It’s been two months since we last took a look at Tomb of Dracula — and since issues #51 and #52 both feature significant developments in the ongoing “Church of Dracula” saga that writer Marv Wolfman, penciller Gene Colan, and inker Tom Palmer were chronicling half a century ago, we’re going to be spending just about as much time today talking about the former as we are the latter, regardless what the big post title up there might lead one to believe. If you’re a regular (or even a semi-regular) reader of this blog, you already know how this goes… so, let’s get to it.
As indicated by the Colan-Palmer cover for #51, a major plot thread that’s been running in the background of this series for a while now — namely, the quest of Blade and Hannibal King to track down their mutual arch-enemy, the vampire called Deacon Frost — is about to return to the foreground. First, though, our storytellers will have to resolve another situation that feels like it’s been in stasis for three issues running (maybe because, by and large, it has)…
Frank Drake and Harold H. Harold launched their ill-advised infiltration of the home of Satanic cult leader Anton Lupeski back in #48. Searching for Dracula, they were instead themselves found and captured by Lupeski and his acolytes in issue #49. Then, in Tomb of Dracula #50, Rachel van Helsing — who’d been tracking the hapless duo without their knowledge since #48 — showed up, crossbow in hands, to bail them out of their self-inflicted jam.
Somehow, while all this was going on, Lupeski also found time to conceive and put into action a plan to use the Silver Surfer as a weapon against Dracula — whom, though supposedly the cult leader’s lord and master, Lupeski had actually been secretly working against for his own evil ends. ToD #50 ended ambiguously, with the Surfer deciding to leave the Lord of Vampires’ fate to, um, a Higher Power; since that conclusion, Drac has evidently decided to go searching for the source of what he rightly identifies as “treachery” in the opening splash page above. Unfortunately, he seems to have incorrectly pegged his longtime foes Van Helsing and Drake as the cause of his recent travails, rather than the actual culprit, the seemingly loyal Lupeski.
Our three Dracula hunters make it to Harold’s car and then speed away, wondering why their arch-foe let them get away so easily. “Maybe he wasn’t thirsty right now?” Harold asks speculatively, before the scene shifts back to the Lupeski place to show us the actual reason:
We’d seen Quincy Harker begin to suffer chest pains back in issue #48, following the departure of Frank and the others. So his condition here isn’t exactly a surprise.
Rachel quickly diagnoses that her mentor and father-figure has gone into cardiac arrest. An ambulance is called and, once it arrives, Rachel opts to ride with Quincy to the hospital, while Frank and Harold follow in the latter’s car…
Dracula proceeds to put on a show for his guests, turning into a bat before their eyes, then doing the same trick with mist. You might even say he knocks ’em dead (figuratively speaking)…
Hurrying to her husband’s side, Domini asks him what’s wrong. “Th-there was someone here — watching me, Domini,” Dracula replies. “Someone I’d seen years ago — when I first… when I –” But then he stops himself, dismissing the incident (at least until next issue), and the couple return to the party. Unknown to them, however, Anton Lupeski has been eavesdropping — and he’s unsurprisingly delighted to learn that there’s someone out there whom even his supposed “dark lord” fears.
OK, by this point you may be wondering if this issue’s cover (not to mention your humble blogger) was lying about Blade and Hannibal King playing a central role in the story. After all, we’re already on page 9 of our 17-page yarn. But, fear not… their time has come at last:
Grabbing a piece of the broken wooden fence to use as a makeshift stake, Hannibal King stabs his pursuer, though not fatally. Then, as Blade staggers, King resumes his flight, which (as his voiceover narration informs us) is not at all random — rather, he’s heading directly for the same house where Drac and Domini’s party is being held, following up on a clue he’d received earlier that he could find Deacon Frost there. And so, moments later…
Hmm, is Deacon Frost just another “gate crasher”, like Hannibal King and Blade? Or has he wrangled an actual invitation, somehow? It’s an intriguing question, though not one that the storyline ever gets around to answering, to the best of my knowledge.
