November 17, 2005
Lilith: Ungrateful Daughter of Dracula!
Successful comic-book characters nearly always demand a female doppelganger: Spider-Woman, She-Hulk, Supergirl, Batgirl, etc. Dracula was so popular in the 70s that Marvel spun off Lilith, his undead daughter, in a series of tales. They were scattered around various hard to find magazines, but fear not—I’ve got them all here!
Lilith debuted in Giant-Size Chillers #1, in a Dracula story by the regular team of Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan. The cover is by John Romita, so I must assume that he created the costume. For a female vampire, a sexy costume is a given, and this skin-tight number with a cleavage split certainly is appealing. I don’t care for that tiara—did Lilith die after winning a beauty pagent? In a way, this costume is almost the inverse of Vampirella’s red-strap band-aid outfit.
Lilith isn’t your usual garden variety vampire. In the first few pages, we see her soul rise from the grave. She’s summoned by the hatred that another woman, Angel O’Hara, feels for her father—who has just killed her husband.
It all goes back to before Dracula was a vampire. He was forced to marry Lilith’s mother. As soon as he can, Dracula dumps his first wife by threatening to have her impaled. Nowadays this would get you locked up for a long time, but back then Transylvania was a man’s paradise.
Lilith is taken to a gypsy, who raises the girl after the mother commits suicide. After Dracula becomes a vampire, he kills all the gypsies he can find—including this lady’s brother. In retaliation, she puts a whammy of a curse on Lilith to punish Drac. Lilith will be a vampire, but never fear the cross or the sun. If Lilith dies, she’ll be reborn in the body of a woman who wishes death to her own father.
Nothing much happens in Lilith’s first appearance. She tracks down Dracula, they take in a soccer game together, and Drac spurns her offer to rule the world together. From there, I had to hunt the black and white magazines to find Lilith’s adventures: Vampire Tales #6, Dracula Lives 10 & 11, Marvel Preview 12 & 16. Her solo tales contained 70s elements that are extremely kitsch thirty years later.
Marv Wolfman plotted the first solo outing in Vampire Tales #6, while Steve Gerber finished the scripting. We meet Martin Blank, an unpublished writer who lives in Greenwich Village, at the very same moment that his common-law wife is being murdered. Martin, who is innocent, is taken into custody by the police. He is released in a few hours after the same M.O. (axe murderer) is repeated in another part of the city.
What would you do in the first twenty-four hours after your common-law wife was murdered? Commit suicide? Drink yourself to death? Cry? Martin does none of the above—he goes to a bookstore and picks up Angel O’Hara.
You can’t blame Martin—Angel is a knockout and she’s probably using Lilith’s hypnotic powers underneath those blue eyes. Angel goes home with Martin and says: “I want you, Martin…here…now…with no strings, no commitments. Fair enough?” Yeah, baby, yeah! If Donald Trump knew women like you, he’d be $20 million richer.
Martin knows how to treat a lady with class. After some sex to take away the mourning, he goes out to get some burgers and fries, leaving Angel in his apartment. She gets naked and takes a shower, just like in any slasher flick—a nice lure for the axe murderer. Angel turns into Lilith, sucks him dry, and disposes of the body. When Martin returns, Angel says “I hope you ordered my burger with lots of ketchup.”
This black and white series allowed Martin's relationship with Angel to progress. Angel reveals her pregnancy to Martin, who sweetly takes it in stride and vows to help raise her child. He gives up his writing dreams long enough to work at a bookstore. The owner tells him to see a book (The Dirty Chateau) that is wrapped in cellophane. Martin assumes it to be related to sex, but it turns out to be full of heroin. Martin is jailed, but Lilith
Here’s the most unbelievable thing about the Lilith\Angel dichotomy: we clearly see that Angel is pregnant, with a modest bust. When she changes into Lilith, her bust expands about three sizes and her tummy is perfectly flat! I think many women would love this curse. Lilith clearly has a hatred for men—in this scene she goes to a bar to beat up some bikers who hate Joni Mitchell.
As Tomb of Dracula told its final story arc, Lilith made one last appearance in issue 67 of the color comic. Dracula, robbed of his vampiric powers by Satan, tracks down Lilith in Greenwich Village. He hopes that his daughter will turn him back into a vampire. Being an ungrateful bitch, Lilith takes advantage of the opportunity to attack her father and revels in unleashing her powers upon Dracula. At the conclusion, Lilith lets him go very easily: “Look at the fool run—well, let him! Wherever he goes, I shall find him.” She just can’t bear to exist without ol big Daddy Drac.
Lilith was definitely one of the weirdest horror series from Marvel. She hated all men as much as her father, although Angel’s love for Martin seemed to carry over. I thought the dual Angel\Lilith psyche split was interesting—the same device was used in DC’s series The Rose and the Thorn. It would have been interesting to see this developed further. What would happen when Angel delivered the baby and she moves to the suburbs with Martin? Nuff said.
