting which went far beyond the classic horror comic qualities. Issue after issue Colan's style provided a truly captivating visual journey into the dark shadows, often incorporating well-known landmark buildings to set the scene.

Gene Colan's Picadilly Circus sets the scene; Tom Palmer inks and colouring
(Tomb of Dracula #25)

"I just love the atmosphere - you know, old castles, cemeteries, fog - all that stuff. I've always been interested in that." (Siuntres, 2005)
"Whatever scary movie was out, I'd see it, and a combination of things, but I always had an affinity for that stuff." (Thomas, 2000)

Colan's approach to his pencilling - which his wife has called "painting with pencils" (Siuntres, 2005) - is based on a pronounced assumption that comic books and movies share common traits:

"I was mostly influenced by film. Understand film, frame by frame, is very much like panel to panel. The lighting in black and white films taught me a great deal." (Mata, 2007)

This influence is probably also firmly lodged in the fact that Colan encountered the genre and its rendition in the movies at a very tender age:

"[It was] at the age of 5 when I was exposed to my first horror film. It was Frankenstein. My father wanted to see it and he took me along. Boy, did that traumatize me! That was in 1931. From then on, I was intrigued with horror. I didn’t realize it in those years, but it kind of crept up on me. I sort of took what I loved from the screen and put it on paper." (Dlugos, 2002)

Dracula as drawn by Gene Colan, exemplified by a frame from Tomb of Dracula #25

"I had seen Jack Palance in a lot of stuff. Artists do a lot of personal thinking, you know. He was in a film called Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. I thought, “If there was ever someone who should be cast as Dracula, it’s this guy.” I figured if I ever had the opportunity to do Dracula, I would model it after Jack Palance." (Dlugos, 2002)
"His bone structure is perfect. Serpentine. It's worked out well." (Mata, 2007)

From here on, and character by character, Colan determined and assembled the facial features and the general appearances:

"I based my interpretation of Rachel [van Helsing] on the 8 year old daughter of a friend. She had the right bone structure and look. I knew I could make her older. People are always guessing at my faces. None but Palance were ever based on actresses or actors. I have a vast reference file and that's where I found Nikki. If I don't find what I want in my files, I'll photograph people I know or I'll go looking." (Mata, 2007)

"A book that was six issues old - with three different writers and no direction. I realised pretty quickly that in order to do anything I had to decide on the handling of the characters and what the series was about (...) One of the things I did was write up pages upon pages of notes on who the characters were and where I wanted them to go. I was less concerned about the indivdiual plots at this point than I was about the direction of the characters. So I would write almost up to two years ahead, all the different turns of the characters and where they were gonna be, and issue by issue what would happen with the character. Then I went back and worried about the stories to make it work." (Comic Geek Speak, 2005)

Marv Wolfman in 1982

A new born baby introduced on the final page of the novel, he is now an elderly man bound to a wheelchair who uses scientific means and sophisticated machinery to hunt down vampires - something he has done, as he himself explains, for the past sixty years after having been trained by Abraham van Helsing himself. He is the driving force behind the group of vampire hunters, carrying on a lifelong crusade to fight and destroy vampires. Being old and paralyzed, he is seen as a kind of mastermind behind the group effort

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Quincy Harker's name and background are first mentioned on page 6 of Tomb of Dracula #7, Marv Wolfman's first script for the series. Left: Original art for The Tomb of Dracula #7 (March 1973) pencilled by Gene Colan, inked by Tom Palmer and lettered by John Costanza (scanned from the original in my personal collection). Right: the same page as it appeared in print (colours by Tom Palmer). [click for larger images]

Writers Gerry Conway (issues #1 and #2), Archie Goodwin (issues #3 and #4) and Gardner Fox (issues #5 and #6) set up the basic parameters of Marvel's tale of Dracula, but not surprisingly, there was an excessive amount of jumping about in terms of storytelling consistency, and a number of characters were introduced during the first six issues which often made their demise in the very next issue and added to a sometimes hasty narrative. On the other hand, the difficult task of introducing the vampire count to modern times was accomplished very well, not the least because Dracula's need to adapt to these new, unknown surroundings quickly if he is to survive is weaved into the storytelling - simple items such as flashlights or car headlights can be turned into deadly weapons against Dracula if the shape of a cross is masked onto them, throwing powerful cross-shaped beams of light which will destroy a vampire who finds himself in such a spotlight.

Eleven months, six issues and three writers after the launch of Tomb of Dracula Marv Wolfman took command of the script, and with him, Marvel's tale of Dracula would become a cleverly conceived and extremely balanced piece of fiction - one of the best ever seen in a comic book.

