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Post by Shiryu on May 5, 2010 17:42:58 GMT -5
TheWerefolf by Night thread and reviews have make me want to read once again Tomb of Dracula, which I see as Marvel's main horror title, so I thought to post my 2 (euro) cents here as I go ^^ Feel free to join in anyone So, ToD #1 by Conway and Colan. In fairness, it's much more of a horror novel with pictures than a standard Marvel comic book. There is a heavy use of captions, more than it was the standard at Marvel in the 70s (the story is from 1974), and no trace of superheroes of any kind. The latter point will be corrected later on, when Wolfman brings in Hacker, Blade and, sometimes, Dr. Strange, but I think it works perfectly here. Largely thanks to Colan's pencils and dark atmospheres, the book makes a pretty good vampire story. I think ToD was one of the first books made by Marvel after the restrictions of the Comics Code (which had banned vampirs and vampirism) were loosened up, and there certainly is more horror than in your average Marvel book. There is a convincinly-drawn skeleton, one character is killed on panel, another is implied to have died, and a third is turned into a vampire, not bad for #1. But. having said this, it's by no means scary or anything, despite a few panels by Colan depicting people screaming with eyes wide in fear. The story is pretty straightforward. A guy, Drake, who turns out to be a descendant of Dracula, his girlfriend and a "friend" travel to Transylvania to turn Castle Dracula in a tourist attraction. After ignoring the scared warnings of the people in the closest village, they get to the castle, where the other guy finds Dracula's crypt and removes the stake from his heart. Dracula comes back to life (well, if you can call that life), feeds around a bit and makes a move for his descendant's girlfriend. While a mob sets fire to the castle, Drake manages to make Dracula flee with a silver mirror, but it's too late and his girlfriend, having been bitten, becomes a vampire herself, and leaves with the Count. So, nothing spectacular in this department. The girl has a rather old-style attitude, even for the seventies, internally complaining because Drake doesn't hold her, hug her, stay close to her, speak to her and so on. She reminded me a bit of the very early Betty Brant, when she and Peter where dating, before Gwen and MJ. The town near the castle is your tipical "torch and pitchfork" kind of place, where you get a lift by a carriage rather than a car. But there is a nice touch when characters mention Stoker's novel, proving to be familiar with it.
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Post by sufirjp on May 5, 2010 19:13:09 GMT -5
Never read the classic Tomb of Dracula, but the fascinating depiction in the recent Captain Britain & MI-13 has made me want to go back.
I'll make you a deal: you read Werewolf by Night and I'll read Tomb of Dracula, and we'll cross-comment. Interested?
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Doctor Bong
Young Avenger
Master of belly dancing! (No, really...)
Posts: 73
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Post by Doctor Bong on May 6, 2010 1:10:16 GMT -5
I own all the ToD essentials. I loved Colan both in ToD and Iron Man (on a totally unrelated note, I once imagined a story where the Mandarin became the lord of the vampires. Somehow, he always stroke me as very compatible with that role... ). Does anyone remember what was the name of the mag where most of Morbius the living vampire's misadventures take place...?
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Post by humanbelly on May 6, 2010 5:21:20 GMT -5
I own all the ToD essentials. I loved Colan both in ToD and Iron Man (on a totally unrelated note, I once imagined a story where the Mandarin became the lord of the vampires. Somehow, he always stroke me as very compatible with that role... ). Does anyone remember what was the name of the mag where most of Morbius the living vampire's misadventures take place...? Wasn't it "Fear"? "Journey Into Fear" may have been the full, fancy title? Oddly enough, I never picked up ToD. . . or FEAR, for that matter. In my youth, Dracula & traditional vampires didn't grab me as cool, as it were---- and yet WWbN did. Go figure. HB
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Post by Shiryu on May 6, 2010 5:47:47 GMT -5
Never read the classic Tomb of Dracula, but the fascinating depiction in the recent Captain Britain & MI-13 has made me want to go back. I'll make you a deal: you read Werewolf by Night and I'll read Tomb of Dracula, and we'll cross-comment. Interested? Sounds like a plan, I'm in Here is where wiki comes to help, it seems there have been a few: How do the Essentials look? I normally avoid them as I don't like black and white, but, given the subject matter, perhaps they are appropriate to a book like Tomb of Dracula.
