Rifling through the treasure trove of longboxes on the Resurrection Comics stall at the recent Gosport Comic-Con, I happened upon a stash of Tomb of Dracula comics from the 70s. I’ve always been a fan of Marvel’s melodramatic take on Bram Stoker’s vampire lord, with the sprawling, soap opera saga mostly taking place in the modern day.

Marv Wolfman (an appropriately named writer for Marvel’s flagship horror comic) and Gene Colan were the main creators on the series, and delivered campy, overwrought vampire fun for 70 issues, running for almost the entirety of the 1970s (from 1971-1979, incidentally).

This 55th issue concerns Dracula’s newly born, half-human son, and the efforts by a Satanic church to betray the vampire lord, while Dracula struggles in his new role as a husband and father.

It’s all deliciously silly stuff, with thunderous dialogue and moustache twirling evil turns, though Dracula seems to be becoming more sympathetic by this point in the comic’s run.

It’s great, and with Gene Colan’s realistic art style, it feels a lot more mature than many comics of its era; even though the hammy script does trip it up at times, feeling a lot more daft than the art makes it seem.

Still, this was a great pick-up, and considering I chose this one out of the selection on hand simply on the basis of the awesomely lurid cover, I think I did pretty well.

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