"I was not a big fan of that sort of stuff, and in terms of movies I'd never seen a Dracula movie at that point, but I'd read the novel, and I loved the novel, and that was my only influence." (Siuntres, 2006)

Right from the start, Wolfman realised that by way of the concept of the title he was onto something fairly unique:

"This was the very first continuing horror series, and because there was no template I was making it up, and that allowed me to create what was inside me rather than following somebody else's template." (Comic Zone Radio, 2005)

Taking his verbal approach from the original novel (Comic Zone Radio, 2005), Marv Wolfman immediately went to work and set up a general plot framework which centered on two main elements: characterization and realistic storytelling.

"I wanted to center on characters. And once you did that, that was the subtle difference [to previous writers], because everything was about people, that is about the kind of stuff which I thought Gene [Colan] drew best, which were people - real people." (Comic Zone Radio, 2005)

"I was trying to do a more realistic comic, because that's what I liked, and maybe there was a little bit of influence from the EC comics, but most of it came from the novel (...) and the original Dracula novel was very very realistically handled, and Dracula himself was really a force more than a presence because he's only in 80 or something pages of a 500 pages novel, so the attitude of the original book was more on the people who are hunting him and the effects of evil on them and how they saw the world than it was dealing with Dracula. Using that as the template for the entire series it seemed to me that this was an ideal concept to try and do more realistic comics, to try and break out of the comics for 11 year olds (...) I really wanted to try to write something that was starting to appeal to my age." (Siuntres, 2006)

Within this framework, the pairing of Marv Wolfman's conceptual ideas for breaking out of established comic book routines together with Gene Colan's enthusiasm for the genre and his dynamic and atmospheric artwork proved to be truly perfect.

"Comics are a synthesis of writing and art. If you just have [a comic book with] art nobody's gonna buy it no matter how beautiful it is because it's an art book, and if it's all text, it's a novel. (...) Gene and I did very good work together because we were very sympathetic to each other." (Comic Zone Radio, 2005)

"Gene's artwork certainly is the reason why we could do a lot of that stuff." (Siuntres, 2006)

"His graphic was perfect, Gene [Colan] is a brilliant artist, I knew his art, I was a big fan of his." (Comic Zone radio, 2005)

Very soon, Wolfman and Colan found themselves outside of the commonly defined and charted corners of the Marvel Universe. This, however, was not just terra incognita for Marvel, but for the entire comic publishing business and the medium itself.

"This was the first time anything like this had been done. I was fighting the Comics Code every single month. We were just stretching - for the first time - out of standard comics." (Comic Geek Speak, 2005)

One key element which Wolfman brought to the series and which made Tomb of Dracula stand out amongst mainstream comic book titles was the depth and complexity of the plot. Right from the outset of his first script assignment on the title, Wolfman started to build up multiple underlying themes and sub-plots in the overall storyline by placing certain "props" here and there which would only become fully meaningful at a later stage; this way, even stand-alone single issue stories were embedded in an arc of overall continuity and suspense. In addition, Wolfman also increased the complexity of the themes which the storytelling dealt with by introducing undertones of moral philosophy and portraying all characters involved - Dracula as well as the group of vampire hunters - as self-conflicting and sometimes even outright self-contradicting personalities.

Details of the origin of this African-American character are spread out by Wolfman over several issues of Tomb of Dracula, but quintessentially Blade is characterized by having certain vampire characteristics (such as a greatly prolonged lifespan, above average strength, and the ability to sense supernatural creatures) whilst at the same time being virtually immune to their attacks. The reasons for this physical disposition are to be found in the circumstances of his birth, as his mother was attacked and killed by a vampire whilst in labour. As a result, Blade's blood had been contaminated by vampiric enzymes - not enough to turn him into a vampire, but in sufficient quantity to change him.

One of the earliest African-American comic book heroes, he came to Wolfman's mind in a flash, although his move from Warren to Marvel delayed the first handling of the character and eventually made him become part of Tomb of Dracula rather than a miniseries which Wolfman had planned for his previous employer (Wolfman, AN).

"It just came... it came within like walking one step and I knew the character, I knew what he looked like, I knew the background, I knew everything about him. (...) I knew exactly what he was wearing. What was revolutionary - though I didn't know that at the time - was that at Marvel all the superhero-type characters of course had costumes, superhero costumes, and Blade was essentially - despite a unique wardrobe - he was dressed like a person who could walk on the street, and nobody was doing that back then." (Comic Zone Radio, 2005)

Tomb of Dracula #10 (July 1973)
Cover by Gil Kane

"Since Tomb of Dracula took place in a "semi-real world" I wanted Blade dressed in somewhat realistic clothes: leather bomber jacket, pants, boots and his special goggles which, because he had vampire blood running through his veins, would let him see in daylight. Yes, he wore a bandolier complete with wooden knives (the better to kill vampires with, my dear), but they were only a fashion accessory." (Wolfman, AN)

