VAMPIRES OF THE COMICS

                                                                      by

                                       Thomas Schellenberger

    A man in a red and blue costume soaring through the skies or a cartoonish-looking animal always running into trouble is the usual picture that may come to mind whenever one mentions comic books, but vampires? These fiends (and sometimes, friends) have often shown their fangs in a medium that largely belongs to the likes of Superman and Bug Bunny, with tales that have been no less remarkable.

    Vampires, the centuries-old nocturnal creatures of folklore, could never be totally ignored by the publishers of any literary form, and the comics' page was surely no exception.  The writers and illustrators of a popular American pastime have produced a variety of vampire stories, ranging from adaptations of the classics (Dracula, of course) to their own creations (Vampirella) to the satirical (Count Dracula) to deference from the Comics Code (Blood of the Innocent).  But whether or not the code is found on the cover, the vampires of the comics continue to issue forth from the pens of the writers and the artists' brushes.

    Yet there was a time when they did face a real doom.  Just as the Universal horror films had awakened the censors of the 1930's to what they considered "Gallant Action," the tense atmosphere of the 1950's brought forth another "champion" that proved an even greater adversary than Van Helsing. But of course, it was not just the illustrated vampire that he was challenging.

    Between 1955 and 1971, most of the comic book undead were "staked" by the Comics Code Authority, which banned them and many of their ghoulish comrades from the medium.  It supposedly hatched as the result of the psychiatrist, Frederich Wertham's contentions before a Senate Subcommittee investigating the causes of juvenile delinquency in 1954 (several cities had already passed ordinances forbidding the sale of horror comics).  He insisted that the reading of comic books led to teenage crime, in reference to his book, Seduction of the Innocent.

    Fearful of the possibility of an overall congressional ban on comic books, the major comic's industries themselves had created the Comics Magazine Association's Authority, presided over by a New York judge. The new code emphatically put the lid on horror and gory violence, allowing a very wholesome, police-minded Batman or Dick Tracy to stop worrying.  It had a double effect, as the companies that relied much on the revenue from horror and violent crime comics were forced out of business.

    Some syndicates, such as Dell, Warren, and Gilberton (the publisher of Classics Illustrated), did not subscribe to the code, yet still made it to the newsstands and drugstore magazine racks with their horror titles.  Oddly enough, Classics Illustrated, the one comic book those comic book-haters permitted their children to read, contained some of the graphic material that Wertham protested.  For instance, this writer, as a youth, was appalled to see the bloody strangulation of a woman by the monster in the Classics' version of Frankenstein.

    Vampires could exist in a code-approved book, however, as long as the story was a comedy.  American Comics Group provided two examples: Dracula developed a taste for pizza as an alternative to blood (?) in an issue of the 1960's Herbie.  Herbie was a plump little boy with superhuman powers, occasionally donning a costume and calling himself "The Fat Fury."  When Dracula set out to steal the world's pizzas (!), The Fat Fury interfered with his plans; the other concerned another caped hero, "Magicman," in an issue of Forbidden Worlds.  Here, a giant ape was menacing Magicman's city, so the green-clad sorcerer summoned aid in the form of two spirits resembling Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster (??).  A brief battle ended in the spirits being defeated by the ape!

    In American Comics Group, incidently, was one of the pioneers of the horror comics route that emerged in the late 1940's.  The company's first effort, Adventures Into the Unknown, became the first continuing horror comic, The debuting 1948 issue featuring an adaptation of the Gothic tale, "The Castle of Otranto."  But it lacked the horrid details that would be so prevalent in many of their competitors' products.

    And what had triggered the horror boom?  World War II had ended, and with it much of the readers' interest in super-heroes since most of their enemies were in some way involved with the Axis Powers.  As a multitude of comics fans had relatives serving in the Armed Forces, they may have felt a sort of "kinship" with the Nazi-pulverizing champions.  Thus, a long line of costumed crime-fighters saw a forced retirement (the sales of a few, like Superman and Batman, were considered ample enough to let them go on), giving way to the new dominion.

    Publisher William Gaines of Educational Comics, later known as Entertainment Comics, actually took the comic book world by storm when he launched Crypt of Terror, Vault of Horror, and Haunt of Fear.  These magazines pulled all the stops on demonstrating horror, bringing forth a conglomeration of vampires, werewolves, zombies, witches, and axe-murderers.  The fans loved it; American followed suit for a little while on the graphic violence, and a number of other publishers (except DC, Quality, and a few others that would be responsible for the Code) began to leap onto the "horror comics bandwagon."

    It was the first heyday for the vampires of the comics (of course, vampires did pop up now and then at an earlier time, including a memorable one called "The Monk," who fought Batman in a 1939 issue of Detective Comics).  E.C. would never neglect them.  Issue Number Eight of Avon's Eerie (nothing to do with the 1960's Warren title) had the first adaptation of the Dracula novel in 1952.  Marvel Comics, known then as Timely, did a number of vampire stories, some concerning Dracula and often containing surprise endings (several of these were reprinted in Marvel's 1970's magazine, Dracula Lives!).

    Then in 1955, as quickly as the Count had embarked on his popular new path, the censors had firmly stood in his way.  The rays of their "sunshine" effectively did their work on most of the vampires (and equally gruesome company) of the comics.  Comics readers who wanted vampires had to reply on the movies (for whatever few vampires were there then, either) and the novels, unless they enjoyed "Addams Family" -like antics and could be content with a pizza-eating Dracula.

    Oh, some of the old horror film refugees, like The Mummy, would escape the Code's wrath, as long as their pursuits did not become "bloodthirsty."  American Comics Group went back to doing nonviolent ghost stories, which satisfied the scrutinizers.  And the "Giant Monster" trend of the 1950's motion pictures ("The Amazing Colossal Man," "It Came From Beneath the Sea") influenced Marvel to do likewise with their comics line, with no one in the Comics Magazine Association voicing any objections.

