Issue(s): Tomb of Dracula #68
Cover Date: Feb 79
Title: "The return to... Transylvania!"
Credits:
Marv Wolfman - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Tom Palmer - Inker

Review/plot:
It's not just the Lilith portion of last issue that was basically abandoned. The resolution to Dracula's time as a mortal comes this issue as well, and it's with a handwave. Dracula summons Janus...

..who teleports him along with the regular cast of the book (just because) back to Transylvania.

This is where Quincy's group really loses my faith in them. They attack Dracula but fail to defeat him despite the fact that he's just a human.

Dracula flees to his basement where one of his former "wives" was sleeping in a coffin. He wakes her and tries to get her to turn him back into a vampire, but she refuses, saying she serves another now.

More on Torgo next issue.

So it's back to fighting the vampire hunters, something that he does quite well.

How did these guys ever last against him when he was a vampire?

Dracula runs out of the castle and is attacked by vampires and then is approached again by the vampire hunters, who are suddenly more smug, and they get him to renounce Satan.

And with that it turns out that everything that happened outside of the castle was an illusion, and this was all a plan by Satan to force Dracula to be stuck between Heaven and Hell.

Satan then restores Dracula's vampirism, and then the real vampire hunters show up to - oh look! - let him walk away again.

In this issue, there's a scene with Janus and some guy, with Janus telling him it's not time yet.

Not sure what that's about; if something was supposed to come of it i guess it got dropped when the series was cancelled.

Our increasingly hapless vampire hunters aside, this issue seems like it could have been a good set up. I like Dracula as a "free agent", not that he's ever actively worked as an agent of Satan, even during his period with the Satanists. And bringing back his vampirism this way makes more sense to me than having him sired by a lesser vampire. And actually the upcoming plot with Torgo is quite good. But it's still unclear what Janus is about and that's something that gets dropped.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Tomb of Dracula vol. #3

What on earth is going on with Rachel van Helsing's anatomy in that picture of Dracula slapping her?

I think it is some sort of rebound effect--the force of her head being slapped back caused her chest to heave forward. Or she's trying to attack him with her breasts. Either or.

This is one reason why I never got into Gene Colan's art. Too much just looks ugly or not done well.

Now, I must admit that Colan and Palmer do a fantastic job (usually) on Tomb of Dracula. Colan's art works here and astounds me in a way it never did while on Iron Man or Daredevil.

Colan has great strengths in plotting the story and atmospherics, but he's never been a good draftsman in my opinion.

@fnord12 I understand losing faith in Frank and Rachel and even Harker himself to an extent, but you should never have lost faith in Saint. The poor fella had to sit through those knitting sessions, and as I speculated in another post, Quincy probably had him neutered as a pup, so "bitch-combing" was out. Add in all the times Dracula tossed him around like a rag doll, and he was ready to cut loose and tear a chunk out of Drac's ass. By this point in the book, Saint was the most effective member of the team. Harker should have sent Frank and Rachel to couples' therapy and assembled a team of Blade, Hannibal King and Saint to do the legwork. I've been known to dabble in poetry and short stories for a hobby, maybe there's a piece of fan-fiction to be made here, possibly from Saint's POV? Hmmm...