The Tomb of Dracula
The Tomb of Dracula #1 (April 1972) Cover art byNeal Adams
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Genre	Vampire
Publication date	April 1972 – August 1979
No. of issues	70
Main character	Count Dracula
Creative team
Written by	Gerry Conway,Archie Goodwin,Gardner Fox,Marv Wolfman
Penciller	Gene Colan
Inker	Tom Palmer
Collected editions
Essential Tomb of Dracula: Volume 1	ISBN 0-7851-0920-X

The Tomb of Dracula is an Americanhorrorcomic book series published byMarvel Comics from April 1972 to August 1979. The 70-issue series featured a group of vampire hunters who foughtCount Dracula and othersupernatural menaces. On rare occasions, Dracula would work with thesevampire hunters against a common threat or battle other supernatural threats on his own, but more often than not, he was theantagonist rather thanprotagonist. In addition to his supernatural battles in this series, Marvel's Dracula often served as asupervillain to other characters in theMarvel Universe, battling the likes ofBlade the Vampire Slayer,Spider-Man, theWerewolf, theX-Men,Howard the Duck, and the licensedRobert E. Howard characterSolomon Kane.

In 1971, theComics 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 becauseBram Stoker's creation and secondary characters were by that time in thepublic 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. ThoughGerry Conway is credited as sole writer of issue #1, the plot was actually written byRoy Thomas and editorStan Lee, and Conway had no input into the issue until it had already been fully drawn.^[2] Conway was allowed to plot issue #2 by himself, and wrote a story heavily influenced by the BritishHammer Films - a striking departure from the first issue, which was derivative ofUniversal's monster movies.^[2] Conway then quit the book due to an overabundance of writing assignments,^[2] and was replaced byArchie 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 writerGardner 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 ofThe Tomb of Dracula) felt that Fox's take did not work, and took him off the book after only two issues.^[2]

The title gained stability and hit its stride whenMarv Wolfman became scripter with the seventh issue,^[3] though Wolfman himself has contended that he was floundering on the series until the story arc in issues #12-14, remarking, "This storyline is when I finally figured out what this book was about."^[2] The entire run ofThe Tomb of Dracula waspenciled byGene Colan, withTom Palmerinking all but #1, 2, and 8-11.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 onBela Lugosi,Christopher Lee, or any other actor who had played the vampire on film, but rather on actorJack Palance.^[2] Palance would play Dracula ina television production of Stoker's novel the year afterThe 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 toBill 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 theWerewolf in a crossover story beginning inThe Tomb of Dracula #18 (March 1974) and continuing the same month inWerewolf by Night #15 with both chapters written by Wolfman.^[5][6] A brief meeting between Dracula andSpider-Man occurred in the first issue ofGiant-Size Spider-Man.^[7][8]The Tomb of Dracula #44 featured a crossover story withDoctor 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 historianLes Daniels noted that "With an unbroken run of seventy issues over the course of more than seven years, Marvel'sThe 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. ButJim 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 ofTOD, 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 collectionThe 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 onThe Tomb of Dracula fifth on its list of the "Top 10 1970s Marvels".^[14]

A black-and-white magazine,Dracula Lives!, published by "Marvel Monster Group", ran from 1973 to 1975.^[15]Dracula Lives! ran 13 issues plus a reprintSuper Annual issue. Running concurrently withTomb of Dracula, the continuities of the two titles occasionally overlapped, with storylines weaving between the two. Most of the time the stories inDracula Lives! were stand-alone tales, including a serialized adaptation of the originalBram Stoker novel, in 10- to 12-page installments written byRoy Thomas and drawn byDick Giordano.

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

The color titleTomb of Dracula was succeeded by another black-and-white magazine, also calledThe 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]

Several years later, Dracula encountered theX-Men twice.^[19][20] Although Dracula (and all other vampires in the Marvel Universe) were eventually destroyed by the mystical Montesi Formula in the pages ofDoctor Strange #62 (December 1983),^[21] the vampire lord was revived. Marvel published a four-issueTomb of Dracula miniseries, reuniting Wolfman and Colan, under itsEpic Comics imprint in 1991,^[22] and revived Dracula and his foes in the short-livedNightstalkers andBlade series in the 1990s. Some unresolved plot threads fromThe Tomb of Dracula were addressed in the final three issues ofNightstalkers. These included the fates of Dracula's bride Domini, their sonJanus, and vampire-hunter Taj Nital. Dracula took the title role in the miniseriesDracula: Lord of the Undead.

