Tomb of Dracula #52 (January, 1977)

It’s been two months since we last took a look at Tomb of Dracula — and since issues #51 and #52 both feature significant developments in the ongoing “Church of Dracula” saga that writer Marv Wolfman, penciller Gene Colan, and inker Tom Palmer were chronicling half a century ago, we’re going to be spending just about as much time today talking about the former as we are the latter, regardless what the big post title up there might lead one to believe.  If you’re a regular (or even a semi-regular) reader of this blog, you already know how this goes… so, let’s get to it.

As indicated by the Colan-Palmer cover for #51, a major plot thread that’s been running in the background of this series for a while now — namely, the quest of Blade and Hannibal King to track down their mutual arch-enemy, the vampire called Deacon Frost — is about to return to the foreground.  First, though, our storytellers will have to resolve another situation that feels like it’s been in stasis for three issues running (maybe because, by and large, it has)… 

Frank Drake and Harold H. Harold launched their ill-advised infiltration of the home of Satanic cult leader Anton Lupeski back in #48.  Searching for Dracula, they were instead themselves found and captured by Lupeski and his acolytes in issue #49.  Then, in Tomb of Dracula #50, Rachel van Helsing — who’d been tracking the hapless duo without their knowledge since #48 — showed up, crossbow in hands, to bail them out of their self-inflicted jam.

Somehow, while all this was going on, Lupeski also found time to conceive and put into action a plan to use the Silver Surfer as a weapon against Dracula — whom, though supposedly the cult leader’s lord and master, Lupeski had actually been secretly working against for his own evil ends.  ToD #50 ended ambiguously, with the Surfer deciding to leave the Lord of Vampires’ fate to, um, a Higher Power; since that conclusion, Drac has evidently decided to go searching for the source of what he rightly identifies as “treachery” in the opening splash page above.  Unfortunately, he seems to have incorrectly pegged his longtime foes Van Helsing and Drake as the cause of his recent travails, rather than the actual culprit, the seemingly loyal Lupeski.

Our three Dracula hunters make it to Harold’s car and then speed away, wondering why their arch-foe let them get away so easily.  “Maybe he wasn’t thirsty right now?” Harold asks speculatively, before the scene shifts back to the Lupeski place to show us the actual reason:

We’d seen Quincy Harker begin to suffer chest pains back in issue #48, following the departure of Frank and the others.  So his condition here isn’t exactly a surprise.

Rachel quickly diagnoses that her mentor and father-figure has gone into cardiac arrest.  An ambulance is called and, once it arrives, Rachel opts to ride with Quincy to the hospital, while Frank and Harold follow in the latter’s car…

Dracula proceeds to put on a show for his guests, turning into a bat before their eyes, then doing the same trick with mist.  You might even say he knocks ’em dead (figuratively speaking)…

Hurrying to her husband’s side, Domini asks him what’s wrong.  “Th-there was someone here — watching me, Domini,” Dracula replies.  “Someone I’d seen years ago — when I first… when I –” But then he stops himself, dismissing the incident (at least until next issue), and the couple return to the party.  Unknown to them, however, Anton Lupeski has been eavesdropping — and he’s unsurprisingly delighted to learn that there’s someone out there whom even his supposed “dark lord” fears.

OK, by this point you may be wondering if this issue’s cover (not to mention your humble blogger) was lying about Blade and Hannibal King playing a central role in the story.  After all, we’re already on page 9 of our 17-page yarn.  But, fear not… their time has come at last:

Grabbing a piece of the broken wooden fence to use as a makeshift stake,  Hannibal King stabs his pursuer, though not fatally.  Then, as Blade staggers, King resumes his flight, which (as his voiceover narration informs us) is not at all random — rather, he’s heading directly for the same house where Drac and Domini’s party is being held, following up on a clue he’d received earlier that he could find Deacon Frost there.  And so, moments later…

Hmm, is Deacon Frost just another “gate crasher”, like Hannibal King and Blade?  Or has he wrangled an actual invitation, somehow?  It’s an intriguing question, though not one that the storyline ever gets around to answering, to the best of my knowledge.

Wait, back up a panel… WTF just happened there with Rachel and Frank?

Ever since Frank returned to the Dracula-hunters squad with more “confidence” following an adventure with Brother Voodoo in Brazil over a dozen issues ago, Rachel has had mounting concerns about his performative machismo.  Just in the last few hours, Frank’s need to flamboyantly demonstrate his manly courage almost got him and Harold (and Rachel) needlessly killed.  And now, after he pays a little perfunctory lip service to having lost his temper a few times lately, and maybe not showing his feelings for Rachel as much as he should, she’s ready to let him completely off the hook?  To tell him he’s been right “about everything” all along, and fall into his arms so he can shut her up with a kiss?  Eyucch.

