A Sense of Doubt blog post #4276 - Some thoughts on THE TOMB OF DRACULA - Comic Book Sunday for 2611.01

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4276 - Some thoughts on THE TOMB OF DRACULA - Comic Book Sunday for 2611.01

As I shared earlier this month, I decided to re-read Marvel's The Tomb of Dracula from the 1970s by (mostly) Marv Wolfman and completely by Gene Colan.

I posted about this series before as it is one of my all-time favorites:

Saturday, October 28, 2023
A Sense of Doubt blog post #3175 - Marvel's Tomb of Dracula

(and I reprinted that 2023 post last year).

Tomb of Dracula on ComicVine

Here's my recent posts:

Thursday, October 8, 2026

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4252 - Letter to Dad #56 - I am Re-Reading TOMB OF DRACULA and other newsy news

Sunday, October 11, 2026

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4255 - Essential Tomb of Dracula vol.1 - Comic Book Sunday 2610.11

Thursday, October 15, 2026

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4259 - Letter to Dad #57 - Reading Tomb of Dracula Continues and Other News

The cover above is one of my favorites from the series. It's one I was given or bought as the series came out.

It's a story in which Dracula and one of his adversaries, Rachel Van Helsing, grand daughter of the Van Helsing from the original 1897 Dracula novel by Bram Stoker, is snow bound with Dracula in the Karpathian Mountain range near Transylvania. Presumably they crashed in a helicopter after Dracula tried to recover a book Rachel had that contains a spell to destroy all vampires.

Dracula is endeavoring to keep Rachel alive, he claims, as his insurance policy of sweet blood to be consumed when all other sources are unavailable if trek through the mountains is delayed (it's supposed to take four days) or once they reach the end of it.

The story shows Dracula saving Rachel's life, begrudgingly caring for her, killing a mountain goat to feed her, making a fire for her and so on.

Of course, the cover depicts her attempt to kill Dracula when he must sleep during the day (as, of course, they travel by night).

The story serves to complicate Dracula who is not actually an inhuman beast in total. He was once human and still possesses human feelings.

This issue also marks a turning point in the series as Wolfman/Colan work give the story more depth and direction. The tired out tropes started to fray. The "monster of the month" stories in which Dracula must fight some other supernatural horror are only so interesting for so long. Also, the hunt for Dracula strains credulity when Rachel, Frank Drake, Quincy Harker, and Blade come close to killing Dracula or do kill Dracula or the count has the perfect opportunity to kill them and there's some flimsy reason for why he does not. At least his preservation of Rachel in this story, like a cow kept alive until slaughter, is somewhat plausible.

However, it occurs to me that The Tomb of Dracula is a unique comic book series as it features as its main character a villain and devotes time and effort to making him sympathetic.

Before the Marvel monster comics, there weren't any comic series featuring villains. The single issue about Doctor Doom does not count. The Sub Mariner book does not count either as Namor is not really a villain, despite some of his actions.

But with the rise of the MONSTER comics, Marvel either features misunderstood characters who often work for the common good (Man Thing, Ghost Rider, Werewolf By Night, Frankenstein) or actual villains as heroes: DRACULA.

It's a trend that arguably starts with The Incredible Hulk as the Hulk is not quite a hero though he often behaves like one or at least not a hero in the way Captain America is a hero. This time period also sees the introduction of the Punisher (February 1974), introduced as an adversary for Spider-Man and later elevated to anti-hero status. Similarly, the Wolverine is introduced in an issue of The Incredible Hulk (October 1974) as an adversary for the Hulk. Not to mention reformed criminals like the Falcon or Luke Cage who are re-imagined as heroes after forsaking their criminal pasts or their misunderstood history.

Dracula is unlike all these other characters. He is not a human who transforms into a "monster" like Ghost Rider or Werewolf by Night. He's not in the "Hulk" model of "leave me alone" type characters who have good hearts like Man Thing and Frankenstein. And for the most part, all of those characters only kill "bad people." Dracula kills anyone and everyone who either gets in his way or who he needs to kill to feed on their blood. His favorite prey are attractive young women in sexually suggestive situations or wardrobe, which fuels the rape fantasy roots of these gothic vampire stories.

What Wolfman and Colan figure out is that readers identify with Dracula and are not rooting on his destruction but rather his survival. It's a complex relationship because readers are also unlikely to cheer on the deaths of Dracula's adversaries. All need to survive. And so, other villains needed to be introduced, which the team does with Dr. Sun, a brain in a jar with world domination aspirations.

I have more thinking to do on why we are fascinated by such a character as Dracula, who is truly abominable, even as he slays so many people, mostly young women. One last point of order: Wolfman does a good job NAMING the victims so that they are not nameless people but named people and sometimes with a back story that is briefly shared. These are humans. I care about what happens to humans. And yet, I don't want to see Dracula destroyed? Why is that? I will answer that question in my next installment.

Thanks for tuning in.

Happy Comic Book Sunday.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2611.01 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 4140 days ago & DAD = 794 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.