Tomb of Dracula
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Tomb of Dracula is a horror comic book published by Marvel Comics from April 1972 to August 1979. The 70-issue series featured a group of vampire hunters who fought Count Dracula and other supernatural menaces. On rare occasions, Dracula would work with these vampire hunters against a common threat or battle other supernatural threats on his own, but more often than not, he was the antagonist rather than protagonist. In addition to his supernatural battles in this series, Marvel's Dracula often served as a supervillain to others characters in the Marvel Universe, battling the likes of Spider-Man, Werewolf by Night, and even the licensed Robert E. Howard character Solomon Kane.
The entire run of Tomb of Dracula was penciled by Gene Colan, with Tom Palmer inking virtually all. The first half-dozen issues were written by Gerry Conway, Arnold Drake, and Gardner Fox, but the title did not hit its stride until Marv Wolfman permanently took over the scripting chores on the seventh issue.
The color title was succeeded by a black-and-white magazine that lasted for only six issues. An earlier magazine, Dracula Lives!, ran for two years. The main title was also supplemented by a "Giant-Size" companion quarterly that ran for five issues in the mid-1970s.
Although Dracula (and all other vampires in the Marvel Universe) were eventually destroyed by the mystical "Montesi Formula" in the pages of Doctor Strange, the vampire lord was revived. Marvel published a four-issue Tomb of Dracula miniseries, reuniting Wolfman and Colan, under its Epic Comics imprint in 1991, and revived Dracula and his foes in the short-lived Nightstalkers (comics)|Nightstalkers]] and Blade series in the 1990s. Most recently, Dracula took the title role in the miniseries Dracula: Lord of the Undead.
Marvel published a four-volume, black-and-white Essential Tomb of Dracula collection, with the first three collecting the 70 issues of Tomb of Dracula plus selections from the black-and-white Tomb of Dracula magazine, and the fourth reprinting issues of Dracula Lives and the remainder of the Tomb of Dracula magazine.
Major characters in the Tomb of Dracula mythos:
- Dracula himself
- Dr. Quincy Harker, son of Jonathan and Mina Harker, and leader of the vampire hunters; he died in battle with Dracula.
- Dr. Rachel van Helsing, granddaughter of Abraham van Helsing, and leader of the vampire hunters upon Harker's death; she was turned into a vampire by Dracula and subsequently given a mercy killing by Wolverine of the X-Men.
- Blade, son of a woman bitten by a vampire during pregnancy and a valued, yet reluctant ally to Quincy Harker's band of vampire hunters.
- Frank Drake, descendant of Dracula and charter member of Quincy Harker's vampire hunters. Note: Drake's bloodline is based on one of Dracula's marriages prior to his vampirism.
- Hannibal King, a vampire hunter and PI who is himself a reluctant vampire, frequent partner of Blade & Drake. He subsisted solely on blood he acquired from blood banks or corpses he found. Thus, he has never taken blood directly from a human being. Thus he was able to survive the Montesi formula and be restored to normal human status.
- Taj Nital, a mute Hindu vampire hunter whose son was vampirized, and who was later transformed into a vampire, and destroyed in Nightstalkers #18.
- Lilith, the Daughter of Dracula, an immortal vampire who was cursed to never die until her father was permanently destroyed; when slain, she was reborn into the body of a woman who was full of hate.
- Deacon Frost, the vampire responsible for the death of Blade's mother and Hannibal King's vampirism. He was an upstart contender for the title of Lord of the Vampires, a title held by Dracula at the time.
- Harold H. Harold, a hack writer who befriended the vampire hunters in an effort to get material for a book he was writing. He fell victim to Dracula and became a vampire — though this did not stop him from becoming a successful Hollywood film producer. However, like all vampires, he perished as a result of the casting of the Montesi Formula.
- Anton Lupeski, Satanist priest through whom Dracula manipulated a cult while impersonating Satan.
- Domini, member of Anton Lupeski's cult whom Dracula chose as his bride.
- Janus, the Son of Dracula, who was possessed by an angel
- Varnae, the first vampire (and, at one point, enemy of Conan the Barbarian). He was the Lord of the Vampires prior to Dracula, and although he died in the process of making Dracula his heir, he was later revived.
- Nimrod, the Lord of the Vampires prior to Dracula; he was killed by Dracula in his first appearance, Dracula Lives! #3. When Dracula's origin was revised in Bizarre Adventures #33, Nimrod was no longer the true Lord of the Vampires; instead, he was a mentally imbalanced servant of Varnae who was empowered by his master as a test of Dracula's worthiness.
In 1980, an animated TV movie was made based on Tomb of Dracula. Much of the main plot was condensed and many characters and subplots were truncated or omitted. It was animated in Japan and sparsely released on cable TV in North America by Harmony Gold U.S.A under the title Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned.
External links
- The Unofficial Marvel Appendix profile on Dracula
- Toonopedia Entry
- Enter the Tomb of Dracula
- Photon Torpedoes: Tomb of Dracula Part I: The Best Dracula Ever Made