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Posted by Kid Flash at 2:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)November 8, 2005
Homer Simpson: Vampire Slayer With Holy Beer
Fear-fans will probably want to pick up the latest “Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Terror” from Bongo Comics. The parodies in this issue have A-list talent. Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson did a story called “Squish Thing.” Homer gets transformed into a muck monster through his greatest weakness: beer.
The story by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan is an homage to their great Tomb of Dracula series. You will see how Bart’s family fills out the roles of the vampire slayers. Homer is Quincy Harker and Lisa is Rachel Van Helsing. Colan’s art makes Bart look almost three dimensional in some scenes.
John Severin does some quality work on another tale. I love Severin. I wish Mark Millar would write the granddaddy of all westerns for Severin to illustrate. Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)November 1, 2005
Marv Wolfman on Dracula podcast
Dracula lives again, over on Comic Geek Speak Podcast. Essential Tomb of Dracula was the book of the month subject for discussion. Marv Wolfman drops into the podcast about 13 minutes into the show and discusses his work on the series. I gained some new tidbits of information: the comics code objected strenuously whenever Dracula talked to the painting of Jesus in the abandoned church. Wolfman resisted the guest appearances of any superhero other than Silver Surfer and Dr. Strange.
I like this podcast, they have special guests from time to time, although the shows run a bit too long. Check it out! Nuff said.
Link: Comic Geek Speak Podcast
Posted by Adam Warlock at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)October 9, 2005
Tomb of Dracula Part II: Dracula Spreads His Wings
In the 1970s, Marvel’s growth was hampered by distribution problems. For years, they were distributing titles through DC Comics, which limited their output. When Marvel switched to Curtis distribution, we saw an explosion in the number of monthly comics being produced. One category for that expansion was horror. When the Tomb of Dracula became a best-seller, Marvel selected that character for their foray into black and white magazines. Dracula Lives! debuted in 1973, racked next to Warren’s Vampirella and Creepy.
The first issue with the Boris Vallejo cover had spotty distribution; I never got a copy until just a few years ago on EBay. Unlike the color comic, which took place in 1970s London, the magazine sought to distinguish itself in two ways. For the first few issues, there was one story which took place in the present-day United States. The other stories were more of an anthology, designed to pick up casual readers who usually didn’t buy Marvel comics. Dracula was a natural for this vehicle. Perhaps taking a cue from Marv Wolfman’s special diaries issue of TOD, Marvel quickly spun a mythology around the character, using him in various time periods since the events of Bram Stoker’s novel. We saw Dracula during the time of the Nazis, fighting Count Cagliostro, in Versailles at the Sun King’s court, and in the American Wild West.
One of the better time-lost stories was Dracula vs Solomon Kane, written by Roy Thomas. The latter story featured beautiful artwork by Alan Weiss (click to expand his splash page above). Kane (a creation of Robert E. Howard), a swordsman with a puritanical streak, is rescued by Dracula and receives an invitation to stay at the castle. When Dracula’s ladies of the night fail to seduce him, Kane and Dracula duel to the death. Dracula survives the encounter only by calling upon Kane's devout sense of honor.
I started collecting Dracula Lives with the second issue. The splash page to the lead story (click to expand) was unforgettable. It was the origin of Dracula, written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Neal Adams. While this may be common knowledge now (this version has been ripped off many times in movies), at the time it was shocking to see Dracula, in command of his Romanian army, getting impaled on the battlefield. Torac, the Turk commander of the opposing force, brings Dracula to a gypsy healer, who turns out to be a vampire. When Dracula awakes in a prison cell, he’s unaware of what has happened to him. Torac threatens to kill Dracula’s wife (Maria) and son (Vlad JR) unless he orders his remaining forces to surrender. 
With a sword ready to decapitate Maria, Dracula capitulates. However, when left alone with his wife, Maria tearfully tells Dracula that she was gang-banged by Turkish soldiers while he was in a coma. The Turk storms in and throws Maria to the stone floor, killing her. Dracula snaps. Using his newfound vampiric powers, he breaks his bonds and sucks the blood out of the Turk. Again, Wolfman succeeded in writing a story where Dracula was the hero. Neal Adams rendered the story effectively (if you’re an Adams fan you will have to get this), really making you feel the shock at the death of Dracula’s wife.
In Dracula Lives 3, the storyline of Dracula’s origin was continued (click to expland the page above). After a brief recap, which includes seeing Dracula’s child left in the care of gypsies (leaving a bloodline that will descend to Frank Drake in TOD), we see Dracula challenging the current leader of the vampires—Nimrod. The worst name for any villain in comics. Nimrod demands Dracula’s allegiance, but how can he bow to a man with that name? He refuses to bow to any man in any capacity—in this sense, Dracula resembles Conan. After some turmoil, he fights Nimrod, wins, and becomes the King of the Vampires.