     Of course, since the Code did not exist in foreign countries, the serious vampire could continue his "comic book crusade."  Elsewhere (and even more violently), one illustrated story was yet another adaptation of Stoker's book, Dracula Il Vampiro, which appeared in 1969 in an Italian paperback, I Classic a Fumetti. There, too, was a series of Dracula comic books published in Brazil during the early 1960's, which presented tales of the Count in different time periods (Marvel would do the same with their Dracula years later).  These and other overseas publications contain sex, as well as other graphic material that might have made the E.C. Comics look better in the eyes of the censors.

    Even though the comic book Dracula within the borders of America was seemingly relegated to buffoonery in titles like DC's Adventures of Bob Hope, a few breaks were in store.  One came from Dell, best remembered for its illustrated versions of such tv shows as "Gunsmoke" and "Ben Casey" (the covers often featured photos of the programs' stars).  With the assertion that "their comics were good comics," Dell challenged the Establishment with a Dracula book in 1962 that was quite well in keeping with the horror buffs' wishes.

    It was a one-shot concerning a British doctor who goes to a friend for help when he suspects that his artist son in Transylvania (he was there painting landscapes), was murdered.   The physician does not actually believe in supernatural vampires, instead attributing their state to a medical deficiency.  In contrast, his friend, a professor of Slavic literature, is from Romania and is well-versed in vampire lore.  They go to Transylvania to locate the doctor's son and inevitably meet Dracula, whose niece had "vampirized" the artist. The Count reasons that a man of medicine can supply him and his legion with blood from donors, but the doctor refuses.  The Englishman suffers a fatal heart attack when he is threatened, but the professor frightens the vampires off with wolfsbane.

    Dracula's pledge to even the score with the vampire fighter indicated the possibility of a sequel, but vampire aficionados were to be dealt another setback.  Four years later, Dell followed the example of their competitors and began to churn out their own super-hero titles, one of which had Dracula becoming one!  In an apparent response to the Adam West "Batman" tv series, Dracula, was no longer a vampire but a skilled athlete with a skin-tight purple outfit and a blue cowl.  He could transform into a bat, thanks to a serum, and had assumed the dual identity of "Al U. Card" (need one have to comment on that?!).  After only a few issues, "Dracula," as well as a super-hero "Frankenstein," went into limbo (a critic in the Monster Times # 30 labeled Dell's crime-fighting Dracula the worst comic book ever scripted and drawn).

    U.S. comics fans could still find Dracula as a vampire if they scanned the magazine racks more thoroughly. Warren, the original publisher of Famous Monsters of Filmland, was now doing black-and-white horror comics in the same format as its magazines, thus not appearing on the regular comic stands.  The comic strip adaptations of Hammer films "Horror of Dracula" and "Curse of Frankenstein" in issues of Famous Monsters prompted the creations of Vampirella, Creepy, and Eerie (anthology titles all).

    The scantily-clad "Vampirella," a creation of Famous Monsters editor, Forrest J. Ackerman, presented a new origin of vampires:  They were aliens from outer space! And on their home planet of Drakulon (where did that name come from?!), the river's flowed with blood! As might be expected, in the premiering story, the rivers ran dry, thanks to an accident caused by visiting Earthman (?), and the greatest of the female bloodsuckers would seek a fresh new supply--on earth, naturally.

    However, Vampirella (hers was only the lead story in each issue) eventually became a force for good, though a descendant of Van Helsing, Dracula's nemesis, continued to hunt her down (a la "The Fugitive's" Lieutenant Gerald).  Her status as a heroine was enhanced by graphics with a demon, known as Chaos, and then Dracula, also a visitor from Drakulon.  It was divulged that Dracula had turned evil because of Chaos' influence.

    The Dracula tales in Eerie and Creepy made no mention of Vampirella or Chaos, but the image and personality of Warren's Count remained consistent.  Creepy offered a sequel to the Stoker novel in Issues Number Eight and Nine, entitled "The Coffin of Dracula."  Some of the lead stories in Eerie became Dracula's own series, following his departure as a guest star in Vampirella, which lasted until the early 1970's.

    Warren had opened a new "back door" for the horror comics to "evade" the code, and other companies soon got the same idea.  A particular example was Skywald, the publisher of a multitude of Dracula/vampire stories appearing in Psycho, Fear, and Nightmare (unlike Warren, Skywald gave the readers a variety of Draculas, several drawn differently).  One tale appearing in Nightmare concerned the origin of vampirism, focusing on the legend of Lilith, Adam's first wife, from the Hebrew Talmud.  Because Lilith had dared to think she was better than Adam, Eve was created and Lilith went her way.  When she enlisted Satan's aid, Lilith was tricked into becoming a vampire, the mother of such beings to come.

    Going back to the ranks of the color comic, Gold Key, another nonsubscriber to the Code, started a series of "Dark Shadows" comic books in 1969, based on the popular soap opera.  The first several issues presented photo covers of Jonathan Frid.  Like the Dell titles, it was considered a "good comic," without any need for the New York censors, and the stories showed it:  The only people Barnabas Collins ever killed were evil.  If any good ones were confronted by the vampire, they miraculously escaped, "not being able to make out his face."  It was a formula that lasted for more than thirty issues.

    Then a new era dawned, heralding the triumph of the illustrated undead (over a sixteen-year restriction, that is).  In 1971, the Comics Code was revised to allow serious vampires, werewolves, and the like, provided they were portrayed in accordance with the old literary classics.  It was a change that seemed inevitable, since the censors must have realized that they had no control over the "non-code" comics publishers that were reaping good profits.  And the attackers of the ‘40's and ‘50's horror comics apparently no longer regarded them as a threat to America's youth; television had now been pinpointed as the chief cause of crime in our society.

     One of the first, maybe, in a newly-approved line of four-color vampires was a Marvel character, Dr. Michael Morbius, a scientist who, however, was not really a vampire in the regular sense.  His condition was made possible by the self-injection of an enzyme derived from the blood of a bat.  It was a hopeful cure for a disease of his own blood, and while it did prolong his life, there were side-effects:  His skin became chalky white, he desired human blood, and he could fly (in human form).  Morbius was a standard comic book super-villain, wearing a bright red and blue costume and doing battle with Spider-Man and the X-Men.  He soon graduated to his own series in the black-and-white Vampire Tales and the color Adventure Into Fear, and has returned in recent times to again face Spider-Man.

