I’ve always thought that Marvel Comics Horror titles were heavily influenced by the Hammer Horror films of the 1960’s and 70’s. These films were far edgier, darker and funkier than the staid Universal Horror films created in the states.
Don’t misunderstand, I totally dig Bela Legosi and Boris Karloff, but Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing had a lot going for them in films that pushed the envelope for horror films in ways that many movie goers never thought possible.
In much the same vein, Marvel Comics had decided after the success of Morbius the Living Vampire to go all out and publish The Tomb of Dracula. All 70 issues of the series were drawn by veteran delineator Gene Colan and inked by sweet Tom Palmer (his Avengers run with Buscema still fills me with fanboy glee). Marv Wolfman worked on nearly the entire series, bring Dracula to the Marvel Universe in a big way.
Dracula himself was larger than life and fought the tights-wearing fun-lovers of Marvel such as Spider-Man, The X-Men and many others but what many remember more than the lead character is the supporting cast, chiefly Blade (pictured below).
The classic jive-talkin’ goggled version of Blade may seem rather dated and ‘groovy’ by today’s standards, but the vampire hunters who fought the Lord of Vampires really took center stage. It’s a testament to the quality and uniqueness of Marvel Comics as a company that they could take a series like Tomb of Dracula and flesh it out.
The series enjoyed a revived interest thanks to the popular reprint series Essential Marvel which reprinted the entire 70 issue series, the black and white magazine stories and other material. Marvel discovered that there was still interest in the character, so they wrapped up loose ends in the series with a new story by the classic team of Wolfman and Colan, much to every readers enjoyment.
A comic series that was rife with the vibe of 70’s Horror, Tomb of Dracula is a milestone in mainstream horror comics. Not only was the series painstakingly produced by a devoted creative team, but enjoys the following of classic and new fans thanks to the reprint books.
When looking for a good horror comic to read, you’re hard pressed to top this one.
Recommended reading:
Essential Tomb of Dracula, Vol. 1 (Marvel Essentials)
Essential Tomb of Dracula, Vol. 2 (Marvel Essentials)
Essential Tomb of Dracula, Vol. 3 (Marvel Essentials)
Essential Tomb of Dracula, Vol. 4 (Marvel Essentials)
Marvel Milestones: Blade, Man-Thing & Satana
