The Tomb of Dracula #1-5

The Tomb of Dracula #1-5

Originally released in 1972

Written by Gerry Conway (#1-2), Archie Goodwin (#3-4), Gardner Fox (#5)

Art by Gene Colan

Frank Drake lost the millions that his father had earned in a short time span.  Now, he has only one thing left to his name, and with his girlfriend Jean and his friend Clifton at his side, he travels to Europe to sell it.  It's old - positively ancient - but it belongs to an ancestor of his, and he figures in the right hands, it could be profitable to someone.  The item in question is a castle belonging to a figure who many believe to be fiction, but little does he know that this short trip will lead to the resurrection of Dracula!

Clifton is jealous, coveting Jean for himself, and he plans for Frank to undergo an "accident" during his stay at the castle.  Falling through a rotted staircase, he winds up in a basement where he finds the tomb of Dracula, with the stake-embedded corpse of Dracula rotting inside.  Believing it to be something that was set up to stick with the theme, he pulls the stake out from the heart of Dracula!

Needless to say, this doesn't go well. (this comic has a tendency to dramatically state that something is the ___ of Dracula!  It makes for an entertaining read)  Jean is turned into a vampire, though Frank manages to take the coffin of Dracula back to England.  Dracula is in close pursuit, and from there, it's a game of cat and mouse as Dracula and his descendent try to hunt each other down.

Aiding Frank in his quest is Rachel Van Helsing, descendent of the killer of Dracula, Abraham Van Helsing.  She is well-prepared for hunting vampires, and it's implied that she hunts other monsters as well.  In these early issues, it feels like this is a stand-alone tale with no connection to the broader Marvel universe.  However, Dracula does appear in other Marvel comics as time goes on (he once had a diplomatic meeting with Doctor Doom on the moon), so I'm curious if Rachel has ever met Elsa Bloodstone, who also comes from a family of monster hunters.

The writing does a good job with capturing the moody atmosphere, and Gene Colan's art feels like it's stills from a vampire movie, showing foggy English streets and rooms filled with shadows and the macabre. (I can almost hear Bach playing in the background at points)  By issue five, Dracula attempts to take a mystical portal through time (which he's told about by a woman who wishes to regain her youth by becoming a vampire), only to find himself in a hellish dimension - it's brief, but adds even more variety to the setting.

When I saw that a Gardner Fox wrote the fifth issue of Dracula, I double-checked - it would be an odd coincidence, but it could have been someone with the same name.  To my surprise, it was the same Gardner Fox who wrote the early stories of the Justice League and Barry Allen's Flash, among others.  It turns out that he did do some work for Marvel, though mainly with horror comics and historical-themed books.

It's interesting to see how the comic frames vampire attacks using the panels, like a mix of mugging and Dracula or his fellow vampires forcing themselves upon their victims.  It deals with dark topics (after staking his vampiric girlfriend, Frank Drake attempts suicide before being convinced that he saved Jean from being an undead monstrosity, which was a dark turn that I didn't expect), and the atmosphere is grim and moody throughout.

Based on what I've read, I'd gladly keep reading this.  The story moves at a good pace while keeping me engaged, and while the series repeatedly using the name of Dracula in as dramatic of a tone as possible added some unintentional humour to the proceedings, it's ultimately about a group of people trying to survive the wrath of an unkillable monster, which is an interesting change from what I'm used to from Marvel's comics.