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Doctor Bong
Young Avenger
Master of belly dancing! (No, really...)
Posts: 73
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Post by Doctor Bong on May 6, 2010 12:18:39 GMT -5
Most of them look fine enough, if you don't mind black and white, but in some of them the printing quality's lacking. I've had a few unwelcome surprises on that regard. Also, the covers come unglued in some of them when they are heavily read.
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kidcage
Reservist Avenger
Posts: 167
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Post by kidcage on May 6, 2010 13:08:59 GMT -5
I read through the entire Tomb of Dracula series through the four Dracula essentials collections. I've got the Frankenstein and Werewolf by Night ones too, so I've had a few good reads through the 70s Marvel Horror.
I've also been lucky to find some of the actual issues thanks to a used bookstore in the area (they sell their comics for 50 cents and I found Tomb of Dracula #1... not a bad deal). Being a huge horror movie fan, all these seventies horror books (Vault of Fear, etc) are fun read-throughs.
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Post by Shiryu on May 6, 2010 15:26:11 GMT -5
I wonder if they'll ever do ToD masterworks, it's only some 70 issues after all, they could be printed in 3 or 4 volumes...
Anyway, ToD #2. The main cast is the same as in #1. Drake is now bent on having revenge on Dracula for having killed his fiancee. He goes in what's left of the castle and finds Dracula's empty coffin, as well as his friend whom Dracula had tossed in a pit last issue, and who is still alive. They steal Dracula's coffin and go to London, to set a trap for the count. Dracula in the meantime has a doctor alter his appearance a bit so that he doesn't look so pale (it's not clearly explained, but I suppose he just puts some make up on). He then kills the old doctor, who had betrayed him as a child, and goes to London to retrieve his coffin and feed around a bit. Jeanie, Drake's fiancee, goes in her former lover's hotel room and tries to seduce him. He resists and ties her to a chair, but she enthralls Drake's friend to free her and sip Drake some drugged coffee. Why Dracula didn't just fly in I don't know ^^' Anyway, the drugged coffee must have been of poor quality, because Drake is up and running in a few moments. A fight erupts and he kills his fiancee with a wooden stake through the heart, while Dracula leaves because the sun is rising.
So, a pretty lackluster issue, which seems to struggle to fill 22 pages of comic book. Half of what happens is unnecessary and/or a bit silly. The art is also a step backwards from #1, I suspect because this time Colletta is inking, and as a result faces are not quite as expressive. Tom Palmer is joining next issue, which looks quite a lot better. On the good side, at least we get some nice panels of London at night. Narration relies much less on captions and much more on direct dialogue, flowing better as a results.
A few final notes: Drake sold the ruined castle and the land around it, earning a large sum of money. Now, while I can see someone buying a castle, I can not imagine who would buy its ruins a few days after a fire; it is implied that Dracula has been dead for some 60 years, give or take. Considering the story is set in 1974, this would fit the timescale of the original novel; Dracula's powers are hinted: he can turn into a bat or mist, has some degree of superhuman strenght, can fly and use hypnosis. However, he needs his Transylvanian earth to sleep, doesn't cast a reflection and is of course vulnerable to all traditional objects. At the moment, he doesn't seem to need to be invited in a place however. Other vampires only seem to have some degree of hypnotic powers; Drake brought Dracula's coffin in his hotel room. I wish they had showed the reaction of the guys at reception ^^ He also has all sorts of silver objects and a crucifix, but didn't think about getting hold of a stake; As in last issue, Transylvania seems stuck in the middle of the 19th century.