"Marv thought of him. We discussed what he should look like, a good looking black guy (...) he [Marv Wolfman] would describe how he wanted him to look, with a leather jacket, and a bandolier around both sides of his chest and little knives in it, and one big sword behind him, and then I did that. I put boots on him, to give him a rugged adventurer's look. I didn't work all that hard on him, I mean that was the impression that I got of him as he [Marv Wolfman] spoke. You know comic book artists never sit down at a convention table to discuss how they're gonna do this and how they're gonna do that - it was always over the phone, very quickly, or in passing each other you'd spend a few minutes talking about it, maybe fifteen or so, and that would be it. It's all that was required." (Siuntres, 2005)

In time, however, there would be a fundamental dispute over the creation of Blade - not so much in terms of who created him, but who owned the character. This perspective arose because, decades after his original creation, Blade had become far more than a Marvel comic book character - he had turned into an asset when New Line Cinema produced a movie version in 1998 (called Blade and starring Wesley Snipes) which not only grossed $70 million at the US box office and a subsequent $130 million worldwide, but also opened the door for further Marvel comic book movie adaptations. Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan received a "based on characters created by" credit, but nothing more, and Wolfman subsequently registered a formal copyright for the character and sued Marvel and New Line for $35 million in a US district court in California after the release of the film, but due to Marvel's fledgling financial state at the time the issue finally came to trial a year later in a Delaware bankruptcy court. A three-day nonjury trial was held, but because of the complexities of the case and Marvel's shifting financial status, the ruling was not issued until 6 November 2000. The court's verdict argued that Marvel's later use of the characters was sufficiently different from Wolfman's initial creations (at Warren) to protect it from his claim of copyright ownership, and thus Wolfman lost his bid.

"I did create the characters. Marvel did not deny that. (...) So that's not the point. Marvel never once questioned that I was at Warren when I did it. Their question was, and the logical question they had to ask, was "Does it matter?" And the judge believed it didn't matter that I was there. The "instance and expense," which is what I lost on in terms of Blade, was that they still provided the ability to put it in that book and then paid for it." (Dean, 2001)

Marvel's entry into the movie business market would become a highly profitable one. Films such as X-Men or Spider-Man not only fetched huge profits at the box office, they also introduced a new generation of popular culture consumers to the Marvel Universe and sparked a tidal wave of nostalgia with baby boomers who were suddenly faced with neatly polished versions of the comic book heroes of their youth. In short: Marvel and superheroes became highly fashionable.

Adventure Into Fear #24
(October 1974)

"I always thought Blade should be a movie more than a comic book character from day one. That's one of the reasons why I didn't use him every month in Tomb of Dracula. There would be times when I would drop him for a year or two. I knew there was something special about the character. I didn't want to overuse him so he wouldn't just become another character and remain someone special." (Epstein, AN)

Blade had a crossover appearance with Marvel's "supervillain vampire" Morbius in Adventure into Fear #24 in October 1974 and was also the only character from Tomb of Dracula to feature in his own solo spin-off stories, starting in Marvel's black & white magazine format Vampire Tales #8 in December 1974, written by Wolfman and drawn by De Zuniga. He even had his own 56-page solo story in the black & white showcase magazine Marvel Preview #3 (September 1975), and in the autumn of 1976 appeared in a six-page backup story by the original creative team of Wolfman and Colan in Marvel Preview #8.

"If you were doing a comic book at Marvel, you were essentially looking at what Stan Lee did, no matter who the artist was (...) with horror [ I had to] create the field as I was going along, but I was mostly concerned with the characters because to me that's the thing that made the Dracula novel, which was the characters in it - not Dracula, but the characters who were his opponents." (Comic Geek Speak, 2005)

The importance Bram Stoker's original novel attributed to the cast of characters involved who endured, faced and eventually banished the evil of Dracula, is evident from the structure of the narrative, which is mostly conveyed through diary entries, memos and letters, i.e. forms of written communication which involves a maximum degree of personal attachment (diaries, letters) or mirrors a high degree of personal opinion (memos), something which is highlighted even further by the occasional use of newspaper clippings, which act as occasional "factual" counterfuges. In essence, the events in Dracula are relayed almost exclusively through the eyes of the beholders, not through a neutral "off scene" narrative, and are thus often firmly set in the present even if the events described are a part of the past.

