The Origin of Dracula - a Review from Dracula Lives! 2

Dracula Lives! #2 (September 1973)
"That Dracula May Live Again!"
Marv Wolfman-Neal Adams

Today's story was recommended to me a few years ago when I'd mentioned on Twitter that I was reading the first volume of the Tomb of Dracula: The Complete Collection. I was asked if it contained the material from the black and white magazine. Well, as you can see - yes, yes it does! Not long after the conversation, I got round to my encounter with this telling of Count Dracula's "origin", and all the accolades heaped upon it were realized to be true. It's quite a different looking Count, if you're only used to those wonderful Gene Colan renderings. But just about any character in the hands of Neal Adams is going to turn out special. Let's check it out.

100-Word Review:

We open on the battlefield in Transylvania, 1459. The Turks are pushing north and west from their Ottoman homeland, but the forces of Dracula stand in the way of Muslim advance across Europe. The battle rages, and eventually the prince is struck down and captured by the Turks. Dracula’s personal history is then related, bringing to light the legend of Vlad the Impaler. A Roma woman is enlisted to heal the prince; recognizing him, she instead curses him with the blood of the vampire. As Dracula’s Turkish captors torture him mind and body, he breaks free to enact his vengeance.

The Good: Hokey smokes, will you look at the art! I don't think I've ever seen a job from Neal Adams that I didn't just "ooh!" and "aah!" over (exceptions being some of the tinkering he's done on his reprinted Batman work), and this short story isn't going to change my mind. It is stunning. The panel layouts, the way figures cross barriers to almost leap off the page, facial expressions, the illusion of motion on the 2-D page, and the inclusion of that splash of red every so often all conspire to create a visual euphoria. Adams is great when he inks his own work; Tom Palmer and Dick Giordano were notable in their partnerships with Adams on the X-Men and Batman runs, respectively, but their absence here is largely not felt. Have I said that I like this?

 

How do you feel about Marv Wolfman? I know there are many fans who don't necessarily rank him among their top scribes, and I guess I'd be in that camp. As I look across his career, I don't hold him in the same regard as I hold Gerry Conway, Doug Moench, or Roy Thomas (to name a few). Yet when I reflect on Wolfman's tenures on Tomb of Dracula and Crisis on Infinite Earths, I'm left with warm regards. I think he must have really clicked with the character of Dracula (or Dracula the character clicked with him), because there is an ownership evident in this story. Wolfman is shepherding Vlad the Impaler through the seminal story of Marvel's version of the Dracula mythos and it's quite nice.
 

 

The story itself is brutal, from battlefield to conclusion. High body count, certainly R-rated events and themes, and a quandary for the reader: what does one do when both protagonist and antagonist are despicable human beings? The creators leave no doubt in our minds that we are to root against the Turks, and specifically their leader, Lord Turac. When Turac recounts the behaviors of Prince Dracula and his affinity for impaling decapitated skulls on lances, of running bodies through and then displaying the corpses, there's not a whole lot for which we can cheer. Then Wolfman and Adams put us in the position where we find Dracula to be the hero - when his wife details that she was gang-raped by the Turks and the infant son of theirs is threatened, our sense of justice hopes that Dracula prevails! I found it a tough road to navigate, and was left with a sense that I'd just read a quality comic book story.

The Bad: Nothing here. Amazing story.

The Ugly: Personally, I am repulsed by rape. It murders the souls of both victim and perpetrator, and leaves the victim with an altered perception of themselves at the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. So although the gang rape took place off camera, I found it not much less impactful. As a literary device, confounding my "allegiances" to the Turks or to Vlad the Impaler, Marv Wolfman used the incident effectively.

C2E2 2019 - a Review

It was a day two years in the making, and it did not disappoint! In April 2017, I joined my friends Mike and Robert from Back in the Bronze Age (and formerly staff writers at Bronze Age Babies), along with one of their frequent commenters, Joe, at the C2E2 comic convention in Chicago. We couldn't pull it together to meet again in 2018, and alternate plans to meet in Indianapolis also did not materialize. But never say never, and through Joe's prodding we made it happen a few days ago. But the surprise of the day was the appearance of Colin Bray, all the way from England! Colin had been a mainstay at the BAB and then moved over to participate in the shenanigans at BitBA. On a whim, one day Joe offered Colin and Steve from Steve Does Comics to come on over - Joe would pick them up at the airport and put them up for a few days. Colin took that bait, and it was a total pleasure to meet him and to spend a few hours sharing our love of the Bronze Age, though separated by an ocean.

Robert came up from southern Indiana and spent the night with us on Saturday. He and I enjoyed a great breakfast at Lumes Pancake House in Frankfort, IL, then journeyed the rest of the way to McCormick Place on Chicago's lakefront. The other car with Mike, Joe, and Colin arrived just minutes after ours, and after some greetings and quick catching up we were able to pose for this team photo outside Neal Adams's booth.

