Issue(s): Tomb of Dracula Magazine #2
Cover Date: Dec 79
Title: "The Dimensional Man"
Credits:
Marv Wolfman - Writer
Steve Ditko - Penciler
Steve Ditko - Inker
Ralph Macchio - Associate Editor
Roy Thomas & Mark Gruenwald - Consulting Editor
Lynn Graeme & Marv Wolfman - Editor

Review/plot:
I never thought i'd see a Steve Ditko illustrated Dracula story, but here we are.

I guess it's not that unusual; Ditko did plenty of horror in the Silver Age. But seeing him in a mature-audience black & white horror mag published in 1979 is still somewhat unusual.

The issue does not disappoint, though. The protagonist is a guy that gets infected by Ditko's characteristic psychedelic swirls.

The story is pretty involved. Our Dimensional Man is Joshua Farkas, son of Eniko & Miklos, a Jewish couple that got mixed up in Satanism as they were fleeing Hungary during World War II.

Something about painting upside-down crosses on the foreheads of Jewish people seems extra offensive, but in the story the Farkases start off unwilling participants but eventually come around to the ways of Satan.

The story opens with Joshua killing his parents, who were hunting him.

Joshua also has a twin sister Angela (the young woman hanging upside down in the panel above), who is a fortune teller that has befriended Dracula.

The Farkas family is still involved with the Satanist, which is how Joshua became infected with the Ditkoverse and why Angela is taken captive.

Angela is meant to be the bride of the demon Asmodeus. Angela being in danger triggers a summons from Dracula, even waking him up before it's fully night (which winds up delaying him when he gets burned by the setting sun).

Dracula arrives to find Angela already impregnated by Asmodeus.

Gross!

Joshua is forced to fight Dracula while Asmodeus is doing its business.

But Joshua eventually regains control and attacks the demon, and that's how the issue ends.

There's no follow up on the fact that Angela has become impregnated.

Keith Giffen will bring back the Dimensional Man as part of his monster mash Nick Fury's Howling Commandos series in 2005.

In addition to the usual text pieces, this issue also contains a Marv Wolfman/Frank Robbins Dracula story, but it takes place in 1459 and is therefore not included in my project.

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

A demon called Asmodeus plays a role in the 1991 Tomb of Dracula series by Wolfman but it's not clear if it's the same demon, and Angela is never mentioned.
And just to make things even more confusing, it's not clear if he has any connection to the Asmodeus in Ghost Rider. Maybe Asmodeus is a common demon name- the demon equivalent of John.

Wonder if Wolfman was a reader of Herbert Marcuse? (I doubt Ditko was a fan)

Surprised there was never a follow up to this.