Wait, back up a panel… WTF just happened there with Rachel and Frank?
Ever since Frank returned to the Dracula-hunters squad with more “confidence” following an adventure with Brother Voodoo in Brazil over a dozen issues ago, Rachel has had mounting concerns about his performative machismo. Just in the last few hours, Frank’s need to flamboyantly demonstrate his manly courage almost got him and Harold (and Rachel) needlessly killed. And now, after he pays a little perfunctory lip service to having lost his temper a few times lately, and maybe not showing his feelings for Rachel as much as he should, she’s ready to let him completely off the hook? To tell him he’s been right “about everything” all along, and fall into his arms so he can shut her up with a kiss? Eyucch.
I imagine that when I first read this scene back in September, 1976, I assumed that this weird turn would be followed up on in the future — that we’d see Frank and Rachel’s relationship dynamic go through further convolutions before being resolved, either by their breaking up or by their establishing a stronger, more emotionally healthy bond. But, no; having recently re-read the series on to the end of its run, I’m here to tell you that this is it; this is the resolution of Frank and Rachel’s post-Brazil character arc.
I have no idea if Marv Wolfman felt he’d written himself into a corner fifty years ago, and had no idea how to get out of it, or if he’d simply gotten bored of the whole business and wanted to move on. But whatever the case, it’s a major disappointment — and from the standpoint of characterization, probably the nadir of Wolfman’s work on this series.
And now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let’s get back to the fight:
Boasting that he has an advantage over Dracula due to the original Blade’s extensive training in handling knives and spears, Vampire Blade plunges his stake into the Count’s body… but misses his heart, which leads Drac to gloat that his adversary isn’t really superior to “the true Blade” after all. Meanwhile…
As we ring down the curtain on ToD #51, we note that its “Next Issue” blurb promises the arrival of a new player — one who might (or might not) be a “Demon?” And as we move to pick up issue #52, we find its Colan-Palmer cover offers us our first look at this mysterious individual… although, in the context of the Marvel Universe, he looks more likely to be a superhero (or villain), or a space alien, or even an android, than any kind of evil spirit we’re familiar with from years of reading comics. Just sayin’.
Turning to the opening splash page, we find our storytellers beginning on a sad, if not surprising, note:
We’re not told just how our little band got Blade’s body from that big house in Boston to this cemetery, but I suppose we can assume that Hannibal King dragged it out of the place on his lonesome, and then… something something something. Whatever. Anyway, once their dearly departed has been properly deposited in the cold hard ground, King and company make their exit — unaware of the “flitting black shape” observing from high above their heads…
For this reader, it was always fascinating to get these little vignettes drawn from the Lord of Vampires’ long and colorful history — especially since the demise of the black-and-white Dracula Lives magazine, where such episodes had been regularly featured.
And speaking of Dracula Lives…
Writer/editor Wolfman neglected to insert a footnote here, so please allow me to inform you that Dracula’s fateful encounter with “that foolish actor” Louis Belski had been chronicled in the short story “Fear Stalker”, which was written by Wolfman, illustrated by Mike Ploog and Ernie Chan, and published in Dracula Lives #4 (Jan., 1974). And now you know.
After using his hypnotic powers to blow past the ticket seller without paying (what a cheapskate), Dracula proceeds into the theater to join his fellow moviegoers…
Everyone in the theater wisely flees for their lives — at least, everyone who’s able (it’s not entirely clear whether Dracula actually kills the unfortunate woman in the glasses, or if she manages to escape) — leaving our villainous protagonist to stand alone. Or perhaps I should say, he believes he’s alone…
As previously noted, our Golden Boy doesn’t really resemble the denizens of Hell we’re familiar with from other Marvel comics, and his “Let there be light!” shtick gives off even stronger anti-demonic vibes. So one might fault Dracula for seeming somewhat obtuse here. On the other hand, maybe he’s recalling a certain Bible verse…
Even more on the back foot now than he was before his flight, the cornered Dracula desperately calls on one of his most formidable powers — the ability to call down the storm. But his adversary easily counters this move, summoning sunlight to disperse the dark clouds.
