This post is brought to you by Strange Adventures by G. W. Thomas. This collection of occult detective stories features many classic Horror themes and monsters as well as Mysteries to be solved by clever investigators. If you want vampires read “Silence”, where Deputy Sheriff Brett Hope visits an entire town filled with blood-thirsty undead. And if you want more weird mysteries, check out the companion volume, Strange Detectives where Baron Von Klarnstein and his granddaughter follow another vampiric horror in “The Case of the Blue Man”.
Vampire comics are older than the EC and other Golden Age comics of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Jerome Siegel and Joel Shuster had one in their comic strip Doctor Occult back in 1938. Dracula-like characters fill the four color pages, as do new writers’ version of that character, but real adaptations are thin on the ground. While comic book writers enjoy throwing in a man who can turn into a bat or has fangs, following Bram Stoker’s novel from beginning to end didn’t really serve their needs. So, let’s look at some vampire tales that harken back to the Victorians, back to Weird Tales Magazine and elsewhere and see what comic book adapters and artists did with that material.
It should be no surprise that it was Warren’s Creepy and Eerie that did it first. Archie Goodwin was editor in those days and adapted a number of classic tales himself. The imitators like Skywald attempted to follow but it was mostly Marvel that succeeded later, needing vamp tales to fill magazines like Vampire Tales. I have only included one adaptation of Dracula here, my favorite one. There are several but the 1973 version seems least like Marvel’s own Tomb of Dracula type comics.
“Carmilla” (Creepy #19, March 1968) by J. Sheridan Le Fanu appeared in The Blue Magazine in 1871 before becoming part of the classic In a Glass Darkly (1872). It tells the story of a female vampire (and has implied lesbanism) who visits lonely girls in rich family estates, preying upon them. It was the basis of the film The Vampire Lovers (1970). The story was adapted by John Benson. The art by Bob Jenny is oddly static with six boxes a page on most pages. Also odd, was the story was longer than most Warren tales so it was split in half with the ending appearing later in the same issue. I’m not sure where that panther came from…
“Dracula’s Guest” (Eerie #16, July 1968) is the famous first chapter of Bram Stoker’s Dracula that got cut for length and later appeared in Dracula’s Guest (1914) The story has Jonathan Harker on his way to meet Dracula at his castle but he ends up in a graveyard surrounded by hungry ghosts. Dracula appears as a giant wolf to save him. The story is faithfully adapted by E. Nelson Bridwell. Frank Bolle’s art is surprisingly good. Bolle did many lesser comics for Western but this one is nicely detailed.
“The Monster From the Mound” (Chamber of Chills #2, January 1972) reprinted in black & White in Masters of Terror #1, July 1975 was based on Robert E. Howard’s “The Horror From the Mound” (Weird Tales, May 1932) It was adapted by master writer, Gardner F. Fox. The hero, Steve Brill, defeats the vampire by snapping its dry bones and then lighting it on fire. This drew some criticism from fans in “The Eyrie”, remarking that it deviated from the 1931 version of a vampire in Dracula. Howard never felt bound to old lore when writing a tale. He created an unusual version of a werewolf in “Wolfshead” too. Fox wisely kept Howard’s ending when he adapted the story. Frank Brunner’s art captures the Southwestern feel of the story well.
Dracula (Pendulum Press, 1973) reprinted in Marvel Classics Comics #9, October 1976) from the novel (1897) by Bram story adapted by Naunerle Farr. With any adaptation of a long novel, you want to see what they included and what the creators felt they could trim. This comic originally appeared as a Pendulum Press graphic novel in Europe and was repackaged by Marvel a couple years later. Because of this the pagination is oddly not very Marvel-ish. Farr includes all the best scenes in the book but it is very much a PG rendition without any Golden Age style gore. The art by Nester Redondo is his usual high standard though looks more like a DC comic.
The Vampyre (Vampire Tales #1, August 1973) reprinted in black & white in Masters of Terror #1, July 1975 from the novel (1819) by John Polidori. This is the first big vampire novel, appearing long before Dracula and coming out of the same summer at Lake Diodati that produced Frankenstein. Polidori was Lord Byron’s physician and friend. He vacationed with Percy Shelley, Mary Wollenstonecraft. The Vampyre was Polidori’s entry into their famous contest to write a story in the German style. Polidori uses the tale to satirize his patient, giving us the Byronically handsome vampire. When the story appeared, readers were misled to believe Byron wrote it. The comic was adapted by Ron Goulart and Roy Thomas. Win Mortimer’s art is professional if a little lackluster. He would also draw Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for Marvel.
“Bat’s Belfry” (Vampire Tales #3, February 1974) adapted from the story by August Derleth (Weird Tales, May 1926), his first sale to that magazine. We get the diary of a man who buys a mysterious house in rural England. He discovers it has a terrible secret, vampires haunting its cellar. The adaptation is by Don McGregor. The artwork by Vicente Ibanez is pretty typical pseudo-Warren. For more on this story, go here.
“The Drifting Snow” (Vampire Tales #4, April 1974) was adapted from the story by August Derleth (Weird Tales, February 1939) by Tony Isabella. A remote house in the woods is haunted by the undead spirit of a woman who was used and abused by the owners. Derleth works in the snow vampire element that can be found in Japanese folklore. But it is the art by Esteban Maroto that really rocks this one. Maroto’s lush rendering is miles above many Marvel adaptations.
“The Living Dead” (Vampire Tales #5, June 1974) was faithfully adapted from the story by Robert Bloch (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, April 1967) by Roy Thomas. Now considering where this story appeared, do you think you’re going to get real vampires? (But it’s Robert Bloch, so does that really matter?) Even if you aren’t a real vampire, it can be unhealthy to make people think you are. The art by Alan Kupperberg and Dick Giordano feels like 70s Marvel.
Conclusion
Vampires make great comics. Unlike a space squid or a shambling swamp horror, a vamp can do some human things like have a conversation. Dracula was a great villain because he could pass for human when he wanted to. In the novel, he could actually walk around in sunlight but he couldn’t turn to mist or a wolf. At night, he was a much more dangerous fellow. What makes vampires fun is that they have great strength but also great weaknesses like sunlight, garlic and wooden stakes.
I have stuck to the Silver and Bronze Age here. There were some Golden Age comics from EC that sorta adapted classic tales but not openly or completely. I have ignored those. The Golden Age was the Wild West of comics and people pretty much did whatever they liked. There are plenty of later comics that dwell on Dracula. Perhaps we’ll look at some of those in another post.
Mythos Horror at RAGE m a c h i n e
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