This is a review of Tomb of Dracula Complete Collection Volume Two. You can read my review of the first volume, here. The premise of this graphic novel is simple. The Lord of Vampires awakens in the Swingin’ Seventies and moves to London, where he feasts upon an endless supply of nubile young women.
Dracula is opposed by a group of fearless vampire hunters – Buffy, er Rachel Van Helsing, crossbow wielder; Blade, vampire hunter; Taj Nital, who does not speak; Quincy Harker, mastermind; and last but least, Frank Drake, total loser. Please note that this comic series was released decades before Buffy.
Highlights of this volume include a visit from green-pants-lover Werewolf by Night. After that, Dracula and Rachel Van Helsing embark on the Hike from Hell in the Alps. The WTF Award goes to Rachel, who waits eight hours until nightfall to try and stake Dracula and misses. We also see the Lord of the Vampires being attacked by a psycho mountain goat.
After that, Dracula is captured by Dr. Sun – a pickled brain in a jar – and must fight the good doctor’s proxy, a vampire biker dude who has all of Dracula’s memories. Dr. Sun is obsessed with vampires, because he needs an unending supply of human blood to survive. Instead of transferring his brain into the Lord of the Vampires, he decides to, uhhh…
…what the hell is Dr. Sun doing, anyway? I read this, and I honestly don’t know. Maybe I should read it again? Hell, no! Once is enough. Whatever he does, it fails. Let’s just say that the Dr. Sun storyline reads more like science fiction than horror and is the weakest storyline thus far, and leave it at that.
Dracula returns to London and a story set in a haunted mansion that reads like a parody of a Gothic novel. We have our Gothic heroine, Shiela (that’s how it’s spelled) Whittier, who is tormented by a poltergeist/father figure/BDSM daddy. She is rescued by Dracula, who is a thousand times worse. Things end badly for her, just as things end badly for most of the human cast of this book. Unlike Dracula, they are not immortal.
This volume also collects the Vampire Lord’s guest appearance in Frankenstein’s Monster. Yes, the Frankenstein Monster had his own comic in the 1970’s! Why doesn’t anyone remember it? Well, it might be because it wasn’t very good.
The Monster is adopted by a Gypsy (this is the term used in the comic, not a slur) woman at the behest of her grandmother, who turns out to be a vampire. She awakens Dracula and kills a villager. The villagers kill the Gypsies. The Monster rumbles into the village and kills villagers. The villagers try to burn the Monster at the stake.
The Monster leaves the village to kill Dracula after telling the villagers they shouldn’t judge people by appearances. The villagers think maybe they were wrong about the Monster, except in the previous issue he killed a bunch of them. The Monster kills Dracula, who turns into a skeleton so that the next rube can pull the stake from his heart.
We also meet Dracula’s Little Girl, Lilith, who is the daughter of the Vampire Lord’s first wife. Dracula claims he hates Lilith because he hated her mother – in a flashback, we see him slapping his first wife. This is untrue. Dracula hates Lilith because she is a woman, and in this comic he is written as a misogynist who views women as either playthings or a food source. That being said, Lilith is vicious. She is not worse than Dracula – that’s impossible – but she gives him a run for the money.
I will be honest, here. Gene Colan’s phantasmagoric art on Tomb of Dracula is incredible. With the exception of the “team-up” between Dracula and Spider-Man that takes place on a cruise ship and is a lot of fun, the writing is depressing. There is a lot of violence against women, much of it casual – women are slapped, punched, gaslighted, and treated as objects.
To me, Tomb of Dracula gives off the same vibe as The Walking Dead. If I read too many issues at once, I want to rip my eyes out of my sockets. Perhaps I am feeling this way because I DID read too many issues at once. It’s hard for me to tell at this point. If you like vampire stories, Gene Colan’s art, or are a Dracula groupie, this is worth a read.
Abandoned Places 