"25 October.--How I miss my phonograph! To write a diary with a pen is irksome to me! But Van Helsing says I must. We were all wild with excitement yesterday when Godalming got his telegram from Lloyd's. I know now what men feel in battle when the call to action is heard." [Bram Stoker, Dracula, chapter 25, Dr Seward's Diary]

This entry from Dr Seward's diary illustrates this narrative technique well, and even if Wolfman did not follow Stoker's epistolary style except on a few occasions (such as in Tomb of Dracula #15 (December 1973), in which the storyline is mostly based on Dracula's own diary. Just like Dr Seward in Stoker's text, this technqiue adds added depth to the character of Dracula in Wolfman's narrative:

"There is no place for lies here in my personal ledger, and though the very precepts of truth-telling sickens me, still it must be written as the facts themselves were presented. These notes must speak with no need of interpretation . They show at times my innate greatness, and also the still-human frailities that must course forever through my blood." [Marv Wolfman, Tomb of Dracula #15, Dracula's Diary]

Inserted sentences such as "to write a diary with a pen is irksome to me" or "the very precepts of truth-telling sickens me" are direct, first hand (and thus very personal) statements made by the characters and serve to convey added characterization: the characters are just as much described by how they feel about what they are doing rather than by their actions alone.

Wolfman followed Stoker's general lead on this approach, but added ample content and flavour of his own. In his portrayal of Dracula, for instance, he was far more concerned with the possibly remaining human traits in the vampire count's personality than the novel had been - not the least, of course, because Wolfman was not writing a single publication, but a serialized narrative.

"[Dracula] was the protagonist, but he was never the hero (...) that was the trick. If you just saw this guy as a (...) one-dimensional villain - as was the standard at the time [in comic books] - there would be no way to keep the series going. This book was called "Tomb of Dracula", it wasn't called "Tomb of Rachel van Helsing" or "The Vampire Hunters" or something like that, so Dracula had to become a real character (...) [there had to be] some features about him, some things that still reached back to when he was human." (Comic Geek Speak, 2005)

Throughout the course of Tomb of Dracula, these remnants of Dracula's past as a human being - not a vampire - would float (or sometimes even erupt) to the surface of his twisted personality. He would at times prove to be far from completely free and devoid of typically humane feelings such as pity, love or even nostalgia - quite unlike what one would come to expect from the overlord of the undead. And when the series finally came to an end, Quincy Harker admonishes the readers in the last phrase of issue #70 - after having destroyed Dracula - not to be forgetful to the fact that after all and foremost, Dracula was - a man.

This personal complexity grew even more with regard to Dracula's opponents. Bram Stoker had, in his novel, united a group of people who only gradually moved together under the banner of a common cause - the destruction of Dracula - but who initially came together through personal acquaintance. This is most apparent in the case of Professor Abraham van Helsing - now the established vampire expert and antipode of Dracula - who is summoned in the novel by Dr Seward, his former student, simply because Lucy's affliction has him baffled and he is reminded of his former Dutch teacher who "knows as much about obscure diseases as any one in the world". Van Helsing's knowledge about vampires is, in fact, completely unknown to Seward and only reveals itself as the plot progresses. As the events start to unfold, the group is drawn closer by individual and common negative experiences or even traumatization: Jonathan Harker goes through the ordeal of being a prisoner in Castle Dracula, Dr Seward, Quincy Morris and Arthur Holmwood are forced to helplessly watch their beloved Lucy Westenra waste away and ultimately die from an unknown cause, van Helsing is reminded of his own personal turmoil with a wife who went insane after the death of their son, Seward, Morris and Holmwood are then forced to face the staking of Lucy, and Mina Harker falls under the evil spell of Dracula. The group dynamics thus increasingly follow a pattern of common suffering, and the quest to put an end to Dracula in order to save the world is just as much a quest to end the personal suffering.

The initial plotters and writers of Tomb of Dracula had already followed this pattern. The first character introduced in Tomb of Dracula #1, Frank Drake - a millionaire playboy who has gambled away his inheritance and now owns nothing more than a mysterious ancestral castle in Transylvania - intially has two important aspects. Firstly, by being an American, he connects the plot with Marvel's home base readership, even though the events of the first 30+ issues will mostly take place in Europe. And secondly, as his name and the castle in Transylvania indicate with little room for surprises, he is in fact a descendant of Count Dracula (in whose legendary existence he never truly believed in).

By the time the opening page of Tomb of Dracula #3 rolls around, Frank Drake is so completely worn out and alone that he is about to commit suicide by jumping into the River Thames from a bridge. The two individuals who save him - Rachel van Helsing and her trusty Indian companion Taj Nadal - would eventually be depicted by Marv Wolfman as being even more traumatized by Dracula's wrongdoings: As a child, Rachel was witness to the murders of her parents at the hands of Dracula in revenge for his defeat by her great-grandfather Abraham Van Helsing, and Taj was deprived of his voice and his family when an attack by Dracula on his village turned his son into a vampire and left his wife paralyzed.

Marv Wolfman, taking the novel as source and inspiration for his handling of Tomb of Dracula, picked up the fil rouge of having the main characters live and act in "mind-numbing situations" (Comic Geek Speak, 2005), and the characters created by Wolfman display even more of this tragic momentum. Quincy Harker was flung from a balcony at an opera house thirty years prior to the timframe of Tomb of Dracula and had since been confined to a wheelchair. The event, however, also deprived him of his wife, who never got over the encounter with Dracula and eventually committed suicide.

