1970's Flashback: The Tomb of Dracula

Tomb of Dracula #13 (Oct.1973)

In 1971, the Comics Code Authority finally relaxed some of its longstanding restrictions regarding horror comics, such as a virtual ban on vampires. After having recently tested the waters with a "quasi-vampire" character, Morbius, the Living Vampire within the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Comics was now prepared to launch a new line of horror books. The Tomb of Dracula was published by Marvel Comics from April 1972 to August 1979. The acclaimed 70-issue series featured a group of vampire hunters who fought Count Dracula and other supernatural menaces. On rare occasions, Dracula would work with these vampire hunters against a common threat or battle other supernatural threats on his own, but more often than not, he was the antagonist rather than protagonist. In addition to his supernatural battles in this series, Marvel's Dracula often served as a super-villain to other characters in the Marvel Universe, battling the likes of Spider-Man, Werewolf by Night, and the X-Men.

The series suffered from lack of direction for its first year but gained stability and hit its stride when writer/editor Marv Wolfman became scripter with the seventh issue. The entire run of The Tomb of Dracula was penciled by Gene Colan, with Tom Palmer inking all but #1, 2, and 8-11. Colan based the visual appearance of Marvel's Dracula not on any other familiar actor who had played the vampire on film, but rather on actor Jack Palance (who actually did later portray the Count in a televised production).