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A Short History of Vampires in Comics, Part 2

No Fly Zone: A Short History of Vampire in Comics, Part 2
© Mania

Before we begin, let's take a moment to acknowledge the passing of Dick Giordano, who passed away last Saturday, at the age of 77.  Mr. Giordano had a long career of drawing for Marvel, DC, and Warren, and had a notably realistic style of penciling and inking that made his work stand out.  We always really liked his stuff here, and he will be deeply missed.

Greetings, Maniacs, and welcome to another edition of The No-Fly Zone! Last week, we launched the first of our two-part look at the history of vampires in American comics. This week, we're going to open the Tomb of Dracula, before dancing through Innovation's Anne Rice adaptations, and then exploring the independent vampire comics that have been coming out since the 1980s.

Tomb of Dracula came out in April of 1972. The Comics Code Authority had relaxed its standards to allow vampires, and both Marvel and DC were branching out into more adult storytelling. Marvel's flagship horror title launched with Gene Colan on pencils and a rotating cast of writers, until Marv Wolfman came on a few issues in. Wolfman and Colan--along with inker Tom Palmer--remained with the title for almost all of its remaining run. The series was so successful that Marvel augmented it with a black and white magazine called Dracula Lives, and then continued Tomb in the same format after its cancellation at issue 70. Tomb was especially groundbreaking because it featured a villain as its title character, while affording the character a degree of moral ambiguity. Dracula wasn't evil so much as concerned with his own survival. He occasionally touches on the idea of enslaving the human race and the usual super-villain stuff, but he's mostly on the run from a group of vampire hunters--his descendant, Frank Drake; Abraham Van Helsing's granddaughter, Rachel; and Jonathan and Mina Harker's son, Quincy. Dracula is by no means sympathetic, but he largely moves through the world trying to survive, amused and annoyed by mankind's foibles. The series ran for 70 issues, which maintained a surprising degree of narrative continuity. And, while it features some of the Bronze Age's typical excesses, Wolfman's prose-heavy style incorporates some artful wordplay that is joyfully hyperbolic. The man never met a hyphenated word he didn't like--night-shrouded, raven-winged, and a host of other quirky compound adjectives make Tomb weirdly transcendent. At first glance, it reads like high camp. But, Gene Colan's superbly atmospheric and realistic art, combined with Wolfman's quirky dialogue make you think there's more to it. Tomb is dated in parts and outright cheesy in others, but on the whole, it has grown better with age. Still, Dracula describes the vampire hunter Blade as "raven-skinned." It was the '70s, after all. Speaking of Blade...

Blade appeared in Tomb of Dracula #10, and stayed on as a supporting character. He also made several appearances in Vampire Tales and some of Marvel's other black and white horror magazines. Throughout the '80s and '90s, he served as a B-list supporting character, occasionally landing his own short-lived solo titles (and a team book called The Nightstalkers). But, Blade was the first Marvel character to really make it at the movies. Comic adaptations were largely a joke before Blade came out in 1998. Director Stephen Norrington, writer David Goyer, and Wesley-fucking-Snipes brought Marvel's vampire hunter to life in a story that basically ignored the comics, but was still damn good. That led to an amazing sequel and a not-so-amazing third film, which led into a well-received but quickly-cancelled television show. The odd thing is that the character has always fared pretty well in adapted media, but no one's really written Blade well in comics since Marv Wolfman. It shouldn't be that hard. He's a black, British half-vampire with all of their strengths and none of their weaknesses. That shit writes itself, but every Blade relaunch has tanked after a few issues. Blade was last seen as a member of Captain Britain's MI:13, but that was cancelled several months ago.

Vampire continued to appear in Marvel and DC's output through the '80s, '90s, and '00s, often as villains--with Dracula himself returning frequently--but occasionally as heroes. Morbius was recast as a tragic hero in his own series in 1992 (one of Marvel's many aborted efforts at launching a horror line). An alternate-universe version of the Teen Titans called Team Titans featured a vampire hero named Dagon, with the series being written by Marv Wolfman for its first 12 issues. DC's Vertigo imprint has featured the undead a few times before American Vampire, sometimes in miniseries like Blood & Water and the two Bite Club miniseries. More often, vamps have appeared as supporting characters in books like Hellblazer and, of course, Preacher. Cassidy accompanied Jesse Custer and Tulip on their road trip to Heaven throughout the 66 issues of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's seminal comic. Cassidy started out as a badass, hard-drinking Irishman that the fans loved, but the series gradually revealed his origin and showed the many ruined lives in his wake. Still, he finds redemption by the end of the series, in his own way.

