Dracula Lives

Marvel

No's 15 + 23, 1975

I purchased these books in a bulk buy from a colleague when I used to work for British Airways. I bought a holdall full for fifty pounds. One book inside was worth the money on it's own and I managed to convince myself I had made masses of money. Of course I've never sold a single book so in reality I'm still fifty quid down.

These comics where Marvel's idea to sell into the British market. They took titles from the states in their 'American' format and converted them. This meant larger sizes and removing all the colour. I'm not sure as to the exact reasons why this occured. By 1978 I could buy Marvel and DC books in the newsagent in their original format. They did this with titles like Dracula, Star Wars and Planet of the Apes as well as making X-Men and Avengers stories into UK 'magazine' format.

Dracula Lives was Marvel buying into the 'Hammer Horror' market and making watered down passes at this type of content (much milder than the 1950's EC brand of horror).

Each book gives us three or four stories, from Dracula, the Werewolf and Frankenstein. All three are footnotes in the Marvel Universe canon.

No.15 has the Vampire written by Marv Wolfman and art by Gene Conlan and Ernie Chia. Dracula is poisoned by the 'Van Helsing' crew (descendents of the Origional trackers of the fanged villain). He escapes with the help of a Doctor he has munched and converted.
Werewolf by night is written by Gerry Conway with art by Mike Ploog. The Werewolf (who's real name is Jack Russel) is up against flesh melting fog and has to fight a bull headed steel golem called Dragonius.
Frankenstein is written by Gary Friedrich and the art is by John Buscema. In this story Frank accidentally frees Dracula.
The last story is a small horror short written by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko. A burglar using shrinking pills gets trapped in a rats nest.

No. 25
Dracula story written by Marv Wolfman, art by Gene Conlan. Dracula is out for revenge against a motorcycle gang. In this end he hypnotises them into driving off the white clifs of Dover on their bikes.
Werewolf is written by Len Wein and art is by Mike Ploog and Jim Mooney. The Werewolf has been caught by a circus and is forced to fight lions. The whole thing is a front for a hunt for the Bloodstone. Which makes me wonder if it is 'The' Bloodstone or if theres more than 1?
Frankenstein is written by Doug Moench, art is by Val Magrich. A tanker find Frank encased in a block of ice. They thaw him out and try to use him as an act in the circus. Frank escapes to walk the streets, sort of like a homeless Captain America.

These books are fascinating looks into how the medium has changed over time. Mass churned stories which are simple tales probably aimed at boys aged between about 10 and 19. The art has lost something in the black to white conversion. I give them a Qualified recommend if you are a fan of the history of comics but suggest you look up the origonal colour American issues.