At this point, our storytellers cut away for a whole two panels…
…just long enough to foreshadow the next development in their ongoing Hannibal King/Blade-fronted plotline. (What, you thought Blade was really dead? Pshaw.) And then it’s back to the battle, as Dracula and Golden Boy confront one another while atop a moving roller-coaster car. Drac attempts to use hypnosis on his foe, only to have the effect reversed; it’s thus the vampire, rather than the “demon”, who goes tumbling from the car. Turning into a bat at the last possible moment before going splat on the midway pavement, the Lord of Vampires admits to himself he’s outclassed: “I have no chance against that demon” Yet, even as he takes refuge beneath the canopy of a carousel, he conceives a plan…
In previous issues, Dracula has reluctantly acknowledged his inability to remove the painting of Christ from “his” church, but has nevertheless more or less managed to ignore its silent presence. Now, however, he realizes that the power it represents is capable of acting against him directly. Will this cause him to adjust his overall scheme in any meaningful fashion? Only time will tell… but first, the focus of our narrative will return once more to Blade and Hannibal King, and to the object of their shared quest for vengeance, Deacon Frost — for what ToD #52’s “Next Issue” blurb promises us will be the final time, at least as far as the last of that threesome is concerned. So please make your plans to return to this space next month for our deep dig into Tomb of Dracula #53… an excavation that’ll begin with the literal digging-up of Blade’s grave, and we both know you won’t want to miss that.
Happy October, Alan ( and everyone)!
Interesting. I haven’t read these stories in years, and revisiting them through this blog I’m seeing some of the cracks. I still feel this is one of Marvel’s strongest, most consistent series (certainly in the horror genre and definitely post-Englehart). And the broad strokes remain compelling, with the whole Church of Drac and the formidable Hannibal King-Blade arc. But looking at some of the logic gaps and a few character lapses – well, maybe just a touch of the bloom is off the rose.
Agree with you about Frank and Rachel, Alan. Have to say I never completely warmed up to Frank, and indeed, he’s probably the second most annoying character in the book. (THAT award has to go Harold H. Harold -though even he would have a few moments of redemption eventually.) The idea that Frank overcompensated his previous behavior by acting all manly struck me more as something imposed on the character by the author, rather than growing out of the character himself. (Wonder if Frank’s high-T attitude would win the approval of certain Cabinet members? But I digress…) I always thought Rachel was too good for Frank, and pretty much everything I’m reading here convinced me of that.
Thanks for doing the research on that DRACULA LIVES story. Considering how footnote-happy Marvel was back then, it’s surprising not to see the reference.
Not too much else to say, other than say that even at its weakest, the Colan-Palmer art is enough to cover pretty much any story flaws. The unconventional layouts, the fluidity of the storytelling – gorgeous. And can we agree that unmasked Anton Lupeski may be THE creepiest character in the series.
Thanks again for your work, Alan!
Colan and Palmer were doing top work here, but the subject matter, often quite dark – even for code-approved Marvel – is not for me.
I do have to say that seeing the cover with Drac on a rollercoaster seems unintentionally hilarious. One would almost expect Howard the Duck to make a cameo. There was a classic E.C. cover in the 1950s which also had a rollercoaster. Otherwise, I really can’t think of any other comics to feature one:
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/ec-comics-history/images/4/45/Shock_SuspenStories_Vol_1_13.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170215175637
P.S. Though I saw a number of ’70s films in “sensurround” (like Midway), Rollercoaster was not one of them. No one can accuse scripter Marv Wolfman of following a trend, because the film wasn’t released until 1977.
Midway? My parents took me to that for my 16th birthday. I don’t remember much about the movie other than the “sensurround” meant I wouldn’t fall asleep during it.