Vampires have always had a prominent place in independent comics. There have been a handful of adaptations of Bram Stoker's novel (most of them not very good), but as a public domain character, Dracula is available to any writer to adapt, rework, or pit against any number of historical or literary characters. As such, small press writers have set him against Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes, Zorro, King Arthur, Al Capone, the Frankenstein Monster, Spike (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame; more on that later), and Harry Houdini. Jason Henderson's Sword of Dracula from Image brought the Lord of the Vampries into the post-9/11 world, where he is considered the worst terrorist on the planet. The book was a success for Image, and combined Gothic horror with some Aliens-style military sci-fi. A film adaptation was scheduled by cancelled after Van Helsing tanked at the box office. But prior to that, Innovation's adaptations of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles really made a splash for the undead in the small press. Prior to the release of Interview with the Vampire in 1976, vampires were largely undesirable creatures. Not many people wanted to be one. Then, Anne Rice gave us Louis, Lestat, and a host of noble, sympathetic vampires. Anne Rice is most directly responsible for the transition of vampires from horrible to heroic. In 1991, Innovation comics launched a 12-issue adaptation of the second book in her series, The Vampire Lestat. It did really well, and the publisher followed with adaptations of Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned. Sadly, the publisher went out of business before they finished the latter series, with one issue left. Anne Rice returned to comics in 1999 with another publisher, adapting the fourth book in the series, Tale of the Body Thief. The comic versions of The Vampire Chronicles are sort of a footnote in the medium's history, but they propelled Innovation comics into the mainstream at a time when the market was dominated by Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse.

Vampires flourished in independent comics into the '00s, but in a way that outshined their 1980s and '90s small press counterparts like nothing else. Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith's 30 Days of Night came out from IDW in 2002 and launched the careers of both creators. In the three-issue miniseries, vampires lay siege to the town of Barrow, Alaska, which goes dark for 30 days each year. The sheriff-and-deputy married couple, Eben and Stella Oleman, lead a small resistance that fends off the undead, but not without great sacrifice. 30 Days of Night really took off as a franchise of its own, with more miniseries, novels, and, yes, a really stomping movie directed by David Slade. Niles and Templesmith really helped push horror comics back into the shops, and their work still resonates today.

The real vampire success story of the 00's is, of course, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There have been Buffy comics from Dark Horse almost since the television series began. When the spinoff series Angel hit the airwaves a few years later, IDW picked up the license. Both continued to publish their stuff through the lifespan of the television shows, but Dark Horse really struck gold with Season Eight. Rather than mining the old series for stories, the comic just picked up where the television show ended. Whedon himself wrote the first five issues, and then allowed writers like Brian K. Vaughan and Drew Goddard (writer of Cloverfield and episodes of Buffy) to step in. IDW followed suit with Angel: After the Fall. Whedon co-wrote the first 13 issues of Angel with Brian Lynch, with different writers taking over the continuing series. Both Season Eight and Angel are still running, with a mess of miniseries, one-shots, and trade paperback collections. They really deserve a lot of credit for recruiting new comic readers. Some people who'd never bothered with the medium jumped on just because they wanted to keep up with Angel and Buffy after the series' cancellation.

There was this other vampire book (and probably a movie, but who knows?) called Twilight that came out a while ago. They just turned that into a series of Manga, but we're out of space for this week's No-Fly Zone (and we leave the Japanese stuff to our friends over at the Manga/Anime section here at Mania.com). But, it really goes to show you that vampires have been a part of comics for almost as long as superheroes. The past two weeks at the NFZ presented a tragically brief look at their history, but hopefully it will remind everyone how much the undead have been a part of the American comics experience.