The Tomb of Dracula

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Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned
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The Tomb of Dracula
The Tomb of Dracula #1 (April 1972)
Cover art by Neal Adams
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
ScheduleMonthly
FormatOngoing series
Genre
Publication dateApril 1972 – August 1979
No. of issues70
Main character(s)
ISBN 0-7851-0920-X

The Tomb of Dracula is an American

Blade the Vampire Slayer, Spider-Man, the Werewolf, the X-Men, Howard the Duck, and the licensed Robert E. Howard character Solomon Kane
.

Publication history

Original series

In 1971, the Comics Code Authority relaxed some of its longstanding rules regarding horror comics, such as a virtual ban on vampires. Marvel had already tested the waters with a "quasi-vampire" character, Morbius, the Living Vampire, but the company was now prepared to launch a regular vampire title as part of its new line of horror books. After some discussion, it was decided to use the Dracula character,[1] in large part because it was the most famous vampire to the general public, and also because Bram Stoker's creation and secondary characters were by that time in the public domain.

The series suffered from lack of direction for its first year; most significantly, each of the first three issues was plotted by a different writer. Though

Hammer Films - a striking departure from the first issue, which was derivative of Universal's monster movies.[2] Conway then quit the book due to an overabundance of writing assignments,[2] and was replaced by Archie Goodwin with issue #3. Goodwin quit after only two issues, but also made major changes to the series's direction, including the introduction of cast members Rachel Van Helsing and Taj Nital.[2] New writer Gardner Fox took the series in yet another direction, and introduced a romance between Frank Drake and Rachel Van Helsing, which would remain a subplot for the rest of the series. However, Thomas (who had by this time succeeded Lee as the editor of The Tomb of Dracula) felt that Fox's take did not work, and took him off the book after only two issues.[2]

Bram Stoker's Dracula. Gene Colan based his Dracula's appearance on Palance[2]

The title gained stability and hit its stride when

a television production
of Stoker's novel the year after The Tomb of Dracula debuted.

Colan, already one of Marvel's most well-established and prominent artists, said he had lobbied for the assignment.

When I heard Marvel was putting out a Dracula book, I confronted [editor] Stan [Lee] about it and asked him to let me do it. He didn't give me too much trouble but, as it turned out, he took that promise away, saying he had promised it to Bill Everett. Well, right then and there I auditioned for it. Stan didn't know what I was up to, but I spent a day at home and worked up a sample, using Jack Palance as my inspiration and sent it to Stan. I got a call that very day: "It's yours."[4]

Wolfman and Colan developed a bond while working on the series, on which they collaborated closely. Colan recalled, "He'd give me a written plot, but he'd also discuss it with me over the phone. I tended to ask questions, rather than to have him assume I got the idea."[2]

Dracula encountered the Werewolf in a crossover story beginning in The Tomb of Dracula #18 (March 1974) and continuing the same month in Werewolf by Night #15 with both chapters written by Wolfman.[5][6] A brief meeting between Dracula and Spider-Man occurred in the first issue of Giant-Size Spider-Man.[7][8] The Tomb of Dracula #44 featured a crossover story with Doctor Strange #14, another series which was being drawn by Colan at the time.[9][10][11] The Tomb of Dracula ran for 70 issues until August 1979. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "With an unbroken run of seventy issues over the course of more than seven years, Marvel's The Tomb of Dracula was the most successful comic book series to feature a villain as its title character."[12] As cancellation loomed, Wolfman made to wrap up the storyline and lingering threads by issue #72. But Jim Shooter, then the editor-in-chief, retroactively cut two issues after the artwork had been completed for three. As Wolfman recalled,

