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 Blade, Spider-Man, Werewolf by Night, the X-Men, and even the licensed Robert E. Howard character Solomon Kane. Marvel Comics (Stan Lee is behind many of the superheros) is an American comic book line published by Marvel Publishing, Inc. ... In comic books, first appearance refers to first comic book to feature a character. ... The Legion of the Unliving is a name used by five fictional groups in the Marvel Comics universe. ... The Defenders was a comic book series about a loosely-organized team of superheroes in the Marvel Comics universe. ... Alternate meaning: Dracula (orchid genus) Dracula is a fictional character, arguably the most famous vampire in fiction. ... Horror fiction is, broadly, fiction in any medium intended to scare, unsettle, or horrify the reader. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Marvel Comics (Stan Lee is behind many of the superheros) is an American comic book line published by Marvel Publishing, Inc. ... Vampires are fictional characters found in the Marvel Universe. ... Alternate meaning: Dracula (orchid genus) Dracula is a fictional character, arguably the most famous vampire in fiction. ... Look up Supernatural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A vampire hunter or vampire slayer is someone who specializes in finding and destroying vampires and sometimes other creatures of dark fantasy as well. ... An antagonist is a character or group of characters, or, sometimes an institution of a happening who represents the opposition against which the hero(es) or protagonist(s) must contend. ... A protagonist is the central figure of a story. ... Doctor Doom, one of the most archetypal supervillains and his arch-enemies The Fantastic Four (in background). ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Blade (Eric Brooks) is a fictional superhero. ... Spider-Man swinging around his hometown, New York City. ... Werewolf by Night (birth name Jacob Russoff, legal name Jack Russell) is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe. ... The X-Men are a group of comic book superheroes featured in Marvel Comics. ... Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936)[1] was a classic American pulp writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, boxing, western, and detective fiction. ... Solomon Kane is a fictional character created by the pulp-era writer Robert E. Howard. ...

Publication history

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, 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, 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 seal of the Comics Code Authority, which appears on the covers of approved comic books. ... Adventure into Fear #20 (February, 1974). ... Abraham Bram Stoker (November 8, 1847–April 20, 1912) was an Irish writer, best remembered as the author of the influential horror novel Dracula. ...

The entire run of Tomb of Dracula was penciled by Gene Colan, with Tom Palmer inking virtually all (although Gil Kane drew many of the covers for the first few years, as he did for many other Marvel titles). Colan based the visual appearance of Marvel's Dracula not on Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, or any other actor who had played the vampire on film, but rather on actor Jack Palance. Ironically, Palance would himself go on to play Dracula in a television production of Stoker's novel the year after ToD debuted. In producing a comic book, the penciller (or penciler) draws the comic based on the script created by the writer. ... Gene Colan (born September 1, 1926, the Bronx, New York City, New York) is an American comic book artist who sometimes worked under the name Adam Austin. ... Tom Palmer is the name of several notable individuals, including: Tom G. Palmer, senior fellow at the Cato Institute who holds a D.Phil. ... The inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional comic book, or graphic novel. ... Showcase #22 (Oct. ... Bela Lugosi as Dracula United States stamp. ... Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE (born May 27, 1922 in Belgravia, London) is a legendary and prolific English actor known for his versatility, his professional longevity, and his distinctive basso delivery. ... Jack Palance, (born Volodymyr Palanyuk (Ukr: Володимир Паланюк))on February 18, 1919, in Hazle Township, Pennsylvania, USA), is an Academy Award-winning American actor. ...

At first, ToD was plagued by an inability to keep a steady writer, with the first half-dozen issues written by Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, and Gardner Fox. But the title gained stability and hit its stride when Marv Wolfman became permanent scripter on the seventh issue. Gerard F. Gerry Conway (September 10, 1952 - ) is an American writer of comic books and television shows. ... The name Archie Goodwin can refer to: Archie Goodwin, the fictional detective character created by Rex Stout. ... Gardner Francis Fox (May 20, 1911, Brooklyn, New York – December 24, 1986) was an American writer best known for writing comic books and co-creating numerous comics characters, especially for DC Comics. ... Cover to Crisis on Infinite Earths #1, which was written by Wolfman. ...

The color title was succeeded by a black-and-white magazine that lasted six issues. An earlier magazine, Dracula Lives!, ran for two years. The color comic was also supplemented by a "Giant-Size" companion quarterly that ran for five issues in the mid-1970s.

Tomb of Dracula ran for seventy issues, until 1979. As cancellation loomed, plans were made to wrap up the storyline and lingering threads by issue #72. However, when management decided at the 11th Hour to terminate the title with #70 instead, the final three issues' worth of story and art had to be compressed into one double-sized book.

Several years later, Dracula resurfaced in an issue of The Uncanny X-Men. However, in appearance, this lord of the undead did not much resemble the Dracula of old, and there remains some discussion among fans over whether or not this was the same Dracula as had appeared in ToD. Although Wolfman and Colan's version had been established as inhabiting the regular Marvel Universe (and battling such super-heroes as Spider-Man and Doctor Strange), there are some who feel that the redesign of the character in the X-Men story was an attempt to establish that the ToD version lived in his own alternate universe, apart from the mainstream Marvel world and characters. The X-Men are a group of comic book superheroes featured in Marvel Comics. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Spider-Man swinging around his hometown, New York City. ... Doctor Strange is a fictional character, a comic book sorcerer and superhero in the Marvel Comics Marvel universe. ... Parallel universe or alternate reality in science fiction and fantasy is a self-contained separate reality coexisting with our own. ...