Two more four-issue miniseries followed.Stoker's Dracula continued and concluded the adaptation of the originalBram Stoker novelDracula by writerRoy Thomas and artistDick Giordano, which had begun inDracula Lives 30 years prior.^[23] AnotherTomb of Dracula miniseries followed with Blade joining a new team of vampire hunters to prevent Dracula's achieving godhood.^[24]Apocalypse vs. Dracula featured Dracula battlingApocalypse, an immortal foe of the superhero team the X-Men, inVictorian London.

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

• Dracula
• Quincy Harker, the son of Jonathan and Mina and disabled leader of the vampire hunters; he died in a battle with Dracula.
• Rachel van Helsing,^[28] the granddaughter ofAbraham 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 byWolverine of theX-Men.^[20]
• Blade the Vampire Slayer,^[29] the son of a woman bitten by a vampire during childbirth and a valued, yet reluctant ally to Quincy Harker's band of vampire hunters. Blade possesses quasi-vampiric abilities, including a greatly prolonged lifespan and the ability to sense supernatural creatures, as well as an immunity to complete vampirism.
• Frank Drake, the last living mortal descendant of Dracula and a 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 and Drake. He subsisted solely on blood he acquired from blood banks or corpses he found and had never taken blood directly from a human being, thus he was able to survive the Montesi Formula and be restored to normal human form.
• Taj Nital, a mute Indian Muslim vampire hunter of considerable strength (sufficient to temporarily restrain Dracula) whose son Adri was vampirized. He was later transformed into a vampire himself and destroyed inNightstalkers #18.
• Safron Caulder, a showgirl from London and Blade's recurring girlfriend. She sometimes found herself a typical damsel in distress, but was always rescued by Blade despite an instance when he was nearly tricked into staking her.
• Lilith, the daughter of Dracula,^[16] an immortal vampire who was cursed to never die until her father was permanently destroyed; when slain, she was reborn into the body of an innocent woman who wanted her father dead.
• 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, ahack 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 (inHoward the Duck magazine #5)—though this did not stop him from becoming a successfulHollywoodfilm producer. Like all vampires, he perished as a result of the casting of the Montesi Formula.^[21]
• Anton Lupeski, a Satanic priest through whom Dracula manipulated his Satanic cult while impersonating Satan.
• 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 a being called the Golden Angel. He was returned to his child form and at age five was kidnapped by the vampire Varnae.
• Varnae, the first vampire (and, at one point, an enemy ofConan the Barbarian). He was the Lord of the Vampires prior to Dracula. Although he died in the process of making Dracula his heir, he was later revived. He was inspired by the 19th century characterVarney the Vampire.
• Nimrod the First, 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 inBizarre 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 to become Varnae's heir.
• Mina Harker is the mother of Quincy Harker and the bride of Dracula. She died in a great battle, but she was turned into a vampire by her husband Dracula. She acts like a human rather than a vampire. She is the Queen of Romania.

• Essential Tomb of Dracula
  • Volume 1 collectsTomb of Dracula #1–25,Werewolf By Night #15,Giant-Size Chillers featuring The Curse of Dracula #1, 560 pages, 2004,Panini,ISBN 1-904159-62-1, Marvel,ISBN 978-0785109204
  • Volume 2 collectsTomb of Dracula #26–49,Dr. Strange #14,Giant-Size Dracula #2–5,^[16] 592 pages, April 2004, Panini,ISBN 1-905239-05-X, |Marvel,ISBN 978-0785114611
  • Volume 3 collectsTomb of Dracula #50–70,The Tomb of Dracula magazine #1–4, 584 pages, 2004, Panini,ISBN 1-905239-06-8, Marvel,ISBN 978-0785115588
  • Volume 4 collectsTomb of Dracula magazine #2, 4–6,Dracula Lives! #1–13,Frankenstein Monster #7–9, 576 pages, April 2005, Panini,ISBN 1-905239-20-3, Marvel,ISBN 978-0785117094