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Post by sharkar on May 6, 2010 19:48:56 GMT -5
How do the Essentials look? I normally avoid them as I don't like black and white, but, given the subject matter, perhaps they are appropriate to a book like Tomb of Dracula. My two cents: apart from the (occasional) print quality issues Bong mentioned, I don't think Colan's work suffers at all from being seen in the Essentials black and white format. In fact, from what I've seen so far (Essentials Iron Man, Essential Subby, etc.), I can appreciate his art even more when it's stripped down, i.e., uncolored. For what it's worth, Marvel is scheduled to release a new trade collection of ToD in July. It will contain issues #1-12.
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Post by sufirjp on May 13, 2010 20:38:40 GMT -5
So, turns out I was a little more impressed by Conway here than in Werewolf, although it appears that you were pretty underwhelmed, Shiryu. Anyways, I kept a log of my impressions as I was reading the comic, so this may be a bit rambling. Here we go:
#1: Man, what an opening page! While I cringed to see Conway at the helm (after reading his Werewolf issues), his prose stylings are well-handled here. While nothing amazing, the atmospherics of the scene-setting captions are well integrated with Colan's awesome splash page, which reminded me of Will Eisner's masterful integration of text and image. By the time I finished the first page, I was primed for this comic.
I also noticed immediately that this story would give me the background to Frank Drake, who I knew was one of the principal monster-hunter heroes of the MU.
One thing that struck me immediately was the constant reference to "Transylvania" and "this tiny country". I also noted that the country seemed rather backwards despite Ceausescu's brutal forced modernization program in the real world (although this may have started after 1971). I found myself wondering if, on Earth-616, Dracula's influence had kept Transylvania from incorporating into Romania. A quick check in the Marvel Atlas dispelled that idea, though. Perhaps Ceausescu's initiatives had not affected this particular rural area yet. If so, they've got greater horrors to look forward to than anything Dracula can deliver.
A slight side note: Marvel Atlas had reminded me that Diablo was based out of Transylvania. I'd love to see a Diablo vs. Dracula story.
Back to the story, as I read this I'm struck by Conway's subtle use of conflict between characters to rachet up the tension of the story. The owner of the tavern and the waitress, Frank and Clifton... everyone seems at each other's throats. I'm not sure if he's just more invested in this story or if Stan Lee was pushing him to do better work, but I wish we could see more of this level of craft in Werewolf by Night.
The story is greatly enhanced by Colan's more expressionistic style, which conveys the tone and mood much better than anything Ploog could master. I hadn't spent a lot of time with Colan before this, but I'm struck by his usage of shadows and the wide variety of angles (especially close-ups to portray emotion) that really make this story shine.
With Frank Drake's backstory, I can't help but notice a resonant theme in Conway's writing, wherein both Drake and Russell suffer from a multi-generational curse. While this is no surprise, as it's a trope of Gothic literature, as a central theme to two of his long-running protagonists, it's worth noting.
One of the most effective moments in this story is poor Clifton's fate, where he's thrown into whatis essentially Dracula's pantry with "the others" who're waiting to be summoned. We never see exactly where that hole leads, but the implications are shuddersome enough. I was immediately reminded of Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls" and the horrible inbred cannibal things that lived beneath the castle.
Despite the great build, the finale leaves something to be desired. I appreciated Frank's girlfriend Jeanie becoming one of the undead, as it gives Frank further motivation to continue to face off against his ancestor, but the over-reliance on her compact as well as senselessness of the mob and their immediate dissipation after setting the castle's interior aflame left me cold. Compared to an average Werewolf by Night story, this was a masterpiece, and I look forward to reading more, but Conway seems like one of the more uneven writers of the era.
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Post by Shiryu on May 15, 2010 16:45:38 GMT -5
Yeah, there was something that didn't quite "click" with me in #1 and 2. Part of it is the fact that the title character is hardly the main focus of the attention, but it was also as if Conway was trying too hard to remake a horror movie without fully succeeding, especially with the locals. For example, they are all afraid of vampires and yet none of them wears a visible crucifix? or at least some garlic? and they burn the castle with torches, instead of using something like oil or dynamite? Talking of Transylvania, I'm sure several times it has been described as an independent state in the MU, rather than as part of Romania. Could it be a mistake by the atlas?