Early into the series, Harker suffered another personal blow when his daughter Edith falls victim to Dracula, and he himself has to destroy her in order to free her from a vampiric existence - the parallel lines to Stoker's novel and the situation of Seward, Morris and Holmwood who are required to do the same with Lucy Westenra are obvious.

But even Wolfman's completely original character Blade, who has no connections with the novel, is depicted as starting out from an initial trauma (the killing of his mother). Eventually, all the major characters involved in hunting down Dracula in Tomb of Dracula have their own, highly personal motives for doing so, and traumatization mingles with personal revenge.

In terms of group dynamics, this results in a group which operates as such but where the individual remains a strong factor. This would eventually become a key element of Wolfman's handling of the plot, and a major reason for the sustained interest and long-standing success of Tomb of Dracula.

"What you have is a story which is actually about the characters, which gave it the novel form. While you still had one issue, maybe two issues of storyline in terms of the plot, but I was really concerned about the characters first and foremost." (Comic Geek Speak, 2005)

Cover appearances are an established indicator for the importance of comic book characters, and it is therefore not surprising that all of the general cast characters were spotlighted this way throughout the series. This even applied to "regulars" who were not part of the vampire hunters but who helped to anchor the plot and provide added identification points for the reader, such as Inspector Chelm of Scotland Yard or hard-boiled private eye Hannibal King.

But in spite of the central role and the importance to the plot which the "supporting characters" had, Wolfman was aware of the danger of overusing them. His principle of having this cast of individuals appear sparingly not only applied to Blade, and thus some characters were at times absent from the storyline for several issues, including such cornerstone personae as Quincy Harker.

The entire group of vampire hunters features on the cover of Tomb of Dracula #28 (January 1975) by Gil Kane

Quincy Harker on Kane's Tomb of Dracula #32 cover (May 1975)

Taj on Gil Kane's cover for Tomb of Dracula #31 (April 1975)

Tomb of Dracula #16 (January 1974)

First hints of his existence appeared in Tomb of Dracula #14, when a group of Chinese scientists are briefly shown performing tests on the body of a certain Brand (a motorcycle gang leader introduced in Tomb of Dracula #9) in a laboratory somewhere on the Irish coast; the tests show that Brand is a vampire, a fact which the scientists comment on as "pleasing news for Dr Sun" - whoever that may be. Over the course of the next five issues Wolfman injected further snippüets of information about Dr Sun before actually featuring his appearance in Tomb of Dracula #20 - an incredible build-up (by comic book standards) over a period of six months.

Tomb of Dracula #16 (June 1974) - half of Dr Sun is just visible on the right hand edge of the cover

Dr Sun was a fantastic creation, who could have come straight from one of those delightfully obscure yet atmospheric horror movies of the 1930s to 1950s period, but Wolfman's clever set-up and handling of what would become the ongoing saga of Dr Sun was, quite simply, a stroke of genius. The conflict between Dracula and Dr Sun would eventually carry on until Tomb of Dracula #42, making this a plot arc - on and off - over a period of 29 issues and thus almost two and a half years. It is a showpiece of Marv Wolfman's intention - and ability - to provide a fast-paced story which brings together several layers of diligently set up and weaved together plot which presents the reader with a rich tapestry of interlocking events and characters.

The usage of a stake to (temporarily) destroy a vampire (in this case Dracula himself) is illustrated in Tomb of Dracula #1 (April 1972)

"The vampire live on, and cannot die by mere passing of the time, he can flourish when that he can fatten on the blood of the living. Even more, we have seen amongst us that he can even grow younger, that his vital faculties grow strenuous,and seem as though they refresh themselves when his special pabulum is plenty. But he cannot flourish without this diet, he eat not as others. (...) He throws no shadow, he make in the mirror no reflect (...) He has the strength of many of his hand (...) he can transform himself to wolf (...) he can be as bat (...) he can come in mist which he create (...) He can see in the dark, no small power this, in a world which is one half shut from the light. Ah, but hear me through. He can do all these things, yet he is not free (...) He may not enter anywhere at the first, unless there be some one of the household who bid him to come, though afterwards he can come as he please. His power ceases, as does that of all evil things, at the coming of the day. (...) Thus, whereas he can do as he will within his limit,when he have his earth-home, his coffin-home (...) still at other time he can only change when the time come. It is said, too, that he can only pass running water at the slack or the flood of the tide." [Bram Stoker, Dracula, chapter 18, Mina Harker's Diary]

