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| TOMB OF DRACULA No. 7, March 1973 |
Despite comprising of a confusingly busy narrative, which
not only contains an astonishingly high number of notable characters such as Edith
Harker, Rachel van Helsing, Frank Drake, Taj and the cravenly Clifton Graves,
but also a seemingly endless series of contrived happenstances which swiftly
bring the entire party of protagonists into direct contact with the
Transylvanian nobleman on the wintry streets of London, “Night Of The Death
Stalkers” also provides its readers with the thoroughly compelling beginnings
of a titanic “ongoing saga plotting its title’s vampire count against a group
of vampire hunters” under the penmanship of two-time Eagle Award-winner Marv
Wolfman. Indeed “eleven months, six issues and three writers after the launch”
of “The Tomb Of Dracula” there is finally a palpable sense of long-term direction
with this issue’s storyline as the Brooklyn-born writer introduces the comic
book’s readership to the fanged fiend’s elderly wheelchair-bound nemesis, Quincy
Harker and establishes that the invalid has “dedicated” the past sixty years of
his life to finding people ‘who shared his
hatred for the Undead.’
Having provided such a formidably inventive, albeit
partially paralysed, foil for the scheming ‘supervillain’, the creator of Blade
also supplies the cloaked aristocrat with something of a makeover within this
twenty-page periodical by reinforcing, partially through a citation from “The
Chronicles of Abraham Van Helsing… 1888”, that Dracula has both the power to “direct
the elements: the rain, the thunder, the snow” and the ability to hypnotize
groups of humans with a “deathly stare” into “zombie-like attackers”. Both of
these supernatural aptitudes are crucial to this magazine’s central plot as the
hungry patrician first buries England’s capital city under a “bitter hoarfrost”
and then callously traps his numerous foes with a horde of “drugged”
children who “are compelled to destroy” Harker and “will not
stop until they are successful.”; “You cannot stop them, because to stop them,
you must kill them! And you, Mister Drake… You could never bring yourself to murder
a child. Ha! Ha! Ha!”
Somewhat disappointingly however, Gene Colan’s artwork
for this fascinating confrontation between Dracula and his “old friend” Quincy,
is slightly inconsistent, especially when it comes to the classic horror
illustrator’s depiction of the Lord of Vampires himself. Admittedly the vast
majority of panels containing Graves’ ungrateful “Master” adhere to the
Bronx-born penciller’s innovative and inspired vision of him looking like actor
Jack Palance. But dishearteningly, whether as a result of Tom Palmer’s errant inking
or not, the “loathsome” monster occasionally appears to resemble little more
than a shoddily-drawn red-eyed devil with a disturbingly bouffant widow’s peak.
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| Writer: Marv Wolfman, Artist: Gene Colan, and Inker: Tom Palmer |
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