Issue(s): Tomb of Dracula Magazine #5
Cover Date: Jun 80
Title: "Sanctuary / Pavane for an undead princess!"
Credits:
Roger McKenzie, Lynn Graeme, & Ralph Macchio / Peter Gillis - Writer
Gene Colan / John Buscema - Penciler
Dave Simons / Bob McLeod - Inker
Ralph Macchio - Associate Editor
Roy Thomas - Consulting Editor
Lynn Graeme - Editor

Review/plot:
The first story is by Roger McKenzie with Gene Colan and Dave Simons, and also has contributions from the editors of the book, Ralph Macchio and Lynn Graeme. I'd guess Ralph Macchio's contribution was nailing down the continuity that is used in this issue. The second story is by Gillis/Buscema/McLeod.

Dracula returns home to Transylvania, where the vampire servants that he won back from Torgo are living.

Dracula rewards the vampires by kicking them out of the castle just as dawn breaks. His decision seems in part based on his new status, as an entity that lives between Heaven and Hell, that was bestowed on him in Tomb of Dracula #68.

As Dracula's vampires all die, Dracula's daughter Lilith lands in the area.

We then flash back and find that Lilith had been hanging out with a Viktor Benzel, a direct descendent of the Romani woman that raised Lilith. Viktor is not a magician, but he knows enough of the old ways that he's able to perform a rite that separates Lilith from her Angel O'Hara persona.

This means that Lilith has her own body for the first time in the modern age.

By the way, there are a lot of boobies in this issue, all covered up in the Essentials reprint.

    

Dracula, meanwhile, is having his own flashbacks, first of the abuse he heaped on his first wife (Lilith's mother) and then of his second wife, Maria, who he truly loved. While he's thinking about Maria, he wanders down a wing of Castle Dracula that survived the explosion, into Maria's bedchambers. But when he pulls back the bed curtains, he finds his hated daughter.

Dracula and Lilith battle it out for a while, with Lilith retaining the upper hand.

But Viktor Benzel, who is in love with Lilith and wants her to give up her vendetta against her father, interferes in the fight and winds up getting killed. This prompts Dracula to allow Lilith to kill him, but she suddenly finds that she can't do it.

And Dracula (who claims he knew it all along) says it's because the parameters of the curse that brought Lilith back require her to pursue Dracula for all eternity, and she can't do that if he's actually dead.

Issue #6 has another Lilith story, also by Ralph Macchio and Lynn Graeme (without Roger McKenzie), but it's not included in the Dracula Essentials.

The Peter Gillis story has Dracula biting a ballerina, turning her into a vampire. But even as a vampire she's so dedicated to dancing that she tries to go on...

...even as her vampirsm causes her to lose her ability to appreciate music.

She uses the vampiric ability to transform into animals to enhance her performance...

...although Dracula interferes, forcing her to turn into a more vampire-appropriate animal, the bat.

She therefore kills herself before Dracula gains full control of her. The audience thinks it's all part of the show, and at least sends the dancer off knowing that she gave a well received final performance.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Dracula's castle was destroyed, and he was killed, in Tomb of Dracula #70. But before that Dracula defeated Torgo, the usurping Lord of the Vampires.
  
• Dracula was revived in Tomb of Dracula Magazine #1.
  
• Lilith's origin was shown in Giant-Size Chillers #1. There's also background given on Lilith's bonding with Angel O'Hara and meeting up with Martin Gold, but i don't have Lilith's black & white magazine appearances and the issue doesn't provide any footnotes so i'll just note that after Chillers, Lilith appeared in Vampire Tales #6, Dracula Lives #10-11, Marvel Preview #12, and Marvel Preview #16.
  
• Dracula's wife Maria was killed by Turoc in Dracula Lives #2.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Tomb of Dracula vol. #4