"Then there are things which so afflict him that he has no power, as the garlic that we know of, and as for things sacred,as this symbol, my crucifix, that was amongst us even now when we resolve, to them he is nothing, but in their presence he take his place far off and silent with respect. There are others,too, which I shall tell you of, lest in our seeking we may need them. The branch of wild rose on his coffin keep him that he move not from it, a sacred bullet fired into the coffin kill him so that he be true dead, and as for the stake through him, we know already of its peace, or the cut off head that giveth rest. (...) But he is clever. I have asked my friend Arminius, of Buda-Pesth University, to make his record, and from all the means that are, he tell me of what he has been. He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. If it be so, then was he no common man, for in that time, and for centuries after,he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the `land beyond the forest.' That mighty brain and that iron resolution went with him to his grave, and are even now arrayed against us." [Bram Stoker, Dracula, chapter 18, Mina Harker's Diary]

The creative team behind Tomb of Dracula was able to uphold the uniqueness of Dracula for a surprisingly long time, adding to the possibility that this ongoing tale just might take place in a world which had only one supernatural element: plenty of vampires but not a single costumed superhero.

Frankenstein Monster #8 (January 1974)

Tomb of Dracula #18 (March 1974)

"There was a point where all of us were told to make sure that people knew that this was in the Marvel Universe (...) [but] I turned down every appearance of Dracula in like Spider-Man or anywhere else - because my feeling was Dracula's world was unique. I brought in Dr Strange because he could fit. I brought in Brother Voodoo because - as strange as the name is - the character could fit (...) Silver Surfer was the biggest push, but even he in many ways - he's the epitomy of good, he was sort of the Christ figure at Marvel, and I was dealing with the devil - so he fits. It was the hardest fit, but he did fit. I just absolutely turned down though every possible use of writing the character with any other standard Marvel heroes.I let other people do those (..) once you fight Spider-Man it sort of diminishes everything (...) that was a very conscious move on my part." (Comic Zone Radio, 2005)

In March 1974, after almost two years and 17 issues, Dracula was finally made to catch up on the Marvel Universe crossovers he had missed so far by having him meet the Werewolf by Night in Tomb of Dracula #18.

Tomb of Dracula #44 (May 1976)

Tomb of Dracula #50 (November 1976)

Whilst the latter two guest appearances were highly entertaining and, to some extent, became classic Marvel Comics issues, they didn't help the book at all, which had always been at its peak in terms of plot and storytelling when converying the uniqueness of Dracula which Wolfman had always clearly prefered. In the end, the somewhat enforced opening of Tomb of Dracula would reveal itself as a substantial weakening of the overall plot and therefore, ultimately, an important part for the faltering of the title.

The arrival of Dracula in the United States could not be labelled a big surprise, as many readers in Marvel's home market would be able to relate better to Tomb of Dracula this way. The problem with this decision, however, was that some stories quite simply draw their lifeblood from the fact that they do not happen anywhere, but only within specific geographical settings (which is why cowboys never show up in late 19th century New York City, for example). Wolfman tried to avoid an all too harsh change in overall atmosphere by choosing Boston rather than New York City for Dracula's arrival on America's shore (after all, New England has its fair share of spooky traditions), but in spite of this awareness and Gene Colan's authentic rendition of the "old time" Boston architecture (which he researched on location (Siuntres, 2005), the move didn't really turn out to be a winner for Tomb of Dracula and traded in what had always felt like an authentic European backdrop for a setting which seemed almost irrelevant for most of the plot. As a result, the density of the overall atmosphere - one of the main winning points of the book - dropped almost immediately.

Another unfortunate decision by Marv Wolfman was to open up the book to comedy in Tomb of Dracula #37, only one issue after the switch from Europe to the United States. Unlike this latter decision, this was a move far more difficult - if not near impossible - to understand, as it felt awkwardly out of place even in the way it was brought into the plot: Quite unlike his usual storytelling and characterization technique, Wolfman is almost unrecognisably transparent and simplistic as he introduces would-be horror writer Harold H. Harold and his publisher's secretary Aurora Rabinowitz. As the names suggest beyond even the faintest shadow of a doubt, Harold is intended as comic relief, and Aurora is there to feed the naive punchlines ("Witz", incidentally, meaning "joke" in German).

It is a matter of both taste and opinion whether or not Tomb of Dracula needed the Abbott and Costello type of fly-in-your-face comic relief that Harold and Aurora were to provide, but even those who felt the answer was yes found that both wore out pretty fast. Wolfman had injected subtle doses of wry humour ever since he took over the scripting, mostly uttered by Blade and with ironic undertones, but it never interrupted the eerie tone of the plot - this was, after all, a story about vampires. The characters of Harold H. Harold and Aurora Rabinowitz, however, were irritating from the moment they were introduced.