Robert, Doug, Colin, Mike, and Joe at C2E2, March 2019

The initial exchange of pleasantries over, we headed out to the Artist Alley. I'd had in mind that I'd like to continue to fill my copy of Les Daniels's Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics with creator signatures. I was put off, however, that many of the bigger names were charging for their autographs. While I understand that practice, it did sour me a bit. There were some creators, however, who offered a free signature in exchange for any size donation to the Hero Initiative. I thought that was worthwhile, although I did not do that with anyone. So my initial goal of securing signatures from Art Adams, Neal Adams, Rob Liefeld, Kevin Nowlan, George Perez, and Marv Wolfman fell somewhat flat. My choice - I do not mean to cast blame toward any of those creators.

I did, however, meet Joe Staton. Joe's famous in my personal history for his work on the Justice Society revival in All-Star Comics in the mid-70s, and then on Green Lantern around the same time. My favorite Marvel job of Joe's is his inking of Sal Buscema in Avengers during the "Celestial Madonna" arc. Joe was at his table with his wife, and they were quite kind and friendly. I'd been on Joe's website ahead of the con in order to see what kind of prints he might have for sale. I'd seen a JSA print and really hoped that he'd have it. Lo and behold, he did! But when I asked about buying one, his wife said that I was going to get the last one! Score! I was quite happy to take it off their hands, and Joe happily signed it to me, along with my copy of the Huntress: Darknight Daughter tpb I'd brought along. I thanked Joe for the hours of fun he'd given me, and he seemed humbled by that. But I think it's important that we share our gratitude when we can.


After roaming the Artist Alley some more, and deciding I didn't want to wait in the very long line to greet Wolfman and Perez, I eventually made my way to the vendors. Those who've followed me through the years know that in 2014 I sold almost all of my comics and memorabilia collection. Having done so, it changes one's mood a bit at a large comic convention. I used to hunt for the Marvel Legends I'd missed, and there was a time long ago when trying to fill out my complete run of Avengers, volume 1, was really fun. Now, though... I often walked right past those vendors, sometimes with a longing glance, yes, but often with little notice. The places I did seek out, however, were those dealers specializing in trade paperbacks and hardcover collections, or at least with a significant stock. Once finding those folks (notably Torpedo Comics), I then hoped for the somewhat traditional group pricing. And did I find it!

I wish I'd written down the names of the vendors from whom I purchased - always good to toss business to good people. Torpedo Comics stands out in my mind simply because of their display. Their booth is a virtual fortress of enormous black containers, gigantic trunks if you will. These things open up, have drawers, and are really quite amazing. Torpedo Comics's booth looks like a collected edition library. But as I mentioned, I bought from a few dealers, and was tickled to be able to purchase several volumes of Dark Horse's Chronicles of Conan trades. I'd hoped to find some of their Savage Sword of Conan reprints, but those have long been out-of-print. But hey - John Buscema Conan art in color? Sign me up, any day. A couple of other trades I snagged included the JSA Elseworlds story "The Golden Age" and the fun Liberty Legion compendium featuring the Marvel Two-In-One issues. Overall, I bought 15 trades for just a hair over $5 apiece. While that made the book bag I was carrying pretty heavy, and truthfully ended up being more money than I should have spent, I feel that those dollars left my hands for great deals. At least, that's the way I rationalize it.

As at any con these days, there is always some great cosplay. No shortage of that in Chicago last Sunday. Mike took these pics and shared them with the gang. I thought I'd pass them along to you, too. The Galactus outfit is off the charts!!

In addition to comics and action figures, I owned a small collection of original art that I sold in 2015. I do love to see such things in person, and over the years have tried to simulate the experience by using my comics proceeds to purchase some of the wonderful Artist Editions from IDW. Here's a shot of one of the large art dealers, and a print that Neal Adams was selling. Love these things!

Monday was spent organizing all of my new purchases. As I've pulled comics to read, left some books out for use here on the BWBC, bought new things, etc., my book case had become somewhat messy. After C2E2 it seemed time was ripe for some reorganization. It took around an hour, and required a little thought first, pulling some things off the shelves, reorganizing an action figure display, and plotting out some future acquisitions that are on my radar. But after all that, I thought I put it back together nicely.

So all that looking, dealing, and buying is fine (and also fun). But what was most memorable about the day was the time spent with friends. I recall two years ago when I first told my wife I was heading to C2E2 with some "friends". She asked how I knew them. "The Internet" was my response, which earned me a raised eyebrow from my bride. But I think those of us here right now, and who spend time on other social media platforms know that genuine friendships can develop over the course of many years of camaraderie. My BAB partner Karen and I have long declared, and joked, that although we've been friends and colleagues for the better part of 12 years, we have never spoken to each other. Well I'm here to say that it is possible to develop rich friendships through digital communication. When Robert arrived at our house Saturday night, I anticipated some nice conversation, which I knew would take off further once we hit the road on Sunday morning. What I did not expect was the gift he brought me in thanks for my hospitality and friendship. You can see it just below:

You'll notice the copyrights at bottom left of each panel. This is actually a series of bookmarks, featuring Barry Smith's Red Sonja. Robert got this from Smith back in 1975 at a convention in Indianapolis, IN. Robert was in high school then, and had held onto this gem ever since. I was floored by his gift - what a cool piece! Truthfully, it's worth more than the stay in our extra bedroom and a hot shower - but that's what friends do. I'm thankful for the time the five of us spent and the few hours of breaks we took to just talk comics and growing up in the Bronze Age. Oh, and we're already making plans for the future!