After reading through the Werewolf by Night Omnibus, I couldn’t help picking up my copy of The Tomb of Dracula: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 and leafing through it again.
Another book collecting 1970s Marvel horror, The Tomb of Dracula: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 is a chunky paperback that collects Marvel’s comics featuring the Lord of Vampires himself!
I read this book a little while ago and I haven’t yet gotten my claws on Vols. 2 and 3 (the equivalent Dracula omnibus being too pricey for me!) so this is just a quick peer into the vaults of Marvel’s 70s horror highlights.
The great Gene Colan is on pencils and he really is awesome. I’ve read that Gene Colan pushed to get the penciling gig for this and I’m glad he got it. His style really suits the dark and moody theme of the stories.
(After double checking his Wikipedia page, I found out that Gene Colan penciled the whole 70 issue run!)
I’ve seen Gene Colan’s style described as ‘painting with a pencil’ and when an inker really gels with this style the results are some of the best comic art out there – certainly form the 1960s and 1970s. Tom Palmer is one of those inkers and any issue featuring the pair of them is a dark delight!
(Tom Palmer also inked Gene Colan on issues of Doctor Strange from the late 1960s. I’d highly recommend seeking those out as well!)
I think this penciling style was hard for some inkers to work with and when Tom Palmer isn’t on inking duty, the results can be a bit rough around the edges.
Switching over to the writing, the first half dozen of issues spend a bit of time bringing Dracula up to ‘date’ (this is relative – these comics date from the early 1970s!). However the direction of the stories are a bit all over the place. Looking at the credits, not surprisingly there is a steady flow of writers coming and going until Marv Wolfman shows up.
The gloriously named Marv Wolfman stays as the regular writer and things soon pick up. A core ‘family’ of vampire hunters develop and they provide the main human interest as well as opposition to Dracula.
Talking of opposition, the vampire hunter Blade makes his first appearance in issue 10. Although in this volume his appearances are few, his popularity later lead to his own solo adventures.
Blade as he appears on the front cover of The Tomb of Dracula #10, art by Gil Kane & Tom Palmer 
This issue is used as the back cover to the book
Can you make a link between the return of horror comics and the development of anti-heroes in the 1970s? I’m not sure but Dracula could be an an interesting link between the two as he’s not completely a monster and even has a sense of nobility and honour.
But enough beard stroking! What else does the book contain?
Dracula’s appearances in the black and white horror magazine Dracula Lives! (of course!) are also collected in this book. They feature lovely painted covers by artists like Neal Adams, Boris Vallejo and Earl Norem.
Cover to Dracula Lives! #1 with a cover by fantasy artist Boris Vallejo 
Dracula Lives! #3’s painted cover by Neal Adams
All in all this is a great introduction to some of the best horror comics Marvel produced in the 1970s.
If you want to find out more about Gene Colan, there’s a great article and career overview at The Comics Journal website.
