Issue(s): Tomb of Dracula #11, Tomb of Dracula #12, Tomb of Dracula #13, Tomb of Dracula #14, Tomb of Dracula #15
Cover Date: Aug-Dec 73
Title: "The voodoo-man!" / "Night of the screaming house!" / "To kill a vampire!" / "Dracula is dead!" / "Fear is the name of the game!"
Credits:
Marv Wolfman - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Jack Abel / Tom Palmer - Inker

Review/plot:
The Wolfman/Colan TOD run continues.

The stories are certainly a shift from super-heroics so i can see why they were so well received at the time. Taken by themselves, they are still fairly generic for horror stories. But in the longer run, these issues will turn out to be a foundation for the epic that Wolfman is just beginning to build.

The ability to focus on re-occurring characters allows for an extra level of character development, but it also reduces Dracula's credibility as a threat since he never really manages to defeat anyone, and of course he can't ever truly be defeated, either.

This is definitely a better venue for Gene Colan's atmospheric art than, say, Daredevil.

Some developments from these issues: There's are some nice battles between Quincy's group and Dracula.

During these battles, Quincy's daughter Edith is turned into a vampire.

Quincy is forced to kill her. He doesn't get much sympathy from Blade, who notes that everyone in the group has faced tragedy due to vampires, and Blade tells us about the white haired vampire that killed his mother, who will later be named Deacon Frost.

But Blade subsequently kills Dracula (as seen in the scans further above). But then a despondent preacher named Josiah Dawn...

...finds Dracula and raises him from the dead, thinking that he's performing a holy miracle.

Also in these issues we see minions of a Dr. Sun experimenting with vampires.

Issue #15 has Dracula reflecting on his recent death by writing in his journal, resulting in a series of flashbacks, the final one showing how Dracula came to be dead prior to the events of Tomb of Dracula #1.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first references to Deacon Frost and Dr. Sun

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Dracula references the fact that he long ago gave up attempts to return to mortality. This is a reference to one of the stories in Dracula Lives #1 (although i don't really cover it since it takes place earlier than the scope of my project).
  
• Dracula previously attacked Quincy's daughter Edith in Tomb of Dracula #7. This time, however, she is turned into a vampire and Quincy is forced to kill her.
  
• Dracula's "Pit of Death" was shown previously in Tomb of Dracula #1.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Tomb of Dracula vol. 1

With the passage of time, one can see how Tomb of Dracula played out like a maxi-series with a mapped-out beginning, middle and end. Had this been done 20 years later, it likely would have been a creator-owned Vertigo series.

Personally I was all right with Gene Colan on Daredevil, but this series was his true calling card, especially since he was there from start to finish, although kudos are also due to his long time inking partner Tom Palmer.

Holy Haggis, talk about a stereotype! I'm sure Drac's Scottish executioner used the cheapest material for his weaponry, as well. Plus his attire looks less like tartan than a quilt of the world's flags, or something designed by the old Batman and Robin foe, Crazy Quilt.