Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!
. . . or: Why THE TOMB OF DRACULA Was the Greatest Horror Comic Ever. (Part Two)
When word reached Dracula that there existed a mystic tome known only as "The Darkhold" -- with said volume containing (among other things) a spell which, if enacted, would transform each and every vampire on the planet into a pile of ash -- the one-time Transylvanian warlord realized that this was a chess piece which had to be removed from the game board as quickly (and -- if need be -- ruthlessly) as possible.
Bad Luck (Part One): Quincy Harker, Frank Drake and Company had alreadybeen alerted as to the Darkhold's existence, and were seeking it with equal vigilance and vigor.
Bad Luck (Part Two): so was a desperate young man by the name of "Jack Russell": a.k.a., the WEREWOLF BY NIGHT [see cover, accompanying].
The resulting three-way tussle for the tome -- with Russell seeking to possess the volume due to its also containing a spell whereby one might permanently rid oneself of the curse of lycanthropy (i.e., "werewolf"-ism) -- pitted Marvel's two most popular "supernatural" characters of the day against one another in a no-holds-barred brawl of fang and claw, deep within the most remote and unforgiving confines of the Romanian Alps. At the conclusion of said slash-fest, Rachel Van Helsing took off after a fleeing Dracula by means of a helicopter... right in the middle of the most ferocious and punishing blizzard in the region's sainted history.
The vampire -- grievously injured by wooden bullets and crossbow quarrels -- went down.
Unfortunately: so did the helicopter.
With the terrified Rachel stranded in the middle of a blinding white nowhere (and with one leg broken, as a result of the 'coptercrash) -- and the vampire lord, himself, at the low ebb of his powers -- a mutually perilous alliance, of sorts, was struck:
Dracula would channel all of his superhuman stamina and cunning into getting the both of them to civilization... because the injured Rachel Van Helsing was the only human blood source within a several hundred mile radius. And the blood of animals would only sustain him for so long .
Rachel, in turn, worked in tandem with the vampire... praying with all her might that -- once the blizzard ultimately lifted, and the sun (now obscured) finally became visible -- he would be forced to rest.
And then she could kill him.
As they used to ask, in the "women's magazines" of the day: "... can
this marriage be saved...?" 
)
The resultant story arc -- "Snowbound In Hell" -- was as satisfying as a free Thanksgiving turkey dinner, with all the trimmings. Marv Wolfman's effective usage of the fact that these two were the most blatantly manipulative and tunnel-visioned characters in the series made for a chilling and evocative game of "cat-and-mouse," as both partners in this most unlikely of pairings plied every subtle physical and psychological gambit at their respective commands to gain the most fleeting sliver of an advantage over the other.
Notice was hereby served to the larger comics readership: this was going
to be anything but your traditional "boogeyman-in-the-closet" horror
comic.
A little later on in the series' run, the sardonic vampire P.I. known as Hannibal King finally had his first face-to-face (or, rather, fang-to-fang) encounter with Dracula, while attempting to unravel the particulars in a low-rent "whodunit" murder case .
Playing the classic noir detective riffs as adroitly as "Sam" ever worked the ivories in Casablanca, Wolfman (that name just kills me) allows the charismatic King to virtually steal the show from the book's (ostensible) "lead" while playing out his undead fantasies of being a modern-day Sam Spade. When Dracula is finally confronted with the knowledge that one of his most implacable hunters is, in fact, a creature precisely like himself -- one whom is not susceptible to his mental domination -- the Dark Lord's reaction is one of commingled incredulity; hysteria; and -- ultimately -- arrogant dismissal.
This was a decision which would come back to haunt Dracula, as the series progressed.
The most shattering one-on-one confrontation between Dracula and another of the series' regulars, however, involved the most physically frail player of the lot: the wheelchair-bound Quincy Harker [see cover, accompanying].
Despairing of his assembled "team" ever being able to send the vampire on his
well-deserved way to The Ultimate Dirt Nap, the selfless (and self-possessed)
Harker quietly -- over a period of months -- had his entire London estate transformed
into one gigantic anti-vampire "death trap," of sorts. Geysers of holy
water which would erupt from the floors and ceiling, on command; mirrored cul-de-sacs,
in which the gigantic image of The Cross were endlessly reflected... you name
it; he had it installed.
Harker then -- after sending the others out to investigate various bogus Dracula "sightings" -- lured the decaying count to said demesne... there to face him once and for all. Alone.
Good News, Bad News Department: the good news was... it actually worked. The staccato, rapid-fire series of snares and pitfalls took their cumulative toll on the wholly unsuspecting Dracula. He was dying -- I mean, really DYING, here.
The bad news, however: one of those "bogus" Dracula sightings, referenced earlier... had turned out not to be so entirely bogus, after all .
The luckless Rachel, it seemed, had fallen into the depraved clutches of several of Dracula's unliving concubines... and was being savaged and mauled by them, in turn, even as the quickly-decomposing Dracula was laboring his last, ratcheting gasps on the floor, not ten feet away from a stunned Quincy Harker. Their ultimatum: if Dracula died... then so would Rachel.
"Kill him, Quincy!" Rachel was shrieking it into the phone. "I'm not important in all of this! Kill him! KILL HIM -- !!"
... which was -- of course -- the one thing the aged Harker could not do.
Not at that price. Not after having had to slay his own daughter, mere months earlier.
... and so: Quincy Harker set Dracula free...
... and -- just that quickly -- became personally responsible for the death of every single person to die at the taloned hands of Dracula, from that night forward...
... and knew it.
"Battleground of Blood" won Marv Wolfman a writing award, that year. It was the first such honoring by his peers in the field, for his work on the TOMB OF DRACULA series.
It would not -- as it so happened -- be his last, either.
There was still the storyline of Dracula's finally taking a human wife, yet
to come. Not to mention, of course, what happened when she gave birth
to his child... )
"MORE COMIC BOOKS," YOU SAY...?
The DC Comics Sub-Directory
The Marvel Comics Sub-Directory
The Miscellaneous Comics Sub-Directory
The "Gotta Find That DC Character" Menu
The "Gotta Find That Marvel/Miscellaneous
Character" Menu