Arriving on stands in June, 1973, the third issue of Marvel Comics’ new “Marvel Monster Group” of black-and-white titles got off to a strong start with a spectacular cover by Neal Adams.  Over a year prior, the star artist had begun backing away from a long stint as the most prolific cover artist for Marvel’s primary rival, DC Comics — a tour of duty extending back past the turn of the decade, and one which at its productive peak had seen him turning out ten or more covers a month.  Of course, Adams had kept his hand in the cover game (at Marvel as well as its chief competitor) even after curtailing his commitment to DC; but the painting that graced Dracula Lives #3 represented a new phase for the artist, one which would see him produce a number of covers in that medium for Marvel (though not in any sort of quantity approaching that of his earlier output at DC), primarily for black-and-white titles that weren’t even out yet as of this issue’s release (e.g., The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu) — titles which, when they did eventually make it to the magazine racks, would end the present horror-centric hegemony of the Marvel Monster Group.  Read More