Dracula Lives survived for thirteen issues, plus an Annual full of reprints. The quality was best in the first four or five issues; after that it dropped off. Wolfman was preoccupied with color comics and did not contribute after Dracula’s origin. Other writers seemed to have trouble coming up with new locales and time periods. Roy Thomas and Dick Giordiano adapted Bram Stoker’s novel, which was recently finished and collected.
In 1974, Marvel decided to launch a series of over-sized color comics. They were designed to have special tales, in current continuity, and appear every quarter. Dracula received his due in Giant-Size Chillers #1. This had an excellent tale, written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Gene Colan, featuring Dracula’s daughter, Lilith. (I’ll cover Lilith in a future article.) It’s worth noting that Marvel abandoned the Chillers title (meant to feature a rotating series of horror stars) and it was named Giant-Size Dracula with issue #2. Again, the later stories had varying quality as Wolfman/Colan didn’t do them.
It’s hard for us to imagine how popular the non-superhero titles were in the 1970s. Dracula, Conan, Ghost Rider, and Howard the Duck were all giants back in the day. When Marvel released Giant-Size Spider-Man, they decided to make it a team-up title. But it needed to be team-ups that were extra special, as Spidey already had Marvel Team-Up. Thus, Dracula became the guest star for the first issue in the most unlikely pairing ever made. The writer, Gerry Conway, devised a plot where Peter Parker and Dracula needed to be on a cruise ship in search of a MacGuffin. Dracula and Parker run into each other (sans costume), but there’s never a fight between the two characters. The emphasis is on a mystery that both characters are trying to solve.
Back in Tomb of Dracula, even Wolfman wouldn’t be able to resist having Dracula interact with the Marvel Universe. It happened twice—one event was superb, the other one was pointless. Dracula met Dr. Strange in a mystical battle for his very survival. It was a tale that crossed-over to Dr. Strange’s title. This team-up was almost mandated by the fact that the Colan/Palmer art team also worked on Dr. Strange. The battle ended in a bizarre draw—Dr. Strange thought he had killed Dracula by searing the flesh from his bones. But in TOD 45, we saw the Dracula had hypnotized Strange into believing that he was dead.
The most controversial guest star appeared in TOD #50, where Dracula fought the Silver Surfer. In this period of time, the Surfer made very rare appearances. Stan Lee had an exclusive claim on the character. To use him even as a guest star, a writer had to solicit Lee’s approval. Wolfman chose to use the Silver Surfer in Lee’s preferred mode—as a Christ-like character. He served this up straight, having the Surfer fly through a painting of Jesus in order to reach Dracula. The battle itself was pointless. The Silver Surfer could wipe out Dracula in a few seconds, but he was hypnotized by a magician and stumbled while Dracula swatted him around. It was merely an empty way to celebrate 50 issues, as the Surfer flew off, believing that Dracula would be smitten down by a higher authority.
After the Dracula craze died and TOD was cancelled, other writers could not resist using the character. X-Men Annual 6 featured Dracula as he took on Marvel’s merry mutants. Dracula had lots of fun seducing Storm, and there’s a lesbian-subtext moment where Storm wants to turn Kitty into a vampire. This unfortunate story turned Rachel Van Helsing (one of the key vampire hunters) into a vampire. Wolverine stakes Rachel and gives her eternal peace. Lilith also makes an appearance.
Dracula’s big swan song in the Marvel Universe came when Roger Stern embarked on a multi-part storyline in Dr. Strange V2, Master of the Mystic Arts 56-62. Strange went on a quest to retrieve the Darkhold (a mystical tome often referred to in Werewolf by Night). The Darkhold contained spells that would annihilate the entire race of vampires forever. Naturally, Dracula opposed Strange but it ended badly for Vlad. Vampires were eradicated and Hannibal King turned into a human being. This was a result of Marvel’s editorial thinking at the time—vampires (and other ghoulies) had no place in the Marvel Universe. Eventually they would return, but with far weaker storytelling.
In his own title, Dracula had a much better ending (click to expand the above image). With issue 70, Marvel knew the series was ending and gave Wolfman/Colan a double-size issue to finish off their story. Quincy Harker faced off against Dracula for one final time, alone in his castle. The series had a nice conclusion, wrapping up most of the sub plots and ending the stories of the vampire hunters. In a way, Dracula was the first maxi-series, one that had a beginning, middle, and end. Vertigo series, such as Sandman or Preacher, would also allow their stories to end after 60-70 issues.
Dracula’s Marvel story is typical of many great characters in popular culture. They start with an excellent series guided by a skillful team of creators. Then the character gets spun off into multiple titles or guest appearances which water down the character’s strengths. As time goes on, even the lead creator may succumb to using the character in ways they should not (although in this case, Wolfman only stumbled once or twice; his entire run is well worth reading). And then, because of misuse, or simply the passing of an era, the character fades away. But they are always remembered by fanboys. Nuff said.
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Posted by Adam Warlock at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)October 4, 2005
Tomb of Dracula Part I: The Best Dracula Ever Made
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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Posted by Adam Warlock at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
