By Tomb of Dracula Part I: The Best Dracula Ever Made
Marvel Comics marched into the horror decade with Tomb of Dracula. At various times, this (along with Conan) was the #1 selling comic during the 70s. I would argue that Dracula has never been contemporized as well in any form of popular media.
The cover to Tomb of Dracula #1 was by Neal Adams. Gerry Conway wrote the script, and Gene Colan started a penciling run that would last 70 issues without any fill-ins. Dracula was the perfect subject for Colan. Colan was an artist with skills for drawing everyday scenes of life. He used the side of his pencil to create shades and textures unlike any other penciller before or after. When he joined up with Tom Palmer, he had an inker that was capable of rendering all these shadows with ink and color. Colan was a true original, in the vein of Kirby and Kane. His panel layout departed for the usual four, six, nine panel grid to create helter skelter movement across the page.
TOD was unique in that a villain, with plans to conquer the world with vampire hordes, was the main character. He needed a supporting cast, a group of vampire slayers who would oppose him. Quincy Harker, a descendant of Jonathan Harker from the Bram Stoker novel, had suffered a crippling accident as a result of fighting Dracula. He went around in a wheelchair armed with stakes and other gizmos. Harker was joined by his daughter, Edith; Rachel Van Helsing (a descendant of Abraham Van Helsing), his ward; Frank Drake (Dracula’s human descendant); Taj, a mute Sikh who had his throat ripped by Dracula in India. Rachel, with her blond good looks and crossbow, may have been a prototype for Buffy.
The series suffered through a succession of writers until Marv Wolfman came aboard with issue #7. With his arrival, Dracula began acting in a more intelligent manner, as did his opposition. In issue #10, there was the first appearance of Blade. This was a time when the black hero was emerging in popular culture. In the movies, we had Shaft. With Marvel superheroes, we just met Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. In this pack, Blade truly stood out, taking on Dracula single-handed, armed with a set of stakes and his instincts. At first he shunned joined Harker’s crew, and then later gave in to the inevitable.
The storyline that kicked off in issue #12, “Night of the Screaming House” was unlike any serial that I had ever read up to that point. Dracula is tired of Harker’s interference and kidnaps Edith. He lures both Harker’s crew and Blade to a deserted mansion filled with death traps. The vampire hunters survive Dracula’s attacks, only to find that Edith is now a vampire. Quincy stakes his own daughter and vows to kill Dracula once and for all.
Issue #13, “To Kill A Vampire”, continues the story. Quincy shuts down his remorse, cremates Edith, and goes back on the hunt for Dracula. In a flashback we learn of Blade’s origin: the white-haired vampire (Deacon Frost) who killed his mother when she was in labor. We also see a sub-plot forming about Dr. Sun, who wreaks havoc later in issue 20. The vampire slayers track down Dracula’s coffin and attack just before sunrise, preventing his escape. Blade gets lucky and stakes Dracula in the heart on the very last page.
In issue #14, “Dracula is Dead”. As a kid, this series seemed the most unpredictable: a supporting cast member died, and then the titular hero died! Anyone could die at any time. Compared to most superhero comics, where hardly anyone ever died (except for Spider-Man with Capt. Stacy and Gwen Stacy), this was revolutionary. 
Quincy wants to sever Dracula’s head immediately. But a horde of Dracula’s human slaves storm the house, and carry off Dracula in his coffin. The slaves are fairly mindless, having been hypnotized by Dracula a while ago and subject to his last mental command to spirit his body away. At some point, the hypnotism wears off and they dump the coffin in a field, where it is discovered by a preacher named Josiah Dawn.
Josiah wants people to believe that he can bring the dead back to life, so he removes the stake from Dracula’s chest during a revival meeting. Too late, Josiah realizes what he has unleashed. He tries to use the power of the cross against Dracula. Religious symbols only work against vampires if you are a sincere, devout believer. The resulting dialogue between Dracula and Josiah is an indictment against phony evangelicals. “It isn’t God whom you follow, whose word you heed—NO! It’s your own twisted hate, your own mindless venom!” Later: “…Where you looked to others for guidance, Dracula seeks only himself. For the strength of any, be they living or undead, rests only in themselves.” Click to expand the image above to see this confrontation.
In a nutshell, that was the strength of the series. At times you rooted for Quincy Harker, Blade, and all the rest. At other times, your sympathies were with Dracula. He had a noble, old-world spirit that you could respect. He didn’t always go after his enemies head-on—some of his plots involved luring his enemies away to foreign countries. He often commented on modern society: women’s rights, organized sports, politics, etc. There were special issues taken from Dracula’s journal, usually after a cataclysmic event had been resolved. These issues went into Dracula’s past to explain more about his character. The first of these was issue #15, where Dracula revealed how he died prior to issue #1. Another standout was issue #30, “Memories on a Mourning Night”, where we witnessed Blade’s first confrontation with Dracula in China. The best flashback dealt with Dracula killing a blind little girl’s father (click to expand the image above). She wails helplessly, but Dracula doesn’t understand. The father murdered his wife; Dracula executed vengeance, so why isn’t the child happy?
One more supporting player was waiting to be introduced. Hannibal King was introduced in a fine story in issue #25, “Night of the Blood Stalker”. King is a private detective who takes on a case to investigate a missing husband, killed by a vampire. King runs into Dracula a couple of times during the investigation, but we see that Dracula knows something special. On the last page, we discover that King is a vampire. A vampire on the side of good, devoted to taking down Dracula—in some ways, this was the forerunner of Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In a subtle reference to King’s origin, we learn that he shares history with Blade: Deacon Frost turned King into a vampire.
With a strong supporting cast and a well established series of sub plots like Doctor Sun and Deacon Frost, Tomb of Dracula was poised for a long and successful run. In Part II, I’ll discuss how Dracula went beyond his own comic book.
Tomb of Dracula Links:
http://www.toonopedia.com/dracula.htm
http://members.aol.com/MikeRickrd/tod.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Dracula
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