I think I realized we were doing a finite story and to continue that storyline would have pushed it into repetition. ... I wrote the final three issues and they were drawn. Jim was someone that when he liked you there was nothing he wouldn't do for you, and when he didn't, there was nothing he would do. He and I had butted heads often since I had been editor-in-chief before him ... and I was also the editor of TOD, which rankled him as I didn't have to listen to his ideas. Anyway, I said the stories were done and I needed the room. He gave me a double-sized last issue, I really needed a triple-sized book. I was stuck and had to find a way to cut 14 pages from the printed book. Thank God I hadn't dialogued them all yet, so I cut [up] pages, rearranged stuff then dialogued it so it read smoothly.'[13]

Twelve of those pages, which Wolfman had saved as photocopies, appeared in the hardcover reprint collection The Tomb of Dracula Omnibus Vol. 2. The series culminated with the death of Quincy Harker and Dracula's apparent death and dispersal.

In 2010, Comics Bulletin ranked Wolfman, Colan, and Palmer's run on The Tomb of Dracula fifth on its list of the "Top 10 1970s Marvels".[14]

Dracula Lives!

Main article: Dracula Lives!

A black-and-white magazine,

Marvel Monster Group", ran from 1973 to 1975.[15] Dracula Lives! ran 13 issues plus a reprint Super Annual issue. Running concurrently with Tomb of Dracula, the continuities of the two titles occasionally overlapped, with storylines weaving between the two. Most of the time the stories in Dracula Lives! were stand-alone tales, including a serialized adaptation of the original Bram Stoker novel, in 10- to 12-page installments written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Dick Giordano
.

Giant-Size Dracula

Tomb of Dracula was supplemented by a Giant-Size companion quarterly comic book that ran for five issues in the mid-1970s.[16] Artist John Byrne’s first story for Marvel Comics, "Dark Asylum", was published in Giant-Size Dracula #5 (June 1975).[17]

Black-and-white magazine

The color title Tomb of Dracula was succeeded by another black-and-white magazine, also called The Tomb of Dracula, with stories also drawn by Gene Colan that picked up where the color title left off. It lasted six issues from 1979 to 1980.[18]

Post-series Dracula appearances

Several years later, Dracula encountered the

Blade series in the 1990s. Some unresolved plot threads from The Tomb of Dracula were addressed in the final three issues of Nightstalkers. These included the fates of Dracula's bride Domini, their son Janus
, and vampire-hunter Taj Nital. Dracula took the title role in the miniseries Dracula: Lord of the Undead.

Two more four-issue miniseries followed. Stoker's Dracula continued and concluded the adaptation of the original

Victorian London
.

The Curse of Dracula

Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan returned to Dracula comics with The Curse of Dracula, a three-issue miniseries published in 1998. The miniseries was published by Dark Horse Comics and was not officially associated with Marvel's Dracula series.[25][26] A trade paperback collection was published in 2005.[27]

Major characters

Dracula attempting to "vampirize" Rachel van Helsing in The Tomb of Dracula #40 (January 1976). Art by Gene Colan and Tom Palmer.

Collected editions

Some of the nudity was removed from the fourth volume. Publisher

MAX title. We don't want to take an Essential volume and start calling it MAX; then you get into branding issues."[30] Retailers' opinions on the matter were split.[31]



  • Tomb of Dracula Masterworks Vol 1
  • Marvel Masterworks - Tomb of Dracula Vol. 1 (Marvel Masterworks: The Tomb of Dracula) Hardcover – October 26, 2021
    Volume 1 collects Tomb of Dracula (1972) 1-11; material from Dracula Lives (1973) 1-2 , 320 pages, 2021, Marvel,
    ISBN 978-1302929473

Other media

TV movie

Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned
闇の帝王 吸血鬼ドラキュラ
(Yami no Teiō: Kyūketsuki Dorakyura)
GenreVampire film
Anime television film
Directed byMinoru Okazaki
Produced byYoshiaki Koizumi
Yoshifumi Hatano
Takeyuki Suzuki
Written byTadaaki Yamazaki
Music bySeiji Yokoyama
StudioToei Animation
Licensed byMarvel Entertainment
Original networkTV Asahi
ReleasedAugust 19, 1980
Runtime94 minutes