    A short time later, a better cup of tea awaited.  Marvel launched what has to date been the longest running of the vampire comics, The Tomb of Dracula (1972-79), the Count's new staple spawned two other titles, giant-sized Dracula and the black-and-white Dracula Lives!, as well as guest appearances in several others, including even Star Trek.  Bram Stoker's creation had become as solid a fixture at Marvel as the Fantastic Four.

    It should be noted that while Dracula was the star of his comic, he was also clearly the villain (so much for the Dell "super-hero" image) and the Code was still rigid about one thing:  Only good could triumph in any magazine bearing that familiar stamp.  So the Count had to be thwarted in whatever diabolical scheme he plotted, which would have proven very repetitious indeed had it not been for Wolfman's storytelling ability.

   True, the king of all the vampires was usually thwarted, but the readers were occasionally permitted to see the snarling, black-cloaked figure as a true man, with ambition, with charm, with compassion.  How Dracula became a vampire was even printed in Dracula Lives! Number Two, showing him in his grief over his wife's death while maintaining his warrior's pride and determination.  So while the Comics Code Authority could never allow the Voivode to conquer the world, a revealing side of his personality could at times evoke sympathy, even from those who were dedicated to his destruction.

    A major supporting character in Tomb was Frank Drake, a descendant of Dracula who had inherited his castle.  Frank, his girlfriend Jean, and a pal, Clifton Graves, went to Transylvania to inspect the castle for commercial purposes (Frank had recently gambled away a fortune).  Graves accidently stumbled upon Dracula's coffin and found a skeleton inside it, a wooden stake wedged between his ribs.  Like the escaped convict played by Boris Karloff in "House of Frankenstein," Graves dismissed the idea of vampirism as rubbish and was not afraid to pull the stake out.

    Frank's girlfriend was killed by the revived Dracula and tainted with the vampire's curse (she was later disintegrated by sunlight).  Graves, enslaved by the Count, also died ten issues later.  The vengeful Frank Drake was joined in the third issue by Rachel Van Helsing (the descendant of you-know-who), her mute Indian servant Taj, and wheelchair-bound Quincy Harker, son of Jonathan Harker, as time progressed, the cast took on Blade, the "Vampire Killer," who warred on the Living Dead because a refugee had murdered his mother (the recent film incorporated this), Hannibal King, a private detective turned vampire who chose to assist the vampire battlers, and Harold H. Harold, Tomb's comic relief who was a hack writer for a magazine called True Vampire Stories.

    While it may have seemed implausible for such a "vampire-busting" team to assemble so quickly, the added characters brought an even greater variety of subplots to the series.  There was the uncertain love affair between Frank and Rachel, as well as Frank's desire to prove himself a truly courageous man; Blade had finally located his mother's slayer, with Hannibal King's help, putting Dracula out of his mind for a little while; Taj had to make a choice about returning to his family in India; the aged and stricken Quincy Harker, having lost his wife and daughter to Dracula's evil, yearned for a reason for living other than pursuing the undead; and the meek Harold H. Harold gained from his appalling experiences with Dracula by completing a successful vampire novel, billing himself as the hero!

    Dracula himself had demonstrated that there was more for a vampire to occupy himself with than drinking blood and being sure his coffin was in a secure place (not only in Tomb, but giant-sized Dracula and Dracula Lives!).  On one occasion, he discovered a magical mirror that enabled him to time-travel to the nineteenth century, giving him the opportunity to seek revenge on the original Van Helsing.  He fought vampires besides Hannibal King who were not agreeable with him.  There were times when he even came to the aid of people, or so he thought, such as when he killed a little girl's father who was always beating on the child's mother.  A serialized tale focused on the vampire's efforts at gaining political influence by having a follower elected to Parliament!  And still another story line concerned a disembodied, computerized brain who (which?)  had sapped Dracula's powers, then disintegrated the Transylvanian (the brain, known as "Dr. Sun," was bent on world domination, and Frank Drake and company were forced to resurrect their enemy when they saw him as the only hope, nearby at least, of dealing with the entity).

    The forays of Marvel's Count, who had been destroyed and revived numerous times, eventually led him to areas involving human adversaries who were not just, well, human.  Spider-Man was the first of the Marvel super-heroes to bridge his realm with that of the same company's Dracula, a strange combination notwithstanding the wall-crawler's meeting with Morbius three years earlier.  Actually, the two never were aware of each other's presence, yet they co-starred in a story that appeared in giant-sized Spider-Man Number One (subsequent issues of this title featured the popular crime-fighter in crossovers with "The Master of Kung Fu," also known as "The Son of Fu Manchu," and pulp hero Doc Savage).

    The script had Dracula and Spider-Man separately searching for a scientist aboard an ocean-liner; the Count, for reasons unknown, believed that the scientist had a serum that constituted a threat to vampirism; the web-spinner needed the same serum, recommended by a physician in New York, to save his ailing aunt. Spider-Man finally obtained the object of his quest after battling some mobsters who were also after it, and it later did cure his aunt (was Dracula on the wrong ship, or was it the wrong serum?) the vampire king fled, mistakenly thinking he had disposed of the serum's concocter by throwing him overboard.  But it was the wrong person (the real doctor was a woman) and Spider-Man saved him, assuming he had just fallen.

     The cloaked nobleman did come face-to-face with other of Marvel's characters, one being the mystical Dr. Strange, an encounter that was much less surprising.  There was also the Son of Satan, The Silver Surfer, Thor, and the X-Men.  But the most bizarre contact Marvel's Dracula must have ever had, was with Howard the Duck (in Howard's own comic magazine), an animated cartoon-like creature who had been transported to the humans' universe (this was not the "Count Dracula" mentioned earlier, though Howard did temporarily become a vampire after being bitten by his guest star). Horror enthusiasts who read Tomb and Dracula tales in other Marvel titles may have been pleased that the super-hero crossovers were few and perhaps preferred to think that the Howard story never happened to their Count.

