Original series In 1971, the
Comics Code Authority relaxed some of its longstanding rules regarding horror comics, such as a virtual ban on vampires. Marvel had already tested the waters with a "quasi-vampire" character,
Morbius, the Living Vampire, but the company was now prepared to launch a regular vampire title as part of its new line of horror books. After some discussion, it was decided to use the Dracula character, in large part because it was the most famous vampire to the general public, and also because
Bram Stoker's creation and secondary characters were by that time in the
public domain. The series suffered from lack of direction for its first year; most significantly, each of the first three issues was plotted by a different writer. Though
Gerry Conway is credited as sole writer of issue #1, the plot was actually written by
Roy Thomas and editor
Stan Lee, and Conway had no input into the issue until it had already been fully drawn. Conway was allowed to plot issue #2 by himself, and wrote a story heavily influenced by the British
Hammer Films - a striking departure from the first issue, which was derivative of
Universal's monster movies. though Wolfman himself has contended that he was floundering on the series until the story arc in issues #12-14, remarking, "This storyline is when I finally figured out what this book was about." A brief meeting between Dracula and
Spider-Man occurred in the first issue of
Giant-Size Spider-Man.
The Tomb of Dracula #44 featured a crossover story with
Doctor Strange #14, another series which was being drawn by Colan at the time.
The Tomb of Dracula ran for 70 issues until August 1979. Comics historian
Les Daniels noted that "With an unbroken run of seventy issues over the course of more than seven years, Marvel's
The Tomb of Dracula was the most successful comic book series to feature a villain as its title character." As cancellation loomed, Wolfman made to wrap up the storyline and lingering threads by issue #72. But
Jim Shooter, then the editor-in-chief, retroactively cut two issues after the artwork had been completed for three. As Wolfman recalled, Twelve of those pages, which Wolfman had saved as photocopies, appeared in the hardcover reprint collection
The Tomb of Dracula Omnibus Vol. 2. The series culminated with the death of Quincy Harker and Dracula's apparent death and dispersal. In 2010,
Comics Bulletin ranked Wolfman, Colan, and Palmer's run on
The Tomb of Dracula fifth on its list of the "Top 10 1970s Marvels".
Dracula Lives! A black-and-white magazine,
Dracula Lives!, published by "
Marvel Monster Group", ran from 1973 to 1975.
Dracula Lives! ran 13 issues plus a reprint
Super Annual issue. Running concurrently with
Tomb of Dracula, the continuities of the two titles occasionally overlapped, with storylines weaving between the two. Most of the time the stories in
Dracula Lives! were stand-alone tales, including a serialized adaptation of the original
Bram Stoker novel, in 10- to 12-page installments written by
Roy Thomas and drawn by
Dick Giordano.
Giant-Size Dracula Tomb of Dracula was supplemented by a
Giant-Size companion quarterly comic book that ran for five issues in the mid-1970s. Artist
John Byrne's first story for Marvel Comics, "Dark Asylum", was published in
Giant-Size Dracula #5 (June 1975).
Black-and-white magazine The color title
Tomb of Dracula was succeeded by another black-and-white magazine, also called
The Tomb of Dracula, with stories also drawn by Gene Colan that picked up where the color title left off. It lasted six issues from 1979 to 1980.
Post-series Dracula appearances Several years later, Dracula encountered the
X-Men twice. Although Dracula (and all other vampires in the Marvel Universe) was eventually destroyed by the mystical Montesi Formula in the pages of
Doctor Strange #62 (December 1983), the vampire lord was revived. Marvel published a four-issue
Tomb of Dracula miniseries, reuniting Wolfman and Colan, under its
Epic Comics imprint in 1991, and revived Dracula and his foes in the short-lived
Nightstalkers and
Blade series in the 1990s. Some unresolved plot threads from
The Tomb of Dracula were addressed in the final three issues of
Nightstalkers. These included the fates of Dracula's bride Domini, their son
Janus, and vampire-hunter Taj Nital. Dracula took the title role in the miniseries
Dracula: Lord of the Undead. Two more four-issue miniseries followed. ''Stoker's Dracula
continued and concluded the adaptation of the original Bram Stoker novel Dracula by writer Roy Thomas and artist Dick Giordano, which had begun in Dracula Lives
30 years prior. Another Tomb of Dracula'' miniseries followed with Blade joining a new team of vampire hunters to prevent Dracula's achieving godhood.
Apocalypse vs. Dracula featured Dracula battling
Apocalypse, an immortal foe of the superhero team the X-Men, in
Victorian London.
The Curse of Dracula Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan returned to Dracula comics with
The Curse of Dracula, a three-issue
miniseries published in 1998. The miniseries was published by
Dark Horse Comics and was not officially associated with Marvel's Dracula series. A trade paperback collection was published in 2005. ==Major characters==