In 1980, an

television movie based on The Tomb of Dracula was released.[32][33] It was titled Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned[34] (闇の帝王 吸血鬼ドラキュラ, Yami no Teiō: Kyūketsuki Dorakyura, lit. The Emperor of Darkness: The Vampire Dracula). Much of the main plot was condensed and many characters and subplots were truncated or omitted. The film was animated in Japan by Toei and sparsely released on cable TV in North America in 1983 by Harmony Gold dubbed into English[35] under the title Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned. On October 31, 2022, Kineko Video released a remastered 4K scan of the film's original 16mm print.[36]

Voice cast

Character Japanese voice actor English dubbing actor
Dracula Kenji Utsumi Tom Wyner
Domini Hiroko Suzuki Arlene Banas
Janus Kazuyuki Sogabe Max Christian
Quincy Harker
 Yasuo Hisamatsu
Rachel van Helsing
 Mami Koyama Melanie MacQueen
Frank Drake
 Keiichi Noda Dan Woren
Satan
 Hidekatsu Shibata Richard Epcar
Lilith
Reiko Katsura
 Edie Mirman
Anton Lupeski Junpei Takiguchi L. Michael Haller
Torgo
 Yasuo Tanaka[37] Robert V. Barron
Saint Ryō Ishihara
Narrator Ryō Ishihara Robert V. Barron

Film

television series titled Blade: The Series (2006). Other Tomb of Dracula characters, Deacon Frost and Hannibal King, have been featured in these films (Frost in Blade, King in Blade: Trinity), albeit in heavily revised forms. Reference to the Tomb of Dracula series is made in Blade: Trinity
when King shows an issue of the comic to Blade.

Dracula himself does not appear in the series until

Blade
, as well as incredible speed. Like those he sired, he is capable of leaping great distances and seems to be knowledgeable of sword fighting techniques, even rivaling Blade himself. Drake's true power is derived from his origin as the first of his species. The manipulation of energies which led to his first resurrection left Drake with two forms: human and a demonic alter ego. In this form, Drake is much stronger, resilient to all forms of damage and much taller than his human form. He possesses very keen senses, allowing him, for example, to catch an arrow in mid-air.