Some of the nudity was removed from the fourth volume. PublisherDan Buckley explained, "That wasn't because we were going to bookstores, or because we were exclusively going to hobby shops. It probably had more with where we were at from a ratings standpoint and the editors felt that was the appropriate thing to do, considering how we communicate what's going on in our books from a packaging standpoint. ...We generally avoid nudity, unless it's aMAX 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 Omnibus
  • Volume 1 collectsThe Tomb of Dracula #1–31,Werewolf by Night #15,Giant-Size Chillers featuring The Curse of Dracula #1, andGiant-Size Dracula #2–4, 784 pages, November 2008,ISBN 978-0785127789
  • Volume 2 collectsThe Tomb of Dracula #32–70,Giant-Size Dracula #5, andDr. Strange #14, 816 pages, December 2009,ISBN 978-0785135760
  • Volume 3 collectsTomb of Dracula magazine #1–6,Frankenstein Monster #7–9, andDracula Lives! #1–13, 944 pages, January 2011,ISBN 978-0785135784
• The Tomb of Dracula color trade paperbacks
  • Volume 1 collectsTomb of Dracula #1–12, 264 pages, July 2010,ISBN 978-0785143864
  • Volume 2 collectsTomb of Dracula #13–23,Werewolf by Night #15,Giant-Size Chillers featuring The Curse of Dracula #1, 272 pages, October 2010,ISBN 978-0785149224
  • Volume 3 collectsTomb of Dracula #24–31,Giant-Size Dracula #2–4, 248 pages, January 2011,ISBN 978-0785149835
• The Tomb of Dracula - The Complete Collection
  • Volume 1 collectsThe Tomb of Dracula #1–15 andDracula Lives #1–4, 512 Pages, October 2017,ISBN 978-1-302-90931-4
  • Volume 2 collectsThe Tomb of Dracula #16–24,Werewolf By Night #15,Giant-Size Spider-Man #1,Giant-Size Chillers #1,Giant-Size Dracula #2,Frankenstein #7–9 andDracula Lives #5–7, 497 Pages, October 2018,ISBN 978-1-302-91396-0
  • Volume 3 collectsThe Tomb of Dracula #25–35,Giant-Size Dracula #3-4, andDracula Lives #8-12, 496 Pages, October 2019,ISBN 978-1-302-92036-4
  • Volume 4 collectsThe Tomb of Dracula #36–54,Doctor Strange #14,Dracula Lives #12–13, and material fromLegion of Monsters #1, 488 Pages, September 2020,ISBN 978-1-302-92404-1
  • Volume 5 collectsTomb of Dracula #55—70,Stoker's Dracula #2—4, and material fromMarvel Preview #12 andSavage Sword of Conan #26

• 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 collectsTomb of Dracula (1972) 1-11; material from Dracula Lives (1973) 1-2, 320 pages, 2021, Marvel,ISBN 978-1302929473

In 1980, ananimetelevision movie based onThe Tomb of Dracula was released^[32][33] titledDracula: 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 byToei and sparsely released on cable TV in North America in 1983 byHarmony Gold dubbed into English^[35] under the titleDracula: Sovereign of the Damned. On October 31, 2022, Kineko Video released a remastered 4K scan of the film's original 16mm print.^[36]

Blade, a character introduced inThe Tomb of Dracula, has been featured in four films:Blade (1998),Blade II (2002),Blade: Trinity (2004), and theMarvel Cinematic Universe filmDeadpool & Wolverine (2024), as well as a short-livedtelevision series titledBlade: The Series (2006). OtherTomb of Dracula characters,Deacon Frost andHannibal King, have been featured in these films (Frost inBlade, King inBlade: Trinity), albeit in heavily revised forms. Reference to theTomb of Dracula series is made inBlade: Trinity when King shows an issue of the comic to Blade.

Dracula himself does not appear in the series untilBlade: Trinity, in which he goes by the name of "Drake" and features an origin and powers that differ from the comics. He is played in the film byDominic Purcell. Given Drake's age and origin, he, more than any other vampire that followed, can harness a much greater and more dynamic range of abilities. He possesses superhuman strength, much greater than that ofBlade, 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.

• The Tomb of Dracula tribute siteArchived March 3, 2021, at theWayback Machine by Dr. Mike Rickard (Issue guide and criticism)
• The Tomb of Dracula fan site by Adrian Wymann (Issue-by-issue guide and reviews)
• The Tomb of Dracula at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
• Review ofEssential Tomb of Dracula Volume 1 from Pulp and Dagger
• Review ofEssential Tomb of Dracula Volume 2 fromUGO
• Review ofEssential Tomb of Dracula Volume 1 andVolume 2 fromComics Bulletin
• The Tomb of Dracula (anime) atAnime News Network's encyclopedia
• Japanese anime adaptation ofThe Tomb of Dracula

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