Despite some single issue plots which came very close to the lesser examples of "B" horror movies, Tomb of Dracula had never felt cheesy. Now, however, some of the plot dropped to downright ludicrous, as Tomb of Dracula #38 saw Harold H. Harold breaking into a medical school and stealing bottles from the blood bank so he and Aurora Rabinowitz can revive Dracula, who then consents to an interview with Harold... - it really felt more like an issue of Mad Magazine doing a parody of the series, as the following piece of dialogue shows:

HAROLD: Er, Dracula, sir? Could I speak with you, just for a moment or so? You see, I promised the publisher of this magazine I work for, to interview a real vampire. And you may be the only one who can save my job.
DRACULA: What care have I of your problems, human? I gave you thanks, and that is more than you should expect. Be thankful I do not slay you for blood. For I may have need of you shortly, and therefore you will be spared.
HAROLD: Gosh, thanks, Dracula-- sir! Really, thanks!

In the established tradition of Tomb of Dracula, Harold H. Harold and the story woven around him was just plain silly - a character better suited for the whacky world of Marvel's Howard the Duck (where, sure enough, he did appear). Tomb of Dracula #38 was a turning point as the comedy element introduced by Marv Wolfman backfired completely and basically killed an overall atmosphere which was already thinning out a bit and was in need, if anything, of reinforcement. Instead, Wolfman placed a character at center stage who was nothing else than a completely neurotic fool. A few of his lines were funny, most of them weren't, but they all resulted in the same: it was getting increasingly hard to take events seriously when you were constantly confronted with oneliners which could have come straight from a Woody Allen spoof on vampire movies. Or was Wolfman thinking about Polanski's Fearless Vampirekillers in the back of his mind? Whatever it was, it didn't work - an opinion shared by Gene Colan:

"Marv also put in Harold H. Harold - that was a good character! But he would dominate the Dracula book to the point where it wasn't Dracula! And although I enjoyed drawing him - it was a comical break from the seriousness of it, and Dracula came in at the end or the middle a little bit - you didn't see much of Dracula." (Field, 2001)

Earlier on, Dracula mocks any attempts (in this case by Hannibal King) asking him to reveal his knowledge. In later issues, Dracula would accept such demands to almost no end. (Tomb of Dracula #25)

But Pandora had seemingly slipped Wolfman a few boxes which he had opened and which went on to plague the series to no end. Harold was one such box, another one was overdoing Dracula's weakness induced by Dr Sun, because it led to Dracula becoming one of the cast of actors rather than being the central and paramount threat to everyone.

Thus he is brought back to life by Harker and the gang of vampire hunters in Tomb of Dracula #41 as an ally to defeat Dr Sun (which he does), and the mould is cast, for in the final panel of that issue it is Blade's turn to do his version of the "you owe me a favour" game when he virtually commands Dracula to help him track down the vampire who killed his mother. Marv Wolfman had unleashed the taming of the lord of vampires.

As of Tomb of Dracula #61 (November 1977), the comic went back to bi-monthly publication, and when Tomb of Dracula #68 (February 1979) was published three months after its preceding issue, all was clear. Tomb of Dracula #69 followed the bi-monthly publication sequence again but contained the announcement that the series would be cancelled. Just to what extent Tomb of Dracula had lost favours with a readership which previously had been extremely loyal could be seen from Wolfman's statement that despite plans to wrap up the series over another three books (which would have been Tomb of Dracula # 72) the end would now be compressed into one, double-size issue, making issue #70 the final one. This appeared on the newsagents stands in August 1979, four months after the penultimate issue #69 had been published. But at least, the series bowed out in style, with Wolfman finding back to the roots of the success of Tomb of Dracula with an intensive and atmospheric storyline which ends when Harker puts an end to Dracula by blowing himself up and burying the count underneath the rubble of Castle Dracula. Real-life suicide-bombers were still few and far between in those days, so this ending had a heroic undertone it would not have today.

First off, Tomb of Dracula was the first continuing comic book title which featured a horror genre character both as its leading role and, consequently, as part of its title. From a purely chronological point of view, Marvel's Werewolf by Night preceded Tomb of Dracula #1 by two months; however, the first appearance of the House of Ideas' version of the Wolf-Man took place in February 1972 in Marvel Spotlight #2, one of Marvel's tryout magazines, and the character only gained his own title in September 1972 after appearing in Marvel Spotlight for three issues (see THOUGHT BALLON #7). At that point, Dracula had started out right from the beginning in his own comic book and already starred in four issues of Tomb of Dracula.