Anyway, moving on, here is #3. First of all, we have a writer change, with Archie Goodwin replacing Conway, whom, as I've just said, never seemed too confortable on the title to me. Tom Palmer becomes the regular inker, replacing Colletta, and the art benefits from it.
The story starts with Drake attempting suicide. He is stopped by the last of the Van Helsing and her mute Indian assistant (for some reason, he reminded me of Mandrake's Lothar). The girl convinces him to put aside the pain for having killed his girlfriend and join the hunt for Dracula. She is especially interested in the coffin that Drake had stolen, wondering why Dracula, who has several of those around the country, wants that one back so badly. In the meantime, Dracula finds Drake's former friend (Clifton, the guy who had removed the stake in #1) and enthralls him so that they can get the coffin. Together, they go to the hotel were Drake was staying and find that the coffin has not yet been burned, as drake had ordered. We find out that, hidden in the coffin, there is Dracula's gold, which he needs to go back to his wealthy lifestyle. The hotel's night porter is bit and killed, but moments later Drake gets there with his new friends. After a bit of a struggle however, Dracula and Clifton get away, while Drake and co are arrested for the murder of the night porter, since they are armed with stakes, crossbow and the likes. They spend the day at Scotland Yard, but finally the chief inspector believes them when the night porter comes back from the grave as a Vampire, and they kill him with a stake through the heart. In the meantime, Dracula has traced the new owner of his castle, a middle-age former model and actress, who wants to use the dark arts to become young and pretty again. She is quite happy to let Dracula in as the issue comes to an end.
So, more action this time around, and I think the book benefits from it. Having Drake become a proper vampire hunter (he agrees to chase not only Dracula, but all vampires) allows Goodwin to keep him in the book, and the Van Helsing girl is a nice addition to the cast. Sadly, Dracula himself is still not as present as a title character should be, and his actions are not always logical (then again, they do make sense from a nobleman point of view. I suppose simply stealing the money he needs would be unworthy of Dracula). But the overall pace is pretty good, with a few twists and turns here and there.
A few negative remarks
London still looks like a city from 1901 rather than 1971. There isn't a single car out at night, roads are paved with cobblestones and the night porter of the hotel agreed to bury a coffin (!) just because his client asked. It's obvious that Goodman, like Conway, is trying to reproduce the atmosphere of the novel, but it just doesn't feel right, after all 1971 is a good 11 years after the Beatles, and comparing any of their photos with this, the difference is quite stark.
The three vampire hunters stalk Dracula with like 100 wooden stakes and just one cross, I suppose they come expensive ^^
On a side note, the cover has hardly anything to do with the story. I thought this was a modern trick, but apparently not...
Final notes
- Dracula's strenght is said to be "that of 20 men". It is also confirmed that he can't enter a house without being invited by a member of the household. In the previous two issues, he entered hotels and public buildings, but no actual private lodgins.
- Dracula was killed by the Van Helsing girl's greatgrandfather. She looks in her twenties, so the old man from last issue must have been like 100 for having betrayed Dracula as a boy (or the Van Helsing in question wasn't that young when he did it).
- There is a small retcon. Last issue Dracula said that he didn't need the coffin as long as he had native soil. Now we find out he has several coffins, one of which was in the hotel room upstairs that of Drake. During the day, Clifton converts his gold into modern currency. It would have been nice to see the face of the people in the bank when he walked in with a coffin full of gold ^^
- Scotland Yard becomes aware of the existance of vampires and offers to help. Interestingly enough, no one even voices the possibility of calling any known superhero, not even Drake who is American and should be familiar with them. Both the FF and the Avengers had established a good reputation by 1971, and Captain America had experience with vampires, having fought Baron Blood during the war (although this probably wasn't public knowledge).
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