I imagine that when I first read this scene back in September, 1976, I assumed that this weird turn would be followed up on in the future — that we’d see Frank and Rachel’s relationship dynamic go through further convolutions before being resolved, either by their breaking up or by their establishing a stronger, more emotionally healthy bond.  But, no; having recently re-read the series on to the end of its run, I’m here to tell you that this is it; this is the resolution of Frank and Rachel’s post-Brazil character arc.

I have no idea if Marv Wolfman felt he’d written himself into a corner fifty years ago, and had no idea how to get out of it, or if he’d simply gotten bored of the whole business and wanted to move on.  But whatever the case, it’s a major disappointment — and from the standpoint of characterization, probably the nadir of Wolfman’s work on this series.

And now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let’s get back to the fight:

Boasting that he has an advantage over Dracula due to the original Blade’s extensive training in handling knives and spears, Vampire Blade plunges his stake into the Count’s body… but misses his heart, which leads Drac to gloat that his adversary isn’t really superior to “the true Blade” after all.  Meanwhile…

As we ring down the curtain on ToD #51, we note that its “Next Issue” blurb promises the arrival of a new player — one who might (or might not) be a “Demon?”  And as we move to pick up issue #52, we find its Colan-Palmer cover offers us our first look at this mysterious individual… although, in the context of the Marvel Universe, he looks more likely to be a superhero (or villain), or a space alien, or even an android, than any kind of evil spirit we’re familiar with from years of reading comics.  Just sayin’.

Turning to the opening splash page, we find our storytellers beginning on a sad, if not surprising, note:

We’re not told just how our little band got Blade’s body from that big house in Boston to this cemetery, but I suppose we can assume that Hannibal King dragged it out of the place on his lonesome, and then… something something something.  Whatever.  Anyway, once their dearly departed has been properly deposited in the cold hard ground, King and company make their exit — unaware of the “flitting black shape” observing from high above their heads…

For this reader, it was always fascinating to get these little vignettes drawn from the Lord of Vampires’ long and colorful history — especially since the demise of the black-and-white Dracula Lives magazine, where such episodes had been regularly featured.

And speaking of Dracula Lives…

Writer/editor Wolfman neglected to insert a footnote here, so please allow me to inform you that Dracula’s fateful encounter with “that foolish actor” Louis Belski had been chronicled in the short story “Fear Stalker”, which was written by Wolfman, illustrated by Mike Ploog and Ernie Chan, and published in Dracula Lives #4 (Jan., 1974).  And now you know.

After using his hypnotic powers to blow past the ticket seller without paying (what a cheapskate), Dracula proceeds into the theater to join his fellow moviegoers…

Everyone in the theater wisely flees for their lives — at least, everyone who’s able (it’s not entirely clear whether Dracula actually kills the unfortunate woman in the glasses, or if she manages to escape) — leaving our villainous protagonist to stand alone.  Or perhaps I should say, he believes he’s alone…

As previously noted, our Golden Boy doesn’t really resemble the denizens of Hell we’re familiar with from other Marvel comics, and his “Let there be light!” shtick gives off even stronger anti-demonic vibes.  So one might fault Dracula for seeming somewhat obtuse here.  On the other hand, maybe he’s recalling a certain Bible verse…

Even more on the back foot now than he was before his flight, the cornered Dracula desperately calls on one of his most formidable powers — the ability to call down the storm.  But his adversary easily counters this move, summoning sunlight to disperse the dark clouds.

At this point, our storytellers cut away for a whole two panels…

…just long enough to foreshadow the next development in their ongoing Hannibal King/Blade-fronted plotline.  (What, you thought Blade was really dead?  Pshaw.)  And then it’s back to the battle, as Dracula and Golden Boy confront one another while atop a moving roller-coaster car.  Drac attempts to use hypnosis on his foe, only to have the effect reversed; it’s thus the vampire, rather than the “demon”, who goes tumbling from the car.  Turning into a bat at the last possible moment before going splat on the midway pavement, the Lord of Vampires admits to himself he’s outclassed: “I have no chance against that demon”  Yet, even as he takes refuge beneath the canopy of a carousel, he conceives a plan…

In previous issues, Dracula has reluctantly acknowledged his inability to remove the painting of Christ from “his” church, but has nevertheless more or less managed to ignore its silent presence.  Now, however, he realizes that the power it represents is capable of acting against him directly.  Will this cause him to adjust his overall scheme in any meaningful fashion?  Only time will tell… but first, the focus of our narrative will return once more to Blade and Hannibal King, and to the object of their shared quest for vengeance, Deacon Frost — for what ToD #52’s  “Next Issue” blurb promises us will be the final time, at least as far as the last of that threesome is concerned.  So please make your plans to return to this space next month for our deep dig into Tomb of Dracula #53… an excavation that’ll begin with the literal digging-up of Blade’s grave, and we both know you won’t want to miss that.