     Toward the climax of Tomb's run, Dracula sought power by involving himself in a satanic cult (the worshipers, except for the leader who plotted against the Count, believed he was the Devil).  He married a woman in the cult who was "promised to Satan yet still had faith in God, and had a son (maybe).  Dracula really had nothing to do with the mysterious birth of the child, on Christmas Day, and the constant reference to a portrait of Jesus Christ which still hung in the church (neither Dracula nor the Satanists could remove it) implied the true source of the conception.

    After the baby named Janus is murdered by the cult's leader, Dracula's wife, Domini, attempted to restore the infant to life in a mystical ceremony.  He indeed was revived, then was "merged" with an angelic being whom Dracula once fought.  The adult Janus, who had the same glowing eyes as the Savior in the painting, was a sworn enemy of his "vampire-father," proclaiming the eventual defeat of Dracula and his hordes for all time.

    Janus remained until the series end, though he had nothing to do with Dracula's other predicaments.  These included the Count's transformation into an ordinary human by the real Satan as punishment for his constant disrespect.  The ex-vampire sought to return to his supernatural state, not by having any vampire deliver the death bite, but by imploring his daughter Lilith to do it (she had her own series in Vampire Tales).  Dracula's nemesis Quincy Harker voiced his frustration during this time, too; he had learned of Dracula's now being human, so he wondered if his killing him might be considered murder.

    Of course, Dracula's "impediment" did not last long.  But he had returned to his vampiric ways in a most unusual manner, for vampires that is.  Lilith refused to help her father, instead intimidating him.  To compound matters, another vampire named Torgo had claimed Dracula's rule over the undead legions, and Frank Drake and his people decided to still hunt Dracula down because of the harm he was already guilty of, vampire or no.  All of this incurred Dracula to pray to God for help, something he thought he would never do. Satan, amused by the Transylvanian's act, then restored his vampirism, feeling that his "humility" was a sign of suffering.  Dracula was still certainly not the same even after he had reentered the ranks of the living dead, distraught over his new-found "weakness."

    In the final issue, Dracula had defeated Torgo, but that heated battle was immediately followed by a showdown with Quincy Harker at Dracula's castle (Janus had teleported the human pursuers to Romania). After Harker had managed to drive a silver blade into the vampire's heart, he ignited explosives hidden in his wheelchair, finishing both himself and the castle. The Count's remains were thus buried under all of the debris, hopefully ensuring that no one would ever resurrect him again (more on that later).  Rachel, grief-stricken over Harker's death, turned to Frank for comfort, which he graciously gave.  And Janus returned to Heaven, separating the baby from his form and placing him in the arms of his happy Christian mother.  The air was cleansed and Dracula was no more (for now).

    While the Tomb of Dracula was selling (some 1970's critics lauded it as the finest comic book ever scripted and illustrated), the company best known for Spider-Man expectedly unleased a variety of horror comics. Among these were The Monster Frankenstein and Werewolf by Night (Dracula mad guest appearances in both).  Others included Adventure Into Fear, Crypt of Shadows, and The Tomb of Darkness, were vampires other than Dracula would often be found.  Horror satire was still around with Arrgh! and Spoof, giving the readers parodies on "Kolchak" The Night Stalker" and "Blacula."  Marvel even took a hint from Warren by doing a horror film magazine, Monsters of The Movies, which heavily focused on vampire films.

    The new horror comics craze of the 1970's soon drew the previously anti-horror DC into the act.  Fans of the "Martian Manhunter" and "Prince Ra-Man" were undoubtedly disappointed to find them missing from the respective pages of House of Mystery and House of Secrets, each of which had begun following a Gothic thriller format even before Marvel commenced its horror line.  But the impact of the latter's Dracula must have had something to do with the creation of DC's most noted vampire, Andrew Bennett, whose "I, Vampire" series appeared in House of Mystery.

    Bennett was a four-hundred-year-old nobleman who chose to avoid attacking humans, instead satisfying himself by feeding on animals and obtaining blood from hospitals.  He did bit one girl whom he loved, after which she became a vampire.  Mary, known as the "Queen of Blood," turned evil and as such was the centuries-old antagonist of the sorrowful Bennett.  Bennett, allying himself with a Russian who fought vampires, sought to do something about his own vampirism by taking a strange scientific serum.  It was supposed to transform one into a vampire while making him less vicious, and Bennett mistakenly believed it would help him.  It had the reverse effect as his body began to deteriorate, and Mary's later destruction by the rays of the sun allowed Bennett to find release for his own soul.

    Another DC series was "The Creature Commandos" from Weird War Tales.  The premise involved "Project M," an Allied Government Project during World War II that medically altered three men into "supernatural" beings (the purpose of this special "squad" was to instill terror in the enemy).  Sgt. Vincent Velcro was the vampire, having been made that way (in exchange for a lengthy jail sentence) by an injection of a chemical compound mixed with the blood of a vampire bat.  Another one, Warren Griffith, mentally deluded himself into thinking he could become a wolf, so scientists concocted a way of enabling Griffith's brain to develop that into a reality.  And Marine Private Elliott "Lucky" Taylor, injured by a detonated mine, was reconstructed by surgeons into an eight-foot-tall figure with massive strength, his scarred face resembling . . . well, it's easy to guess.

    The management at DC rapidly realized the dollar made from publishing horror comics, so other titles sprang forth from the stronghold of Superman.  They included Weird Western Tales, The Witching Hour, Secrets of Haunted House, and Have You the Nerve to Face the Undead?, and vampires would be present in them as well. Some of the costumed heroes matched wits with the living dead in their own magazines, and sword & sorcery figures also had their share, one example being DC's own origin of Dracula in an issue of Beowulf.  Batman and Superman even became vampires themselves, temporarily of course, in very compelling stories (a fanged Superman on the cover of an issue of World's Finest Comics was referred to as "The Vampire of Steel!").