There *are* rollercoaster girders and tracks in the background of Amazing Spider-Man no. 67, but this doesn’t quite count:
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/c/c2/Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_1_67.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20171229063115
About a year earlier, in Incredible Hulk #195, ol’ Greenskin and the Abomination were shown duking it out on a roller coaster. I also think there were a couple of other Marvel covers from the mid-70s set in amusement park rides, but I can’t bring any to mind right away. But, yeah, the cover of ToD 52 stood out from the usual cover fare. Given that roller coaster rides typically elicit screams of glee mixed with terror while on steep down slopes, strikes me as a wryly amusing but still horrific twist to have Drac giving at least one rider a very good reason to scream.
There’s also the cover to Fantastic Four #122 or 123 with Galactus tackling Marvel’s Fab Four in an amusement park with a roller coaster.
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Fantastic_Four_Vol_1_122
I missed that Lee/J. Buscema FF/Galactus replay of the Lee/Kirby classic, although I got the story in one of the Treasury Editions years later. Despite Buscema’s sterling art, the whole thing couldn’t quite capture the grandeur of the original and, particularly to my 64-year old self comes off as a rather silly stretched-out retread, complete with Gabriel the Air Walker taking most of the first issue to do what Kirby had the Silver Surfer do in just a few pages in FF #48, and then fall apart like a cheap construct. Sheesh, Galactus must have gotten Gabriel out of a cheap bargain bin.
That was my impression as well, Fred. And I hadn’t even read the classic from #48-50. Actually, it was that cover with Galactus – the Big G’d dude with that antler helmet – fighting the FF in a freaking amusement park that did it in for me. As for using a robot Gabriel, my guess is that Galactus lost some cosmic poker game to Eternity or the Living Tribunal and had to use a robot to pay off that debt.
🤣
On the other hand, the Ohio Players had a number one hit in January 1976 with their disco-funk single “Love Rollercoaster.” Was Marv Wolfman ‘vibing’ off that? 😉
Thanks. I now have that song stuck in my mind.
There are worse predicaments. 😆
As best as I can recall, I didn’t start regularly collecting ToD until issue 55, although I did have a few issues from years earlier, including #10, the first to feature Blade. At any rate, I saw how Dracula’s son Janus grew up very quickly and took the name Janus Tepes (which was a name the historical Dracula never used — his adopted family name was (pause) Dracula! Or Drăculea. Tepes is a Romanian word meaning stake or spike, referring to Vlad’s favorite means of dispatching people he didn’t like. I didn’t see that Wolfman bestowed any name upon this golden-hued nemesis of Drac, but couldn’t help thinking he looks like an elder brother to Adam Warlock. Seems Wolfman was using him as some sort of quasi-angel intended to keep Dracula in check anytime he attempted to attain significant political power. Apparently mere rule of a province of Spain didn’t qualify but longing to take over the entire kingdom — and although the century wasn’t given, presumably this was anytime between 1580 and 1640, when Portugal was part of Spain, that would have also meant rule over nearly all of South America and a big chunk of North America, as well as the Philippines, and potentially even the Holy Roman Empire which ruled a much of central Europe. Drac’s father, Vlad II, had spent much of his youth in the Court of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg, who had named him a member of the Order of the Dragon (the source of Vlad’s adopted surname, Dracul). I have no idea if Wolfman was knowledgeable on any of this in the era before this information could be so easily looked up in seconds without having to go to a library or thumb through encyclopedias. The “angel” did appear to die too easily but apparently purposely to further bedevil our wicked protagonist, reincarnated as his own son!