References

  1. ISBN 978-0756641238
    . Following the revision of the Comics Code, Stan Lee was eager to do a comics series about the archetypal vampire, novelist Bram Stoker's Dracula. Based on a few ideas from Lee, Roy Thomas plotted the first issue of The Tomb of Dracula, which Gerry Conway then scripted. The interior art was penciled by Gene Colan.
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-1893905450
    .
  3. ^ Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 155
  4. ^ Greenberger, Robert. "Inside the Tome of Dracula", Marvel Spotlight: Marvel Zombies Return (2009), p. 27 (unnumbered)
  5. ^ Wolfman, Marv (w), Colan, Gene (p), Palmer, Tom (i). "Enter: Werewolf by Night" The Tomb of Dracula, no. 18 (March 1974).
  6. ^ Wolfman, Marv (w), Ploog, Mike (p), Chiaramonte, Frank (i). "Death Of A Monster!" Werewolf by Night, no. 15 (March 1974).
  7. ISBN 978-0756692360
    . With this first in a series of oversized specials for the wall-crawler, Spider-Man met the most famous vampire of all when he crossed paths with Dracula.
  8. ^ Wein, Len (w), Andru, Ross (p), Heck, Don (i). "Ship of Fiends" Giant-Size Spider-Man, no. 1 (July 1974).
  9. ^ Wolfman, Marv (w), Colan, Gene (p), Palmer, Tom (i). "His Name Is Doctor Strange" The Tomb of Dracula, no. 44 (May 1976).
  10. ^ Englehart, Steve (w), Colan, Gene (p), Palmer, Tom (i). "The Tomb of Dr. Strange!" Doctor Strange, vol. 2, no. 14 (May 1976).
  11. ^ Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 175: "The great Marvel artist Gene Colan was doing superb work illustrating both Doctor Strange and The Tomb of Dracula. So it made sense for Strange writer Steve Englehart and Tomb author Marv Wolfman to devise a crossover story."
  12. ISBN 9780810938212
    .
  13. ^ Greenberger, p. 31 (unnumbered)
  14. ^ Sacks, Jason (September 6, 2010). "Top 10 1970s Marvels". Comics Bulletin. Archived from the original on August 1, 2013. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
  15. ^ Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 159: "Marvel added to its black-and-white magazine line with this anthology of stories about the vampire lord Dracula."
  16. ^ a b c Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 165: "Dracula won his own double-sized quarterly comic, Giant-Size Chillers, which became Giant-Size Dracula with its second issue in September. Issue #1 introduced Lilith, Dracula's daughter."
  17. ^ Isabella, Tony (May 4, 2001). "Tony's Tips". Comics Buyer's Guide (1433). Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications. Retrieved September 14, 2012.
  18. ^ The Tomb of Dracula magazine at the Grand Comics Database
  19. The Uncanny X-Men
    , no. 159 (July 1982).
  20. ^ a b Claremont, Ch (w), Sienkiewicz, Bill (p), Wiacek, Bob (i). "Blood Feud!" X-Men Annual, no. 6 (1982).
  21. ^ a b Stern, Roger (w), Leialoha, Steve (p), Leialoha, Steve (i). "Deliver Us from Evil" Doctor Strange, vol. 2, no. 62 (December 1983).
  22. ^ Tomb of Dracula (Epic Comics) at the Grand Comics Database
  23. ^ Weiland, Jonah (September 30, 2004). "30 Years of Horror: Editor Beazley talks the return of Stoker's Dracula". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on September 5, 2011. Retrieved September 5, 2011.
  24. ^ Koshy, Nithin D (May 15, 2012). "Dracula can never be buried". The New Indian Express. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  25. ^ Latta, D. K. (2005). "Pulp and Dagger Graphic Novel Review The Curse of Dracula". Pulpanddagger.com. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved December 31, 2012. [Wolfman and Colan] were at Dark Horse Comics which meant that, although they could use Dracula (as he's in the public domain) they had to create a new supporting cast, and even reinvent their titular villain himself so as not to rouse Marvel's lawyers.
  26. ^ The Curse of Dracula at the Grand Comics Database
  27. ^ The Curse of Dracula trade paperback at the Grand Comics Database
  28. ^ Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 156: "Created by writer Archie Goodwin and artist Gene Colan, the blonde vampire slayer Rachel van Helsing debuted in The Tomb of Dracula #3."
  29. ^ Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 160: "Early in their collaboration on The Tomb of Dracula, writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan co-created Blade, a black man who stalked and killed vampires with the wooden blades after which he named himself."
  30. ^ "Interview with Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley, Pt. 3". ICV2.com. November 27, 2006. Archived from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  31. ^ Rogers, Vaneta (October 3, 2002). "Talking Shop: Age Appropriate?". Newsarama. Archived from the original on November 26, 2006. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  32. ISBN 978-0823079360
    .
  33. ^ Sanderson, Peter (September–October 1981). "The Dead Yet Move: Toei's Animated Tomb of Dracula Movie". Comics Feature (12/13). New Media Publishing: 58.
  34. ^ Sevakis, Justin (June 4, 2009). "Buried Garbage - Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on October 21, 2010. Retrieved March 19, 2011.
  35. ^ Lyons, Kevin (August 16, 2009). "Yami no Toei Kyuketsuki Dracula (1980)". Eofftv.com. Archived from the original on December 31, 2012. Retrieved January 8, 2011.
  36. ^ McEneaney, Liam (October 31, 2022). "One of Marvel's most notorious horror outings receives full restoration for free viewing on Halloween". We Got This Covered. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  37. ^ "Emperor of Darkness Dracula". Spider-Man blog (in Japanese). June 14, 2008. Archived from the original on May 3, 2010. Retrieved December 31, 2012. English language translation from Google Translate

External links

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