     Had it not been canceled after one issue, a more suitable rival to Marvel's Dracula might have been Atlas/Seaboard's Fright featuring the Son of Dracula (it was edited by Marvel illustrator, Larry Lieber).
New York college professor Adam Lucard, the human offspring of Dracula and a mortal woman (the Count did not "vampirize" her because she was a distant relative), was spirited away, when he was a baby, by his mother to prevent Dracula's harming him.  A woman who adopted the child told him he must always sleep with a cross on his chest; he later learned why.  Years later, a mischievous female student who was attracted to Professor Lucard got into his apartment and found him sleeping with the cross.  When she removed it, he suddenly awoke as a vampire and killed the girl.  At dawn, following a night of terror in the city, Lucard again became human. He realized what had happened and staked the girl.

    While Atlas/Seaboard was one of a few firms having trouble approaching Marvel and DC's "Horror Track Record" (another short-lived Atlas title was Planet of The Vampires), there were others having better luck. Warren was not letting up with their Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella--all three continued into the following decade.  Charlton had a horror line that comprised Ghost Manor, The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves, and Monster Hunters (with vampires not going unnoticed), and Gold Key, the aforementioned long-running publisher of the Dark Shadows comic, also was doing The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor, featuring a battler of supernatural forces (one recurring guest star was a vampire named Baron Tibor, and Count Dracula had even appeared, along with Sir Francis Varney, Mircalla Karnstein, and Lord Ruthven).

    As horror began to wane in the comics during the early 1980's, Marvel planned a "grand finale" for its vampires.  Dracula (the castle debris could not hold him down as he was revived earlier for a six-issue run of Tomb of Dracula in black-and-white format) guest-starred in a string of stories appearing in The Mighty Thor, Dr. Strange, and The X-Men.  The culmination of a fast-paced serialized adventure through all three magazines was Dr. Strange's discovery of an incantation that could effectively wipe every vampire from existence, wherever they may be.  The deed was done and again the curtain was brought down on the Count, apparently for good this time.

    But of course, the "parallel universes" of the competing publishers still had their living dead around, so by 1986, more vampiric terror ensued.  A new company, Apple Comics, turned out Blood of The Innocent, a four-issue Dracula miniseries wrote by Rick Shanklin and edited by Mark Wheatley.  The same team was responsible immediately afterward for the longer-lasting Blood of Dracula (nineteen issues), presenting stories of the Count in different time periods, including the year 2199!  Another title by Shanklin and Wheatley was Dracula in Hell, concerning the effects of young Prince Vlad Tepes Dracula's torture by the Turks and his meeting with the Devil; still another was Big Bad Blood of Dracula (one issue only, illustrated by Mike McCarthy), where the Count was confronted with "Cadavera," a female Frankenstein monster composed of parts from dead actresses, namely Carole Lombard, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Sharon Tate, Claudia Jennings, and Eva Braun (?!?)

    Malibu Graphics also made the scene with more miniseries (a new trend for comics in the ‘80's).  The first was Scarlet in Gaslight, penned by Martin Powell and drawn by Seppo Makinen, about the latest encounter (maybe for Malibu, the first) between Sherlock Holmes and Dracula (such a meeting had occurred a few times in modern novels, one of which was The Holmes- Dracula File, by Fred Saberhagen).  Escape artist, Harry Houdini, guest-starred in the next one, Ghosts of Dracula, again produced by the above writer and artist, where the Transylvanian was depicted as The Antichrist.  The Stoker novel was an inevitable choice for Malibu to adapt, and an illustrated version of "Dracula's Guest," the Irish author's prequel to his famed classic, was added as a one-shot and entitled Dracula: Lady in The Tomb.  Dracula: The Suicide Club was yet another adaptation, infusing Robert Louis Stevenson's short story, "The Suicide Club," with the Count in a reworking of the tale.  Even more vampire comics were coming off of the presses of Malibu to the delight of horror fans.

    The new lure of Transylvania brought Marvel's Dracula back for a four-issue miniseries, but with no mention of the "devampirizing" spell cast by Dr. Strange in 1985.  Part of the old cast returned as well (Frank, Rachel, and Blade), and Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan were again at the helm.  It was a violent, bloody adventure not approved by the Comics Code (the Code was figuring less and less as the 1990's dawned), with the familiar (but not less deadly) vampire king being resurrected into a strange new world.  It was strange to him as the satanic cults of recent years were even more gruesome than the one he had been associated with earlier and humans did not mind becoming vampires (a man desiring immortality had begged Dracula for the death bite).

    Horror comics were again doing good business, and vampires a major draw. Thus, Anne Rice's the Vampire Lestat made his way into the medium, and the 1991 "Dark Shadows" with Ben Cross was transferred to the four-color pages, also.  "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992) was done as a miniseries.  Warp Graphics produced Blood of Dracula.  Some spinoffs such as Dracula in Hell, Death Dreams of Dracula, The Vampiric Jihad, and Blade, The Vampire Slayer were also published.

    "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" got her own title, courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.  DC pitted Batman (actually a "parallel world" one) against Dracula in a surprising hit with the readers, Batman and Dracula: Red Rain.  And Topps Comics had even commenced its Zorro book with the masked hero of Spanish California doing battle with Dracula as well.  The list went on and on and is continuing today.

    More of the "old-timers" have made their comebacks, too. Vampirella was revived as a color comic, and some of the E.C.'s were reprinted.  A series of black-and-white comics was done on Count Orlok as he appeared in the 1922 film, "Nosferatu, A Symphony of Terror."  And the aforementioned Dark Horse published a comic on the 1931 Bela Lugosi "Dracula" as it was presented (but with more graphic detail, such as Lugosi baring fangs), along with ones on the original "Frankenstein," "Mummy," and "Creature From the Black Lagoon."

    The Gothic subculture movement has produced an abundance of independent vampire comics: Bloodsucker from Eros Comics, Wendy Snow-Lang's Nights' Children, Kim Elizabeth's Darkworld Vampires published by Millennium, Nosferatu by Vigil Vamporium Animaturi, Young Dracula by Caliber Press, Nightfall by Escape Comics, The Girl That Could Be Death by Vertigo DC Comics, Blood Is the Harvest by Eclipse, Children of the Night by Night Wynd Enterprises, and much more.