Secondly, the launching of Tomb of Dracula took place in the context of Marvel's outing into the world of ghouls, monsters and vampires, which had been kicked off in 1970/71 but really only gathered speed and became one of the most innovative moves in the company's history when Tomb of Dracula appeared on the scene. Having built its success on the newly revived superhero genre since 1961, the House of Ideas was once more bold and clever enough to turn a necessity into virtue when, after almost ten years, the superhero success formula began to show first signs of faltering. Adapting to the new world into which Marvel's comic books were published, the creative teams at work managed to take in as much novelty as needed whilst sticking to certain formulas which seemed essential in order to keep alive Stan Lee's "Marvel Mystique". Eventually covering the genre from wall to wall, Marvel's innovative approach was to infuse it with the underlying principles of the superhero comic book. The "superhero from the crypt" (see THOUGHT BALLON #7) is one of Marvel's milestone contributions not just to the Bronze Age period of the 1970s, but to comic book history as a whole, and the basics of this concept were all tried out and then refined foremost in Tomb of Dracula.

Thirdly, whilst Marvel's range of horror characters and comic book titles played a very substantial and important role in the diversification the House of Ideas underwent as it progressed from the 1960's Silver Age to the 1970's Bronze Age period, the horror genre was not, as publication figures clearly show, an overall Bronze Age period phenomenon: It almost exploded onto the Marvel comic book scene in 1972/73, peaked in 1973/74, was just as swiftly reduced in output quantity by 1975/76 and only played a very minor part in Marvel's output of comic book titles for the remaining years of the 1970s. A mere six years after virtually exploding onto Marvel's production list, the horror genre had completely outlived its market value. But despite such adverse circumstances, Tomb of Dracula continued to soldier own (together with Ghost Rider) as a title which remained popular even though its actual genre had completely fallen from favour, because readers valued it for it was: Marvel's very own and very unique superhero from the crypt - almost a genre of its own. When Tomb of Dracula was finally cancelled after 70 issues in August 1979, the market for comic books had shrunk to an all-time low (Marvel's overall annual sales figures of approximately 5,8 million copies hadn't been as low since 1965 (Tolworthy, AN)), and when the longest running Bronze Age Marvel horror genre title and the "superhero from the crypt" par excellence bowed out, Marvel itself had, in some ways, reached the end of a familiar road: the company's passed from the hands of owner Martin Goodman into those of a series of faceless corporations, Stan Lee departed from the company's NYC offices in order to be closer to the Hollywood "in people", Roy Thomas resigned as Editor-in-Chief, and a new philosophy instigated by Jim Shooter ended the days of free-wheeling experimentation. The end of Tomb of Dracula thus coincided with nothing less than the end of an era in comic book history - an era for which the title had been a highly influential key element.

And fourthly, the new momentum and 21st century revival of Marvel Comics which was triggered by the series of big budget movie adaptations based on the House of Ideas' characters was not started by one of the now newly popular superheroes, but rather by a character from Tomb of Dracula as Blade broke the Hollywood ice for Marvel in 1998.

Tomb of Dracula gained this key importance both for Marvel as a company as well as for the comic book history of the 1970s by being both a creative masterpiece and a revolutionary concept. The title broke new grounds and was far more than just an average vampire tale, as it weaved an ongoing saga which plotted the vampire count against a group of vampire hunters and others who sought to put an end to his existence. Gene Colan and Marv Wolfman achieved a quality of storytelling which was not only in the very best vein of the classic gothic vampire stories but also added their very own stamp of original atmosphere and thematic momentum - which remains fresh and vibrant even 40+ years after it was created and has provided sustained innovation to its medium, the comic book. Tomb of Dracula is a comic book classic beyond its genre, and the jewel in the crown of Marvel's bronze age horror world.

And finally, Tomb of Dracula owes its uniqueness and success to an important shift in focus which Marv Wolfman brought to the title:

"A lot of us back then were trying to break out of comics just for kids, and it was very possible for us to do those things on the non-superhero books, because no one was paying attention. So Roy Thomas could do that on Conan, Steve [Englehart] could do that on Doc Strange and Master of Kung-Fu, [Steve] Gerber could do it on Man-Thing or Howard the Duck, and I could do it on Dracula - and those were the books that I think made the Seventies at Marvel something more than just more of the same type material that Stan had done - which we loved, absolutely loved [...] The idea was for Dracula [...] to try and push comics into other things, other areas, that they had not explored." (Siuntres, 2006)

Together with the intense and atmospheric pencilling of Gene Colan and inking by Tom Palmer, Marv Wolfman's non-conformist comic book approach to Bram Stoker's classic genre character produced yet another classic: The Tomb of Dracula. As is the case with classics, the title has aged very well, and the appeal especially of the first 35 or so issues is, by comic book standards at least, seemingly timeless as both seasoned readers and newcomers revisit them and thrill to the terrors which await them in the Tomb of Dracula.

The illustrations presented here are copyright material.
Their reproduction in this non-commercial context is considered to be fair use.

Text is (c) 2009-2014 Adrian Wymann
page originally published on the web 15 February 2009
revised and last updated 18 March 2014