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 and Blade series in the 1990s. Most recently, Dracula took the title role in the miniseries Dracula: Lord of the Undead. Doctor Strange is a fictional character, a comic book sorcerer and superhero in the Marvel Comics Marvel universe. ... Epic Comics was a creator-owned imprint of Marvel Comics started in 1982, lasting through the mid-1990s, and being briefly revived on a small scale in the mid-2000s. ... The Nightstalkers is a fictional trio in the Marvel Comics universe who had reluctantly banded together to fight occult and supernatural threats. ... Blade (Eric Brooks) is a fictional superhero. ...

In 2004, 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 the comics stories from Dracula Lives and the remainder of the stories from the Tomb of Dracula magazine. Following the success of these reprints, Dracula returned in three new four-issue miniseries. Stoker's Dracula continued and concluded the adaptation of Dracula that had begun in Dracula Lives twenty years prior, and a new Tomb of Dracula miniseries followed, in which Blade joined a new team of vampire hunters to prevent Dracula achieving godhood. Apocalypse vs. Dracula featured Dracula battling the immortal foe of the X-Men in Victorian London.

Some unresolved plot threads from 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. The Nightstalkers is a fictional trio in the Marvel Comics universe who had reluctantly banded together to fight occult and supernatural threats. ...

Powers and Abilities

Dracula possesses far greater powers than most vampires. He has superhuman strength, speed, stamina, agility, and reflexes, and is immune to aging, conventional disease, and most forms of injury. He ignores most assaults and regenerates damaged tissue rapidly; however, he must drink blood regularly to survive, and is vulnerable to silver, garlic, sunlight, a wooden stake through the heart, and religious symbols (whose threat is related to the strength of faith of their wielder, provided said religion existed during his human life) and other magic items, such as the Bloodgem. Certain spells, such as the Montesi Formula, can destroy Dracula; however, in all circumstances of apparent destruction, Dracula has been revived by some means. If Dracula fatally drains a victim, that person will arise in three days as a vampire. Dracula can control others; command animals such as rats, bats, and wolves; command other vampires (with limited exceptions); transform into a bat (normal or human size), wolf, or mist (partially or fully); and summon thunderstorms. Dracula does not cast reflections, and he usually cannot enter a house without being invited. His powers have sometimes been greatly amplified and his weaknesses circumvented by magical sources, such as spells of the Darkholders.

Dracula is a skilled combatant and swordsman, specializing in 15th-century warfare and military strategy.

Major characters

• 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 private investigator 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, in a parody of Interview with the Vampire, 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 (in Howard the Duck Magazine #5) — 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, a Satanist priest through whom Dracula manipulated a cult while impersonating Satan.

Dracula attempting to vampirize Rachel van Helsing in Tomb of Dracula #40

• Domini, a member of Anton Lupeski's cult whom Dracula chose as his bride.
• Janus, the son of Dracula and Domini, who was possessed by an angel. He was returned to his child form, and at age five was kidnapped by the vampire Varnae (in the backstory of Nightstalkers #16-18).
• 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. He was inspired by the 19th century character Varney the Vampire.
• Nimrod, another Lord of the Vampires prior to Dracula, who killed him in Nimrod's 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, and had been empowered by his master as a test of Dracula's worthiness.

Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary character the vampire Count Dracula. ... Professor Abraham Van Helsing is a fictional character in Bram Stokers 1897 novel, Dracula. ... For other uses, see Wolverine (disambiguation). ... The X-Men are a group of comic book superheroes featured in Marvel Comics. ... Blade (Eric Brooks) is a fictional superhero. ... Frank Drake is a fictional character appearing in Marvel Comics, most notably the Tomb of Dracula series created by Gerry Conway. ... Hannibal King is a fictional character appearing in the Marvel Comics universe. ... This article discusses the adherents of Hinduism. ... The Nightstalkers is a fictional trio in the Marvel Comics universe who had reluctantly banded together to fight occult and supernatural threats. ... Lilith is the daughter of Dracula in the Marvel Comics series Tomb of Dracula. ... Deacon Frost is a fictional character appearing in the Marvel Universe. ... A hack writer is a writer for hire, paid to express others thoughts or opinions in felicitous verbiage, often in the form of political pamphlets. ... Interview with the Vampire is a vampire novel by Anne Rice written in 1973 and published in 1976. ... This article is about the character. ... ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (450x650, 101 KB) Licensing This image is a sequence of panels from the interior of a single issue of a comic book and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the comic book or the... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (450x650, 101 KB) Licensing This image is a sequence of panels from the interior of a single issue of a comic book and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the comic book or the... The Nightstalkers is a fictional trio in the Marvel Comics universe who had reluctantly banded together to fight occult and supernatural threats. ... Tomb of Dracula is a horror comic book published by Marvel Comics from April 1972 to August 1979. ... Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet. ... Varney the Vampire or The Feast of Blood was a mid-Victorian gothic horror story by James Malcolm Rymer, first published in 1845. ...

Other media

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. A television movie (also TV movie, TV-movie, made-for-TV movie, etc. ... Harmony Gold is the creator and main distributor of Robotech. ...

Deacon Frost and Hannibal King from Tomb of Dracula are in the Blade movies, albeit in heavily revised forms. Blade is a 1998 film starring Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff, adapted from the Blade comics series. ...

In the movie Blade: Trinity Hannibal King shows a comic of Tomb of Dracula to Blade.

References

• The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Dracula
• Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Dracula
• Enter the Tomb of Dracula
• Photon Torpedoes: Tomb of Dracula Part I: The Best Dracula Ever Made

External links

• Tomb of Dracula cover gallery
• Adrian Wymann The Tomb of Dracula fan site (Issue-by-issue guide and reviews)