     The current appeal of the illustrated vampire, if it is maintained, promises a lot more to come.  The night creatures have always been popular in movies and novels, so there is a good indication their current status in the comics will last, barring the possibility of another censorship crackdown.  Also, there could be another "super-hero storm" like what happened in the 1960's, which could drive many of our toothsome companions from the racks.  But history has shown that the vampires of the comics could overcome each obstacle.

    Vampires and other personalities of horror fiction have hardly replaced the costumed crusaders and funny animals in the four-color pages.  However, just as a certain seal stamped on the cover had once banned their existence, so too have they left their "seal" of enduring entertainment.  As one can judge, it has been a rather impressive one.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Busiek, Kurt.  "What Do You Do With . . . A Vampire?" Comics Feature, Double Feature Issue.  New Media Publishing, Largo, FL, Sept./Oct. 1981.

Daniels, Les.  Comix: A History of Comic Books in America.  Bonanza Books, New York, NY, 1971.

Guiley, Rosemary Ellen.  The Complete Vampire Companion.  Macmillian, New York, NY, 1994.

Glut, Donald F.  The Dracula Book.  The Scarecrow Press, Metuchet, NJ, 1975.

Melton, J. Gordon.  The Vampire Book--The Encyclopedia of the Undead.  Visible Ink Press, Detroit, MI, 1994

Murray, Will.  "I Remember . . . Vandoom, Master of Marvel Monsters."  Comics Collector.  Krause Publications, Iola, WI, 1984.

Watt-Evans, Lawrence.  "Spine-Chilling Tales Of Terror and Suspense!"  Comics Collector.  Krause Publications, Iowa, WI, 1984.

Wooley, John.  "Comic Screams."  Dracula: The Complete Vampire, Starlog Movie Magazine Presents No. 6.  Starlog Communications International, New York, NY, 1992.

 
                                                                   

                                           VAMPIRES IN THE PULPS

                                                                     by
                                              Howard Hopkins

From The Vampire Journal #2, #3, & #4  

Part 1

    Welcome to the first in a series of articles detailing the nefarious appearances of vampires in the pulps, from the annals of the greatest pulp heroes, Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Avenger, The Spider! and numerous others.  For the uninitiated, pulps were dime novels produced in the 1930's and 40's, so called because of the cheap, grainy paper on which they were printed.  Not always literary masterpieces, these magazines boasted blood-curdling adventure, relentless action and purple prose for only one thin dime.  For a few hours a reader found himself transported across the globe in search of lost treasure, forgotten civilizations and unknown perils, escaping the all-too-discouraging reality of the Depression and World War II.  Each month brittle brown pages scintillated and amazed, astounded and entertained, but most of all unburdened.
   
    Some of the greatest fictional characters originated in the pulps:  Tarzan, Nick Carter, Doc Savage, Zorro, and The Shadow to name but a few.  While the prose generally lacked polish, characters came snipped from paper doll books and plots came shakier than a politician's morals, the aura was white-hot and intense, sizzling like lightening.  It didn't matter after all.  They weren't selling literature and made no excuses for it.  They sold cheap entertainment, pure and simple.  And entertain they did.  To this day.
    This series of articles will focus on the unusual aspects of these brittle, timeworn magazines and how some of the major heroes met, and defeated, the threat of the undead.
   
    One of these gruesome challenges occurred in the pages of  The Phantom Detective Magazine, published by Standard Magazines--one of the big three along with Street and Smith and Popular Publications.  The Phantom Detective was probably one of the longest lasting pulps (1933-53) and featured the exploits of wealthy playboy Richard Curtis Van Loan, master of disguise.  The Phantom (he was rarely called The Phantom Detective in the novel) was summoned into action by a shining red beacon atop the Clarion Building --which housed  The Clarion Newspaper and made The Phantom the only pulp hero sanctioned by a tabloid.
   
    When newspaper publisher Frank Havens ran across weird or unusual cases, ones too difficult for the sluggish ways of the ordinary police, he would call in Van Loan.  In fact, it was Havens who was responsible for creating The Phantom Detective in the first place. Van Loan had grown bored with the rich life and was convinced, by Havens, to turn his unique detection skills upon crime.  Tall, tanned and powerful, The Phantom was a veritable chameleon when it came to disguise.  He could imitate anything, as far as personal and physical traits were concerned, and with the utmost success.  Many a brutal killer and criminal mastermind met swift justice at the hands of The Phantom during the magazine's 170-issue run.  He tackled the unusual, the eerie, and exposed darkness to cold naked light. His encounter with a vampire is no exception.  Fittingly enough, the novel is entitled, The Vampire Murders.
   
    It begins with two fear-stricken hunters running back to their lodge; fear-stricken because they have just witnessed the impossible: the notorious Count Mattopikyi arising from his tomb in the dead of night.  The Count threatens that they, and the remaining three members of their lodge, will die bloody, horrible deaths. And as the two terrified men reach their lodge, the prediction seems to come true.  A blood-chilling scream erupts from the lodge, and after breaking in the door to one of their fellow member's room, they discover his blood-soaked, mutilated body lying on the bed.  As the corpses mount, The Phantom tracks the Count and discovers the ancient legend associated with Vampire Mountain, upon which the hunting lodge is built.
   
    It seems Hungarian calvary officer, Count Mattopikyi, came to America during the Revolution and decided to stay on after the war, building himself a castle-like fortress upon the mountain.  The Count maintained no servants but kept two large, vicious dogs to keep away unwelcome visitors.  Natives believed they heard sounds of revelry coming from the castle deep in the night and soon after children began to disappear from the area without a trace.  When the villagers finally raided the residence, they found no trace of it having been occupied in years; no furniture, cobwebs everywhere.  Then, they found the tomb. Beneath it lay the bones of the Count and upon the headstone the cryptic inscription: "Beneath this tomb lies a treasure more precious than gold but none may possess it because death holds the treasure in its hand.  None may touch one without touching the other."
   
    The Vampire Murders becomes more and more mysterious as the novel progresses, the action torrid, the suspense crawling like icy fingers down your spine.  Bodies lie scattered everywhere.  The Phantom finds the bloody pieces of the vampire puzzle, but is nearly killed by a starved lynx, a gang of criminals and a vampire.
   