Appears Wolfman did feel a need to sort of soften up Rachel’s personality and cozy up with Frank. Maybe he thought of it as way to more “humanize” her and ease the tension in a situation where it seemed very likely she would have responded by slapping Frank, who was, quite, ahem, frankly, behaving like a jerk, utterly failing to understand how she’d had to harden herself after so many terrible losses even while Frank himself was living it up as a carefree jock with gobs of money before he even became aware that he was descended from a murderous monster who would not stay dead and made Frank’s girlfriend just another one of his many victims. The characterization of women in Bronze Age Marvel mags was an improvement over that in Silver Age Marvel, but still often problematic, at least to most sensibilities in the early 2nd quarter of the 21st century, at least outside of the current administration mis-ruling the U.S., particularly a Secretary of “War” who’d like to party like it’s 1849.
Enjoyed this latest romp through four-color gothic supernatural power plays of a half-century ago, when those of us who lived through it were perhaps not so wise but definitely less wizened!
I swear to each of you that were I to relive my 15th year of life, I would forsake misplaced loyalty to such titles as Avengers and Iron Man to instead collect Tomb of Dracula. While those two titles were mired in mediocrity at that time, the Lord of Fangs did indeed have something interesting going on within it’s covers. And even amid plot holes that one would plunge into, they’re beautifully concealed by the gorgeous art of Gene Colan and Tom Palmer.
That leads to my main takeaway from this review. The “cracks” in the story – borrowing Bill’s clever term – underscore a key weakness of the “Writer/Editor” model. Had Marv Wolfman had someone overseeing his work on this title, I suspect they would have pointed out those shortcomings as distractions from what is an otherwise quite intriguing storyline. Ditto in that I have to think someone who’s so much as gone out on a date would have called out Rachel’s nonsensical actions with Pete Hegseth wannabe Frank. (Before anyone takes offense, I’d only referencing the Secretary of Defense/War based on his self-proclaimed “warrior ethos.”) While I know that the elimination of “Writer/Editor” role led to both Wolfman and Len Wein departing for DC, this story tells me that Jim Shooter made the right call.
Just as I made the right call to put our dachshund back into bed with my wife so that I could read without interruption Alan’s excellent review.
Seems almost repetitive and a bit weird to have Drac fighting a golden-skinned blank-eyed guy immediately after fighting a silver-skinned blank-eyed guy, and that the golden-skinned blank-eyed guy has a light blue and white costume with a metallic effect so that he looks not unlike the usual image of the silver-skinned blank-eyed guy, and that both of them appear capable of defeating Drac easily but fail to do so, which makes three in a row when you include Dr Strange (and that blue/white costume on guy number three doesn’t seem like a good colour scheme to go with his golden skin anyway, just sayin’). Ah, there’s the full-stop/period on my keypad, sorry!
Absolutely agree with your WTF, Alan. As our recent Eurovision Song Contest entry put it, what the hell just happened? Bill was right in noting that Frank’s macho-man front appeared like something imposed on the character rather than a natural ‘rising and advancing’ in his evolution, but here he indulges in some blame-shifting at Rachel and doesn’t even apologise for his behaviour, but the supposedly assertive and independent Rachel immediately apologises to him and falls weeping into his arms?!
Feels as though the depiction of female characters certainly still had a way to go back in 1976.
I’ve said before (and agree with the comments here) that some proper independent editing might have resolved some of the problems with plot, characterization, et al, although Wolfman’s status as the boss still allowed him the latitude of using fairly obvious divine intervention as a plotline which he denied to other writers.
And is it just me, or does it feel as though there’s not all that much horror in what is supposed to be the top horror magazine then being published? Apart from Anton Lupeski being (in Arnie’s words), ‘one ugly motherf***er’, a couple of impalements and the almost gratuitous cinema scene, nothing terribly horrific seems to be shown (or even implied).
If I had read this issue of ToD when it was new, I probably would have thought the gold skinned character was the return of Vaengr from Steranko’s final Nick Fury story (before his own series) in Strange Tales no. 168. “Today Earth Died” was published in 1968, and its alien had blond (instead of white) hair and regular human eyes instead of red. Still, comics characters have returned, sometimes slightly modified, and sometimes radically so.
https://static0.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/goodcomics/2011/09/earthdied2.jpg
Janus’ look was definitely more super-hero than angelic and that drove me out of the story as much now as back when. The only thing worse is how his host grew up despicable.