    Unfortunately, like many of  The Phantom's incredible adventures, the vampire has a totally logical explanation.  I won't reveal it because the novel is a good, suspenseful mystery and well worth a couple of hours reading enjoyment.  There is a treasure, but it is not one the reader will suspect.  When the vampire makes his appearance for the climatic finale, it is like putting too much air into a balloon--literally and figuratively an explosion.
   
    I hope you have enjoyed this brief encounter with one of the vampire legends from the pulps.  In coming articles, I will deal with their sepulchral appearances in Doc Savage, The Avenger, The Shadow and other pulp journals.  So keep your crosses ready as we travel back to the 1930's and meet more of pulp literature's spookiest members of the undead.


Part 2

    The coffin lid creaks open; a hand, pale with a glinting jeweled ring reaches out.  The sun has set in bloody red glory and unseen denizens of the dark stalk the night mists.  An eerie fluttering sound on the wind, a harsh squeaking echo, as the creature, confined to a pulpwood box by day, glides through chilling reaches of time and darkness.  Terror, in macabre, pulp suspense, is loose in the purple world of brittle magazine prose.
   
    Welcome to the second installment of "Vampires in the Pulps."  This time I would like to reach back into the blood-splattered annals of a most unusual pulp hero, The Spider! and bring forth yet another eerie saga of the undead.  For those of you not familiar with the pulps or its heroes, The Spider! a.k.a. Richard Wentworth, was perhaps the most quixotic and violent of pulp crime fighters.  His adventures were continuous shambles of gore and lunatic violence.  To The Spider! the only good crook was a dead crook, and The Spider's pulp world was littered with good crooks.
   
    The Spider! blasted his way through 118 adventures and millions of words of melodramatic pulp adventure. He was, at first, intended to be a Shadow imitator (publishers Street and Smith's cloaked crime avenger), but soon took on a different angle and consequently a life of his own.  He was far more violent than The Shadow ever dreamed of being, although he carried twin .45s and let loose with a mocking, sibilant laugh like the Master of Darkness.  In fact, after The Shadow, The Spider!, who was published by Popular Publications, was even dubbed the Master of Men.  Wentworth (as were many of the pulp playboy millionaires) was ostensibly a bored millionaire who occasionally helped the police ferret out some criminal too tough for them to handle.  But as soon as the police left, Wentworth would don a cloak, slouch hat, fright wig, and makeup with hideous vampire teeth.  He would become a figure that caused the underworld to tremble at the mere utterance of his name--The Spider!
   
    As a twist to the bored millionaire theme, The Spider! was a hero thought to be a criminal by the law (much as the radio and TV hero, The Green Hornet).  He is actively hunted, hounded, and blamed for hundreds of murders over the course of his career (most of which, in all fairness, he is responsible for).  And, in each novel, Wentworth is suspected of being The Spider! and usually sustains an ungodly number of wounds, often bordering on the ludicrous.  In each novel, hundreds of persons are annihilated, mutilated, vaporized, etc. by some devious criminal method.  Often, these methods are gory and hideous, and, more times than not, entire cities are wiped out.  The Spider! is also a highly volatile hero, given to fits of depression and bursts of insanity.  He is as likely to shoot one of his friends as he is a crook if he suspects treachery (and on a number of occasions he does).  He is aided by his fiancee, the lovely and sometimes very deadly, Nita Van Sloan (who suffers a large number of degradations in each novel including being stripped naked, tortured, beaten, and sexually threatened, sometimes even by apes).  Other aides include his faithful Hindu servant, Ram Singh, an old army comrade named Jackson, plus a whole host of others who are usually wounded and tortured at least once every novel.  (No, these novels are not intended for the kiddies as were some of the other pulp heroes.)
   
    Also (like the Hornet), The Spider's victims can be easily identified by a crimson spider seal pressed into their foreheads by Wentworth with his special built cigarette lighter.
   
    The Spider! was, for the most part, chronicled by prolific and emotional writer Norvell Page under the house name of Grant Stockbridge.  You have to read a Spider! novel to appreciate that it is an emotional experience to finish one.  The pace, violence, and action are unrelenting, with great gouts of blood and torment.  The Spider! is an emotional character, frantically painted by the author, who totters just on the edge of insanity.  He is quite obsessed.  He wants not only to stop crime, but to annihilate it.
  
    In his particular vampire adventure entitled, Death Reign of the Vampire King, the pace and action are frantic, torrential, slashing the pages in violent sharp-fanged glory.  This adventure does not, however, deal with vampires in the truest, fictional sense, but with the vampire bat.  Hordes of them!  It seems a malicious criminal, who dubs himself The Bat, has trained legions of starved vampires to attack humans.  Oh, and he has tainted the little creature's fangs with a deadly poison.
   
    He looses these monstrosities on crowds of theater patrons, race track enthusiasts, and restaurant diners. They butcher hundreds.
   
    The Bat, himself, is nonetheless imposing.  In his first face to face encounter with Wentworth, he sits upon a throne of skulls and condemns The Spider! to a cage that fills with starved bats (though not poisonous). Wentworth is agasp at the sight of the man:  "He now saw it was a man seated there, a man with great leathery wings stretching from his shoulders.  The face was incredibly hideous, the nose sliced off, the whole countenance drawn up toward that wound into a striking and hideous semblance of a bat's face.  He even attached huge, pointed ears to his head, and he had wings."
  
    And with these wings, The Bat is able to glide through the air and call his trained vampires with a shrill squeaking sound.  The Master of Men nearly meets his end against the nefarious leader of the poisoned bats.  To make matters worse, The Bat also controls a horde of Jivaro Indians, who sport poisoned blow guns.
   
    I won't reveal the motives or plot behind Death Reign of The Vampire King, because the novel is tense and exciting and well worth reading if you don't mind the frantic pace.  Every chapter is packed with action.  One feels somewhat drained, not to mention relieved, after finishing this novel.  But that is true of most Spider! tales. And while the plots of these adventures are sometimes rather loose, to say the least, the flood of emotion and sharp characterization combined with fast-paced prose makes a large percentage of these books enjoyable.  But be reminded, disbelief must sometimes be suspended entirely. Even though this book doesn't include the coffin-sleeping, neck-biting members of the undead, it is still interesting to anyone fascinated by vampires.
   
    So let your imagination sweep through the brittle pages of The Spider! magazine, and your thoughts flutter over the night wind, and enjoy another version of "Vampires in the Pulps."

(The Spider! is now being reprinted in pulp facsimile form by Pulp Adventures Press. Look for them on the web for more information).


Part 3


    What do vampires eat for lunch? God only knows, but it would probably come wrapped in oilskin paper and be hidden in a chandelier hanging in the lobby of the Empire State Building.  At least, it would according to Monk Mayfair and Ham Brooks.
   
    For those unfamiliar with pulp heroes, or generally confused by the above, Monk Mayfair and Ham Brooks are two of Doc Savage's men.  And, in the opening pages of the Doc Savage adventure, The Fiery Menace, they discover an oily package known only as the vampire lunch.
   
    Briefly, Doc Savage Magazine, in my opinion, was the best of the pulp era.  Doc Savage (dubbed the Man of Bronze) was a giant of a man (well over six-feet-five, and in 1933 that was tall) with golden-bronze skin (tanned by the heat of countless tropical suns), superhuman strength, and eyes like pools of flake-gold constantly in motion, as if stirred by tiny winds.  He is a protean genius, a superman.
    
    Only a few months after birth, the infant Clark Savage, Jr. was placed, by his father, in the hands of scientists and scholars.  For all his childhood years, he would be trained for a strange Galahadian career:  to travel to the ends of the earth, seeking out and punishing evildoers and righting wrongs.  For this he accepted no money (he hardly needed it as in the first adventure, The Man of Bronze, he is heir to a hoard of gold, guarded by ancient Mayans).
   
    He fought his way through 182 separate adventures, which oft times delved into many areas of the supernatural:  Men twenty-feet tall stomped through the Michigan countryside; screaming blue meteors sliced the night sky, tearing away men's sanity; nebulous green spirits commanded by a huge floating green face known only as The Mystic Mullah seared innocents with a deadly poison; invisible men terrorized New York City; yellow clouds swallowed planes; blood-red snow descended and dissolved unsuspecting citizens; and in a final, apocalyptic adventure, Doc descended into the depths of the earth to battle the origin of evil itself and grapple with living trees, rock demons, and hideous denizens of Hell.  The eerie, the macabre, the mysterious; adventure, action, horror.  Many times, these eerie occurrences have rational (if not always reasonable) explanations.  Sometimes, they do not.
    
    Doc Savage worked with a crew of five assistants, each a genius in his respective field, surpassed only by Doc:  Monk Mayfair, apelike and vulgarian, is the chemist of the group; Ham Brooks, waspish and sartorial, is a lawyer; Renny Renwick, funeral-faced and huge-fisted, is an engineer; Johnny Littlejohn, neoverbalist and animated skeleton, is an archaeologist and geologist; Long Tom Roberts, sallow-complexioned and ill-tempered, is an electrical genius.  Each would readily give his life for the other.
   
    For the most part, Doc Savage was written by Lester Dent, who had a magic touch with characters and an off-beat sense of humor.  He wrote the adventures under the house name of Kenneth Robeson (the house name being an enigma of the pulps designed to protect the publisher and provide continuity should an author leave or die or be replaced).
   
    Doc Savage spawned a number of famous characters including Superman, James Bond, and even members of Star Trek.  Books have been filled on him and it would take many pages to give even a brief overview of the Man of Bronze and his adventures.  Fortunately, for Doc fans, his adventures have all been reprinted in paperback by Bantam Books, along with a handful of new tales.
  
    In the eerie case of  The Fiery Menace, a man is found hanging from a chandelier in the Empire State Building. He has an entirely ugly, bloodless hole in his forehead.  A package, the Vampire's lunch, is found up there with him.  Suddenly, a vampire is loose on the streets of Manhattan.  Bloodless corpses, all with the same mysterious hole in their foreheads, are turning up everywhere.  But this vampire is just a wee bit different than the usual type.  He travels in a fiery cloud:  "It was a ball of flames or roughly, a ball of a thing which had a tail of bundling red tongues."  And this vampire does not leave fang marks in his victims' necks; just a round, cauterized hole in the forehead.
  
    Soon, Doc is led on a trail of blood and murder to a remote island off the coast of Maine (I live in Maine and we seem to have an ungodly number of vampires up here, at least according to Stephen King and Dark Shadows), and the vampire's lair.  Like many of the Doc Savage novels, The Fiery Menace, has a reasonable conclusion.  It involves millions of dollars worth of gold, a stolen Nazi submarine, and a masquerading vampire in a fiery ball.  The man hanging from the chandelier turns out to be a nutcase named Elmer the Great, who was hunting the vampire.  He was a member of the organization perpetrating the vampire hoax and had a change of heart when he found out killing was involved.
   
    Unfortunately for Elmer, his cohorts played him for a sucker.  I will not tell you what was in the package but even a vampire would not have wanted to eat it.
   
    Well, the lid squeaks closed on yet another installment of Vampires in the Pulps.  Those interested should definitely pick up a copy of Doc Savage in paperback.  They can be found at many used book stores and on ebay or through the online ABE book search.  You will not regret the time spent reading and adventuring with Doc and his crew.  And, in the meantime if you should notice any peculiar red glow outside your window in the dead of night, turn around and go back to sleep.  Oh, and if you have a hat, put it on; crosses do not work . . .

Recommended Doc Savage titles:  
The Polar Treasure, The Monsters, The Lost Oasis, Death in Silver, The Sea Magician, Red Snow, Meteor Menace, The Thousand-headed Man, The Spook Legion, Mystery Under the Sea and scores of others . . .

NOTE:  Howard Hopkins is the former publisher and editor of pulp zine, Golden Perils, and a novelist.

MORE TO COME!