I never read ToD. Not fifty year ago and not now, other than in these posts. I just don’t understand the attraction. Partially because my memories of Blade and Hannibal King and Deacon Frost all come from the Wesley Snipes movies rather than the comics, but this book seems way too over-done for my taste. The writing is sloppy as demonstrated by the Frank/Rachel storyline and it’s lack of follow-up, the supporting cast is ridiculous as we see in Harold H. Harold, acting as comic relief in a book that doesn’t need any and I know many of you disagree with me, but Colan’s artwork is better practically anywhere than it is here. I have no interest in the story Wolfman is trying to tell here. The only reason I stick with the ToD posts is just to hang out with all of you and hear what you have to say. Thanks, Alan!
Generally I didn’t have a problem with Frank getting more confident. But yeah, his deciding he was now the man and Rachel, with all her experience, was The Little Woman, was annoying. Though making Rachel as cool and formidable as she was shows Wolfman could do better than sexist tropes (and for much of the book, did).
The scene where she’s grieving for Quincy — that’s particularly jackhole on Frank’s part. Nobody should tell someone else how to deal with grief. Even if he had a legitimate beef with Rachel, he should stifle it until later.
Dracula’s kind of a jerk too. His reaction to the woman chiding him screams less Evil Supreme and more Pissed-Off Old Fart; he regrets losing his temper and striking her but doesn’t feel his withering contempt was beyond the pale.
First time comment, long time reader,
The story title – The Wildest Party – is a reference to the narrative poem The Wild Party written by Joseph Moncure March. It was published in 1928 and spawned two musical adaptations, a 1975 film and a collection illustrated by Art Spiegelman published back in 1994.
Thanks for sharing that, David!
I saw a bit of Randy Newman in the title myself, based on the lyrics to “Mama Told Me Not to Come”:
Will you have whiskey with your water, sugar with your tea?
What are these crazy questions that they’re asking me?
This is the wildest party that there ever could be
Oh, don’t turn on the light, ’cause I don’t wanna see
Three Dog Night renders it as “craziest” in their cover, but Newman went for “wildest.”
Antipasti:
The updated FF/ Galactus storyline was supposedly a recipe of Englehart’s for Stan, inspired by a past cookbook but lacking that je ne sais quois of that earlier dish.
Primo e secondo piatto:
The partyfood is getting cold. The Fizz is losing a few bubbles. Rachel is out of character and the character driven storyline is lacking it’s normal bite. As commented, Janus is a re-heated Silver Surfer and the storyline lacks horrific tension. The menu by Wolfman has some dishes that are not complemented by the drink ( the Harold H Harold bottle is completely the wrong vintage), and chef Colan has started to skimp on some of the ingredients.
Dolce:
Rocky Rollercoasters are great when Frazetta (EC) and Miller (DD) are in the kitchen…otherwise a pass.
And a comment for il conto:
Thank goodness for the front of room staff headed by Palmer! Big tip there.
BUT DESPITE ALL….
as a restaurant, TOD is still a sophisticated eatery that consistently outshines its rivals….for now.
“Comicdom’s No1 FEAR Magazine”.
No we don’t use that obvious HORROR categeory, no Sirree, we make up a new one that no one ever uses generically.
I may be wrong, P P, but I’m pretty sure that in 1976 the word “horror” was still off-limits for the covers of comics bearing the CCA seal.
I think you’re right, Alan. Warren avoided the Comics Code with his magazine line, as did the short-lived Web of Horror comics magazine in 1969-70. DC’s Swamp Thing no. 6 had “A Clockwork Horror” as a story title, but no such blurb appeared on the cover. In 1974 Marvel had a Haunt of Horror magazine, but the word seemed to be taboo for quite some time. Marvel even had “zuvembies,” because the word zombie was still off-limits in the Code-approved mainstream in 1975-76.